Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-11-23
WORK OF PINCH HITTERS IS
60 NOT ENTIRELY SUCCESSFUL
While Most Managers Favor Substituting OF
-Batters in Crisis, One Leader Sees
Harm IN Such Practice.

though that game which seemed won was
lost.
game in which a pitcher who has kept
the opposing team down to a run or two
is supplanted by pinch hitter. who usu-
ally fails to deliver The removal of the
pitcher to make room for the fruitless
batter. OF course, brings another pitcher
into the game. Frequently. the y. tcher is
not properly warmed up with the result
that he is often batted hard, and the
| enemy Is able to walk away with vic
! tory. Often the substitution of IA pinch
| hitter for pitcher turns what had been
a pitchers bate into a farce.
Few major league managers have
had more success with the pinch hit
ter than Fred Clarke. the clever leader
of the Pittsburgh club Time and
again during the season Clarke has
picked the proper spot to use Ham
\ Hyatt his sterling pincher. Hyatt's
/ ability TO come through in the crisis
has been remarkable. Many a game
was won because of the good judgment
of the Pirate leader, ana good hitting
on the part of Hyatt One would think
that CLARKE would be radically in favor
of the pinch hitter. Only recently i
heard the pinch hitter discussed pro
and con. and the reply of Clarke to one
of the questions asked was, 10 me. the
proper solution of the pinch hitter
problem.
Il like the idea of using pinch hit
ter if d manager happens to have
fellow like Hyatt or Mccormick to do
the hitting and fellow like Walter
Johnson to take up the pitching bur-
dem"
Unfortunat ely sor the managers there
are few pinch hitters like Mccormick
and Hyatt and few pitchers like Wal
te- Johnson. Invariably the pinch hit
ter is used for the pitcher 1T would
often be a better plan if the pinch
hitter was used for some other member
of the team. The substitution for the
pitcher is not bad idea * the pitcher
is faltering. If the pitcher is gong
well and holding the opponent IN check,
/ it is often sheer folly to weaken the
box, in what is usually an unsuccessful
attempt to strengthen the hitting
During the season If you look over the
major or minor league scores for a
week or so you VIII note VIVA. inc
pinch hitters are doing, and what is
happening Go the substitute pitchers
Then it is evident that the pinch-hit-
! ting strategy is bit overdone.
| &x
| Coupled with the pinch hitting mania,
another practice is being employed to
large extent by various managers. 1t
5; is the substitution of right-handed hit
tiers in place of left-handed regulars,
when a southpaw is pitching for the
/ opposition. Manager Mack is a man
| ager who uses such a system. In fact,
/ believe Mack was one of the first
managers TO adopt such tactics. Ere
quently last year Mack would take two
of his outfelders Strunk and z. Muir
ply. out of the game. and send in
Walsh and d. Murphy when left
handed pitcher opposed the Athletics.
Perhaps better results are obtained
from this procedure than from the use
of the pinch hitter. but it also has
serious drawback-the shattering OF
the confidence OF the player removed
every time a southpaw works. In this
connection / recall the case of an
American League first baeman who is
q left handed batter. For the first
three months of the past year, against
| all kinds of pitching, he batted around
the 800 mark. Then he had a bad day
Iagainst a left-handed pitcher, striking
out four times Ever after, when the
team faced n southpaw, he was yanked
! out. of the lineup. According to the
player, while in the minors he always
had hit left-handers. but constant re-
moyal from the game had so affected
his confidence that in batting practice
4 he was almost helpless before the
southpaws.
Results obtained from some of the
so-calied strategic moves in base ball
al e open to argument
| Copyright. 1913. by W. 6. Evans.l