San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-09-02
Not a Pitcher Of Real Top
: Class Has Appeared in
Many Years.
SCHUPP WAS NEAREST
Wlbert Robinson Bemoans
/, Untimely Slump Of Bril-
,,,,, liant Ferdie. ..,..
BY GEORGE CHADWICK.

Copyright. by The San Antonio Light
New York, Sept. 1.-Critics of base
ball today, in the twilight of the 1928
season, are asking:
= where are the pitchers?"
With all the knowledge that base
Z ball as an organization should have,
with all that has been told as to what
the pitcher should have, with all the
y games that have been played since the
/, troops came sailing back from France.
there hasn't been a real star pitcher
developed between the years 1914 and
1923.
~ The most Of those who are travelling
, in the paths of the mighty now are
the old fellows, still hanging on. And
still folks wonder that every now and
then some pitcher is shelled out OF
the country.
Managers say that there isn't a
) pitcher in either league today who will
draw q crowd as a pitcher.
Take Uhle of the Cleveland club.
He has won twice as many games as
he has lost. He has pitched more than
30. He came from a sand lot team
around Cleveland and he has some of
the points that should help to make a
pitcher talked about, but you don't
hear him discussed much. The kids
!. don't gather at the knot holes to look
him over, and yet that young man
stands today for about as good as
there is in the American League.
Think ShOcker Best.
National League managers will tell
you that Shocker is the best pitcher
in the American League. They gam
:. their opinion by conversation and es-
! timation. Shocker hasn't done as well
as Uhle. He may be more talked
about. but no one ever claimed that
he was q second Ed Walsh.
Who will you find in the National
League? Luque, a Cuban. He used
to pitch for the Long Branch team
!. back in 1913 when the Giants were
wont to 90 to Long Branch to play
/ Sunday games, and they baited him
even then. In most respects he has
the best record of any pitcher today
| in baseball. He has played in more
than 20 games and has won four times
as many as he has lost. But look
when he began! Back in 1918 at
Long Branch, and he might have been
playing some years in Cuba even be-
fore then. If that doesn't indicate a
long time between drinks for pitchers
to- make an appearance, then what
does?
Babe Adams Is as good as the sec
ond best in the National League and
he was winning a world series in 1909.
Where are the pitchers? Alexander.
his prime, Aldridge, Scott and Benton
& all old timers-are in the stage
light in the National and there is only
af rrbn
Z stands in the row with them.
-. Robinson Mourns Over Schupp.
4 Wilbert Robinson, who manages the
Brooklyn team part of each year and
shoots ducks the remainder, was the
first to direct attention to the exact
/ period in which there have been no
freshly discovered Mathewson, John
sons, Youngs, Waddells, Blenders or
i Planks.
@Not really great pitcher has been
developed in the major leagues or
minors since the war;" he said.
"And," chimed in a smart baseball
man, "not really great pitcher was
developed during the war;"
n "Oh, yes. there was" Robby began,
I and then blurted out: al don't know.
!; by golly, but you are right. I was
Z going TO say Schunp. 1 helped pull
that kid along. What record lie
made the first year that he made
good! Less than one earned run a
z game for the season. Great tarpon.
& what a cuss he would have been il
& he had stuck TO that for two or three
q years. But his arm went bad. But.
= say, there amt been a swell pitcher.
3 has there, when you come to look 'em
s over? Been lot of morning glories.
4 Morning squash blossoms, I'd call
!. some of 'em. Do you know what ais
i. 'emf Don't want TO work. Pitchers
/ amt pitchin' for the sake o pitchin'.
They're pitchin' to get away with 4
Z and lHng onto summer job with
gravy trimmings as long as they can"
just Can't Locate EN-.
y Where are the pitchers? Never
Il mind about the stars of yesteryear.
p The fans have their hands to their
b, eyes looking for the stars of this year
and the years to come. They can't be
r. found with telescope or field glass and
!. baseball needs them. Baseball has
!, had Babe Ruth with his ability tn hit
. any kind of pitching with which he is
ss served and it has made much of him.
And II is true that great pitchers have
not always been great drawing cards.
That is because they do not play
/. every dav and it is seldom that man.
|. ager viii tell in advance who the
i pitcher will be. MANY a time quito
- throng gathered on Saturday in New
T. York to see Mathewson pitch and ms
likely as not he didn't. but got the
assignment the following Monday
(which was an off day in New York
AS a rule.
Yet there was that interest in the
work of pitcher like Mathewson that
would increase the attendance on two
.--or three days straight. because the
fans would continue to go until he
did pitch.