The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-26
Clarke Had Perculiar Way of Checking Slumps. Proved Very Effective During Stay of Twenty. Years in Game

man. I have known some hitters to be so jealous of their pet sticks that they would take them to bed with them. Fred Clarke had one pet bat in his life, and that was the little red one he brought up from Savannah when he joined the Louisville club. In his first game, Billy Hamilton and Ed Delehanty taunted the young Savannah recruit about his cute red matchwood,' but the matchwood toothpick ushered Fred into the big league with five hits ending up with a three- bagger that sent Hamilton chasing to the club house.
 GREAT LETTERS COME OFTEN
 Great hitters come into the game sput- ter. and fade away. One day in New York some one remarked to Mike Don lin that a new outfielder named Eding- ton had been signed by Pittsburgh. He is now in the Central league. hitting well and he joined the Pirates for a while in 1912 after it had been heralded that he hit twelve home runs in five weeks in the Blue Grass league.
 Hear that?" aslxed Donlin of Chief Will son, Twelve homers in five weeks"
 ''Oh, well, l guess they have short fences in the Blue Grass. reassured Will son.
 | NO, it isn't that, Chief returned Mike, They have the outfield paved with asphalt to make them roll.
 I sort of believe that there is short age in the new crop of good hitters in recent years. Some good players are coming in, but slugging masters are not so plentiful among the newcomers In fact good recruits have seemed so scarce these last two years that if there lsn' boom in the market soon some Of us old fellows will be able to get by until we are 60.
 of hot m would hardly be complete without some reference to great stickers of my time. But I might miss some, and l can't re- call lot of great ones whose skill was not limelighted by big averages. could name ten great hitters, 20 or 50, but there is always that impossibility of ranking hitter who bats $50 at the right time and is a normal .25O man. Keeler, Dele hanty and Lajoie were the premiers with the bat when I entered the league, and in the second string of the great ones of the past I could not overlook Jess Burkett, Fred Clarke and Hughey Duffy.
 Lajoie is the only one Of the seXtet still clouting them. l think those SIX were the greatest of the great hit ters at the time I received my initia- tion to major league ranks. Great hit ters have come and gone since then and the crop of sluggers Is still large when both leagues are considered. Away from that great crop Of hitters and meeting with the modern ones coming in, I was blessed in the en- suing 15 years with eight National leagu batting championships and for IF consecutive years with a batting verage of 300 or over 1t wash many years afterward that Cobb came to make me think oftener about the old guard, but not for comparison. Cobb, at the rate he is going, may out strip all the old stars in point of serv- ice and high grade batting, 1ncludlng your own humble servant.
 I cannot say much more on the sup~ ject of great batters, for batting is a treacherous subject with me. But the woods are still full of them, and the past reveals the names of greater ones perhaps than those I have mentioned among the early ones who were dent ing fences and hitting them where they ain't" when broke in. Anson was a grand old master with the wood, but he was passing out when made my entry. S
 BASERUNNING IMPORTANT
 Associated with batting is that one great essential, good base running. Many great batters have had the prime ability to hit the ball, but have mourned the necessary fleetness that should go with it.
 wise head, however, mas maoe up for a lack of speed on the part of many a player. I believe that, 8 gem eral census of figures would prove that more good base runners owed their success to headwork and normal leg power than to any great burst of speed afoot. I once heard George Gib- son say that in his estimation Jimmy Sheckard was one of the headiestaaase se runners he ever knew and could con- mand a bigger lead off first and wor- ry him more than any other man. "Sheck" always was great ball play CT, but never ranked among the speeders.
 Mike Simon. had every baseball quail ification except speed. brainy catcher, good batter and hustler. Mike was, however, handicapped by tardy locomotion. But one day he rulled his North Vernon strategy on Chief Meyers. Simon reached first As Rube Robinson went to bat Clarke said:
 Let the first one go, Rohby, and if the second one is over crack it.''
 simon drew three or four throws from Marquard, though he ventured only a step off the bag. He must have got the first and second ball