Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-06
GAIN IN STRENGTH
. SHOWN BY FIGURES
Some 400 Fewer Hits Made
in August Than July in
Each Major League.
BY JOHN B. FOSTER.

n T EW YORK, September Gas
the big league teams 20 down
the September stretch, an i'm
4 Y proved brand of pitching is
being witnessed on most Of the
outfits.
Pitchers get better as the season goes
on. If they failed to do so. the end
of major league race would be more
uninteresting than it is apt to be when
the championship is won by Labor day.
This season the pitchers get the bet
August. That is, the total number of
single hits made in the National
League was about 400 fewer in four
weeks of August than it was in July.
The American League will run about
the same because individual per-
formances in each of the leagues are
close to par, except in the case Of
Babe Ruth with his home-run record,
which is stupendous record. It can't
be called freak record because Ruth
adds to it right along from one season
to another and will continue to do 80
until he has lost out physically.
Typical Of Other Years.
This matter of batting also was taken
up in other years to try to strike some
figure that would show the natural
Gkcuu VI nic P4UCIeIS 10 improve 1dCS
in the season, and 1t runs pretty much
the same. The total of 400 hits, which
fell OF In August from the July figure,
amounted to less than one-third Of all
the hits of the period.
For instance, from July 4 to August
!, the total number of hits made by the
National League was 1,746 and in the
next four weeks in August, the total
number of hits made by the National
League was 1919. There were exactly
427 fewer hits batted by National
League batters as the season was wan
ing. This proves that the pitchers do
increase in strength and the batters
fail as the game of base ball extends
from Spring to Summer and from
Summer to Autumn.
That seems to indicate that the pitch
er Yields stronger influence in the
game than does the batter, and that
is true. Hence, experienced managers
always are making any predictions that
they have to make on the basis of good
pitching. There are number of them
who repeat over and over, "Give me the
pitching and my team can take care
of the rest of it." Sometimes that is
true; sometimes it isn't.
The better batters as a rule should
be expected to get on we'll in the Spring,
while the mushroom batters will do
pitchers get better. The substantial
batters who are batters by nature and
not by growth will settle into steady
pace in which they will improve
gradually.
Despite all the talk about a lively
ball and so on, it seems quite evident
that the pitchers of 1929 have been
holding their own against the batters.
Pitchers have been doing that sort of
thing since the beginning of base ball.
Now and then there is a temporary
triumph on the part of the batter, but
in the long run the pitcher gains the
ascendancy. If the pitcher were al
lowed more freedom by any change in
the rules he would dominate the batter
in two years more thoroughly than he
does at present.
The number of expert pitchers and
the number of expert batters runs about
the same, but the number of good
batters is much larger than the total
of good pitchers.