Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-23
BY ]. ED GRILLO.

Griffiths failure, so far, TO make ar
rangements for the training of his team
at Charlottesville will undoubtedly hurry
along the carrying out of his scheme to ar
range a permanent training plant some
where in the south. which the club will
own. The scheme is to buy tract OF
land, and, besides laying out ball field.
house large enough to accommodate forty
persons is to be erected, together with
necessary baths and clubhouse. This is
to be used every spring to train the play
ers. and if the camp can be located near
to some city exhibition games can be
played during the spring with National
League clubs which will be in that Sec
ton training.
Much time and money is wasted every
year by the major league clubs search
ing for training grounds. for there Is but
one which has a permanent spot. and
that is Pittsburgh. which club has long
lease on a ball park at Hot Springs, Ark.
Griffith figures that it would pay to have
"a club own it's own training grounds.
and he has formulated plans with this
end in view.
If Griffith should fail to make arrange
menus tram DIT CHdTlOtleSNLHe He 10
not apt to go much farther south to pre-
pare his players. He does not believe in
taking his players into the warm climate
for the reason that the change affects
them when they return to their own
grounds.
Charlottesville proved very satisfactory
last spring. Griff's team was in fairly
good shape when the season opened. and
had something on several teams which
spent a month or so much nearer the
equator. Norfolk has been suggested as
a substitute for Charlottesville. but 1t is
not likely that Griffith will want to take
his players there, for the reason that those
chilly winds which blow off the ocean
are hardship on ball players when in
training.
Ban johnson is going to judge pitchers
according to the number of hits made off
their deliveries and rate them accordingly.
Ban will abolish the won and lost"
columns from the pitching records.
Here is one instance that shows how
base ball has changed A few days ago
the writer was discussing present-day
pitchers with Arthur Irwin. secretary of
the New York Yanks, former scout and
also one time shortstop and captain of the
Philadelphia club when they had that
lineup of sluggers.
There is certainly an awful fuss made
on the pitching end of the game these
days. commented Arthur. why, / re-
member some of the old boys who would
be willing to pitch half the games their
club played in season That time has
passed.
lone reason for this is that pitching has
changed They can talk all they like
about the good old days and how much
better we were then, but they forget
that pitching today is an altogether diff
ferent problem than it was then.
when we went into ball game it was
always make 'em hit make 'em HIT
all through the game. That's all we told
the pitcher. His job was to stick the ball
over the plate where they had to hit it.
They had to swing on the ball or strike
out.
To-day the opposite is the case. A
pitcher goes into a game and his object
is to keep the other fellow from hitting
the ball instead of trying to make him
hit. Every pitched ball from that pitchers
hand is delivered with the intention Of
having it missed by the batsman, and
pitching for that result is a lot more
strenuous on a pitcher than just putting
the ball where the batter must hit it.
I'VE always told our pitchers to make
the batter hit, and we would look after
the balls they hit, but today the pitcher
tries to make as little work for his team
mates and himself as possible
And Ban Johnson's new system of cred
iting pitchers approves of the new method.
for Baltimore in 1901. when John Nc
CfaW was manager Tor the OrlOleS. mas
been the hero of many stories during his
eccentric diamond career.
Here is the latest Last summer
Schmidt did some scouting for .McGraw
in the Wisconsin Illinois League. Incl
dentally he pitched a few games for the
Fond du Lac club.
One day the team was playing Rock
ford. the leaders in the pennant race.
Schmidt's team We're the tailenders. Along
about the seventh inning, with Rockford
leading by to o. the first man up got on.
Schmidt pitched out three times in an at
tempt to get the runner going down to
second base, but the runner made no at
tempt to purlOin the sack.
With the count three and nothing on
the batter, he grOoved the next one only
to have the batter lean on it and drive it