The Washington times., 1936-08-13
Vote Del Baker
Best Coach in
BigLedgues
By FRANK BUCK" O'NEILL


BOSTON, Mass, Aug. 13.-We
were punching the bag in the din
ing car en- route from New York to
this city of culture and Cronin
last night, and of course the topic
was baseball.
Not the casual base hit ana
double play baseball of the fan,
but the inside stuff of the mana
ger, coach and player.
There was a lot of chat about
the most valuable player. but
when the talk veered to the most
valuable man to his team maybe
you'd be surprised at the result
of the poll of we'll qualified judges.
1t was no one in the world but
Del Baker, assistant to Mickey
Cochrane of the Detroit Tigers.
Del Baker was voted the best
coach in the business for lot Of
reasons. In the first place, his
judgment of the throwing PROV
eSS of all enemy outtielderS Is
almost uncanny.
Knows Speed of Men
He knows almost to the split
second the speed of his own men.
1t is true that Detroit runners are
rubbed out on the lines, but it
usually takes real play to bring
about such a result.
Baker knows the weakness of
every pitcher in the game. If a
hurler throws his curve with his
fingers along the seams, Baker
knows that. If he throws his
screw ball off the inside of the
middle finger, Baker knows that,
and he flashes signals to all hit
terS.
Probably the greatest "informa-
ton" hitter of modern baseball is
Hank Greenberg. We mean that
when the coach flashes a sign
that a fast ball is coming, Green
berg is all set, and usually a base
hit results. Something like 80 of
Greenberg's three dozen homers
last year were hit on called
pitches.
There is always the danger that
a coach may be double-croSsed by
a pitcher, and if the batter is not
wary, he may be hit on the head.
Baker is always certain that he
has the right information before
he gives a signal to the hitter.
Baker established a name for
himself down in the Texas League
where he had Greenberg, White,
Fox and several other Tigers. He
gave the signs and the boys belted
the ball.
Chief Bender of the old Ath-
letics, Danny Murphy of the same
team, and Eddie Collins, currently
with the Boston Red Sox, were
noted signal pilferers. Through
their alertness and precise in
formation, the Athletics ruled the
American League.
Our own Bucky Harris is no
green hand at grabbing signs. He
flashed the loWdoWn to Johnny
Stone the other day in New York,
and the left fielder took a toe
hold and hit.
Brown Lost Four
Earl Whitehill was beaten by
the Yankees yesterday. The Yanks
just about own left handlers, and
have won 18 out of % starts against
the southpaWs. Lefty Grove and
Chief Elon Hogsett, the Indian
boy, have an edge on the Yankees
Lloyd Brown lost four and won
none; so did Fred Ostermueller,
Whitehill lost three and won none
against the Rupert Rifles. These
three are pretty good left handlers,
Bump Hadley goes along win
ming for the Yankees and was he
terrible yesterday. He allowed
seven runs, which is not winning
baseball. He was hit 10 times
and gave enough bases on balls
to beat the ordinary pitcher. But
while he was terrible, our pitch
ing as supplied by Whitehill was
worse. sgd Cohen did a nice re-
lief job.
The infield of the Griffs was
terrible, and Kress, hero of the
day before, was bewhiskered goat
in the final battle. He dropped
two throws that would have COM
pleted double plays and reduced
the opportunities of the Yankees.
Carl Reynolds was a leading
actor in the Griff side of the
drama. He got a double; two Of
them, in fact; scored a run, and
drove run home. Now that is a
fair to middlin' day for any
player. Jake Powell hit a home
! run and drew q cheer from the
fans.