The Washington times., 1925-08-08
MANY HURT
IN BALL
FIELDS
Babe Ruth MarVeIs at Num-
Der of Casualties in Game
This Year
By BABE RUTH.

NEW YORK, Aug. o.-FlrsG
thing we know baseball will have
TO follow the lead of the War
Department and issue daily casu-
atty lists after every game.
Seems as though each year finds
more and more players out OF
the game with injuries-and 1925
has been about the biggest in
jury year of the lot.
I never realized myself how,
many men had been out OF the
game until l got to talking to
some of the newspaper men who
had just made up a list. And
how many do you suppose were
on it? One hundred and twenty
nine! Think of it. One hundred
and twenty.nine men injured
enough to keep them out of the
game at sometime during the
present season, and it has two
months yet to run.
Believe me, when players are
being knocked out as rapidly as
that a teams pennant chances de-
pend about so per cent on the
strength Of its reserves. I guess
there isn't a team in either league
that has escaped without any in
1uries-and some OF them, like the
Giants, haven't had a half-dozen
days in a row when they've been
M11fa &n NIT THAR Ft1II sfronOfh IN
the field.
Talking about injuries on the
bench the other day, most of the
boys. of course, blame tho hulk
Of the trouble on the lively ball.
why pitching nowadays is Just
a matter of tossing that ball up
there and ducking," Sam Jones said.
"You never know when one is going
to come shooting back at you. If
they just keep that old rabbit" in
there awhile longer they'll have all
the infielders crippled and the
pitchers using crutches.
All the boys like to kid me occa-
sionaIly because I'm in favor of the
lively ball-and because I've always
said that 1t wasn't half as lively as
q lot Of folks pretend. I will admit
that it's a bit more lively than 1t
used to be, and the cover Is stretch
Cd a bit tighter, / think. But, the
thing that makes pitching so tough
these days is the fact that the UNI
pires throw out 50 many balls. The
pitchers are always having to pitch
new balls-and there's no pitcher in
the world who can get the same
stuff with a new ball that he gets
with an old one.
Just the same though, a good
pitcher can get by pretty well even
with the present ball. II you'll just
take look at the box scores you'll
lind that the Yankee pitchers
haven't been having any great trou-
bic OF late. Jones, Hoyt, Pennock,
Shocker and Shawkey have al
pitched great ball on their last two
times out.
And you don't see the Walter
Johnsons, and the AIexanders and
the CoveleSkies crying for help
very often. They go in there and
pitch - just forgetting about the
lively baIE-and most of the time
they come through with a pretty
well pitched game.
But I started out talking about
injuries. AS I said there isn't a
club in either league that hasn't
suffered at some time during the
season-and injuries have played a
big part in the pennant race. The
Athletics might have the pennant
safe right now if Hauser hadn't
been put out for the season and
Gray hadn't broken his hand right
when the club was going at highest
once.
It's a pretty safe bet that the
Giants would have walked inf
they hadn't had one injury after an
ether until they had as many as
five regulars out of the game at
oonce.
You can go down the list. Roger
Peckinpaugh's injury; Dutch" Rue
theirs bad knee; joe Judges bad
1eg-these are some of the things
which have hurt Washington. Mar
anvtlle's broken leg was a body blow
10 the Cubs; Dugan's knee, Shock
er's broken hand; Schang's broken
finger-all Of these are Just a few
OF the troubles that the Yankees
have had THIS year. And it's true
all down the line. Nineteen hundred
and twenty-five has certainly been
Q Jinx year for ball players. And
the team that wins the pennant is
the team that has the best reserve
strength.
Copyright 1928. by the christy
Walsh syndicatel
c. Eg E.