The Washington times., 1922-07-03

We picked Olt last ueSudN
\scores az text for this lecture,
merely because the paper OF that
date happened 10 be the handiest
yThe same story can he found in the
box scores nearly any day.
There were nine big league games
played last Tuesday. The Yankees
and Senators We're idle. but double
headers were staged in Chicago and
Philadelphia.
! Home runs were made in all these
gameS, except the combat between
the Do gers and Braves in Boston
where the outfield is too spacious Ia
permit of homers being knocked
where the Browns and Indians
staged one of those pitchers bat
ties" that resulted in 9 TO VIC
ytory for the Indians, who made six
Of their runs in the eighth inning.
In two of the games the home
run total was three.
The lowest number Of runs
scored i'm any one OF these games
was six I'm the first tilt of a
dOuble-header between the Red
Sox and Athletics. Exactly 100.
runs were scored In the nine
games-an average Of III to the
game,
April and early May seldom fin
ish a game any more-and the same
thing goes for many other pitchers
who are rated as stars. The "rab-
bit" ball and nothing else is respons-
ible for this state of affairs, and the
magnates are therefore open TO di-
rect charges of favoring the lively
ball because it hippodromes the
sport. They could deaden the ball
II they wanted to, but they think
the baseball public prefers home
runs to clever pitching.
There is reason to believe that
certain big league managers have
laid aside a stock Of lively balls from
last season for use in their home
games. In the American League St.
Louis and Detroit are known as the
abode Of the rabbit" Kenneth
Williams, Of the Browns, has hit
practically all of his home runs on
the st. Louis grounds.
In Detroit last Tuesday the White
Sox made three home runs. One
was by Ray Schalk. good hitter.
but not a long-distance clouter or
dinarily. The Detroit field is big
one, and a lick over the fence there
requires a vigorous thrust.
The Tigers are a heavy hitting
crew. When they won four
straight games from the Yankees
I'm Detroit recently. they slugged
the everlasting daylights out Of
the ball. In one game they made
nineteen hits, in another fourteen,
and i'm another thirteen. Carl Mays
was the only pitcher to curb them.
They couldn't hit Cari's underhand
delivery and made only two runs,
but won nevertheless.
The Yankees, in one ot those De.
troit games, collected thirteen hits,
yet were never in the running.
There is, of course, the argument
that one team has as good chance
as the other when the rabbit" ball
Is in play. That is true, in meas
ure. The Yankees are supposed to
know how to slug, vet they have
been losing As a matter Of TACT,
they have been batting in slump,
which was aggravated by the loss of
Baker and Schang and the failures
of Babe Ruth.
"a pitcher has no chance to win
unles he is right at the top Of his
form or his team scores flock OF
runs" declared n prominent Yankee
moundman recently. THE ball is so
lively that pitchers are haunted by
the fear OF being killed by line hits
to the box We instinctively duck
as we let the hall go. 1t is lvelier
than II was last year. The heavy
hitting and the harvest Of home
runs, which Is far greater now than
It was at this time last year even
with Ruth lost in the shuttle, proves
that.
"The names Of thirty-slx pitchers
appearing in the nine box scores, and
despite the fact that four Of them
started and finished for winning
teams and two started and finished
for loosers. the average number Of
pitchers to the game was three.
''The st. Louis Cardinals rm-
pIOyed four pitchers TO win an eN-
fra.inning joIst with the Cincinnati
Reds, and Connie Mack sent three
hurIers to the hill when the
Athletics won the second game Of u
double header from the Red SOx.
Altogether seventeen pitchers were