The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-07-01
BALL AND
 HOW TO THROW n

Take a nice. new ball, fresh from the factory. Roughen a, spot on the surface no bigger than a dime if you wish, and place it in the hand of pitcher with only ordinary speed and still moe ordinary curves In- stantly your pitcher becomes more formidable than Walter Johnson or Christy Mathewson, and he has an article of goods which the greatest batsnan in the world can't fathom He becomes an ".emery bal1'' pitch CT.
 The latest addition to the baseball category of freak terms is still Greek to most fans. It is only lately that the expression has crept into newspaper columns, although the thing which it describes has been known to the wise acres of baseball for the last three or four years Russell Ford is said to be the discovered of the new fooler. In confidential mood he passed the secret on to two or three other pitch CTS, and in the same manner 1t reach ed Skeeter'' Tanning, who introduce ed it into Coast League society.
 But the sad thing to be noted in connection with the ''emery balI' is that it's use is drowned on. In the American association there is a rule that any pitcher detected using the latest member of the deception family will be fined $10o and suspension for 30 days.
 As far as is known, this is the only league to take official action with re- gard to the emery ball. although all urnp pires have been instructed to main tain a close watch against it's use.
 The new twister gets its name from the fact that the roughened surface was first produced by naassag- ing a small spot with a piece of sand paper. It was discovered that the act made the horsehide perform gyra- tfons which it had never been known to perform before. It needs to be thrown only with ordinary speed and comes up to the plate straight and true, and looking as fat as 9 bal loon to the batsman.
 Now, here is what it does When within foot two of the plate it breaks suddenly and goes up or down, according to the way it was thrown, almost perpendicularly. The jump is generally for eight or ten inches. when 1t breaks suddenly again and shoots right across the plate. No batsnan in the world can gauge it. It may go up down, the pitcher may make 1t take a side motion, and unless the catcher is aware Of what's coming and the direction it will take, he's as helpless as the batsman-
 The element of danger to the bats man is the reason why the new ball is looked upon with disfavor. It breaks so fast that he has no chance of stepping out of the way should he happen to get in the road. That and the policy which seems to favor making the pitchers lot as difficult as possible. If the ball happened to be high and thrown to break in to- ward the plate. there'd be escape for the batter. He would. get as nice a, beaning as if someone stood over his head and pounded away with a club.
 Toward the latter part of last sea- son Planning, pitching in Oakland one Sunday morning, got hold of a ball that celhded with the stand. ''S41eet'' used his finger nail to complete the currugation. and no one but himself and Walter Schmidt sknew what was going on. The result was two hits for the opposition and Planning allow ed them simply to divert suspicion from himself. He tried 'fRubes Gardner oart on 1t in the Imperial League this winter, and in four trips to the bat Gardner didn't touch the 415aaa :opce.