The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-07
Article "

~Even though I failed to nail Ty Cobb ht first base when he caught me nap ping and dropped a neat bunt almost at my feet the first time l ever faced him, certainly felt great relief when the ordeal was over. The climax had passed. I began to have more confi- dence in myself. While I still had a great respect for Ty, yet I must state that a feeling came over me that Ty was after all human being who could make mistakes and fail to do certain things just like other human beings, and the worst he could do was to knock a home run over the fence off my de livery. I had heard about him doing this to other pitchers-far greater than l had any hope of being at that time and they were still in the game. In any event I determined to keep cool and do just my very best regardless of who came up to the bat to face me"
 In the foregoing words Walter John son spoke after relating in last Sun days installment how he felt when he first faced the great Ty Cobb in his first major league game ill Washing ton on August ?, 1907.
 Must Field Position.
 "Even though Ty showed me up in our llTSl CDulluueu JOuLSOu, 'I must confess that he taught me a real lesson in baseball, and that was that I must know how to field my po- sotion if 1 was ever to make any head way in the big league. l remembered how the sporting writers on the Wash ington papers praised me for my work in the box in that first game but every one of them had something to say about my weakness in fielding my position. The sporting page of the Washington Post had this to say about me: Wal ter Johnson, the Idaho phenom, who had his debut in fast company yesterday, showed conclusively that he is perhaps the most promising young pitcher who has ever come into a major league in recent years. He pitched eight of the nine innings and was only taken out because it was deemed good judgment to send the fleet-footed Blankenship to bat for him in the eighth, when it looked as if the locals had golden op- portunity to tie the score or forge to the front. In these eight innings John son allowed but six hits, three of which were scratches, while he issued but single base on balls. He had terrific speed and the hard-hitting Detroit bats men found him about as troublesome as any pitcher they have gone against on the present trip. If the youngster showed any weakness it was in field ing his position, and it was this field ing which gave the visitors their first run"
 Lend Helping Hand.
 ''The fellow who wrote that article was right, and he made me all the more determined to remedy this weakness. On the team there were lot of veterans all willing to lend helping hand to a greenhorn ball player. For instance there was Ganley, Delehanty and Blankenship all seasoned ball players. Every one of these men gave me a lot of their time in coaching me on the fine points of the game, and l was more than pleased to pick up all the information l could from these teammates.
 "That first game went against us three to two. Right after Cobb made his first bunt off me, Rossman, the Tigers first sacker. turned the same trick. Cobb was already on his way to second like a flash and reached third when Rossman beat the throw to first. Cobb is one of the fastest men I have even seen on the bags. His bunt cost us one run for, on a long fly to Clymer the Georgia Peach came in on