The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-05-19
Babe" Adams, Pirate Pitcher, Has Now Out
 grown Infant Glass

Although he is still known by the infantile appellation of Babe Charles B. Adams, the Pirate pitcher. is not so young as he sounds Ac- cording to vital statistics on the sub ject, Babe will be thirty-two years old today, having been born at Tip ton,Ind-, May IS 1893. A Hoosier by birth, Adams became a Jawhawker fessional ball in the Sunf1ower state It was with Parsons, Kan, in the defunct Missouri Valley League, that Adams debutted into the national pastime ten years ago fs
 News of the pitching prowess ex- hibited by Adams began to perco1ate beyond the confines of the state made famous by William Allen White, and reached Denver. InS1906 Babe be- came a Grizzly in good and regular standing, and his showing in the. Western League was such as to com mand attention in major league cir cles. Adams remained in the Colo rado metropolis couple of seasons. In 1907 he was given a try-out by the St. Louis Cardinals, but was sent back to Denver. Late in the 1907 season he was given another chance in the main show. this time by Pitts burgh, but was turned down In 1908 Babe played with Louisville, and he pitched so well for the Col onels that Fred Clarke called him back to the Pirates in 1909 Babe helped pitch the Pirates to a pennant that annum, and in the worlds se- rieS against Detroit he was the bright particular. star. The Pirates annexed the worlds flag that year by four games to three, and Adams twirIed three of the four games won by Pitts burgh.
 Babes performance in the worlds series was St spectacular that he was hailed as the star of slab dom,- but his subsequent perform ances have not equalled his early promise. Adams is a good pitcher, but not Mathewson nor Plank.
 In pitching as everything else it is Gid Daddy Time who applies the acid test. The Hall of Fame isn't opened to slabmen on the strength of bril- liant showing in one spectacular se- ries, nor even in one or two years. Adams was the central figure in the shown well since, but it is the old re- Hab1es of the pastime, like the Old Master and Gettysburg Eddie, who occupy niches in the games Hall of Fame. Smoky Joe'' Wood, Russell Ford, Vean Gregg and dozens of others are men of brilliant perform ances, but they couldn't stick over the long route.
 In fielding Adams ranks among the best of the National League slab artists. Last year he led the leagues pitchers in that braAch of the game, playing in forty contests with a. field ing percentage of 1000, no error be- ing chalked up against him. In 1913 he made one error, and in 1912 his record was errorless. Adams had a very poor batting eye when he first appeared in the National League, and finished his first season with the Pirates with the swatting percentage of 951. He fattened this to .193 in 1910, to .252 in 1911, and in 1913 made his high batting mark of .289. Last year his swatting slumped to. .165.
 Last year Adams won thirteen and lost sixteen games. which was not so bad considering the cratic support given him by his teammates. In 1913 Adams stood second to Christy Mathewson among the National League twirlers, winning twenty one and losing ten games, with an aver age of 2.15 runs earned per nine-in- ming game.