Evening star., 1924-01-06
logan Of Boston Buves Young Sibng Real Ring Prospect
HANS WAGNERS STORY asEzz;:sas:zz azzE:sasz

years He is almost as good in break
ing up the hit-and-run play. Alex
always Is eager to pitch just for the
sport of winning. That, of course.
makes him a mighty easy man for a
manager to handle. He really han
uMpires and. as a consequence, Is
very popular with them. That means
lot. He never gets the worst OF 1t.
Cy Young, my fourth right handler.
was different type of pitcher from,
the others. We used to call him the
curveless wonder. He had terrific
speed that gave the ball a snappy
jump. but his curves were little dink
affairs that didn't seem to break at
all. But they broke quickly, and just
had short and quick-breaking drop
curve that was a wonder
Old Cy, as we called him, pitched
Tor more than twenty years, and was
good all the time. He never wasted
many balls. but worked the corners
OF the plate, making It hard on the
umpire as well as the batter. Young's
fast ball was peculiar in that II
broke In and Upward rs il crossed
the plate.
Young always was in good shape.
and was allowed to use his own judg-
ment as TO how to prepare himself
in the spring training period. He was
of powerful build and had an arm
like steel. If you ever felt that arm
you wouldn't wonder why he lasted
so many years as big league
pitcher.
wadden Used His Head.
Young never drove batter from
the plate-dusting off. ball players
call itv-and he seldom hit "a batter
The beauty of his pitching was that
the whole team could sit back and
feel confident of having well pitched
game. It was just like sitting back
of three aces in a poker game. No
manager ever had to worry about Cy
Young. He never worried umpires
either.
Rube Waddell has been selected as
my one left-hander because / think
him the best southpaw that ever
pitched base ball. Waddell may
not have known as much about his
art and about things IN general as
the others. He didn't have to. All
he had to do. as we ball players have
way of saying, was to bear down
on that old apple. Some writer's have
head in pitching. But don't believe
all of that. When Rube got in the
box he knew what he WAS doing,
make no mistake about that OF
course. it took a diplomat to handle
Waddell, but II was worth II.
Wadde1l had terrific speed. his fast
ball breaking in and upward as II
crossed the plate. som mething like Cy
Young's. He also had a good ordinary
curve and a drop ball that was a
beauty. He had good control for a
left-hander. The beauty of having
Waddell on the bench was that he
wanted to pitch all the time. He
was anxious to win. He never
thought of himself on the field. The
players could jolly him into pitching
at any time or playing any other
position, for that matter. He was
real good fielder and a fair hitter.
Though Waddell was hard on his
manager, as a rule, he was mighty
easy on umpires He never got into
trouble with them.
Rube Waddell had the largest
pitching hand / ever saw He could
make his fingers meet around a base
ball like you could around. a pool
ball That, 1 think, is what gave him
such terrible speed Throwing a base
ball was to him about like throwing
a big marble would be to you.
Now. those are my FIVE all-American
pitchers. and / don't believe you can
beat them.
Tomorrow-The Big Stars of the
Infield.