Norwich bulletin., 1917-09-28
STAND DIN0A
American leaSuA
PLACE HITTING.
By Ty Cobb

1 Ty Cobb, in the October number o1
 the Baseball Magazine, in discussing | to say on that favorite old argument Place Hitting. Says Ty,-
 | "I am not overly superstitious. O1
 course pick up pins in-the street once
 in while. all players do. And if have
 a particularly good day at the bat
 am apt to follow the same general rou-
 tine the next day. I imagine everyone
 has some lingering recollection of su-
 perstition in his cranium: He realizes ! that it is childish, no doubt. But there i is this much reason to it all. If you have fool ideas that litter up your
 mind. it is best to defer to them so that you can face the problem in hand with | a perfectly clear conscience and noth- = ing lurking back there in the recesses i of your crapium to trouble you,
 'I am not scoring so many runs as used to. but the team isn't so strong.
 The big sticks that used to help me on
 baserunning l am not taking quite so
 many chances as I did. In the latter part of the season, when have a com
 fortable margin to work on, I am liable to cut loose, if I feel right. But in
 batting, to tell the truth, I don't think
 was ever better.
 HThiS is my thirteenth season in the
 big tent. Now have been moderately
 have got as much action out of my legs
 as the next man. don't regard myself as crippled old man by any means.
 In fact I feel pretty spruce for my age. But 1 am not denying that some of the spring has gone out of my legs, and I don't resuperate from a hard days
 work quite so easily as I used to-
 There's a difference between twenty one and thirty and no athlete was ever so good that he could dodge the differ ence. But sa far, am bound to say, that added experience has more than made up for any slowing up. As I look back some six or eight years and think of the ginger I used to have in those days, I can only wish I knew as much about batting then, as I do now. haven't much brains but I am get ting by, by using. all I have to the best advantage. I Ahow a lot about bat ting that I didn't used to know. It is easy for me now to get a cluster of hits when things are breaking right just by using my noodle. In the old days l lost many hit 1 would have made if I had had the experience and
 knowledge of batting that I have now.
 Of course there is, and always will be, a big element of luck in hitting But in the long run and under normal con ditions I am pretty sure of mySelf these days and I don't greatly care
 There Is a good deal to this place hitting. I have observed that many fine hitters have a fundamental weak ness in their work. Some are almost D. is bad. for it gives the f1elders too much of an edge. early tried to rem edy that defect in myself and I believe I can truthfully say that I can hit equally we'll into either right or left field and generally at will. Other bat ters have a weakness in that they are either sluggers who always hit healthy wallops to the outf1eld, or else are weak hitters who roll out infleld hits Now both have their defects, for the tielders can lay for either kind of hitting. ehdeavor to break up tNe In short try to give the f1elders something that they. are not expecting so that they can't never plot 1 out campaign to stop me. I will not l claim that any batter alive can drop a ball on any particular square yard of | turf But I will claim that when | am going right, I can drive four out i. of five fast balls within fifteen feet of | where I want them to go. That is to | say within fifteen feet of any given | spot on the infield. cannot guard | against hitting grounders or popping l ub high flies. Except in bunting there are seldom occasions where a l batter wants to hit grounders, any way. And he never wants ohit flies unless they are very long and poten- .ial home runs. What he aims to do S to hit the ball square. Now can! not be certain that I will hit the ball square, but I cain be certain, four times put of five on a fast ball, that will nit it in given direction within fif- !