The Washington times., 1921-05-21

1 think that any boy whose eyes
are good. and who has the average
adaptability may develop into a high
grade ball player The history of
baseball is full of instances of play
ers who made good on sheer persever-
ance, which. of course, Is true of any
other line of endeavor.
WAS POOR CATCHER.
When I started I was a catcher, and
not a very good one, either. The good
brothers of St Mary's School decided
that i would be a much better pitcher.
so / tried. / always had q world Of
speed. iris Speaker. rated by many
as the greatest center fielder Of base
ball. was a southpaw before he
startled the world with his fielding
ability. and so 1t goes.
A letter from a lad who wrote from
Butte, Mont, reached me while the
Yankees were playing in Chicago. The
boys name was Jack Collins and he
Is a pitcher on a team out there. He
wanted to know what was the chief
asset of any pitcher.
His letter in part was As follows:
IT am a pitcher on our district
team out here and manage to win
fair share of games, but I find at
times, especially when I am wild,
that the other team hits me harder
than at other times. I have fair
curve and throw pretty swift I am
not afraid when the batters come to
the plate. no matter how many men
the other team may have on bases"
KID HAS COMPANY.
This boy is not the only pitcher
who finds that the opposition hits
him hardest when he Is wild. In
fact, he shares common fate with
his brothers in craft. 1 know that
when 1 was pitching for the Red Sox
the boys used to give me some great
receptions on the days when could
not get the ball over the plate. 1t
is easily explained. A pitcher who
finds that he is wild, will naturally
be a bit timid about putting all he
has on the ball, for the reason that
ne will not want to fill up the bass
by giving bases on balls. Lots OF my
home runs come that way now.
Therefore, I should say that the
chief asset OF any pitcher Is control.
II you are able to get the ball Just
where you want to get 1t and have
any idea Of the sort Of ball that the
hatsman does not like, you need have
little fear Of results.
Next to COntrOl Is tnc hpiiity 10
mask your delivery. The troubl,
with many pitchers, and this failing
Is sometimes found in the big
leagues, is that the lads do not know
how to cover the ball. The average
boy pitcher will stick his thumb up
in the air a mile and every one
knows what is coming. Then, too,
some pitchers throw the curve from
a side-arm motion and the fast ball
straight overland. They should
practice throwing all sorts of de-
liveries from the same motion II
they are ever going to make any
real progress.
SLOW BALL HARD TO HIT.
Another thing that young pitchers
should remember is this. that very
often slow ball Is hardest to hit
II they will try mixing up a slow
ball between their speediest deliv-
cries and their curves, they will find
that the batters will be of balance,
and will be swinging ahead of the
ball so that they will not meet IL
squarely, and as often as not will
miss 1t altogether. Nap Rucker. the
famous left-hander who pitched such
wonderful ball for Brooklyn, was
perhaps the greatest slow ball
pitcher in the game. For at least
two years after Maps arm went bad
he was able to pitch shut-out ball
with nothing but a slow ball.
borrowed a page from Fuckers
book when I was pitching. had
greater speed than Rucker ever had.