Evening star., 1936-03-10

boy train, rain or sunshine, would not
indicate that Linke needs Fall shadows
to fool batters The 25-year Fold Chi
Cago lad is a better looking specimen
of athlete than ever before in his pro-
fessional base ball career. And if it's
Official word on Linke that is wanted,
Manager Bucky Harris is tossing him
orchids
Bucky became justiflably wound up
on Ed yesterday, when the skipper of
the Griffmen ordered pitchers and
catchers to an afternoon workout de-
spite a drizzling rain. IF Linke
doesn't make winning pitcher this
season." commented Harris, then I'm
certainly going to be fooled I'm so
sure I'm not wrong, though, that I'll
predict Linke wins IT or 18 games for
us with any kind of breaks. And by
breaks I mean escaping injury so
that he can take his regular turn"
Bucky's simple direct vote of con-
f1dence in Ed is reason a-plenty to
watch the youngster with the pulse
less right arm. Nor is any disappoint-
III olbC Al IilE All 81 pidkC AIIlhS
is not the pitcher with the Normandie
beam that he was in 1885. Ed took
seriously President Clark Grif1ths
suggestion that he shed weight He
signed a contract stipulating that he
weigh not over 1913 and Linke. at the
present time, hits the scales at 1876.
Shows He Has Stuff.
I'D LOOKS strong with it and his
workouts give every reason to be-
heve that he is better off. In spite of
rain and the difficulty of loosening up
in this currently damp weather Linke
cut loose yesterday His fast ball was
breaking consistently into Sam Hol-
brooks big mitt. He even cut loose
with his first curve balls Of the year,
but best of all was bis knuckler.
Linke~o the only real knuckler
on the Griffs slab staff and his initial
display had Harris all popped up. IT'S
really good" okayed Bucky. The
darn thing comes up to the plate, wa
vers little and suddenly breaks. In
what direction it'll break nobody
knows, least of all the batter"
His knuckler, incidentally, will be
stock delivery in Linke's repertoire
this year. Ed fooled with the shoot
for quite few years and on the few
occasions he tried it in the past with
Washington his effort was received
none too warmly. So Ed stuck to con-
ventional stuff" and failed to achieve
any marked success.
In July, showing only three wins as
against seven losses. Linke was konked
on the bean by liner off Jesse Hills !
bat. He was knocked stiff and out of |
the game for 10 days. When he re-
turned it was with new determine |
ton. He brushed up on his knuckler,
spit on his hands and went to work.
Makes Great Finish.
MIXING the knuckler with his hard !
one and curve, Linke reeled off |
eight consecutive victories, one of !
which was 12-inning victory over
the champion Tigers He was I'M
beatable. In fact, so good did Ed hurl |
that some were inclined to accept his !
feat at its face value Lots of pitch |
ers can win in semi darkness" it was
said.
In Harris the young right -hander
has stanch supporter. "Nuts!" re-
spends Bucky, delving into high-class
language. Hasn't the fellow he's |
pitching against got the same advan-
tage on his side?" And that seems |
to be as good an answer as any.
The most remarkable thing about |
the young man is that his pitching
arm is as dead" as ever. He still has
no pulse beat in the f1ipper that has
confounded leading physicians. But
Linke isn't worried. Only on cold
days does the condition bother him,
and to remedy that Linke is working
on an invention.
When perfected it will be a small
heating arrangement that can be car
ried in his hip pocket so that he can
wrap his fingers around it momentar-
lily and warm them up. He promises
to be a very tough young man to beat
this season.