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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (July 31, 1910)
THE SUNDAY OEEGOXIAX. PORTLAND, JULY 31.- 1910. SECOND 3 . i . : inside May of M League Base Ball i j BATTING - I BA.TT1NG iB the aggressive part of the same: the true test of the nerve, courage and eye-speed of the players, and the chief center of interest In every contest. The importance of batting has, it is true; been largely overestimated, and few even of the managers and owners who have sousht in every part of the coun try for that rarest of players the ".300 hitter," realize the change that has come over batting in the last decade. The veterans who lament the passing of the sluggers of the "good old days," the old timer who recalls times when six .300 batters played on one team, and the stu dent who looks back over the records of the mighty men of the ash, all have the Idea that present-day batters are Inferior to the old-time sluggers. They misled by figures. The batters of the modern same are better hitters, more scientific, and more effectivo than those of 20 or 3 0 years ago. A close analysis of batsmen, their lifts, and the results of their hits, will prove the point. If further proof is needed it is to be found in the strange acts of managers- who, after scouring the country to find a .300 hitter, handicap him, restrain his batting, make a .250 Mtter of him, aud then consider him a better batter than when, perhaps, he batted .:25. The fact is, the hatters of today are moro scientific and resourceful, know more about handling bats, and better how to attack the weak points, than their predecessors did. The difference Is the same as that between the slug K"h"ig fighter, who rushed and pounded iown his man by sheer strength, and the skillful boxer who, with one well directed blow, ends the battle. The reasons for the decline of the overages of safe hits and the number ol long him are varied. The pitching, it is, known, has improved steadily and rap idly, the defensive work of teams has been perfected until only a combination .of terrific hitting power, skill, and luck will make any batter a .300 hitter. There were great pitchers in the old days, Oarkson, Keefo, Nat Hudson, Rusie, Ram-ey, n host of them, but the general average of pitching was lower. Every team now has six or seven high-class pitchers, where the old clubs had one jreod, perhaps, and three weak twlrlers. 3it the pitching itself is not the chief ause of the general decrease of batting, BS will be shown. Freouentty batters who slaughter the 11 in the minor league, and hit any (kind of pitching, fail utterly when drafted Into the major leagues. Many followers of the sport imagine that the reason for this faJlure is to be found in the superi ority of the major league pitchers, which Is wrong. These men would hit in the major leagues, and hit hard, perhaps as hard as in the minors. If allowed to hit with the samo freedom. There are, in the major leagues, many batters who could not hit In the minor leagues at all. The reason for both is found in team work, which is the chief cause of the decline in batting. Some batters are adapted to the system, others are not. In the perfected teamwork of the major league batters must hit to advance run ners and score runs rather than to get base hits. They are compelled to permit the kind of ball they can hit to cut the plate unmolested and then hit at one WJilcVi. perhaps, they are lucky to touch. Resides, many times they are ordered to watt and not to hit at all. in order to allow the pitcher to weary himself. A few years ago the Chicago club purchased a player late in the season wtio was one of the great batters of the American Association. His hitting helped the team to win the pennant, yet Chance released him without even bringing him to llhicago to play the final games. The vet surprised the followers of the Cubs and someone asked Chance why the man was released. "First ball hitter." ex rplalned Chance loquaciously (for him). Chance was right. .The player - was worthless as a team hitter, but if per tained to bit the first ball pitched to him lie batted heavily and if he could have been the first man up hr every -Innhig ho probably would have led the league In hitting. The reason for the improvement in tw-.lentifio batting lies in practice, and the amount of batting practice Indulged 4n during the season is astonishing. It Is the one thing about the game of which the players nevr tire. Morning, after noon and evening from March 1 until far into October players bat as long as any one will pitch to them, and on November 1 the bat feels as good in their hands when it meets a ball squarely as it 'id the day spring training started. The flnst thing in the spring is the selection of bats and when the season closes the players still are sawing up disgraced oats and buying new ones. Bats get to le a mania with some. Roger Connor Used to oil. polish and rub down his sub stitute bats every night and hang them rrom his window, while he took his favorite to bed with him. There was a bat in the Boston club In 1909 which became famous. It be longed to Gessler, and a scorer one dav Jestingly marked upon It the symbols meaning a two base hit and a single. Hessler happened to make a double and a. single that afternoon, and the plavers warmed upon the scorer pleading with Mm to mark hits into the bat. He narked it full of hits: the lied Sox be- rran a wonderful