New Britain herald., 1922-12-06
PITCHING IMPROVED
 IN AMER. LEAGUE
Official Statistics Show Hurling
 to Be Better in 1922

apir iHlpVOVtTucHt oNtF tnht or tne preceding year, even though the gen eral batting average showed only slight decline. As stated in the intro- duction to the batting record the ranks of American League suggers were reinforced by the addition of a considerable number Of young and skilful hitters while the quality of the fielding was not up to the standard of former years as heretofore explained. These conditions make the task of the pitchers somewhat more difficult and accounts for the comparatively slight decrease in the batting records.
 Collectively the slabmen of the Chi cago. Detroit and Philadelphia teams showed the greatest improvement but all of the other teams save only Bos- ton, were strengthened by the addition Of one or more young hurlers whose work this season justifes optimistic expectations for the future.
 Urban c. Faber, White Sox veteran, Is leading pitcher as he was last year. Faber led all competitors in hurling complete games, 31; held opponents to the lowest average of earned runs
 
 nings, 3b3; won 21 games, the fourth largest number of victories and fan ned 14S opponents, one less than Shocker of St. Louis, who led in strike outs with 149.
 Edwin Rommel, Mack's star of the Athletics. won 27 games for his seventh place team. truly great record. Rommel worked 22 complete game, 294 innings and allowed BPS runs per game. l.. J. Bush. with the champion Yankees behind him, gar nered 26 victories and lost only ' games leading the league in percent age of games won and lost, with an average of .7SS. Opponents scored 3.32 earned runs per game off Bullet Joe's' fork ball'' delivery. Urban J. Shocker, anchor man of the Browns staff won 24 games, pitched 34S in- nings more than anyone except Faber held the opposition to 2.97 earned runs. being fourth best in point of ef- fectiveness. Shocker led in strike outs with 149 and it was largely through his sterling all round work through out the year that St. Louis battled the
 
 few days before the close of the season.
 The most gratifying feature of the pitching was the work of a large number of young hurlers, some of whom speedily won places as regulars while the others turned in such ex- cellent performances that they are regarded by their respective managers al certain to qualify for regular Amer ican league duty next season Among the best of these are G. M Murray, of the champion Yankees; Herman Pill lette, and Sylvester Johnson of De- troit; Hubert Pruett. St. Louis; Phil Hedgood and c. D. Meteveir, Cleve- land; c. c. Robertson. G. V. Leverett and Ted Blankenship, Chicago; J. B. Brillheart, Washington and Fred Heimach and Warren Ogden, Phila- delphia. Warran Collins of Boston, though in his third American League season. was allowed to take a regular turn for the first time and his work was sensational. The Texan won eight of his last nine starts for the eighth place Red Sox, six of his vic tories being in succession.
 Owing to the increasing practice of changing pitchers it has been found expedient to divide American league pitchers into four groups.
 Fielding Averages
 Following are the official fielding records of National League players and clubs for the season of 1922:
 An unusually close race for fielding honors took place among the first basemen less than two percentage points separating the four leading contenders among the regulars. Jacob Daubert, Cincinnati, led with peri centage of .9936, just slight fraction ahead of Charles Grimm, Pittsburgh, with George Kelly. New. York, and Walter Holke, Boston. close behind. Daubert made the most putouts. 1852 Kelly had the most assists, .103, and the most total chances. 175S. Oscar R. Grimes, Chicago. committed the most errors. 19.
 Samuel Post, as the first baseman for Brooklyn, on May 1 equaled the National league record set in 1916 by William Hinchman, Pittsburgh, by having only one putout at first base. Both games lasted nine innings.
 Although John Rawlings and Frank Frisch. New York, and Lewis Fonse- ca. Cincinnati. hold higher fielding percentages, the leading second base man is Rogers Hornsby, St. Louis with a percentage of .967. Hornsby made the most putouts, 39S. Frank Parkinson, Philadelphia, had the most assists 5s2--a new major league record--had the most total chances, 91e. and committed the most errors, 34
 Parkinson came within one assist of equaling the major league record of twelve assists in one game by sec ond baseman, when, in three success sive games. played September and 5 he made eleven assists in each game.
 Henry Groh. New York is the lead- ing third baseman with a percentage of 965. Ralph Pineli, Cincinnati, made the most putouts. 204. had the most assists. $50, committed the most errors. S2, and had the most total chances. 5S6. Charles Holocher, Chicago. leads the shortstops with percentage of .a65. David Bancroft, New York. ! made the most pufouts, 4o5, had the most assists, 579, committed the most | errors, 62, and had the most total chances, t046. By accepting 9s4 chances. Bancroft set a new major league record.
 Russell Wrightstone, Philadelphia, on reptember 4. came within two | chances of eaualling the major league |