The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-01-12

ildhC oh OuL VI iilC-
/ Williams, c.: Billy Hofer, p.
To illustrate what 1 mean by senti-
ment, l was looking over the names
of some players that the Giants had
chance to get in the draft few
years ago. 1 knew nothing about any
of them. But / saw that one of them
was with Cedar Rapids.
That's the fellow I'll take" 1 said
to the secretary of the club, land I'm
taking him simply because he comes
from Cedar Rapids. That's where
got my first start This new fellow,
I'll bet, is good"
And we signed him. That fellow
was Otie Crandall, the pitcher.
l was right, too. Otie stepped right
in and made good. Not only was he
a good pitcher, but he could sock the
ball. New York fans know mighty
well how we used him successfully as
both a pinch hitter and a pinch
pitcher.
In close, tight place-the bases
full. for instance-Crandall was one
of the coolest pitchers l ever saw.
He had no fear, no nerves.
Pitching IN Pinch
One day we rushed him in from
the bullpen to take another pitchers
plac.
Hun ne SAID, f-WneTe u ali tnOSe
fellows come FROM"
The bases were full and there was
nobody out.
''Oh. all right said old Doc Gran
dali, as the boys called him, lets
| co.
Without a finch or CULVER he
| started pitching and retired the side
without run. Crandal. was a
mighty valuable ball player. He
| could also play the outfield
In this connection it was not a
great while before Crandalls time
that we began to use pinch hitters--
that is, keep man on the bench for
that purpose alone. l may be mis-
taken, but / think Sammy Strang
was one of the first ones ever en-
gagged. In the old days we couldn't
afford to have utility men sitting
around the bench except when needed
in a pinch. Our utility men or sub
stitutes were mostly the extra pitch
ers.
Strang was always a good hitter
| and very fast. He also was a good
third baseman, good second base
| man and good outfielder. The
| trouble was that he never cared
i about one position very long. He
would go in and play second or third
| like a house afire for a few weeks
land then lose his pep. He would get
| tired of the job. He liked new sem
| sations. Give him any new job and
| he was such naturally good ball
player that he would go great guns.
AS soon as the novelty wore off he
would get lazy.
Strang never got excited about any
thing in his life. Whether there
were one or three men on bases and
n y, no ,ior in, do
pended on whether he hit or not
meant nothing to him. He was de-
void of nervousness.
SO Easy!
With smile and yawn he would
pick up bat, walk up to the plate
and lazily slam the ball out of the lot.
decided to keep him as utility
player and pinch hitter, giving him
no regular job at all. Before that the
professional pinch hitter was not
known. Sammy lived up to all my
expectations. He hung up a hitting
record which l believe will stand for
long time to come. l put him up
Nine times as a pinch hitter and he
HIT safely nine times in succession.
You can well imagine what that
meant to a ball club. That was in
1905 and, If you will remember, we
almost walked away with the PEN
nant that year, as we did the worlds
series.
But, getting back tC Cedar Rapids
Henry Fabian tells me that when
/ showed up in April, 1891. l was the
freshest and ,cockiest kid that ever
broke into a ball game. l sassed
everybody. l thought was just as
good ball player as any big Lacquer
in the business.
To tell the truth. I've always
thought that those fresh. cocky
youngsters who think they know 1t
all are the best prospects They have
t. be taken down occasionally, of