hitting spurt, all ising the same bat. and before long the ?corer was claiming part of the credit or thelv winning streak. Before the reason ended Gessler hardly would have traded the bat for its weight in gold. "Evelyn" the famous bat with which Isbell. of the Chicago "White Sox. made four two base hits in one game and won the World's Championship for his team, "Big Betsy," Kd Delehantv's fa tuous war club, "Nellie," used by Pchulte, and a dozen other bats have become well known through being the favorites of good hitters and used by them during batting streaks. There is a player on the Brooklyn club who has an odd habit of using in Jrractico the bat he intends to use In game to "fill it up with base hits." He tries bat arter bat during practice. nd If he happens to hit well with one. sret "two or three hits into it," he uses ' that one during the game to get the hits out again. The eagerness with which the bat ting practice is Indulged in often is laughable, one evening two members of the Cleveland club broke training and returned to the hotel at 2 A. M.. feeling jolly. They reached their own tloor in the hotel without being caught by the manager and went to the room of a player who is a wonderful hitter. Banging on his door they urged him to met up.'. "What do you want?" growled the awakened slugger. "Oet up, we're going to have batting practice," replied one of the jokers who knew the weakness of the inmate of the room. There in a minute," responded the player, and as they heard him scram ble from bed the jokers fled. Ten min utes later the night clerk was startled to see the great player enter the lobby In his uniform, carrying his two favor . ita bats.- boc lld iio sea JLha iok.e until By John.-J. Ever the clerk pointed into the darkness out side. In the early days of the game bat ting practice was neglected. The heavy hitters practiced, but there was no sys tem to their work, and very little time or thought was given to the scientific hitting, except by a few men who realized the possibilities of play. "Dickey" Pearce invented the bunt and the "fair foul" hit in 1S66, but gen erations passed before the bunt was used intelligently by all classes of players. Indeed it -was the theory of players, as It now is with many follow ers of the game, that "place hitting" was more or less of a myth. In fact it has been within the last decade that even the major league players have made intelligent efforts towards per fecting place hitting, and their successes in that line have been wonderful. Man agers began to realize that the attacks could be directed at the vital snots of defending teams, and the attack has steadily become more resourceful, bet ter calculated to bring results, and more adapted to cope with the im proved pitching. Especially iias it been made necessary in order to break up defensive team work. Whether the modem game of "push, poke, shove and chop" is better than the old "swing and kill it" style may be judged by a comparison. The Phila delphia club from 1894 to 1S98 always had from five to seven .300 hitters in the game. In one game in 1S97 there were nine .300 batters. Yet the team never won a pennant. The games were spectacular, but even when hitting hardest it was a bad hitting ball club. The Chicago White Sox, "the Hitless Wonders," won the World's Cham pionship in 1906 when ranking almost last in batting in the American League. The team excelled any team ever or ganized in concentrating every move toward making runs, one at a time, and while nearly weakest in batting, scored the greatest average number of runs per hit of any club in the history of the game. There is a wida deference of opinion among players themelves as to " the placing of balls hit hard, but the fact remains that some players can do it by holding their bats at certain angles, and the increase in skill In the last five years has been great. None denies that balls can be poked, or pushed easily in & given direction. Many of the old timers were skilful in "pulling" the ball foul in order to wear down pitchers, and by hitting late in fouling on. The skill of batters in that direction increased through steady practice until McGraw, Keeler, Roy Thomas, Single and others could prolong the games Indefinitely and tire out any pitcher. . The rule makers promptly legislated against foul balls, and opened the new era of batting science. Their object was ' to hurry the game and avoid unnecessary delays, and they thought that batters penalized one strike for a foul, would hit. harder, and oftener. The players discovered, however, that hard driving did not pay against improved infield work, and that the new rule aided both the pitchers and Holders when the ball was hit hard, as it went too straight towards second base, and allowed the in field to concentrate their defense. One of the first results of the new" rule was the increase in bunting, with variations tend ing to upset the infield. The "force bunt" was brought into prominence by little Butler, of Columbus, who afterward blew one hand off with a fire cracker and retired. He pushod the ball slowly down the infield, striving to make it roll fast enough to paf the pitcher either to his right or left, yet so slowly that the short stop or second baseman, playing deep, would have to take it while sprinting forward at top speed and make a perfect throw. . Th gain by the play was not to the batting averages. It did not -produce many safe hits, but it was produc