100 years ago, a Major League umpire offered these words of advice to young pitchers
Unfortunately, baseball season is on hold as the owners’ lockout begins to run into the time that pitchers and catchers normally report to spring training.
For those fans wishing to see a less commercial form of the game, baseball and softball is getting underway at our local schools, including Cal Poly.
If you need a Major League Baseball fix, here is a story from the early 20th century.
Sharp-eyed fans will recognize the name of Eddie Cicotte, the soon-to-be-disgraced member of the Chicago White Sox who was banned from baseball in the wake of a World Series gambling scandal.
That season, cheapskate club owner Charles Comiskey ordered the manager to bench Cicotte for 5 games, preventing the pitcher from earning a $10,000 bonus for winning 30 games.
At the time, many newspapers picked up national features from the Newspaper Enterprise Association, and this one was written by sportswriter Fred Turbyville.
Topped with a gibberish headline, it published in the San Luis Obispo Daily Telegram on July 22, 1919.
THEY MAY START IN ON MYSTERY BALLS BUT IF THEY STICK THEY GET CONTROL
“They all learn sooner or later that the one big asset of the pitcher is control.”
The speaker was one of the best known umpires in the American League. He has stood behind the catcher for several years and he has closely observed the work of every hurler in the league. He is not an ivory-top but a real student of baseball. It Is not customary for him to discuss the merits or demerits of player or club, and when he does talk he is worth listening to.
He continued; “There’s Eddie Cicotte of the White Sox. What’s he got? Brains and control. But brains and control are one and the same to my way of thinking. The brainy pitcher invariably is found to be a master of control. Matty and Walt Johnson, for instance.
“Cicotte is going like a house afire. He’s using lots of camouflage, his head and control. He’s throwing the ball right In the groove. That’s where It’s got to go.
‘‘The young pitchers come Into the league with lots of curves and fancy stuff. They get by until the batters learn them. Then If they are wise they’ll begin putting them over.
“Walt Johnson, of course, has plenty of speed to go with his. He never used much of anything else but speed and control.”
And when you speak of control it doesn’t simply mean putting the ball over the plate. It means putting it over the very heart of the plate and midway between shoulders and knees. Jim Vaughn, famous pitcher of the Cubs, is authority for the statement.
“It’s like pitching to a knot-hole” says Jim, “If you want the umpire to call it a strike get it six inches below the shoulders or six inches above the knees and do not cut the corner. The plate is seventeen inches wide but if you want to make sure the ump will call it a strike you’ve got to pitch into a narrower groove than that.” The records of the game show that the pitchers with the long and famous careers are the boys who grooved ’em. They used their heads and put the ball over the heart of the pan. Of course, they’ve got to vary their delivery — throw a curve now and then, and cut the corners now and then — else the batter would always know where to meet the ball.”
