The Washington times., 1925-03-13

in the league for me to strike out.
Eddie Collins, like Speaker. has
always been a hard man for me 70
get on strikes Eddie claims his
chewing-gum habit has saved him.
AS all American League fans know,
from years of watching the Whlte
Sox star, whenever Eddie gets two
strikes, he calls on the old chewing
gum, and nine times out OF ten,
it saves his life. Eddie never cheWs
until he has two strikes and then,
from the button on top OF his cap.
with all seriousness, he removes his
little wad of chewing gum. Right
there, the opposing pitcher knows
Eddie is determined to hit or die
in the attempt. Speaker and Col
Inns are both left-handed hitters and
both are unusually smart men.
They are more alike than any
two battars ever faced and /
try to work on both Of them
pretty much the same. Time after
time. I've seen Eddie Collins GO
after q bad ball and stop in the
middle of his swing. His ability
to recover is extraordinary. The
average batter goes on through
and generally pops q weak hit to
the infieId. For q man who
swings so hard at a ball. Eddie
Collins has the best eye Of any
batter in baseball.
He is a fair bunter and anytime
he catches the third baseman play
ing in, he will poke the ball over
his head. Or when necessary. he
can set himself for long drive
and generally delivers. Speaking
OF his strikeout defense, remem-
Der game when he was. with
Connie Mack some years ago. With
two strikes on him, he pulled the
old chewing gum off his cap and
waited for the next ball. Tnats
all he did by the way-just waited.
The umpire called three strikes
and Eddie and / were both sur
prised. But 1 was also pleased for
a particular reason.
"You seem to like to strike me
out" said Eddie as he walked to
the bench.
"well it doesn't happen very
often Eddie" I came back. But
it isn't so much because you struck
out but because / rooled you with
a. curve" / was really experiment
ing and never figured<I had de-
cent curve ball, to say nothing OF
one good enough to fool Eddie
Collins.
Harry Heilmann, who lead the
American League two different
seasons, beating out Babe Ruth in
a great duel at the close OF 1923,
ie strickly the slugger type. Harry
is what players call cripple
hitter. He has a great habit or
picking on the first ball when the
pitcher is not trying quite so hard.
Heilmann never --tries to get
pitcher in the hole but is always
nrepared to hit anything, If it looks
good. He doesn't pick any particu-
lar field but just takes straight
away cut and drives the ball hard.
I consider Heilmanni one Of the best
hitters in the American League,
because he combines smuggling with
steady batting. He is something of
the Ruth type.
II is claimed he hit ball in
Detroit farther than one hit by
Babe Ruth at the same park.
Ruth's drive was supposed to be
the longest ever hit by the home
run King. But ordinarily | would
not saw Heilmann could hit as hard
or far as Ruth. He lad an at
tack of sinus trouble early in 1924
the same as afflicted Sisler but
not so bad. This got Heilmann
away to a bad start and when he
finally recovered, he found himself
in a slump and out of form. l
think Harry us easily discouraged
as a batter but / look for him to
be fighting it out with the leaders
during 1925.
Many baseball men, especially
old timers, would put Willie
Keller, famous star of the old