tive of wild throws, and fumbles, and it at once became popular as a method of destroying- infteld -team -work-and. break ing tip games. The Chicago Cubs used the force bunt during all their championship term, push ing the ball. Instead of bunting it dead, a short distance in front of the plate. Their success with the ball was marvelous-. In the fourth game of the world's cham pionship series in 1907 at Detroit, Sheckard pushed a force bunt past Donovan in the critical moment of the game, and before the panic in the Tiger ranks ended, Chi cago had made three runs as- a result of the bunt, and won easily thereafter, 6 to 1. In one game at Philadelphia in 190S Tinker made the bunt with two men on bases, pushing a slow roller toward shortstop. Doolan was running to cover second base and the ball rolled clear onto the grass behind shortstop. Tinker taking two bases. Men of the type of Speaker, Cobb, Clarke, left-handed batters, and occasi onally a right-hander, Leach for instance, use the force bunt with great effect. During the seasons of 1906 and 1907 Sheckard, of Chicago, used a bluff bunt which worked with great success. He bunted at the first ball pitched to him. and purposely missed it. Then he bluffed that he Intended bunting again and. as the third baseman tore forward, Sheckard poked the ball over his head. Leach, in the world's series of 1909, beat Detroit two games by the same play. Three times he drew Moriority forward to field expected bunts and then drove the ball past him life a rifle shot. Beaumont, a veteran of many teams, has for years been regarded as one of the most danger ous place hitters, either when hitting the ball hard or when pushing it on a short line fly over fielders coming forward. In the hit and run game his batting was re markable, for whichever fielder the run ners managed to draw away from position it was almost certain Beaumont would hit through the deserted post. "Calling the turn" is a style of batting employed by some batsmen in trying to outguess the opposing pitcher. It means striving to guess what kind of a ball is about to be delive'red. This style, while effective, is extremely dangerous for the batter, as to guess wrong Is to court serious injury. In one game at Cincin nati a few years ago, Ooakley pitching. McGann tried to outguess him. He guessed a curve was coming, and h's wrist was broken by a fast inshoot- Two innings later Bresnahan guessed wrong and was knocked senseless. There are times when a play comes up to a batsman which compels Mm to try to outguess the pitcher. One of these times is when the hit and run play is ordered. With a runner on first or sec ond base, and the batter giving the signal, he is compelled to attempt to guess when the pitcher will put the ball over the plate. He guesses, signals the runner, who is expected to start as If to steal the next base in order to draw one or more lnfteldors out of position, and strives to hit through the deserted place. If the batter's guess is wrong, the runner is the victim. Selee. when manager of the Cubs, once secured a player from the Coast League who was reputed to be a wonderful bat ter, who had hit over .400 in his league and could call the turn every time. Selee tried him in right field against Boston, and Vic" "Willis, one of the best "guess ers" in the business and a pitcher with a marvelous curve, both slow and fact, was on the slab. The recruit struck out lour -times -and. when, .he returned ta h& s, King of Second Basemen, and Hugk S. Fullerton, Urm-t and third be (nroove. TKe infteld " C Spots Ja -vrstca Irants are normally al. D . The home-ran "KToves. E Territory upon which arrounders onght to he fielded. bench a,fter th fourth effort some of the players sympathized with him. "Touffh to start against Willis," re marked one. "Yes, and I'm cailinR the turn every time, too." mourned the recruit. "Well, old boy." said Chance, "I'd Tike to watch you when you weren't." But not all of batting is hitting the ball. There i method in the jockeying of the batter. The moment a batter steps to the plate with the bases clear, the game becomes a duel between him and the pitcher, and although the crowd may be, calling for him to hit, his intention may be not. to hit until compelled so to do. His fir?-t effort is to "get the pitcher in the hole, that is, make him pitch enough balls po the batter can be certain the next one. will be over the plate. For. If the, batter knows the ball is coming straight the chances of making a base hit are, doubled. Then too. the batter may be under orders to follow out a manager's plan of battle, fre quently a manager, feeling certain the game will be close, orders hi men to wait. The waiting may be either to dis cover whether the pitcher is likely to be come wild, or to wear him out. Each batter then, instead of hitting, tries to make the pitcher throw as many balls as possible. If a batter can get three balls, foul off three, and then strike out, he may have accomplished far more toward the final result than he would have done had he made a base hit off the first ball pitched. The average number of balls pitched by one pdtcher in a, game of nine innings will run about 125. and every ad ditional ball pitched wearies the pitcher. Many "ninth . inning rallies" by which spectacular games are won, are tbc re sults of the waiting of the batters who struck out during the early innings. Chance Is a great believer in the wait ing game, and insists upon