The Washington times., 1924-06-21


supposed weak hitter is just as
Atand and spoil a game for you a.
What's the answer-the lively
bail?"
"Fhe lively ball and the wide.
spread change In batting. styles.
Everybody wants to be homerun
hitter. / guess, and everybody grips
his bat at the end and takes a fun
swing. The choke hitter, SO com.
mon until the lively ball came into
play, has almost passed out OF
sight. Heinie Groh is the only
choke hitter left in the National
League that I can think of of
we know Heinie will be swinging
you go up to the bail park some
day look at the bats spread out in
front of the dugouts. There will be
from fifty to one hundred in front
of each dugout, and youll find
that with very few exceptions
they're long, thin handled sticks
!. with q war club effect on the
' other end. When a pitcher finds
I himself in a tight spot and sees one
of these war clubs waving at him
, he might just. as well pitch to 1t,
( because when that ones gone there
will be another in its place"
What is the best asset d pitcher
can have?"
Control" he said, without the
{ slightest hesitation. II don't care
: what else a pitcher has, if he
lacks control he's. hopeless. by
control don't mean the ability
merely to burn the ball over the
heart of the plate all the time.
! ! mean the ability to pitch high
!, and inside, low and inside, high
| and. outside, low and Outside-tO
work the edges of the plate, in
other words. "A fellow could stand
1 out In the box with q rifle AMI
blaze bullets over the middle OF
the plate, but if he kept 1t up
long enough some of these fast
bali hitters would start to wallop
the bullets"
Here Aleck smiled.
THAT may be exaggerating a
frifle," he said, "but / think 1t
illustrates my point. What mean
4 41O 1kAdIIGIN 1lOW 11AuC41 IlkC4k ia
speed a pitcher may have, he isn't
going to get by on that alone. He
! may ger Ey for a while, but not
for very. long. He has to find out
what a batter can hit and what he
can't hit and then pitch to him
accordingly; and he has to have
control to keep the ball where he
i wants II"
How long does it take you to
discover a batter's weakness and
how do you go about it?''
1.-THE length Of time 1t takes to
ret a. line on batter varies. I
can spot some Of them the first
time / see them, while others re-
Quire considerably longer study.
As q rule, though, can tell pretty
well how. to pitch to a fellow after
I've seen him hit against three or
-four, other pitchers. That answers
your question about how to classify
them; by watching them bat
against somebody else"
''But remember this: Because
+. . batter can't hit q curve pitched
TO him by somebody else doesn't
necessarily mean that he can't
hit my curve. or because he can't
luAO 6uIuOUOUy CASO I00b, Ud4A ~
doesn't follow absolutely that ne
can't hit my fast ball. When 1
try a curve on a batter whom
i have seen fooled by q curve
thrown by somebody else and he
4 hits 1t, ] have 20 start all over
! again and devise q means Of my
own to stop him." y
ronce you feel you have bat
ter's weakness uncovered, do you
pitch to him the same way all
the timer"
ooh, no. That would be a fatal
mistake because If did that, he'd
soon discover what was going on. I
had that impressed upon me some
years ago by Jake Daubert when
Jake was with the Brooklyn club.
II hadn't been in the league very
long and still was feeling my way
= around, so to speak, had a lot of
,ssuccess pitching low and outside to
sake and thought the proper idea
was to- continue to pitch that way to
I him. The result was that before I
< realized what was up, he was hitting
. the wadding out of me. He knew
81 just what was coming every time
: he went to bat and he'd just dig
himself in and wait for 1t.
n3 you've got to figure that a major
league player is smart or he wouldn't
be in the major leagues and a fellow
. that's smart isn't going to be fooled
by the same ball all the time. You've
got to mix up your offerings to
2 him and keep him guessing AMI
& when You see him taking a toe hold
!. at the plate don't give him what
j he's looking for or he'll knock the
q ball out of the lot"
What batters give you more trou-
Die than the rest?'
Hornsby and Frisch," he said.
!. promptly. ''ThOse two are great
hitters and IL isn't easy to fool
them. Ill 60 further and say that
4 ! don't think 1 ever fooled Horns.
by. I've made him miss the hall.
Of course, but even then I'm sure
ne knew exactly where IL was
3 going TO be and simply didn't
time his swing correctly. He must
nave a wonderful pair OF eyes and
MS style at the plate is as nearly
perfect as any / ever saw, There's
= one bird that looks good even
when he strikes out.
''Frisch is a different tyne Of
hitter. I've fooled him--and he has
fooled me many a time, too. He's
always dangerous and because a
pitcher gets him in a hole 1t doesn't
mean that he viii not hit the next
ball for two or three bases. I don't
like to see him coming up in a