Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-03

81 q g. = 50
tinued. eft may sound funny, but this
natural to me after few days.
while working out with a catcher
one day, I noticed that the ball would
drop or sink when 1t reached q certain
point near the plate The catcher
noticed it, too, and asked me il could
throw that kind of ball regularly, so
/ convinced him of the fact by throw
ing sinker after sinker. The catcher
became very enthusiastic and told me
that had developed the same kind Of
sinker ball which carried Carl Mays
and wiley Moore to fame in the big
show.
Became Regular First Year.
"I practiced faithfully in the art Of
throwing underhaud during my stay
with the Des Moines team and by the
time we broke camp, had virtually
perfected that style of throwing Des
Moines farmed me out to the Burlington
club of the Mississippi Valley League.
and became one Of that teams regu-
lar pitchers. My peculiar style OF
throwing Melted me nine victories and
eight defeats in 1927.
tI worked out in the bull pen morn
ings with a catcher while at Burlington
and perfected my new style Of tossing
the ball. Having gotten that sinker so
that could control it, I then began
working ON a raise bali. No matter
how hard I tried to make the ball raise
when throwing underhand It would
sink as it reached the batter, so de-
cided to throw the raise ball with a
side arm motion and found that could
accomplish the trick very nicely as well
Us effectively.
Having two styles of delivery makes
1t easy for me to cross up the batters,
for when they think am going to give
them the sinker I shoot a raise ball at
them and vice versa. I start each
style with the same motion and grip
the bail in the same way so that the
batter and the coach cannot detect
what am going to do. In fact, grip
the ball the same way for curve. too,
all of which gives me decided ad-
vantage over the batter.
Worked to Better Control.
when I learned that was sold to
the Minneapolis club at the close of
the Mississippi Valley League realized
that would have to perfect my control
to get by in class IA company, SO I
did lot of practicing during the Fall
figure of a batter on the side Of my
fathers barn and pitched to that
figure every day when, weather would
permit. I also had some of the young
fellows of the town bat against me SO
that would have live target to shoot
at The best way to gain control Is to
pitch to bGtters every day, and that is
what have made it a point to do.
Il have decided to make base ball my
profession and intend making every
effort to succeed in it."
Llska will be % years old on July 10
next. He stands S feet 91a inches and
weighs 1855 pounds. This will be his
third year in professional base ball, his
first experience being with Burlington
in 1927.
He was born of Bohemian-Am
parents at Dwight, Nebr., on July 10
1907. His full name is Adolph James
Liska.
Liska began playing base ball while
attending grade school in his home
town. made" the high school team in
his freshman year and played with II
fer four years. His early ambition was
to be a shortstop and he played at
that position until his senior year, when
the schools regular pitcher hurt his
arm and the coach prevailed upon
young Liska to try his hand at pitch
ing. He showed SO much natural stuff
that the coach encouraged him to stick
to pitching.
Mike Kelley was impressed with Liska
from the first few days that he was
used in the Minneapolis teams train
ing camp at San Antonio, Tex, last
Spring. He was used in number OF
exhibition games, including those with
the Detroit Tigers. and fooled Datroit's
batters as we'll as those of various clubs
in the Texas League with his banning
delivery.