his men try ing out pitchers during the early Innings of games, especially new and unfamiliar pitchers, believing that what each man discovers, will help the succeeding bat ters. The practice of getting to first base by allowing the pitched ball to hit them, is more general with batters than usually is supposed. It is not indulged in as ex tensively as in former years, when "Red" Galvln used to allow the ball to carom off his head in order to reach first, but it still is used extensively, despite rules forbidding umpires to allow batters to take first when puvrposely hit. There is scarcely an important game between con tenders for pennant honors, in which a dozen batters do not strive to make the ball hit them. Batters who Vcrowd the plate" usually are good hitters. They have the courage to risk injury, the nerve to allow the ball to hit them, and the advantage in getting decisions because, knowing they crowd the plate habitually, the umpires decide that they tried to escape. Besides pitchers will pitch outride to "them stead ily through anxiety to avoid hitting them, if tbey know the men will let the ball break a rib in. order to reach first. The actual gain through allowing the ball to bit him is not so much for a player's team as the moral effect upon the defending club. Nothing in baseball is so calculated to discourage a team, or destroy its confidence in a pitcher as to have him hit a batter in a crisis in the game. Scores of batters each season make the ball hit them, ana take first in spite of the rules. The umpires must judge from the actions of the men whether they tried to avoid the ball, and in most cases any contortion q the arms is construed as such an effort, especially when there is a large home crowd on the field. In the season of 1908. during the fierce strug gles of New York, Chicago and Pittsburg for the pennant. New York won three games from Chicago because players al lowed themselves to be hit, and they came near winning the game in which they played off tne tie by the same method the second batter up throwing his arms across the plate and making the ball hit him. M co-raw's verbal orders to players to get hit were audible in the stands, and in one game Doyle made three attempts to get hit before he suc ceeded and then was allowed to walk. Umpire O'Day unmasked one trick on the Polo grounds that same season which was laughable. Bresnahan was batting 'and, while wiggling a la Salome he kept pushing his knees out toward the bail. OTay stopped the game, ordered Bresna han to adjust his clothing. Bresnahan argued, but O'Day made him obey, while the crowd roared, at the umpire. Bresna han had stuffed his shirt front out six inches and inflated his trouser legs three inches in order to give the bail more sur face to hit. Such tricks, however, are outside the real sphere of baseball and are the final resorts of desperate men in dsperate sit uations. Only a quick eye. long practice, courage and accurate swinging of second growth ash will win steadily. Base-Running A 'LAYER who can run 50 yards in six seconds ought, with a lead of eight feet off first base, run to second base, S2 feet away, in three and one-half seconds. A pitched ball will travel from the pitch er slab S feet to the catcher's glove (fast ball with, catcher standing nine feet back of the plate, timed from the start of the pitcheri's motion), in seven-eighths of a. second. The catcher, if he handles the pitch perfectly and sets the ball away faet. will start th& bail towards second t I? v V H .V ' 1 ' ' in one and a quarter seconds after it hits his hand and his throw from nine feet back of the plate, if perfect, ought to reach the second baseman in one second, and be caught and the ball be ready to apply to the runner in one-quarter of a. second additional. Perfectly handled in that time the ball ought to beat the run ner to second base by from one-eighth to one-quarter of a second, or by from 3 1-S to 6 feet and result in an eay out. The calculations are based on the pitch er holding the runner within eight feet of first base and preventing a flying start, upon perfect hajidling of the ball, and upon the throw being "on the run ner" at second. Hours spent in snapping split second watches have proved that every base run ner, if properly held up sit first base, ought to be caught stealing second base. Yet the same timing proves that not one pitched ball in 10. during actual play, is pitched, relayed by the catcher and handled by a second baseman in three seconds: and. while figures based on perfect play prove one thing, actual timing indicates that 62 (plus) out of IftO runners ought to reach second base if they can start and run S2 feet in 3 seconds. Shortening the catcher's throw to approximately 33 feet and flg-uring that the runner can gain 15 to IS feet run ning start Instead of eight feet as at first base, and calculating on perfect playing in average time, a man who can run 90 feet In 4 seconds (including start) ought to beat the ball to third base by nine inches in every attempt perfectly made. These are mathematical facts. Now for actual conditions as proved by what has been done. In one season 1S9) a complete record was kept of Lange's base running. He stole ex actly 100 bases, stealing second base 68 times, third 31 and home once. Eliminating hit-and-run plays entirely, or steals spoiled by hits, he made 141 efforts to steal, and was successful 'in 100. or about 70.2 per cent of his