The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-02-02
SPITBALL, SOON TO
 PASS, IS ONLY NEW
 DELIVERY IN GAME
No SoCalled Invention Anything But Revival of Style Used By Great Twirlers of Baseball Quarter
 of Century Ago

Commenting on the agitation against the spitball, a writer in the New York Sun declares that if the splitter is eliminated then the only real improvement" in delivery since the beginning of baseball will have been discarded. This does not mean he speaks for the spitter-he merely de- c1ares that except for it there has been no real revolution in pitching meth ods. Review the pitching stars of the last 25 years-since the old rule com polling them to pitch the ball rather than throwing it was adopted-and you will find that the styles have changed very little, says this writer.
 Unquestionably the modern pitch CTS know more, but their styles are much the same as those of the old war horses of a generation ago. In some cases the present pitchers may have perfected some of these old styles, but even that is open to. argument.
 For instance, Radbourne, one of the best pitchers that ever lived, was an overland pitcher, a style that all managers insist upon to this day and one that youngsters try to develop. Nobody has improved upon his deliv- cry.
 The one and only real valuable dis covery in pitching during this quar- ter of a century was the spitbaIl. It is entirely different to previous known methods of making a ball swerve out of it's direct course so as to fool a bat ter. The spitball technically, is not A 1-,o it is thrown by letting the finger tips slip from the leather instead of grip ping it. The ball, without spinning at all wobbles up. to the plate and then suddenly drops to one side or the other. To the spitall might be added the knuckle ball, the emery ball, the resin, ball and the "shine ball." all of them variations of the spitball and pitched under the same principle. | The perfect style of pitching, ac- cording to managers, is the overnanC but strangely enough, some of oul greatest stars have not been overland pitchers. A striking example IS Gro yer Cleveland Alexander. He is ar exponent of the side-arm delivery anC is also the best pitcher in the coun- try today. -.
 Matty and Walter Johnson are the greatest opponents of the overland delivery.
 There is still another group knowT
 as the underhand pitchers, and O these the star was Joe McGinnity.
 With the coming of the spitbal
 another distinct school was establish ed, the premier. being Jack Chesbro
 who still holds the record for thu
 greatest number of wins in one, year iChesbro was the real pioneer of tn
 spitball, and his wonderful success i
 probably due to the fact that the pc
 culiar break on the ball was thel
 strange and new.
 Because of the comparatively small
 CT number of pitchers employed b,
 clubs m the early days of the Ma
 tional League and American Associa
 ton the feats of the leading boxme1
 stood out with spectacular distinct ness.
 Naturally the tall, muscular forr , and saturnine visage of Charles Rad bourne of the Providence Club ar first to appear on memory's scrol , of the past He was the first to wi
 IS games in succession, and he di this while alternately pitching an playing the outfield. While the pitch ing distance was but 50 feet, yet tn
 batter could call for ball betwee ' the waist and shoulder or between tn waist and knee.
 :, This required excellent control o |, the part of the pitcher and contrt ! was the chief asset of Rad wh could shoot the sphere through
 knothole. He also possessed grea
 speed, and those who saw him in tn
 box in the early sos can never fol } get the terrific speed with which h G hurled the ball over the plate wher
 ever he had the batsman in a hol r Rad's backstop in those days wa t a little fellow known as "Gilligan tn 3 Mouse" He was not more than r feet inches tall, and weighed abol S 13O pounds. He was wonderful ii 6 tie catcher, but he had his trouble @ when Rad put on speed to get a thir f strike. Gilligan always braced hin s self for the shock, but the catapulti a force of the ball invariably sent th f midget back a few feet.
 ;, One of the first pitchers to perfet - the drop curve was George H. Derb, I a red-haired Pennsyivanian. who pi o Iched Detroit into fourth position
 1881, the first year the City of Strai