The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1916-09-12

The question of physical condition
among pitchers which | touched upon in
my last article was very sharply con-
firmed when the New Yorks batted me
all over the lot Friday. Readers will re-
member that in my last article 1 COM
mented upon the fact that Moran's judg-
ment upon a pitchers condition was a
good deal better than the pitchers own
verdict, and 1 suppose the reason for this
is that very often a man has a desire to
do thing and his ambition is so great
he overlooks the physical part of it. l
knew that had an aching, bone cracking
cold all over me in that game with New
York Friday, but L was so anxious to add
to our string of victories that as a mat
ter of fact, l did not realize the physical
hadicap until it was too late. l men
ton it in passing just to recall what
was often looked upon as a collapse on
my part in the last world series. By the
way, speaking of the batting abilities of
New York, New York has occasionally
got after me and l have very lively
recollection of what they did to me Oh
Decoration day. The theory that he
New York club cannot get up and smash
the pitcher in sweeping style will not
stand the acid test. once in while
they assert themselves and when they
do there is no standing against them The
pitcher must be right" The whole
question of a pitchers PHYSICAL condition
is one that l have studied with great
care.
A BIT OF HISTORY
There was no doubt at all that my
failure to hold Boston in the world Sc
iDlf f1,, in
the home town and everybody asked for
an explanation. l did not give any be-
cause it is about the worst policy in
the world to complain after you have had
a defeat, but some months after it was
all over | was pushed for an explana-
ton again about 1t and | gave it to a
friend and it appeared later in a maya
zine article. 1t was commented upon a
little harshly but | took no notice of it
because feeling was running high then
over the loss of the worlds champion
ship. The simple facts were, however,
that l was in a condition from a cold
across the back that almost crippled me
and that was the reason | could not ham
die the ball. The danger of a cold, par
ticulariy in the muscles is more to be
feared by a pitcher than anything else.
The theory which doctors advance that
a cold is due to a weakened physical
condition and has nothing to do with n
draft, etc, cannot be Endorsed by prac-
teal baseball men. Instances are SO nu-
merous that it would not pay to stretch
them out here, but l have known so
many pitchers who took violent cold
when in the very height of their physical
vigor that you cannot get me to subscribe
to the theory that man only gets a
cold when he is run down.
EXERCISE IMPORTANT
The cure of any aflment of this sort
would be exercise. provided you do not
file another cold on top Of the one that
Is bothering you. The whole question of
physical fitness in the end seems to come
down to exercise. That is the reason
that it is always the best plan to put the
whole team substitutes and all, in uni-
form so that they can get plenty of exer-
else and a shower every day, whether
they play or not. l do not suppose l have
received any more letters about physical
training than most men who figure in
baseball, but I have had a good many
of them, and 1 believe firmly that the
training for a ball player rs different from
that which should be undertaken by men
striving for a championship in any ether
line of sport. There has been complete
revolution of all theories about training
as sports have become better known.
Tennis was supposed to be a SOFT of
namby-pamby game, and tennis player
was looked upon a few years ago rs a
man who wandered out in white flanne's
and hoped about for a time and went
through lot of polite motions with the
racquet The real facts. however, are
that tennis takes more out of a man than
sparring, which was long looked upon al
the most strenuous exercise. Under the
modern game of tennis as Johnson and
McLounghlin play 1t, the strain is so con-
tinuously violent and unending that men