trials. The returns (unofficial) for the season of 1909 show that Ty Cobb stole 76 bases out of 105 attempts, or 72.4 per cent. While Cobb's total attempts are unofficial, they are close enough to show that the first-class base-runners succeed in about seven out of- 10 ef forts to steal second. The figures really reveal more than that. They show that, while the runners steal only about 61 out of every 100 times they try for second base. they succeed nearly eight of 10 (78 plus out of 100) times they start for third. The conclusion is clear that the pitchers do not hold up runners closely; that the ball is pitched wide a large percentage of times, and that the catcher, for various reasons, is lucky to handle the ball perfectly three times in 10 in actual play. If further proof is needed, here It is: Lee Tannehill, one of the slowest runners In the American League, In 1909 stole 12 bases out of 19 attempts, two of which were palpable failures of batters to hit on hit-and-run signals. Even at that, he stole over 63 per cent of the bases for which he tried. With these facts In view, the insistent query of baseball lovers, "Why doesn't he steal?" becomes pertinent. ... The truth is that base-running is fast becoming one of the lost arts of baseball. There is no possible doubt but that there are men today who could steal as many ' bases as Hamilton, Lange, Mike Kelly or any of the old time star runners if they played the game the same way. There is not the slightest doubt but that Cobb today is as good a man as Hamilton, Lange, Keeler or Harry Stovey; tnat Chance, Fred Clarke, Wagner, Bush or Collins could run bases with the best of the old-timers. Vet storey stole 156 bases one season. Hamilton 115 in one year, 102 another and nearly 100 two other seasons, while Cobb stole 76 during 1909 and -was"" considered wonderful. There are reasons for the elimination of base stealing from the run-getting tactics of modern teams; more reasons than one. In the old days the motto of every manager was "run and keep running; make the other fellow throw." It was a. baseball adage in those times that any team that could keep the op posing team throwing the ball around would win. As a matter of fact, the modern manager recognizes the same thing. He knows that if he can make the other team throw. It is only a ques tion of time until they throw away the game. Why. then, does he not carry out his theory? The first and greatest cause for the degeneration of the art of "sprinting and hitting the dirt" is that in modern baseball, more and more every year, individual effort is being sacrificed to team work. Team work, in many re spects, lias been overdone, and there are scores of players today who will not do anything on their own initiative or attempt a steal unless signaled so to do from the bench or by the batter. The modern ballplayer has been so trained to team work that only a few with brain and daring pull off te brilliant individual feats that are nec essary to win pennants, no matter how much team work there is. A player reaches first base, looks at the batter for "a hit-and-run signa.1, looks toward the third-base coacher to see if a signal to steal has been flashed from the bench, takes his lead, watches the batter, and anchors himself. Two .balls and-oo strikes are pitched; no. looks again for the signals. Falling to get them, he knows the batter Is go ing to take a. strike, and anchors him self again afraid to risk the displeas ure of the manager by stealing. Even should the pitcher carelessly permit him to get a big running start, he trots back to first base, perhaps slides back as hard as he would have had to slide to second. He catches a hit-and run signal on the next ball, takes his lead, gets his start- The pitcher and catcher know as well as he does that the stage of the game calls for an at tempt to run and hit; the pitcher pitches fast and out: the catcher takes the ball perfectly, throws, and even if the runner is a speedy man he is out by at least three feet. The pitcher and catcher did the thinking, the base runner used stereotypec". "team ball' and was caught. Another cause for the decline in base running is the rast Improvement of pitchers in watching bases. The aver age pitcher of today holds the runners to the bases much more carefullv than did those of 15 years ago. There are exceptions on both sides. Kllroy. Grlf- run. j-iJay, Red Ehret, Brletensteln and others of the old school held them close. while today there are some who allow a running start. The balk rule handi caps the modern pitcher somewhat, but the chief improvement In watching run ners is the result of constant training and practicing. Still there are few pitchers who do not give the -runner at . least one good chance to steal. At least once in every five pitched balls, no matter how close ly a pitcher may watch, his mind is diverted and he leaves an opening which a quick-thinking runner may use to gain a flying start. The hit-and-run and the bunt-and-run games, of course, reduce the number of opportunities to steal. Ty Cobb was on first base about 310 times in 1D09, and stole only 76 bases. He had 310 chances to steal second, perhaps 200 chances to steal third and nearly 150 chances to steal home, as he scored 150 times. The records show he stole second 52 times, third 21 times and home three times. Yet h? is the -most daring base-runner of modern times. How often attempted hit-and-run plays, or third outs, pre vented an