The Washington times., 1926-01-23


ball didn't take much of a jump,
from getting hold of it.
Nobody, not even his own catch-
or. ever knew just what Cicotte did
to the ball. Kid Gleason, his man.
agen and other members of the
White Sox tried in vain to dis
cover the secret, but Cicotte never
divuIged ii. When he was thrown
out Of organized baseball his secret
went with him. The umpires could
never catch him doing anything
illegal. Still, We all knew that he
did.
Cicotte was so adept that all he
asked was for the ball to be rolled
to him on the ground. With a
brand new bail that had not
touched the dirt he couldn't 90
liver the s'sailer. . But that was
quickly arranged by the catcher
and the infielders rolling the ball
TO him on the ground. From then
on the batters were ducking around
TO avoid that puzzling sailer.
SOtflron came next, with a
trick ball that acted very much
like the emery ball Of Russell
Ford. In time his secret was
discovered, but before we had
done 50 he had made q great rec
ord. He worked IL kY raising a
cOrrugati0n on the lde Of the
ball without the aid of any for.
eign substance. By the use Of
Q strong fOfefinger and thumb
SOfhr0n would work mp the seam
Of the bali until It stood out.
This slight raise or corrugation
on the surface was enough to
catch the wind and cause the
ball to take the queer swerves and
shoots. In his case great accurac.y
was required In handling the ball
30 that the seam would catch the
air at the right time. He could
actually control the bail.
One OF the greatest artists Of the
whole lot was Dave Danforth. To.
this day opposing batters take scfup.
ulous care about examining every
ball that he pitches. Fans often
make fun of the catcher in de-
manding TO be shown the ball.
They think it a way of killing
chances the umpire often throws
the ball out even when he does
not see anything wrong.
If you will remember. poor Ray
Chapman was killed by ball that
took a quick jump. Carl Mays had
not intended using a trick ball but
the ball had got feathers" that
is. roughed up by contact with the
hard dirt. Just before that pitch
the catcher had requested that the
ball be thrown out. But it seemed
perfectly all right.
Since then umpires will take no
chances, whether the ball has been
rouched Intentionally or not. They
are perfectly right too. The pitch
ing Of partly feathered ball Is a
dangerous thing. It seems remark
able that more accidents have not
occurred In the past. Nobody
could be blamed for such an acct
dent but, certainly, no living man
wants to see another one occur.
In the case OF Dave Danforth
It was found that he used paraffin
on the seam OF the ball, making it
appear perfectly smooth and legal.
He and others discovered that by
delicately Sitting the little raised
places between the stitches in the
seam a, raised edge could be had
whenever desired. The Sits were
made with safety razor blade.
Then the seam was pressed hack
into place, covered with paraffin
and rubbed in. There was abso-
lutety nothing TO show that the
ball had been tempered with.
But when. the pitcher wanted
60 raise a surface on the ball
all he had to do was scrape
away the paraffin with his tfum
nail and bring up the slit edges.
This raised edge being part OF
the seam would escape notice
and would be even more effec-
tive as a wind-break than q
patch roughed up by emery pa
per.
Without doubt there are still
instances of a pitcher using trick
deliveries but they are not so fire.
Quent.
These tricks that are done by
changing the surface of the ball
must not be confused with such
thing as the knuckle ball That
was a legal delivery but very diff
ficult to operate. The ball was
balanced between the thumb and
little finger with the other fingers
doubled up so that the ball would
take its momentum from the
knuckle. That never became gen
eral because 1t was not practical.
A pitcher who can control a ball
that way is certainly entitled to
the privilege.
Some of our very great pitchers
discovered freak deliveries while
this fad was going on but they
did not use them for fear OF hurting
their arms. 1t was always interest
ing to experiment, though.
While CIlristy MathewsOn never
even used the spitbaII much,
1I,aro &, mn dnx1Ff that ho could