The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-08

guess, after all. Johnny Kiing, of the old Cubs. was the best all- around catcher I ever saw. have put him at the top of tho catch ing staff of my Grand All-American team, and the more think about 1t right. I have put Roger Bresnahan and Ray Schalk to work with King.
 That, to my way of thinking, would be the best catching outfit that baseball ever has seen or. may be. ever will see. If any baseball man doesn't agree with me I'm open to argument. I'll present mine first.
 Johnny Kling was always aggres- sive and had the best throwing arm from any position of any catcher l ever saw. He was wonder at find- ing out batters' weaknesses and was allowed to sign the pitchers as he judged best.
 Kling had another faculty that I have never seen in another catcher. While warming up the pitcher before the game he could tell which was the
 pitchers best ball to pitch for that day. Did you ever know anybody else who could do that? One day pitch er's fast ball might be best; another day 1t might be his curve ball or his slow ball. Kling would find out quickly and the pitcher would fea- ture that particular ball for that day. especially in the pinche. That Is one success and also of the old Cubs success. A batter never knew exactly how to figure the pitcher. kling would warm up two or three pitchers and the managers would let dnlm make the selection for the day.
 Johnny was a sure hitter and
 beautiful fielder of foul flies and | Ia tagging base runners and on back ing up plays at first base. Kling had a sort of knack of guessing on what ball a runner would attempt to steal and generally did the thinking for the pitchers.
 KIing was a postmaster at break ing up the double steal. The fact that there was a man on third as well as first never worried him. He would whip that ball down to second just the same. Often he would )freeze the man on third and then get the other and Johnny Kling had a barrel of it. He was never excited in the least; was thinking all the time. He
 was a wonderful team worker and was always on the job: Yes, first prize goes to Johnny King.
 Never Forget a Weakness.
 Roger Bresnahan runs Kling close second. I notice that John Me Graw puts Bresnahan on top because of his ability to. play in any posi- ton and on account of his hitting. catcher who ever led off the batting list. Roger was a smart ball player. make no mistake about that. He was particularly great on hlocking
 runners at the home plate and was
 an artist on taking 8 throw either
 from the infield or the outfield; Bresnahan was thinking ball player He never had to be told twice about the weakness of any batter. He had a great memory. Roger was unusually aggressive and fearless and was a good influence for young pitchers.
 used diplomacy at times. To this day I don't think Bresnahan believes that a called third strike on him was ever over the plate. His heart was so set on the game that he thought the umpires were giving him the worst of it-honestly thought so. He badly hurt. Bresnahan. incidentally was the inventor of the present shin guards used by catchers. He used tc get some bad spike wounds and thought up this idea of protecting the legs. At first he was laughed at you WILL that oAA S0eSAASA g use the shin guards now.
 Ray Schalk. my third catcher, is dandy, I think him the most nat ural catcher of them all. He actual ly makes the work look easy. Schalk can catch any kind of pitching and tie pitchers always want him to
 work with ttem. He has a great
 baseball head and knows exactly how to direct a pitcher. For a man his
 size Schalk has great endurance. He can catch every day during a season
 Fans forget that a catcher has to make as many throws as the pitcher.