effort to steal is not re corded. Cobb is one of the rare plavers who can play "inside ball" and Individual ball at the same time. He is brilliant, thinks for himself and Is not much hampered by bench orders. He runs mainly on his own judgment (or lack of Judgment), but still he RUNS and he wins pennants for Detroit bv run ning. The pitchers try harder to hold him to the bases than ther do any other player in the league: the catch ers give more pitch-out signs to catch him. but they do not stop him. He is a living proof of the fact that modern ballplayers could run bases with as much effect as the old-timbers could If it were not for their lack of Indi vidual thinking. ' The more one studies the situation the more convinced he must become that, despite the vaunted advances of the game, there is less brain work ex hibited on the bases than there was '0 years ago. This is not to claim that the players of today are not as intelli gent, but that they have subordinated their intelligence, to the brains of the manager, and allow one man. or. rath er, insist on one man doing the thinking for the entire team, which is an impossibility. It is so seldom that one who watches a couple of hundred games of baseball every season sees anything new In the base-running line that when he does it is refreshing. That the baseball loving public sees it the same way. is proved by the wild applause that greets unexpected steals, and bv the public admiration for Cobb. Wagner. Bush Collins. Evers and Chance. Philadel phia went wild over Collins, who ran with execrable judgment. TFut got re sults. Billy Maloney set Chicago to talking by Just such running, and led the National League one season in base stealing. He ran wtld. ran at the wrong time, ran all the time and the showing that he and Collins made provs the wisdom of the old order to "keep the other fellows throwing " The other fellows tell "how lucky such runners are." and keep on making er rors. A few years ago Frank Chance al ways a base runner of rare judgment coupled with great daring, started his team working the delayed steal. His runners started, stopped, and when the catcher relaxed from his throwing at titude and the man covering second base started back to his position tne base runner made a dash for second. Mathematically figured out. the runner will beat the ball to second by over two feet, on the basis of 3 1-3 seconds to run the distance. Really the runner gains more, as the baseman usually is slow getting up to cover the base, and a slide in front of him causes him to lose almost half a second diving for ward to touch the player, after catch ing the ball. One day In 1909 Chicago and Pitts burg were playing, and a run meant victory for either side. Evers was on second base, with one out. He made a bluff run towards third, putting down his head and sprinting at top speed. Gibson .whirled o-thxo-w to third. Evers Famous Writer stopped dead still and laughed. Gib son instantly made a perfect throw to second, and. like a flash. Evers dashed for third and slid safely. He scored on a fly ball and won the game. The play, magnificently executed as it was. set the crowd wild, and Evers deserred the tribute. The play had not been made in Chicago in five years, yet it was common in the old days, and the. catcher had to watch every runner and calculate his distance between tho bases before making a throw, else he would be. trapped. Figures prove positively that the runner can go 32 feet up the line towards third, and, if he starts back quickly enough,' can beat the throw back to second. If he goes the other way he has 68 feet to run and slide only 23 eet farther, and' the ball must travel almost twice as far and be re layed perfectly to catch him. If he makes the play correctly the fastest possible handling of the ball will only catch him by three feet, unless he is blocked off the base. That calculation allows for the second baseman coming ten feet Inside the base to meet the catcher's throw. The play can be made every time by a fast man if he can draw the throw to second, yet Evers was applauded as a hero because he thought it out. One of the cleverest bits of base running Ty Cobb ever did was in one of the games of the first world's series between Chicago and Detroit. Cobb was on first base, when Crawford, drove a single to short right center, making Slagle cut in towards Shulte to reach the ball. When Cobb reached second base, Hofman had thrown and the ball was coming in to Evers, who had gone into the grass to meet it. Without hesitation. Cobb turned second and raced for third. He had figured the play in an Instant. He knew that Slagle was a weak thrower; that Evers" back was to the diamond: that he would have to catch the ball and swing en tirely around before he knew what was going on. He calculated that Evers would expect him to stop at second, and. therefore, look at second base first a-nd so lose enough time to allow him (Cobb) to reach third. Evers looked it second, looked at third, saw Cobb al ready within ten feet of the base, and he marin a tiH 1 rl 4hMnr t . went Into the crowd and almost gave I ijetroit tne game. No manager could have told Cobb to do that, and because 99 out of every 100 base-runners would have stopped at second to await or ders, they would not have made tho play. Baseball has been reduced to a science, and is in danger of becoming mechanical unless a few base-runners like Cobb, Collins. Evers and Clarke, exponents