The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-11-14
KAUFF FAILED BECAUSE HE
 TRIED TOO HARD, HE SAYS
Benny Says He Learned By Experience and Will Be
 Better Next Year

my mind was taken partly off the ball. had a feeling of too much responsi- bility, and that caused my poor show ing.
 Tn the last third of the season, playing in the National league had become matter of routine, and l Eknew that I was not such a conspicu- ous member of the team. Then l gradually began to hit naturally and to make the pitcher work. My aver age gradually increased, and if the season had continued another month
 would probably have batted 300. "It was the bad timing of balls, due to self-consciousness, that caused me to hit more flies last season than I did in three years in. the Federal league. I had always been able to get the ball on the ground when wanted, and could place hits reasonably we'll, but in 1916 I must have hit a thou sand flies so high that the outfielders could not get under them, when they
 were not popped to the inf1elders. The
 difference between hitting a fly and
 hitting the ball on the nose is only one of about a hundredth of second, l should say, and 1t may be less. If
 the batter is in the slightest discon- certed, or his whole mind is not con- centrated on solving the shoots when
 he is seeking to hit the ball on the nose, a fly is the result, if he does not miss. entirely.
 Also, it is only fair to allow that I
 had a lot of hard luck in having out
 felders make great catches off me. When I did connect properly and with irI fho SH ra 0f drives was grabbed by 8 star effort.
 hit one in the first game of the last series between New York and Brook
 lyn in Brooklyn that would have tied 1 the score, but Jimmy Johnston was playing right, and made history by a catch he made off me, smack against the right field wall. That was won l derful catch and the Giants were ab-
 solutely amazed, as was I, but 1t was an old story for me last season for outf1elders to get into the hall of fame 1 at my expense.
 '''I am taking the very best care of myself this winter, and believe that l will bat we'll above 300 in 1917. 1 am confident have the eye, and with the novelty worn off expect to hit
 naturally and deliver the goods. No
 man ever prof1ted by his year in the
 majors more than I did. I feel 10 years older, mentally, than I did this
 time last October.
 "In the Federal league ] felt like
 boy, playing baseb>$ like boy. and
 enjoyed myself like boy out of base
 ball hours. McGraw taught me that
 baseball is a serious profession, re- quiring the best years of a mans life, | and that the man is a fool if he does | not take the game seriously. It is a
 sport engaging some of the brightest
 minds in the country, and the player
 owes it to himself to meet those minds
 as far as possible on an equal footing.
 That is something that never entered
 my head until I came under the disci-
 pline in the National league, and its
 realization has done me a world of good.
 "I am keeping in the best of shape this winter. I expect to go to work in New York as salesman for an auto
 company, /and hope to develop myself along that line so that will have | business to fall back upon when Old Man Time calls the third strike on me 1 as a major league player"