Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1915-06-24
THE
GREAT, SAYS HE
IS ALL THROUGH
Veteran HEAVIER of the Giants
Signs His Own Death War
rant-0thers Going Too
By cHRIsTY MATHEWsoN.

Of veteran pitchers of long years of
service in the big leagues, believe.
1t is not a wall caused by my poor
showing 80 far. although this has wor-
ried me and given me plenty of ma
terial for meditation. The youngsters
are undoubtedly pushing us old boys
aside ..:.. ....
Walsh is going-has been for three
years-and his falling can be laid at
the door of oVerwork. Rucker, who
used to be able to hurl the ball with
his left hand over the plate at such
a rate of speed that it could not be
mistaken from pea, is stalGng
through whole games on his slow ball
and head full of baseball brains. He
pitched beautiful game against the
Giants on the afternoon of Memorial
day, and he did not come through
with more than three or four fast
ones all day, and these we're only
technically fast ones. They were not
very fast. Pitching too frequently,
when the Dodgers were making their
early stab for the pennant in 1912,
wore that wing. g.. -.
iRuckers Warm Comeback. ...
" Where's your speed, Nap?" Nc
Graw yelled at Rucker during one of
the early innings. -
Il don't need it against your feath-
,er-weight hitters," he aptly answered.
He was right. He did not need it,
and he pitched very heady game,
very heady. The Giant club was never
one to hit slow ball pitching. any
way. Some team will go up against
that slow ball of Maps and poison it.
And we pitchers all hate to admit that
We have lost our speed. Like Rucker,
we prefer to pretend We don't need
II. 49, 49,. .. ....... =. .~......., u.
Eddie Plank is trying to arch them
over for the Federal league still. hut
at the last census he was nGt doing
so well in his new company About
two or three years ago he could have
mingled among that set of stickers in
the new league and made them throw
their bats away Now he is pitching
with nothing but his glove and his
head. The great game he threw
against youthful Bill James of Boston
in the worlds series, when he was
just shaded, was his last great per-
Torrance. 1t will probably go down
in baseball history as his, last. Eddie
hated to lose that one. He realized
that 1t was a final opportunity.
They nicked me in my last big
start" he said to me afterward
Old Doc Time Hangs Around.
-
ing at my door, too 1t has been my
worst spring ever, since hit the Mar
lin training camp early last March.
A strain, almost Immediately on my
arrival, made it practically impossible
to give my arm any conditioning, for
| could not use it. / was afraid to
attempt working. The weather, cold
and rainy, helped to stiffen it up, and
the kinks don't seem to have come
out of it since. Like the victims of
some illnesses, all pitchers are OPP
timists, and believe that real warm
weather will boil out my arm SO that
it will be something like itself again.
1t is hope. ~ - --:.-
So far the curves will not bend for
me and my speed does not intimidate
any batter. l have had less control
than since my second year in the
league. They used to tell me would
be more effective if hit batter once
in while so that my opponents would
not go up to the plate feeling sure
their beans were in no danger of be.
ing fired on. a.. ..s.@. ....>... T.. =.
Bresnahan Advises Beaninq.
Why don't you nick fellow in the
egg now and then when he crowds the
plate?" Bresnahan would ask me while
he was catching for the Giants
Just convince him of where he be-
longs and where he should stand"
But the idea did not appeal to me
because did bean ''Eo gle Eye Jake"
Beckley years ago when he was play
ing first base for Cincinnati, and when
he thought he had been tipped on the
sign and was waiting for curve. A
fast one caught Beckley and put him
in the hospital, where he was uneon-.
scious for two or three days. That
worried me long time and have
never deliberately attempted to bean
man. | did not try to accomplish
the job on Beckley. 1t was his mis-.
take. -. =. -
After Bresnahan left the Giants and
went TO the Cardinals to become the
duke of st. Louis and man, ge the
club, he used to crowd the plate. for
he has always been one of the worst
In the business at that. He takes a
long chance, like Frank Chance did,
in an effort to discomfort a pitcher,
and he takes many a che in the head.
too, as Chance used to. 1t seems ne.
culiar that Bresnahan and Chance
should have such similar hitting form,
and each should have become mana, /
ger of the Cubs. Roger is going to
be bothered by his he'd some day. as
Chance was, if he does not watch out
for whole lot of these wild young
sters are not so considerate of gray
hairs when they crowd the plate as
| am. ....
| believe, however, there are few
men in the game today who deIiber.
ately attempt to bounce the ball off
batter's herd, but some drive A fast
one close in to push a man back |