of the unexpected, convince managers that base-running pays, and that remaining anchored to bases is a poor policy. The two glaring examples of the dif ferent schools of baseball playing ap peared in 1909, one in Boston on the American League grounds, and the other in St. Louis on Hedges' Park. The St. Louis Browns of 1909 was the historical stationary team of baseball. Never again will there be another. It could make fewer runs on more hits than any team extant. If a player reached the plate on less than four hits, his fellows accused him of ' show ing them up. The Boston team went to the other extreme. Fred Lake, a minor league manager, exploited the old theory of making the other fellows throw, and without first-class pitchers he made the teams in the American League fight to the finish to hold his "Speed Boys" out of pennant honors. The entire theory of the Boston team was "run," and with the fleetest aggregation of runners in the circuit, perhaps in the country, the "Speed Boys" ran. It Is history that "Frank I&bell. when he was on bases, never stopped until he broke a leg, went out or some one shut the gate on him. He could take wilder chances than any runner who ever landed on a base, and he kept running after his legs wore out and his speed left h'm and running with excellent success because the oppon ents would be so surprised to see him going that they -ould throw wild. But Isbell, in his palmiest dayfc', would have been a second rater for "crazy" base running In the Boston team of 1909. "Get on and run" was their motto and they ran wild through the league. All the other players said they were "crazy," complained that they were not "playing the game," that they were Ignoring all the science of the lilt-and-run, sacrifice and bunt-and-run, but the "Speed Boys" kept on running and winning. Evenually, of course, the pitchers and catchess let them run and caught them by pitching out, but not until Boston had come near winning the pennant by persistent recklessness. The kind of baseball played by the Red Sox would not win consistently, yet neither will the studied, systematic- playing, exemplified by the Chi cago Cubs, win always. That was proved by the way some of the Na tional League clubs stopped Chance's team and kept them from winning their fourth straight pennant. Pitts burg blocked Chicago's system of at tack, because in three seasons they had studied it and knew every move to expect. Gibson was chiefly responsi ble, but the pitchers did their part. The well developed plan of attack: was becoming stereotyped, and this was proved by the fact that Chance was compelled to alter his campaign plans more frequently than ever before. Pittsburg, during the middle of the season of 1909, had the most varied and resourceful attack of any team in the league, and mixed up the base running style successfully, but before the finish the Pirates, too, became stereotyped. Base running consists chiefly of do ing the unexpected, and the team that' refuses to run bases because a strong throwing catcher is pitted against It is beaten. The strong throwing catchers, paradoxical as it may seem, have the least throwing to do, proving some teams surrender before they are beaten, while the worse thrower a catcher is the more throws he has to make. Myers, the Indian, with New York, won a game from Chicago in 1909 by pretending to have a sore arm. He complained that his arm was so bad he did not want to catch. The Chi cago players heard his complaint and'. decided to run bases. They ran for three Innings, until four men had been caught, " then changed the style of game. If they had persisted in run ning during the entire game, they probably would have won, as they needed only one run to get ahead In the eighth inning. and had two chances to steal, either one of which would have meant victory. The team that stops running because one or two men are thrown out is on a par with a man who puts up three stock margins and then quits. In thirty-two games' in 1909 scores were kept to see how plays resulted With relerence,-ta-steallng,-andhittlns and running. In those games 66 ef forts to steal were made and 41 were successful. Steals, which were "palpable efforts to make other plays, as well as failures of such steals were not counted. The average of S'-ccessful stealing was .621. in the same games "2 plain hit-and-run signals were de tected. Eleven of the attempts (15.3 per cent.) resulted in clean hits, eight of which (11.1 per cent.) enabled the run ner to take extra bases. Twenty-seven of the attempts (nearly 40 per cent.) advanced runners at the expense of re tiring the batter at nrst bass. Seven (09.6 per cent.) resulted in the batter striking out. and three of these strike outs (04.2 per cent.) resulted in the runner being doubled -with the batter, while two of the strike-outs (02.8 per cent.) resulted in the runner reaching second, anyhow. Serenteen runners 23.6 per cent.) were forced at second for no gain: three (04.2 per cent.) were doubled on line drives, . nd seven (09.6 per cent.) of the batters flied out. The object of tho hit-and-run being to advance runners, the result in thes games shows that "t succeeded In f0 out of 72 times, or 69.4 per cent. Tet. while the percentage of success was larger in the hit-and-run than in steal ing, it is extremely doubtful if the figures do not show that plain stealing was more effectivo -s a ground-gainer. These figures were made whila watching a slow