The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-06
WHO WERE GREATEST FTVEOF PITCHERS?-WAGNER TELLS

bases and then he would tighten up so quickly that you'd think diff ferent pitcher had come in. He worked hard to win whether he was pitching or not: Matty was a good < fielder and a fair hitter. He was great on the coaching lines, though he never made much fuss, about 1t. He was a big help to McGraw in coaching young pitchers. both in and out Of the game. ..
 Grover Cleveland Alexander showed me more different kind of pitches than any man I ever faced. used to keep a chart of the different kinds of balls theJpitchers would use. Alexander led them all. He had nipe different pitches. @ ss''s
 /, Alexander is a big strong fellow and willing worker. He is popu
 lar personally and as pitcher. He has the greatest assortment of curves in the world--bar2 none. Alex has a fast ball. medium ball, slow ball, drop ball and a curve, all of which he can throw half side-arm or overhandeds Whats more, he has a slow ball and raised curve which he uses underhanded.
 He Watches Every Base. N Alexander has perfect control and knp pwss how to snAix thena upSs The ere 1s K no chance to outguess him. He can make his fast ball sail in or out to the batter. The only other pitcher I ever heard of who could sail his fast ball either way is Wilbur
 Alex watches the bases very close ly and is one of the best in calling the turn on the other side. He is a wonder, at breaking up the squeeze pfay-so good that mighty few teams have tried it-ron him for the past few years. He is almost as good in breaking up tho nit and run play. Alex is always eager to pitch just for the sport of winning. That. of course, makes him mighty easy man for a manager to handle. He really. handles himself. Alex is also easy on umpires and. as a conse- quence, is very popular with them, That means lot. He never gets the | worst of it,. .- ,.t F. IL Cy Young. my fourth right-hander, was a 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 dlnk affairs that didn't seem to break at all. But they broke quickly, and just enough to make the batter miss. He had q short and quick breaking drop curve that was wonder.
 | Old 'Cy, as we called him, pitched for more than twenty years and was 1 good all the time. He never wasted many balls, but worked the corners Of the plate making 1t hard on the umpire as well as the batter. Young 3 | fast ball was peculiar in that 1t broke In and upward as 1t crossed the plate.
 Young was always in good shape and was allowed to use, his own judgment as to how to prepare him self in the spring training period. He was of powerful build and had that arm you wouldn't wonder why he lasted so many years as big league pitcher. ~,'-<. waaden Used His Head.
 Young never drove a batter from the plate-dusting of. ball players call it-and he seldom hit a batter. The beauty of his pitching was that the whole team could sit back and feel confident of having a well pitched game. It was just like sit- ting back of three aces in poker game. No manager ever had to worry about Cy Young. He never worried umpires either. e.
 Rube Waddell has been selected as my one left-hander because I think him the best southpaw that ever pitched a lRseball. tWaddell 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 a way,of saying, was to bear down on that old apple. some writers have said that Waddell never used his head in pitching. But don't believe all of that When Rube got in the box he knew what he was. doing. make no mistakes about that. 0i course, 1t took g diplomat to handle Waddell, but it was worth it.
 I Waddell had terrific speed, his fast ball breaking in and upward as 1t 1 crossed the plate, something like Cy Young's. He also had good ordin- ary curve and drop ball that was a beauty. He had good control for .