The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-01
Former Star Shortstop Tells How To Prevent Base Steal ing And Of Development Of Defense

Copyright. 1923. in United States ant Great Britain. Cuba, Japan and Soutf America by North American Newspapel reserved.)
 By HANS W1.GNER
 Several college coaches have beer complimentary enough to request thar I devote an article on my idea oi how to make plays at shortstop. Be fore doing so, though. l want to give the college boys another block of the examination questions that I gave the team at Carnegie Tech.
 These questions are not to be am swered directly. You will do better by discussing them. The answers may vary according to the situations By keeping them in mind and study ing them I think the college teams now in formation will derive some benefit. Defense Against Base Stealing.
 1. Is the defense for stealing stronger now than in formers yearsi Why?
 ?. Do you have catcher or other in- fielder giving signal to pitcher when runner is taking too much of lead!
 3. Does your catcher signal for WdSlc Ddh WHcH ruHHcT IdS plS lcdu in order to throw the runner out?
 4. When a runner on second fndl- cates that he will try to steal, or ac- tually does start, does your short stop inform the third baseman2
 5. What percentage of men do you estimate are successful In stealing?
 6. Which man Is in best position to receive throw from catcher. sec ond baseman or shortStop?
 2 In what situation do v0u most expect 8 man to steal?
 s. What defense do you use when you expect a steal of home?
 Rather than answer those Ques. tions directly I would have the col lege players discuss them and arrive of much more benefit than the mere reading of questions and answers Fellows forget things that do not require any thought of their own When studied arithmetic I remem Der never could get the idea down right when the answer was giver with the problem.
 Learn Where Batters Hit.
 Now, the most important principle I learned when I first came in from the outfield and started playing shortstop was where to place myself for certain batters. It doesn't take long to learn in what direction 2 certain batter usually hits the ball The hard job Is to remember each one of the batters. A shortstop must also remember in what direction g batter hits certain pitches. Most oi them will hit a curve outside to one field and a fast one to another.
 This makes 1t all-important that the shortstop know exactly whal the pitcher is going to do each time He can do this by keeping his mlno on the game and his eye glued or the catcher's signals.
 Now, for example, If right handed batter, who usually hits tc left field. is up and the pitcher glVes him a ball inside the plate-close tC him-then I, as shortstop, would se' my body so as to leap to my right sition to make a quick start the shortstop gains @ full step on the ball. He makes hard chances look easy. In other words. he has out. figured the ball. An infielder should never let the baSl play him.
 This getting yourself placed makes a mighty big difference. If the bat ter should hit a ground pal. TOT Tn stance. 1t will be right at the short stop nine times out of ten. If he should stand flatfooted and not know in which direction he intended tt start the shortstop would be ou' of luck. His start must be with the crack of the bat. Otherwise ht is not a big league shortstop.
 Now, if the pitcher throws the bal outside of the plate-away from the righthanded batter-the shortstoI must be ready to jump to his Jeff with the crack of the bat. Nine times out of ten the batter will hit the ball toward right field. If he hits a grounder ths chances are Il will go between the shortstop and second base or directly over the bag If 1t goes further than that the sec ond baseman can get it: But remem' Der the second baseman is also play ing the game. He has set himself tc get far around toward first base.
 By anticipating a ground hit liki that the shortstop often gets credi for marvellous stops of balls hit di rectly over second. AS a matter 0. fact they are not hard. The short stop, having anticipated the play, 1! over there with leap or two. H. has made the hard chance easy.
 Lajoie Was There First.
 I suppose you who are old fans re' member how easy all chances use( to look to Napoleon Lajoie. Often h. made stops that did not get applause because they looked so easy. Othe players, who had to race for the ball would be applauded for making phenomenal stops. That was becaus, Lajoie figured out where the bal