Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-17

much less take the bat off my
shoulder. Three balls that Connolly
called strikes came whizzing by and
they sure were sailing
When the third one was called
was the third out.
Twill you look at the ball now?''
demanded, as the teams we're chang
ing sides.
He called for the ball, which had
been thrown to the inf1eld. and was
plainly amazed at what he saw.
Better look in Keating's glove"
said.
Manager Frank Chance interferet
at this point. but Connolly was
aroused then and insisted so quickly
on examining Keatings glove that
the pitcher did not have time to con
ceai a small piece of emery paper he
had inserted on the inside. covering q
hole he had cut in the palm.
Connolly rolled the ball to Dineer
and kept the emery paper He sent
both emery paper and ball-to league
headquarters and l understand they
were used as exhibits in the confer
ence which eventually led to the bar
on all sorts of adventitious aids tc
pitching.
"Shine Ball" Effective.
A third trick delivery that met with
disapprovaf was the so-cafled Shine
ball. Dave Danforthi invented that
form of deception, but Cicotte perfect
ed 1t. BY vigorously rubbing a new
ball on his trousers the artist" would
produce an unusually smooth spot
about the size of quarter dollar
The ball was then thrown in the SANE
manner and with the same effect. as
an emery. Cicotte worked on it unit
he had it absolutely perfected. With
this trick added to his splitter. his
slow ball and his marvellous control
CiCotte was in clover.
About the time all these artificial
devices were forbidden the extremely
lively ball was introduced. and the
hitters had their day, while the pitch
ers were up against the frowns OF
fortune. In the half century of war.
fare between batters and pitchers the
lively bali was the hardest problem
the hurlers ever had to solve. / think
too, they would eventually have over.
come that handicap had some of the
hop" not been taken out year or
more since, but few infielders might
have been disabled or killed mean
while.
A curve fast one and a slow bal
do not afford enough variety for
many of the young pitchers coming
up nowadays. so they have the
"knuckler" ball, the screw" ball, the
fork" ball, and one fellow tried t.
get away with mud" ball, but one
of the boys on my team caught hin
and that went into the discard.
Old timers talk about the decline II
pitching as compared with the days o
Young, Clarkson, Keefe and other!
the shoe on the other foot. The bat
| tiers are harder to put out. that's tn
answer. There's lot of good pitch
ing today, but there also is an arm!
of good hitters.
About that mud ball. One of m,
men was at bat with the bases full
and two out. With two strikes on tn
| batter the pitcher halted the game t
| tie his shoe lace. My man knew thi
was stall and he could see things
| too, that some less alert batter Nigh
not have noticed. When the pitche
| stopped over to tie his shoe he place
! the ball right beside his shoe. Under
| meath the ball was a very damp place
| and when he picked up the ball h
! was careful to have a good sized go
| of mud on ii. 1t would have sailed
! plenty, but the batter asked the un
pire to look at it. OF course, tn
pitcher knew he was caught. so h
wiped off the mud and showed it t
| the Jump all O. K. Then the bate
made hit and scored two runs.
would have been a cinch for the pitch
err if he could have thrown it jus
! that once.
| Tomorrow: Managers.