The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1928-05-09
RUTH Sees
SPEED
By Babe Ruth

NEW YORK, May bit
seems to me that the clubs ii
the big leagues at least the
ones the Yankees have played
are paying q lot more atten-
| tion to base running this year
than they have III other sea-
sons. Perhaps / have just hap
pened to see them perform on
their base-running day, but
there certainly has been q lot
of running wild, ais the boys
say.
OF course there is always more
loose base running in the spring
than later on. That's easy to
understand. The boys do their rum
ming before the catcl1ers Whittle
down to shape. Once the catchers.
arms get right, d lot Of the running
will be chopped down.
One OF the things I've noticed
this year and one Of the best things
| for the game ID the tendency Of
runners to take all the ground
possible on hits. BY that I mean
to keep on running and get that
extra base IL possible. That's real
baseball when you do that.
The hitter who Is always
stretching his own singles into
| two baggers and who goes from
first base TO third base ON .
single ii = valuable man 90
have around. More and more
baIl players are trying to. do
that. The result is that both
teams are kept on their toes
every minute.
see the sacrifice played much any
more. In all the games we've
| played thus far for this season 4
| don't believe we used the sacrifice
a half dozen times and It hasn't
than that either. OF course, I'm
| talking about real sacrifices where
the hitter actually lays one down.
| Sacrifice flies don't count-for one
sacrifice fly q man gets his chance
to cut at the ball and has q
fifty-fifty chance Of getting 9 base
hit.
What the clubs are using now,
more and more, is the hit and run.
There's one thing to be said in It's
favor. A hit and run game. II It
works, win score q lot more runs
than q sacrifice game-and rims
are the things that count.
Particularly in this day and age
when a five or six-run lead isn't
safe a minute. This is a smuggling
age, and the pitchers who used to
feel safe with two-run lead, don't
dare let down now even when
they're five or six or seven runs
ahead.
That, By the. way, il the rea.
son why you don't see much OF
the squeeze play aid the double
steel any more. Most managers
particularly those that have
hitting bail clubs, figure that
there's no need taking chance
on having a rally ruined by .
double steel or q squeeze when
the chances are about 8 TO that
they can drive in runs by slug
ging anyhow. ~
OF course, there are a few fellows
around the league who will always
steal bases. Sam Rice over at Wash
ington. Bob Meusel. of the Yankees;
Ty Cobb. Of the Athletics; John Mos
til, of the White Sox; Johnny Ncun.
of the Tigers-~fellows like that can
steal a lot OF bases, and do 1t.
Which reminds me of. Washington
and Bucky Harris bali club. Bucky's
team has had tough break this
year, and they've got away to a
rather bad start. But mark this one
down. When it comes to sheer speed
on the bases there isn't a club in
the league can touch them. They
haven't really a slow man on the
team. Some of those young fellows
like Gillis, Reeves, Hayes and West
can travel like a limited train.
You hear about the Detroit Tigers
being fast and all that-but I'm
willing to make a little bet that,
man, for man, there isn't a team in
eithre league that's as fast as the
Griffmen.
anos A. %Ant.&-