The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-01-17

4l6 up q YAH CAhOs ~ was 10y VI
and Split.
Up to that time-and that is otter
true today-baseball people hesitated
to try anything new. Veterans car
be counted on to do the right thing
at any rate, the usual thing-ane
there Is a tendency to let them &C
along. But managers, in this sense
of security, go too far. They do not
realize that the old timers are slip
ping: do not see the necessity OF
young blood soon enough. In other
words, 1t is human failing to follow
the line of least resistance. The work
of building is tedious and nerve rack
ing. To avoid it is human.
HanIon Wanted Young Blood
Ned Hanlon evidently had made up
his mind to get rid of all these old
ideas and spring something entirely
new on the big league. He had been
impressed by the eagerness and ambi
ton of kids like Jennings and myself.
So, when we arrived at New Or
leans we found another young fellow
Joe Kelley. Joe had come to Balti-
more in. exchange for George Van
Haltren, the deposed leader of the Or
ioles. Joe was wonderful out
fielder. was fast and could hit. Like
jennings anu myself H6 dlSp thO1Gil
and dreamed baseball.
stepped Into Ball
The first day of practice Jennings
walked up to the plate, stepped into
the ball and smacked lit for single.
Hanlon was surprised to see that he
did not pull away from the plate, as
had been his failing the year before.
We had corrected that fault during
the winter at St. Bonaventure col
lege.
Jennings had hit but little over
200. but had been retained on ac-
count of his wonderful fielding. He
had the bad habit of pulling away
with his forward foot when swinging
at the ball In baseball we call that
putting ones foot in the water
bucket, the idea being that player
will pull so far away as to step TO
the bench. That pull away naturally
draws the bat so far from the pdate
that it is practically impossible to
meet the ball squarely. We talked
this over for hours. Finally I hit on
a scheme that Jennings agreed to
try. ~
Learning To Hit
In the college cage I placed Jen-
nings up against the screen so that
it was impossible for him to pull
away in that direction. For hours |
D1lChHQ TO MIN. GGliiE uAdblC ~ pehNie
away he had to step into the ball. The
foot, instead of going off to one
side.l would step directly forward.
This. was very awkward at first. For
a long time 1t looked as II We could
not get away with the scheme. But
Hughey and | were both determined.
After a week of this he found him
self stepping into the ball instead of
away from it.
Helped Batting Average
This practice wrought such a
change in his batting that the next
season he hit 1870 as against the for
mer 200.
In addition to facing the ball this
changing of the direction of the step
enables the batter to hit the ball in
front of the plate. He can thus meet
the ball before 1t breaks. In other
words, he is on top of the ball in
stead of the ball being on top of him.
In those days we practiced the
short. sharp chop at the ball instead
of the long swing. OF course we did
not hit so many home runs by that
style of batting but we got many
more base hits and consequently Won
many more games.
smuggling After Homers
In this connection, it is my belief
that the present epidemic of home
runs is due to the fact that most of
the batters are trying to hit home
runs instead of trying to hit the ball
scientifically. That may be all right
for few hard swingers, but it is not
good for a team as whole. OF
course, the lively ball helps lot, but
the increase in home run hitting, l
believe, is largely due to the fact that
batters are catching their bats on the
end and swinging from their shoe
strings They are trying to hit home
runs, instead of merely trying to hit
safe. They will either knock the