The Washington times., 1914-02-22

son in the league. he faces a bad sit
uation. AS | have said In a previous
article. my eyes bothered me last sea-
son. and did not expect to retain
the leadership in the averages. Mrs.
Cobb was the only member Of the
family who was certain of the out
come. She insisted all the way
through that I would win out. Here
after. though. I intend to forget the
batting averages and lust play the old
game. / go down twenty pounds in
weight each season between the open.
ing and close after I have trained all
the surplus off in the spring.
1t Is tough situation when players
On the same club bali you up on
plays. There was a man on the De-
troit team who failed time after time
to score from second on a hit and
run play when I followed him with q
single. 1t was because he did not
make a good enough start off the
was planned for the purpose OF scor-
ing him. He would pull up on third
and give the catcher a chance to
throw me out at second. This made
me look foolish. and as II was try
ing for a record instead Of making
the play as 1t should he done.
Easy Miss Brings Loss.
Whenever some easy play Is missed
It usually results in defeat In a c4oss
game. This Is tradition among ball
PLAYERS. and the man who makes II
faces tough one. could recall num-
berless incidents of this sort. l mean
that if the batter hofsts an easy fou
fly and the catcher misses 1t. the Dat
ter usually follows II with hit IL his
at tf.at time Is bound to be damaging.
Many a time have I seen this On bell
field.
Now. he'll bus, one" a player wiz
remark to fellow after such an error.
They all hate to hear one another say
tfis. too. 1t Is also q superstition OF
pitchers about somebody yelling In the
nil IN OF close game: Come on now
Only three more men,
The chances are that the batters win
bust the ball all over the lot after that
The superstition Is based on the old onf
Of cetribution for boasting. Once q
Iitcher hears that said: he believes that
the batters have the edge. Managers &C
crazy when they hear a youngster biurt
1t out 1t is a common yelp Of the mi
nor leagues. Jennings put q recruit into
a game last season which proved to b<
a hot one with the White Sox- Dubuc,
the slow bail king. was working for u
and he lad held Cal ahan's team score
less for eight innings. while we hai
garnered one rum The contest tool
place in Detroit. As we took the field
for the ninth. this youngster yelled Al
DCbuc: Three more men. old boy"
Right there We all seemed to feel thai
the ball game was gone. The Sox got
three runs
In the extra inning game and the
last one Of the 1912 worlds series
the Giants all knew that Speaker
would make a hit after both Merkle
and Meyers had missed his easy
foul. Instead of Snodgrasses' muff. ]
consider that this was the crucial
play of the game. When I saw that
ball drop safe from where I was sit
ting in the press box. I said to my
side partner. a newspaper man:
"'Tris' will get one now sure, and
break UP the game" He did.
Ford went eight innings against the
Athletics on the morning Of last DEC.
grafton Day without permitting
hit. In the ninth, Peckinpaugh lost
chance for a double play that would
have finished the game. After that
Mack's team broke up the ball game
A ball players actual hours may
be short. but he is always facing
tough ones in his working time. They
tear the nerves out of man. In fact
I hope to quit the game when I an
thirty ard so into the cotton business
My age Is twenty-seven now.
Copyright, 1914. by the Wheeler Syn
dicate, Inc.)
"The 'Brainiest Men in Baseball"
next week