The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-09-03
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TJACK KEENE

AS We have said before, Babe Ruth's
! hitting will be watched in the world S
series.
! Ruth's tremendous batting power is
the first place, he likes to hit the
ball. Then again, he is a young giant
and can land on a ball with wonder
full strength. Furthermore, he pos
sesses confidence.
| He doesn't believe that any pitcher
can fool him. Having no fear while
standing at the plate, he relishes the
chance of swinging at fast balls.
Ruth has keen eyesight. He is
able, therefore, to pick out the good
ones. He seldom goes after the bad
ones, and can hit anything that comes
| over the plate between the knee and
! the shoulder.
There isn't doubt that nearly all
| of the enemy pitchers are afraid OF
Ruth, which is valuable point in his
favor 1t is worth the price OF ad-
| mission to see this husky hit the pill.
Connie Mack has always been q
| wizard in developing ball players,
and his many successes in the Amer1-
can league were due to his ability to
drill his players in the fine points OF
the game, both on offense and de-
tense.
Three vivid examples of Mack's I'M
canny way of handling players can
be found on his club this year.
One of these players is George
Burns, the first baseman secured by
Mack from Detroit through deal
with the Yankees. Under Jennings
Burns never advanced beyond the
stage of an average good ball player.
But this year Burns is playing the
best ball of his career as a member
of the Athletics under Mack He Is
fielding in better form than ever be-
fore, and his hitting has increased
until today he ranks with the slug
gers of the American league.
Clarence Walker, the outfielder, Is
a player of nearly six years major
league experience, yet never until
this season, in three years with st.
Louis and two with the Red Sox. has
he shown the class he is now showing.
Scott Perry, the pitcher over whose
possession Mack and George Stall
ings had such a fine little row, is
another player who developed under
Macks tutelage. Perry used to be
one of the care-free sort who did not
keep in the best of shape, and Stall
ings pasesd up this player as a poor
prospect But after Mack developed
hi mthe Boston club wanted him pad
", which only goes to show what
Mack can do with a player.
An interesting insight into the En-
glish conception of baseball is given
in an article in the London Field,
which says in part:
Americans have never taken kind
ly to cricket, which they think much
too slow a game for their tempera-
ment, and their humorous writer's are
never tired of describing in most
good natured way the little faillngs
and peculiarities of our national
game. Curiously enough, Englishmen
also think that baseball is too SLOW
game for their temperament, ana
although probably very few of them
could give a good reason for this idea
the actual cause is not far to seek.
Baseball is admittedly a game of
bluff, and the most audacious and IN
genious bluff of all is to give the title
of inning to what is nothing more
inning by it's real title, over and all
the hustle of baseball disappears I'M
mediately 1t will seem almost In
creditible to English cricketers. but 1t
is a fact. as attested in the Daily Mail
in an analysis of the July game by
an American baseball journalist, that
although in the course of the game
something like $50 balls were thrown
"a matter of forty-odd overs in crlck-
et-the safe hits numbered only eight
two by the army and six by the
navy. A few other hits were made,
which were so poor that they got a
man out, and a few others in the ma
ture of cricket snicks or corner
strokes were of no advantage to the
batter, since they were behind the
boundary line.
THE snick or corner stroke is I'M
doubtedly the most spectacular hit IN
baseball indeed, it is practically the
only spectacular stroke except the