The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-07-17
is IT LOST ART?
Big League Batting Is Not
What 1t Once Was.
No New Star Swatters Have
Been Developed Since 1911.
BY FRANK G. NlENKE.

New York, July 17.-Has batting
become a lost art in the big leagues?
Those who have scanned clubbing
records embracing the past four or
five years have found that no real
swatting phenom has been produced
in that time. Also, they have noticed
with amazement that year after year
the demon maulers have suffered a
shrinkage in their averages.
The last real batting person to ap-
pear along the baseball horizon was
Josephus Jackson who arrived in 1911.
Since that period close to 1000 young
sters have come up from the bushes.
and taken a whirl in big league life.
Out of that army not one, with the
possible exec ption of Dave Robertson,
of the New York Giants. has shown
anything remarkable in a batting way.
Robertson is getting his first real
trial this year. He has been banging
the ball with startling regularity and
looks as If he might remain in the Sc
lect circle of famous sluggers. But
looks sometimes are deceiving. Robert
son may sweep through many seasons
of play at the same remarkable pace
he has maintained to date, or like
George Stone, of the 1906 Brownies,
he may blow himself to one great year
and then skid back to obscurity.
No Great Stars Since 1911.
When Cobb, Speaker, jackson.
Doyle, Daubert, Collins and the few
other batting stars of the present time
have faded and gone who will arise to
take their places? Most of them have
reached the crest and are going back
ward. Yet no one has come in five
years to fill their soon-to- be-vacant
inches. While the veterans have been
finding it difficult this season to MAIN
tain the same terrific pace of bygone
days, they are not in much danger of
being dethroned. Save Robertson none
of the youngsters has enough to cfal-
lenge
Back in the early days of the Amer
lean League Lajoie was the ruler of
the hitting realm. Soon Cobb came
along and offered battle. A while
later iris Speaker, Eddie Collins,
Frank Baker and then Joe Jackson
entered the battle. But since the APP
pearance of Jackson five years ago
no batter of real merit has appeared
along the Johnsonian frontier
1t Is much the same in the National
League Up to five years ago there
were quite a number of swatters in
that circuit who always gave Honus
Wagner merry little battle But
they dropped by the wayside eventu-
ally. Along in 1910-11-12 Larry
Doyle, Jake Daubert, Heinie thinner
man. Fred Luderus arrived, began
swatting 800 or beyond, and pushed
Wagner into the background, as La
joie was pushed in the American
League. Since then they have been
monopolizing the top rungs in the Ma
tionaf clubbing ladder. Except on
these rare occasions when men like
Chief Meyers. Sherwood Magee and
few others have flashed good
year.
The Statistics.
averages during the past five years is
shown best by the perusal of statistics
compiled by the Baseball Magazine
and printed in the August number.
The figures show that there were AZ
men in both leagues who batted be-
yond 800 in 1911 against 10 last sea
son. The table also points out that
there We're only two 1925 hitters in
both leagues in 1915 against Is in
ls1l-a decrease Of about 81 per cent
The fah1o FoIIox,e.