The Washington herald., 1914-05-25
Matty's Big League Gossip

I rival league, since 1t is only on these
rare occasions that they can get a line
on the men in another organization.
Harry Coveleskie pitched for the De-
troit club. and his performance brought
back unpleasant memories to me, for
| 1t was this big left handed Pole who
took the pennant away from the Giants
| in 1905 when We had that critical series
with Philadelphia at the end of the
| season and Coveleskie beat us several
games. even pitching out of his turn.
| at his own request. These defeats gave
the Cubs a chance to tie us for the pen-
| nant.
Coveleskie has had varied career
| since then. In 1909. every man on the
Giant club laid to hit him, since there
was naturally a good deal of bitter feel
ing against him. We rode him hard
every time he started and even went
so far as to initiate a snare drum, since
McGraw had been given the tip during
the winter by "'Tacks" Ashenbach. the
old Cincinnati scout, now dead, that
the big Pole had had an unfortunate ex-
perience with a snare drum In his
younger days and was very sensitive
about 1t. Therefore. the coachers on
the lines and the men on the bench kept
hurting the ''rat-a-tat tat-tat'' chorus at
against US that year, as I recall n and
we beat him by big scores.
The general prediction in baseball then
was that Coveleskie was only a fash
In the pan, who had been lucky In the
last race because he caught the New
York club crippled at a critical spot in
It's schedule and went in there and
pitched when he had everything to gain
and nothing to lose, while the situation
was reversed with the Giants. Cove
leskie was finally traded to Cincinnati.
where he did not last long. and was
passed back to the minor league. When
l saw him appear with Detroit the other
day. he looked like the pitcher who had
taken the championship away from us
IN the fall of 1908. He held the New
York Americans to four hits and dis
played excellent control and rare judg-
ment 1 talked with Cobb about him
after the game.
Hes a pitcher now" proclaimed Ty.
he Is being handled right too He has
been showing the same kind of stun ali
season that you saw him using out there
this afternoon. He burned up the South
ern League last year, you know. Every
time batter down there got a hit of
MIN, ne held celebration. Coveleskie
has come back to stay"
1 believe Cobb is right. The big Pole
certainly looks like a pitcher, and Jen-
nings is wonder at handling PLAYERS
to get the baseball out of them The
inclination in Philadelphia and Cincin-
matt, when Coveleskie played in those
towns. was to ride him all the time. This
discouraged Coveleskie. He felt that he
was not making good, and he did not
Jennings Is great fellow to believe in
boosting all the time. And, by the way,
Hugh also has another comeback star
In the little French pitcher. Duboc, who
was with Cincinnati for a time and was
then sent back to the minors. American
Leaguers tell me that he has the best
slow ball in the league, and that he
crosses up all the sluggers with it. And
am In position to realize from per-
sonal contact that there are some slug
gers in that league. These two pitchers
on the Detroit club appear to, have sue
cessfully upset the old theory that ''they
never Gomez back"