Clipping:Strategy in pitching
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| Date | Saturday, January 2, 1875 |
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| Text | Two seasons ago it was regarded as the point to play, in pitching, never to send a ball tot he bat near enough to be hit unless forced to do so by fear of the penalty of called balls. Now, however, experience has shown that the most effective pitcher is he who can send on the swiftest balls directly over the home-plate. The reason why this is now the point to play is this: The position the batsman takes when he is fully prepared to hit the ball, is one which cannot well be sustained for any length of time, as it is necessarily one similar to that a man would take in a tableaux position. By sending in wide balls the batsman has an opportunity afforded him to rest, while by continually sending in straight balls over the base he is obliged to be prepared to hit the ball every time it is pitched; and this is something few batsmen can keep up. Varying the height of the ball while pitching over the base is telling in its effect, but it is not skillful play any longer to pitcher either side of the base. It follows, therefore, that his is the most effective pitcher who can pitch the “straightest,” viz., the most continuously over the bas. The perfection of the art of a swift delivery is the power to send in the ball by the horizontal curve. Just as the curved line of a tossed ball bothers the sight of a batsman, so does the side curve of a swiftly-pitched ball, such as Matthews and Cummings send in when they put on their speed. The reason that this style is so difficult to punish, is that the batsman is led to expect that the ball is coming close to him, while, instead, it curves out from him, and vice versa. To send in the ball with this side-curve, therefore, so that the ball curves in over the base, is to deliver the ball in the highest style of the art. |
| Source | New York Clipper |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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