The Alaska citizen., 1914-12-14

N0ih lists.
For years there has been much
discussion regarding the advantage
a southpaw sticker has over a bats
man who hits from the other side
of the plate. His batting position
puts the southpaw nearer first. and
he gains a further advantage in
that his swing puts him into his
stride while the highlander is
turned towards third base by the
force of his drive at the ball. If
Rickart's idea is carried out it may
of the seconds gained at the plate
by the men who swat from the port
of the men who swat from the port
side.
Rickart also hopes to introduce
tables showing whether the batters
Of the Federal league are as effect
tive against southpaw pitchers as
against right-handers.
Speed in Baseball
Literary Digest: That baseball
is a game which depends on doing
things with great rapidity, on exc
cutting skilful movements in small
fractions of a second on thinking.
deciding. and acting almost stimuli
taneOusly, most of us know: but
we have never seen the matter re-
duced to figures as c. H. Claudy
does il in his article on Time as
a Factor in Baseball" contributed
to The Scientific American (New
York, September 19). Mr.. Claudy
reminds us. in the first place, that
the popularity of the game as a
spectacle depends largely upon its
uncertainty, and its uncertainty de-
ponds on the relation between dis
tances and on the time required
to make the ball travel Stated arith-
mpticallv, this may be put as fol
lows:
"The bases are 90 feet apart.
The fastest time ever made about
the bases from home to home was
12 As seconds. and this not during
2 game Fifteen seconds about
! the bases is fast time. or "a sec
| onds between bases with a running
start for all except first base. First
base has been made from the plate
on a bunt and run in Is seconds.
but the time is very unusual,
seconds flat being good time.
! Tnfield grOunders. . . average about
| the speed of a fast eXpress-train-
! say 66 miles an hour or SO feet per
second
"The short-stop will play from 40
to 1875 feet from the plate Sup
pose he gets an infield grounder
1925 feet from the plate. At So
feet a second. it has taken IA sec
onds to reach him. Allowing II
seconds for the throw to first base,
he has 90 of a second only in which
| TO make the catch. draw his arm
back and make his throw Yet
more men are thrown out at first
base on ground-balls fielded by the
short stop than ever beat the throw
to the first station, The play is
almost always close-so close that
one of the differences between a
good and a poor first -baseman is
that the good one will reach far
forward to get a ball. knowing that
the time il takes the ball to travel
the 5 feet he can reach NAV make
the difference between safe and
'outn
at is because of this delicate
balance between time of batted ball
and throw. and the ability of a man
to run 90 feet. that the baseball
authorities are so rigid in their
requirements of the structure, size.
and weight of a baseball.
when a man gets on first base.
his next thought is of second-the
station only 90 feet away. which
looks so near and is so far, A good
bace-rrnner NAV be able to take
lead of 10 feet-though he must
needs he very good indeed to do
so with A clever pitcher. He NAV
thus reduce the distance between
bases to 80 feet With a standing
start any good base-runner should
make this distance in 3 seconds.
Starting as the nitcher begins to de-
liver the hall if would seem easy
ienoueh 10 slide into that bag in
seconds time well ahead of the
hall Vet the pitcher. who throws
the bsu 65 feet (6o5 TO the Mate
and Ak feet more to the catcher's
bands) and the catcher who must
sion II nick il ont of his glove and
fire il 1o4 and fraction feet TO sec
ond base manage between them TO
bona1 50 Ill 70 ,,;o,,Iy 49, l.;