Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-02-23
WIN, LOSE OR
DRAW ;, FRANCE, ,rApu
'Peetch to the Strength

MIAMI, FEB 2s-Lew Fonseca may not have been the
versatile in baseball but he handy sort
Still is matter Of fact. because longtime boss Of
the major leagues film division he has been turning out
consistently excellent documentaries.
pretty fair ball player, too, in his day He played
first base second and the outed pitched finally
managed White Sox When he hit 1863 for Cleveland in
1929 he was the American Leagues leading batter.
Lew wasn't feeling much like top hitter at the moment
He had just of the Miami Springs Golf Course loser
by and In the National Baseball Golf Tournament to the
highly able amateur Sid Solomon, who is the owner Of
the Miami Martins Of the International League So In the
cleaning, he rested his tired feet and shot the breeze
1.-THE three best htters saw" Lew was saying.
appened to be Rogers Hornsby Harry Heilmann and AL
Simmons. When these three, leave myself open
to charge of favoring rghthanded hitters Maybe do
but let me explain myself"
Al Lopez who manages Cleveland Indians and Jack
RUSSELL ranked with Marberry Of the two
best relief pitchers in the history of the Washington Club
nodded assent.
81 SAW TY COBB and Babe Ruth" Lew began, "and
certainly wouldn't beltte them But when speak Of truly
great hitters I'm talking about fellows who roked that ball
clearly an unbelievable number Of times.
Cobb terrific, question about 1t. But Ty beat
out lot of hits the neld He'd pound ball into the
dirt and OUTRAGE the infeder's throw.
Ruth was powerful that he could half miss pitch
and still hit 1t out of the park All Babe needed to get was
piece of the ball.
"Hornsby, Heilmann and Simmons never had Ruths
power Cobb speed although Hosby fast and
of the I've He received
much credit for his ase-running."
simmons hit me as hard as almost anybody ! can
name" Russell interposed
ppm not saying Hornsby, Helmann and Simmons didn't
have power" Fonseca protested. They all had muscles
What I'm saying that here three fellows who met
pitch more fairly than any htters ever saw"
TT is FoNsEcAs CONTENTION that right-handed
hters deserve credit than brethren who bat left
handed "For two reasons" Lew saying. First the
efthanded hitter step two closer to first base. In
the case OF speed like Cobb and Paul Waner adds
up to several base hits each season
Just as important however is the fact that many
times the opposing first baseman is protecting the bag
He's glued to 1t, trying to hold That leaves
gap open to the efthanded hitter
Fonseca discourse interrupted by the appearance
OF new eavesdropper skinny sun-dried named Paul
Waner. Friend" he murmured to Lew, "you just
pretudiced against left-handed hitters."
Russell, travelling companion and buddy of Waner,
matched drawl for drawl when he said to Paul:
sit down. pal and let the man talk. He's got point.
Lew tell me who the greatest hitter you ever
saw, regardless OF which way he batted?"
"HoRNsBY," CAME FoNsECAs unhesitant reply "He
superb II you will bear with moment I'll tell
you story
81 was playing for Cincinnati . . this was back in the
clubhouse meeting, main idea Of which how to stop
Rogers.
"Adolfo Luque to pitch in the first series and in
broken English, he spoke something to this effect:
'Since weakness, peetch to Hornsbys strength.
geeve to hee the fast ball the needle The outelders
arrange yourselves accordingly.
"our outheld-and played sparsey-played Hornsby
for what he dead hitter The Gin
cinnat outeders humping heads close they
playing. We darned had three center felders.
well, the upshot that Hornsby that must
have hit 80 balls right the in Cincinnati and all
were caught He couldn't have asked for better pitches
Rogers put em out there like from machine think he
hit more than about 2eo in park"
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