team and one which Is supposed to play the .hit-and-run game perfectly. It would be interest ing to study the same way. say, fifty games played by Detroit or Pittsburg. Figures accumulated that way ought to prove convincingly whether or not base-running should be neglected. The game needs more dasn. less me chanical work, more brains by Individ uals, and fewer orders from the bench. John MeClosky was the only manager who could fcisnal runners whether to slide feet or head first -while they -were stealing second. Just Tell Him So. Charles Battell Loomis. in Smith's. Don't be afraid to praise people. It is all very well to say that it hurts a boy or a man or a woman to praise; there may be those who do their best' work without encouragement, but let us re member that nearly all of us who live on this earth are human beings, and human beings work best when en couraged. It is a great mistake not to tell peo ple when you are satisfied with them. If the cook sets before you a dinner fit for a king, tell her so. Don't be too lofty to praise the office boy if his work is commendable. Tell him so. It is harder for some people to give praise than it is for them to give money. Many a generous man is a very niggard of praise. Do you liko to be praised yourself? Then depend upon it the other fellow will like it. Pour the oil of encouragement on the wheels of progress and watch "em whirl. I'm not advocating soft soap or flat tery or gush. No one likes to be gushed at, and any fool can tell flattery from the real thing. But when a man has made a hit with you, tell him so. He may. die before you get another chance, or you may die yourself. ... It takes quality to appreciate quality, so when you praiso a thing you are really offering a compliment to yourself. Doesn't that appeal to you? Will noth ing move you? Will you let all the good things in life pass you by, and you as mum as a dead owl? Wake up, man! Watch out for a chance to praise some one, admit to your own self that you like what he has done, and then Tell him so! Tribe Pocahontas Knew. Kansas City Journal. The announcement that a monument costing ?5000 will be constructed soon in memory of Pocahontas brings to light the fact that the descendants of the tribe of which the historic Indian girl was a member still remain on the banks of the Pamunkey Eirer, in the wilds of North ern Virginia. There may be found'proto types of the girl who saved the life of John Smith, and there is enacted each year a reproduction of that incident. The Indians' array themselves in costumes and portray the scenes of the early times with accuracy. These Indians take pride In living apart from other Indians and in preserving the traditions of their fore fathers. The tepee has given way to the lumber-built house and the redskins have come to live much as the palefaces do.- but the legends of their ancestors are repeated with reverence, and the Indians seek to live up to them. The tribe has 110 members. More German Paternalism. London Daily News. ; The German government pays dam ages to those injured on the state owned and operated railroads. Last year these satisfactions amounted to more than $1,400,000, or 4 per cent on $35,000,000. The Tramp Printer. , V. K. Murray. Here's a rhyme to the old tramp rmrrter, who bb long as he lives will roam. Whose "card" is his principal treasure and where night overtakes him home: i Whose shoes are run over and twisty, whose garments are shiny and thin. And who takes a hunk in the basement when the pressman lets him in. It is true there are some of the tram per that only tlie Angel of reath. When he touches them with his sick!, can cure of the spirituous breath; That some by their f ellow-trampers are shunned as unwholesome scamps. And that some are just aimless, hozneleaw, restless typographical tramps. But most of them surely are worthy o? something akin to praise. And have drifted down to the present out of wholesome, happier days; And when, though his looks be as seedy as. : ever a mortal wore. Will you find the old tramp minus his mar velous fund of lore? What paper hasn't he worked on? Whose ' manuscript hasn't he set? What story worthy of remembrance was he ' ever known to forget? -What topics rise tor discussion, in seienes letters or art. That the genuine old tramp printer cannot: grapple and play his part? It is true, you will sometimes see him when the hue that adorns his nose. Outrivals the crimson flushes which the peony flaunts at the rose; J. It is true th&t much grime he gathers in (he course of each trip he takes.. Inasmuch as he boards all freight trains be tween the gulf and the lakes. Vet bis knowledge grows more abundijit than many mu:h-tltled men's Who travel as scholarly toorlsts and are classed with the upper-tens; And few are the contributions these schol arly ones have penned That the seediest, shabbiest tramper cotiM n't readily cut and mend. He has little in life to bind him to one place more than the rest. Tor his hopes In the past lie hurled with tht ones that he loved the best; He has little to hope from Fortune and has little to fear from Fate. And little his dreams are troubled over the public's love or hate. do a rhyme to the old tramp printer- to the hopes he has cherished and wept r To the loves and the old home voices that still in hts heart are kept; A rhyme to the old tramp printer, whose garments are shiny and thin, And who takes a bunk In the basement when the pressman lets htm In. '