Evening star., 1921-12-24


Z Until there is an entirely new gal
: lery of faces in the big leagues the
Z days of the pitcher are over, as far
! as "fooling" with the ball. Never
:. again will he get the privileges which
!. he had prior to 1920. 1t never was be-
= how facile his f:sy--s. or how great
2 his skill, could do SO much to a base
ball as was done in 1919 and still
/. have it retain it's original shape.
: Erickson, the Washington pitcher,
= can take a base ball in his hands and
:. twist 1t around so that he can loosen
I the cover from the yarn beneath
(, That's a matter of strength, of course
but imagine what a pitcher with
Z strength of that kind can do IL he is
: permitted to handle the ball as he
! wills.
SpitbnII Men Do Well.
In spite of the rules which forbade
: the use of certain substances. there
were pitchers in 1921 who tried to
: fool the umpires and the observant
eyes of the opposing coaches by ap-
: plying resin and using some sort OF
: a substance which seemed to have
tale or powdered earth of some kind
. as a basis, and which gave the pitcher
= a better grip. A ball was thrown out
of the Giants was supposed to have
dipped it into the resin bag. By the
way, had the rule been. applied
/; strictly to that incident, it should
have been the pitcher and not the
ball that was eliminated from the
game. Nehf, who was pitching at the
time. was lucky that he was not put
: out
= President Heydler is positive that
the National League will not back
beginning of another season: The
spitban pitchers in the Natlonal
: League were fairly successful last
season. as were also the spitball
pitchers of the American. He thinks
the success of the spitballers is the
best argument in the world against
the use of the splitter. Doak led
the pitchers of the National League
in 1921. and he is a spitball pitcher.
NO wonder there was little bat
: ting when all of the pitchers were
using the spitball or something
when we are trying to curb the freak
delivery and have stopped 1T to a
large extent. the leading pitcher OF
our organization proves to be one
who is dependent upon the methods .hoas
which are taboo except to those
pitchers who are registered. That 8
the best argument to my mind that
has been brought out to stop freak
pitching We do not want any more
of it. BY the time that the end OF
we will have the very best curve BAH
nitchers in the United States in the
National League. We have several
good youngsters from last season
and we have several more who are
coming in with all the promise OF
success.
r Gleason Is Optimistic.
= Kid Gleason thinks he can finish in
the first division with his chicago
Sox in 1922 if he can rake up another
good batter and ii his pitchers come
through for him.
1--WE would have gone fifteen games
better last year if the pitchers that
we had could have given us anything
mt the start of the season. he said.
Kerr is a good pitcher about July.
He came through last season for US
when he was due to show something
and then with Faber We were fixed
we'll enough to make it warm for
any team in a three-game series.
Where we got into trouble was try
ing to win the fourth game. II l
started one of those kids he would
<blow after a little. and If l started
another he would do the same thing.
If save one of them up he was worse
than If I had used him, and il l used
aone of them to try to get his control
good he would fall down with too
much work Nearly all the pitchers
that we had gave promise, but they
also gave away bases on balls and
they gave more of the latter than they
gave promise. Maybe / can get 'em to
give something else this season. Ii /
do we will be stepping on the toes
of some of these first division fell
lows