The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1938-09-15
Sad Case of Dir

DlZZy Lean arm is apparently
gone. He can't throw a ball over
hand without wincing and his speed
is only a memory. He has been of
practically no use to the Chicago
Cubs this year. Rest may eventual
ly restore some of the cunning, but
meanwhile Owner Wrigley can ru-
inmate about the $3.50 he paid
st. Louis for Dean.
Bill Dietrich, who pitched a no
hit game for the Chicago White Sox
last year and his colleague Clint
Brown, who specializes in able re-
lief pitching, have been out of uni
form since early in the season be-
cause of arm trouble.
Bobby Teller, Monte Stratton, Tex
Carleton, Johnny Allen, Van Lingle
Mungo and Charley Rufing are 9TH
er mound notables who have been
plagued off and on by sore arms.
Down in the minors Paul Dean and
Schoolboy Rowe-youngster burned
out long before their time-are try
ing pitching comeback that is
still big question mark.
What is the reason for this pitch
ing situation?
There are a variety of answers,
but if you sum them all up, you'll
find the trouble is due to an &C
emulation of restrictions that have
stacked the cards against the pitch
ers. 1t all goes back to the days
when Babe Ruth started making
home runs stylish and the game was
remade into sluggers' free-for-all.
Particularly is this the case in
the American league. The notable
example is the New York Yankees
who have overpowered all rivals.
First there was the lively ball.
Baseball bigwigs introduced it to
encourage hitting. Then they be-
gan to put one restriction after an
other on pitchers. They prohibited
the spitball that had brought i'm
mortality to such Old-timers as Ed
Walsh, Red Faber, Urban Shocker
and Burleigh Grimes. They made
other trick deliveries illegal.
In the old days an entire ball
game would be played with as few as
half dozen balls. Now it takes at
least so. New balls are always in
play and because of their shiny
smoothness they are hard for pitch
ers to put any stuff on. Formerly
if a ball was Slightly scuffed, it
wasn't thrown out of play. This
gave pitcher chance to get by.
The lively ball makes the modern
pitcher work much harder than his
predecessor. Anybody, pitchers in
Guided, is likely to smack one. For
merly the pitcher could work on the
great hitters and take things easier
when the chumps came up. Now he
has to bear down on the chumps, for
the poorest hitter is apt to drive the
lively ball out of the park. So the
pitcher hasn't chance for breath
ing spell. His arm is overworked
under the constant strain.
Modern training trip schemes now
work an unnecessary hardship on
the pitcher. Years ago big league
teams didn't meet until the season
opened. The exhibition games were
played solely against minor league
outfits and pitchers could take their
time rounding into form. Now there
are exhibition games between ma
jOr league teams almost as soon
as the training season opens. Pitch
ers have to face tough batters right
away. Their arms aren't ready and
soreness can easily develop. They
want to win and they bear down be-
fore they should. 1t is quite posi-
BILE that injuries that pop up sud-
denly during the regular season
have their origin in just such games.
When the National league an
nounced last winter that it had
adopted deader ball for the 1888
season many fans hailed it as the
beginning of organized baseball's
return to normal basis. But
somewhere along the line there was
a hitch. The experience of this sea-
son has indicated that the new Ma
tional league ball is practically
the same as the one formerly used.
AT least such conclusion is sug-
gested by the hitting in the two
leagues and hitting is the only basis
for comparison.