The Washington times., 1935-10-30

HtBeStin
Pinches
By FRANK BUCK ONEILL

BY FRANK BUCK ONEILL
The very veracious Navajo In.
dian, Chief Najos, who spent his
summers playing baseball and his
winters waiting for summer to
roll around, once uttered q very
great truth. Now that Is not to
say that the very veracious Ma
vajo told only one truth in his
whole life, but this one stood out.
He returned to the San Antonio
bench one warm spring day not
long ago and said:
Baseball nice game, but very
silly. Spend all day chasing ball
Then throw him away quick"
If Chief Najos had possessed
the language Of the pale face he
might have said that baseball Is
paradoxical. Scouts spend their
life looking for pitchers to fool
the batters, and at the same
time they are always looking for
the batter who can't be fooled.
The latest official figures re-
leased by Henry Edwards, di-
rector Of public relations in the
American League, show that still
another paradox has crept into
the game. For managers met
with greatest success in emer-
gencieS by sending pitchers whom
they hired to fool batters, to the
plate to hit against pitchers who
were hired by some one else to
fool the batters.
Three Pitchers Best
This is all very involved, but
we will clear UP the situation i'm
mediately and state boldly that
the best pinch hitters in the
American League were three
pitchers.
They were Ralph Winegarner
Of the Cleveland Indians, wesley
Ferrell Of the Boston Red Sox
and Charley THE Red" Ruff
ing Of the New York Yankees.
This rating is based upon runs
produced in a crisis and the real
function of the pinch hitter Is to
crack those runs over the plate.
Winegarner, Of the Indians,
acted as pinch hitter IS times
and made eight hits. He also
drove in eight runs, for a batting
average and a run producing
average Of 800, which is tops.
Wesley Ferrell was rushed into
action 80 times and drove in eight
runs for a percentage of .267.
Charley Ruffing drove in four
runs in II times at bat, a run pro-
ducing percentage Of .235.
Drives In Winning Runs
Ferrell drove in the winning
runs four times while acting as q
pinch hitter. Incidentally, five
Of the IL games won by Boston
pinch hitters allowed Bob Grove
to chalk up victories.
Naturally, batting averages
and run producing averages
vary. Take the case Of Freddie
Sington for example. Sington
made one hit in 10 times at bat,
but he drove in three runs. His
batting average was 100 but his
run producing percentage was
.333.. In the usual method Of
rating batters-which Chief Najos
said was very silly" Sington
would have been considered q
success if he had hit 1888 even
at the rate Of producing one run
in 10 times up. Club owners
very often are dumb.
Two pinch-hitters in the list
submitted by Henry Edwards made
more than 10 hits. Bing Miller
cracked out 13 safetieS in As times
at bat. His hitting average was
.289. He drove in nine runs for
a clean 200 in run production.
Shy in Runs
George Washington, Of the Chi.
cago White Sox, made 10 hits in
20 times at bat to hit .345 in the
pincheS. But in getting runs over
the plate his 20 trips to the plate
got him an average Of .103.
Gerald Walker, who may come
to this city next year, compiled
the best average. He made six
hits in 13 times at bat. But he
drove in just one run.
Having noted the effectiveness
of Fred Sington in driving in
driving in runs on a very anemic
average, let us consider the pinch
| hitterS of the Nationals az a
group. There were four of them
who were at bat 10 times or
more-Miles, Schultz. KresS and
Sington. In 81 attempts they pro-
| d,1rAd eight r1IoS a T1errAntaUa NJ