San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-08-14
He's Letting Drives He
Used to EAT Up" Fall
for Hits and He's Begin
ming TO Talk of His Legs.
BY JOHN Il. FOSTER.

Copyright. by The san Antonio Light.
New York, Aug. 14.-Ty Cobb is
not as spry as he was. The other
afternoon Il fly ball fell out in CEN
Ter field at the Yankee Stadium in
New York. Ty made great sprint
for il. but he was not working on
six cylinders. He was short of the
ball. Ii was worth 4 seat in the
stand to see him keep on fighting TO
get up to the ball. Suddenly he
stopped. He knew that be was not
going TO reach it. The ball bounded
up and he knocked it down on the
first bound.
Ty would have "eaten it up" as
the fans say, a few years ago. No fly
of that kind ever would have bounded
in front of him. He ran far back on
another and lost il. The scorers called
it hit. The scorers were char; BILE.
In the old days these were the flies
that Ty smothered while the stands
roared in applause.
Looks as if the legs Of the greatest
star the American League had for
years, one of the best it ever had, have
hesitated a little. They are not gone.
They are merely hesitant. Maybe they
lack second or so in time. The
stride seems as long as ever. but per-
haps there are not as many strides
TO the minute.
Must Lose Him Soon.
The American League cannot af.
ford to lose 1y, but it will have to
Il
with the scythe is memorable. He has
been threatening and the threat is
growing into determination. Ty will not
get out of baseball. He may be a
citizens clothes bench manager, but
he aspires 10 be something more than
that. Maybe he will be n club pres
ident or something of that kind and
devote n keen mind TO baseball in
other ways than as a player. But,
golly, what player he has been and
what a man for the national game.
When Ty was working out with his
team in Augusta last spring he said
to the writer:
Il am in better condition than ]
have been in for two years. | have
been hunting. walking and hunting
some more. | can get more training
out of hunting than ] can out of de-
liberately artificial methods. My legs
feel good. They are strong and sup.
pie"
The very fact that Ty M ,ntioned
legs indicated what worried him most.
He is smart enough 10 know that ball
players begin TO fail when their legs
fail.
Cobb Made Himself Great.
What Cobb is today on the baseball
field is the result of the study that
he had made of himself and the les
sons that he has made Cobb take from
Ty. There isn't a ball player on the
field and hardly any in the reminis-
cent past who has been put through
the stunts TO make himself good
player that Cobb has been put
through. But no manager ever made
Ty do stunts. They made him If his
own manager. 4 more exacting and
impprious manager never lived.
Ty made Ty chase flies days after
days TO all sorts of impossible places.
He had batters practice hitting TO him.
Don't hit the ball where | stand,
said Ty. Hit it where ! am not stand
ing and make me run for it. Hit il
over my head. Hit it short. Hit it
to one side. Hit it anywhere you wish
aud make me chase it,
Took Them Out Of sun.
Ty. even practiced taking the ball
out of the sun that he might be a bet
ter outfielder. Few are the ball play
crs who are hardy enough to do that
Those who have the sun fields assigned
to them must do il, but those who do
not play sun fields do not crave The
possibility of having n very heavy ball
fall on a very carefully preserved head
Ty practiced batting in every con
ceivable way with every kind OF de
livery. He practiced against speed
against the slow ball. against curves
against slants. against the splitter when
that nauseating thing got going. and
he was one of the few who could hit
the splitter because he learned that il
did not pay to swing at it. He nailed
it with a short jab, sort of modi-
fled. forearm punch.
Ty is still grand ball player, but
he is not the player he "nce was.