The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1951-05-03

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have shown a crowd pleasing brand
of baseball, to say nothing of being,
in my opinion, the best trained club
IN the league. While it is true that
it has been a little cool in the eve
nings, it isn't one bit cooler than it
was when the season opened last
year and the crowds were more than
double those present at the four
games that have been played here
this year since the opening night
Owner Gene Raney and manager
Dutch" Dorman have done, and
will continue to do, everything in
their power to give Hagerstown a
winning ball club and, as was prov
en- last year, Mr.. Raney won't hest
tate to spend his money to get re-
placements whenever his manager
tells him they are needed. So~lets
all get behind the team 100 per cent
and turn out for all the home games.
$50
One of the things I never can
understand is why so many baseball
fans alibi for a losing pitcher by
claiming that errors made by his
teammates got him ratified.
In my book that is just lot of
nonsense. To begin with, the object
of every pitcher should be the win
ming of his ball game and instead of
errors getting him ratified, they
should make him bear down all the
harder, so that the errors will not
be too costly. Also, any pitcher
worth his salt knows full well that
as long as baseball is played there
will always be errors, and it should
also be mentioned that errors are
often made by the players who are
hustling the most, for it is often the
anxiety to make a play that causes
the errors to be charged against
them.
A pitcher who blows up because
of errors should quit pitching, be-
cause he doesn't have the stuff that
good pitchers are made of.
Talking about pitchers, the big
gest disappointment of the Braves
so far, is the failure of Charlie Miller
in the role of relief pitcher. He has
failed to come through in the two
games in which he has appeared.
noticed, however, that in batting
practice on Monday he was throwing
the ball harder than I have seen
him throw since the season started,
SO here's hoping that he will soon be
showing the stuff that he is capable
of, for good relief pitcher is one
of the most vital men on any team.
1t was good to see the vast i'm
provement of Bob Fitzgerald, the
Braves catcher, in Monday nights
game against Harrisburg.
In his earlier games he handled
his pitchers the same way, whether
it was tight ball game or whether
his team was away out in front. This
was particularly noticeable in the
game against Sunbury on Friday
night, when Andy Bush was coast
ing along on a 90 lead
You can readily see the work of
manager Dutch" Dorman in teach
ing the youngster the value of watch
ing the score when handling pitch
ers. Now if Dutch can just teach
him to get up out of his crouch in a
hurry when men are on base, so that
he can take a step forward before
making his throw, it will be another
''step' in the right direction Unless
he learns this quickly it won't be
long before the opposing teams will
be stealing on him at will. The
youngster may not have the best
arm in the world, but he certainly
has better chance of throwing his
man out at second when he is poised
for the throw.
Even in the old days there were
not many catchers who could whip
a ball down to second from the
crouch. In fact, the only two that
come to my mind right now are Lom-
bardi and Hartnett
And talking about Fitzgerald while
he was slow in getting started on
one foul fly on Monday night that
fell in front of him, he made up for
it in the ninth inning when he made
a sensational catch of foul fly off
the bat of Broukal crashing into the
wire and being almost stunned, but
hanging onto the ball for the out.
He followed that up in the bottom
half, when his single started the
ninth-inning rally that won the
game