Evening star., 1939-09-25
The
SPORTLIGHT
Fourth Hit in 10 Tries
Master Baseball Feat


Master BosebuII Feat
BY GRANTLAND RICE,
Special Correspondent Of The star.
NEW YORK, Sept. Is N.ANA).
Major league players who can hit
800 are common, but in the last Is
years or 50 there have been only
five hitters-Ty Cobb, George Sisler,
Rogers Horribly, Harry Heilmann
and Bill Terry-who have achieved
= 400 average over the span of
the season. And did you ever stop
to figure the difference between q
800 and a 400 average? Well. the
answer is one more base hit in
every 10 times at bat.
That's obvious. But-the hitters
hnd-it's as dificult as it is OBJ
vious. Some great hitters, down
through the years, have swung and
swung for that extra hit in every
10 tries and never made it.
Right now Joe Di Maggie is swing
ng for it, and with the short time
remaining at his disposal, it doesn't
look as though he will get it. He
was breezing along just beyond q
400 clip little while ago when he
ran head on into a slump. BY the
time he got out of the slump his
average had dropped to $3.50 or
thereabouts, and he still is trying to
hammer his way back.
The difficulty he is having en-
phasizes the elusiveness of that one
extra hit, because he is unques-
tionably the greatest hitter to come
down the line in years. He has
everything 1t takes to make a hit
ter-eye, Judgment, speed of swing
and power. Nobody likes to pitch
against him, and yet he isn't i'm
mune to slumps that beat his
average down.
Slight Devotion in Form
Is Couse Of Slump.
Why does a good hitter-even a
great hitter-get into a slump?
I've asked the question Of many
Of the best that baseball has known
and got the most plausible an
gwer from Heilmann.
"Your stroke gets off," he said.
Naturally, you can see the ball
as well as ever. but you are do
ing something-your stance is q
little different or q hitch devel-
ops IN your arms or shoulders, per-
haps-but, whatever it is, it throws
your stroke of just enough to make
you pop up or hit the ball into the
dirt instead of on line. You don't
know what it is you're doing, of
course, because if you did you
would stop it instantly. But some
day. the fault works itself out, and
your slump is over.
Cobb's prescription for getting out
OF q slump was based on that
principle.
when was in slump" he said,
II would quit trying for base hits
and just try to hit the ball back to
the pitcher, the idea being merely
to hit the ball straight and, if pos
sible, on q line. And after a day or
%, usually, I would begin to get a
little lift into my swing and would
be driving the ball over the pitchers
head into the outfield"
HitIess Stretch Of Is Times
At Bot Blow to Di Mag
The blow that put deep dent in
O Maggio's hopes of winding up
with 400 average was a stretch of
something like Is hitless times at
bat. That's something a potential
400 hitter scarcely can take at a late
stage of a campaign-and survive.
I was talking to Hornsby once
when he was hammering along at
. 400 pace and he said, 1T looks
IS though III make it this year-if
don't run into another slump"
Il didn't know you had a slump"
I said. 1--we been following you
closely and I don't remember one. 4"
you must have been looking the
other way last week." he said. II
went hitless in six times at bat"
He was dead serious, too. Six
times at bat without hit consti-
euted slump for him. And he was
dead right about 1t. Six hitless trips
to the plate were about all he could
stand at that point in the campaign.
Joe Ambitious for PIoee
Among Small Group.
Di Maggie can miss 400 and still
have great year, of course. Moving
on swiftly, picking up and following
the fastest pace he has known since
he crashed the major leagues, he
Is certain to lead the American
League in hitting. But he wants
very much to get in the small group
that includes his hero and his teacher
Cobb. Many ballplayers have been
influenced by Cobb and have sought
TO do the things that he did in the
way he did them, but don't know
OF any other case in which his in
huence has been exerted to a greater
extent than it has in Di Maggio's.
Cobb, great competitor and an
unrelenting foe on the ball field
never was much of a hand for help
ing other players when he was at
his peak. In his book, they were
fellows to be thwarted and over
come, not helped. He wasn't going
to build anybody up that might
knock him down.
But in .e last years of his active
career he helped-or tried to help
more than one youngster and since
he has been in retirement he has
advised any who asked for his ad-
vice. Most Of those he tried to help
didn't profit greatly by the aid he
offered because they lacked the
application that is necessary for