Norwich bulletin., 1911-01-25
JUGGLING FIGURES
MAKES BASEBALL DOPE.
Jack knight Discourses on tho Great
American Sport

baseball dope has furnished fans
ana sporting writer's with material
Tor all sorts of arguments and the
or1es ever since the old game dis
IT'S position as the greatest of all
american sports" says Jack Knight.
Averages and past performances
make good reading during the idle
winter months. Their chief use is
to fill out the ranks Of the so-called
best batting team, best fielding team,
etc. But their only real value up
sets that old saw about figures never
lying. Baseball figures are the best
nttle liars on earth and any manager
VINO built his team simply from aver
ages would be yelping for help be-
fore the season was a month old The
reason the dope doesn't pan out is
because you have to consider the luck
OF the game-and luck is one mighty
big factor in baseball.
When Fortune Smiles.
When manager confides to YOU
tnet he is going good or things are
breaking fine you can put a little bet
down that Dame Fortune has given
him her llindest smile. He wouldn't
call it that, but would simply declare
he had hit his stride And that
same old Dame Fortune plays one
Of the important parts in the averages
and the winning of pennants. She
is the Dear Old Lady whom would
be 800 hitters are looking for, and
without her a. successful season is a
forlorn hope.
There is an element of luck in
every play on the ball field, but it
figures to a greater extent in batting
than in fielding. Look over THE
averages of any good hitter in either
major league for a number of seasons
and note the difference in each years
work. The players don't change, but
what does? Luck. The best and the
worst ere all affected. more or less.
though the natural l1itters, by sheer
force of ability, overcome it to a great
extent
Just what percentage of luck en-
ters into a game is hard to figure
out; it is an unknown quantity that
comes and goes. You find 1t right in
the thick of the ninth inning rally that
sends the fans home slapping one an
other on the back, and then again It
steals game away that looked all
PICKED up and ready TO be placed in
the won column. I may be putting It
strongly, but from actual experience
luck appears to he fully 80 per cent.
of a ball players makeup, and as the
players make UP the team SO baseball
has the same percentage Of luck.
80 Per Cent. Luck.
Take the average ball player,
about so per cent. of ability, 20 per
cent. Of confidence and 80 per cent.
of luck, and you have a player that
will make good and make good in a
walk. Ability he must have-the
minor leagues are full Of men who
have been tried out and found want
ing. No 'bus4aer' can make good on
confidence or luck alone. He may
get trial, but if the ability is not
there he goes to swell the chorus of
that song written by Tom Hughes.
the comedian of the Highlanders.
We'll Be Scattered in the Spring
time
'fMany, perhaps, will argue that
ability, and ability alone, is what
makes the ball player-that if he has
the goods luck will not cut much OF
a. figure in his work However, just
sit back and so over any old game
you can remember. and you'll find
that at some stage of that game a
lucky break turned the tide. Take
for instance, one of the games in the
series between the Highlanders and
Detroit at the close of the 1909 sea
son.
Cobb's Shoe String Catch.
Detroit had lost two games of that
series and needed that last game bad
ly to stall off the rush the Athletics
were making for the nag. Summers
was a stumbling block for seven in
nings, and then the Kifties started t.
! alat everything he pitched. Three or
| bases, one man out and two runs need
| ed to tie, every rooter was on his fee1
and yelling and importing Engle to hit
| 'er out. Big Hack hit the ball on the
| nose. it sailed on a low line right te
| center and looked like the safest kin1
of a safe hit. The roar that followed
| was suddenly stopped by Cobb making
| a Shoe string catch of the ball. How
! he ever came to be playing there wa:
! nothing but luck. He was out of pO-
sition and should have been playing
| deeper, but just by good luck HI
robbed Engle of a hit and saved tina
| game for Detroit