The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-23
By HANS WAGNER

By HANS WAGNER Der Cy when he pitched around the meadows and lots of Tuscarawas county Ohio, back in the late eighties He pulled a nice little trick on some of us about three years ago by bringing his curve ball back to the National league.
 In the olden days of the 12-club league Cy did not have a good curve but he depended mainly on control and terr speed. He felt he did not need a curve and once told me that in a game against
 Philadelphia he would have had a no- hit game, except for the one curve that he threw in the entire nine innings Ed Delehanty. Cys old Tri-State colleague hit that curve for three bases. But for that pitch Cy would stand credited today with three no-hit games, two in the
 American and one in the old National But back to the curve ball trick that he pulled on us when he revisited the National league late in his career While with the St. Louis Americans some years back he suffered arm trouble His bat tery-mate, Lou Criger, said to him: . "Old boy, your stuff isn't there any more and you had better begin using a
 curve"
 YOUNG GREAT ON SPEED Cy had relied on speed all his life but he soon had q fine shoot and after an absence from the National league he re- turned in 1911, going to Boston, Twice he defeated us by the score of 1 to O. i'His work seemed laborious to him and he was overweight, but that curve, in- vented on the lots of old Tuscarawas 25 years before, had been resurrected and found useful. He struck me out on the thing, though I looked for the fast ones he was accustomed to serve in the old league until he jumped to the American Ever see one like that before?' laughed Cy the .ay he hooked his round house on me with man on third I remember the day that Cy took off his uniform for the last time Manager Johnny Kling of the Braves had asked him to pitch and the fact was advertised in the newspapers But it was not the fault of the papers or Cy. The veteran tried to warm up in the hot sun with Bill Rariden, but the arm that had served the majors for 23 years would not respond He tried and tried again, but finally tossed the ball to the ground, mopped his perspiring brow with his cap and said "Well, Honus. the old soup-bone is through, but I've slipped one curve by you anyhow"
 With that remark Cy closed what think is the great pitching in history. Young and Bobby Wallace both ante. dated me in National league service ant cur long careers can be credited to simi- lar methods of care and preservation. Cy once told me that one way he had o1 conserving his arm was to shun the curve ball so far as he could and never allow 1 his arm to be rubbed.
 A TIP TO YOUNGSTERS | Rubbing the arm," he said, ruin.
 many pitcher. There is nothing like | a rest for it after a game, and thu
 careers of many great pitchers would have been prolonged had they no
 worn and aggravated their muscles bl
 lot of unnecessary rubbing. Tn, I arm has been through enough with nine-lnning game and the muscles neet
 no relaxation by artificial means ant a lot of whisky smelling dope" | Here Is another tip to young pitch
 CTS. Cy, in his talk with me about SO | called o1d-age in baseball, declared tho | old grandmother ideas are best to fol low in conserving the arm. All his lift while pitching ball he wore a flame
 undershirt. In hot months he had the | left sleeve cut off short for comfort but he never reduced the length o1 :! the right sleeve. Warmth and rest l for that great right arm made it g
 money maker for nearly a quarte, century,
 l The matter of keeping cool, being de- 1 liberate and not working too fast are
 golden attributes of a pitcher. One oi the most striking examples of thi:
 type is Tom Hughes of the Braves | who finished up and saved a mum.
 Der of games for Boston last season
 Sallee of the Cardinals also shows 8 ! deliberateness with every ball he pitches.
 1 The Pirates had a good young left | handler with them in the south in 1911 | He had lot of speed, but he laborec l too much and Gibson had hard time 1 trying to induce him to take it easy | He would pitch too fast, resort entire 1 1y to speed, and the harder they hit | him the harder he gritted his teeth and | blazed away. He had madness, but
 no method, and Gibby could not re strain him. This kept the lad from
 making the club, but eventually he ,, curbed the habit and learned tha speed isn't everything. He is now witl | Brooklyn and his name is Sherrot
 Smith. He pitched fine ball last sea
 son and is as steady as a clock. | Smith, when he joined us four, oi 1 five years ago, had never been in g sleeping car. On the way from St 1 Louis to Hot Springs he blockaded the
 aisle of our car with bats, bags an6
 baggage of all sorts. We yelled to hin 1 to clear the way.
 | Get out of the way, you Alabama busher," we shouted.
 1 "Yep, I'll get out of the way" re- piled smithy defiantly, when some
 one tells me where I can find dowr | berth 6.'
 | In line with pitchers working toe | fast I will cite one on Hendrix. Wher 1 cool and self possessed, no better pitch. | CT ever lived. But once he got real mao 1 and 1t wasn't in a big league game ] either He had beaten Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Boston in sue ] cession, allowing total of 12 hits i striking out 2S men and walking two
 one Intentionally. at the close of the | 1913 season
 A TALE ON DREYFUSS | We stopped over at Louisville for al exhibition game. Barney Dreyfuss ha. l fondness in his heart for the old Ken l lucky burg, but he hates to have his | Pirates beaten there Hendrix, in tho l pink of condition, started in to pitch He smiled confidently disposed of tho 1 Colonels in two innings and settled /, back to make it a nice, soft afternoon
 In the third couple of Jack Hay ! den's boys rolled them off the fences | Hendrix laughed, took fresh qui, l of slippery elm and sailed in again But where the bats of major leaguer. had failed the association chaps hat
 picnic. The harder they hit, the bet ter it seemed that Hendrix pitched, bu | he got madder and redder with every
 Put that is the way it goes witt
 pitchers. batters and clubs. A goot | minor league club can maui the bes | of twirlers and a novice pitcher or
 his good day might shut out nine O
 the best batters in the game.
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