Clipping:Strategic pitching
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| Date | Saturday, March 15, 1879 |
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| Text | ... The moment the pitcher faces the batsman in the first inning of a match he should begin to study his man and endeavor to find out his weak points of play. Watch how he holds his bat, and, if he does not poise it properly in his preliminary movements, count it a point in your favor. The same, too, if he points his bat at you as he takes his stand. Then watch the speed of his stroke, wether he swings his bat to meet the ball with a short, quick stroke, or only with a sort of heavy lunge at the ball. Then watch him closely to see if he takes a temporary rest from standing in readiness to meet the ball. The latter is important, as a batsman may stand in good form for hitting for five or six balls, and then suddenly get tired of waiting and “stand at ease,” as it were, when he immediately becomes open to attack from a strategic pitcher. A great point in is well-disguised change of pace. It should be borne in mind that change of pace in pitching is comparatively useless unless it be well disguised. Nothing bothers a batsman more than to be prepared to strike quickly at a fast ball, only to find that his stroke has been too quick to meet the ball fairly, owing to the lessened speed of the ball. The same, too, when he is expecting a medium-paced ball, and suddenly sees it flash by him at the utmost speed of the pitcher. It requires a keen-sighted, nervy and experienced batsman to be ready to meet this style of pitching. Another strong point in pitching is that of catching the batsman unprepared to strike, or, if prepared, not ready to hit the ball he wants to. The effectiveness of the curve in pitching depends greatly upon the pitcher’s command of the ball, not only as regards accuracy of aim in delivery, but in being able to control the curve itslef. As we said before, the curve without “headwork” in its use loses half its effectiveness; and it is almost impossible to use strategy in connection with the curve unless you have thorough command of the ball. Of course, a wild pitcher who has the curve will sometimes attain results in keeping his batting opponents down to small figures, owing to the laxity of the umpire’s observance of the rules; but when the umpire does his duty properly, your wild-curve pitcher becomes costly in his work, especially when faced by batsmen who have the patience to wait at the bat, as they should do, for balls to suit them. When, however, a pitcher possesses the command of the ball which admits of his sending in a curved line ball just where he wants it to go, he becomes a “bad man” for any batsman to meet, provided, of course, that with such command in delivery he also knows ho to avail himself of strategy in his work. The pitcher should study up the position he occupies when facing a skillful batsman, and that is this: The batsman, we will say, wants a low ball over the base, one nearly waist high. Now, the whole aim of the pticher should be to send him in every other kind of ball, except the one that he wants; but in doing this the pitcher’s utmost skill must be employed in disguising this refusal to obey the call, not only from the batsman, but from the umpire; for a pitcher has frequently to pitch against the umpire as well as against the batsman–that is, he has to work so as to prevent an undue number of called balls, and to induce as many called strikes as he can, and this must not be done by the plan of annoyance by frequent appeals, but simply by deceiving the judgment of the umpire as well as of the batsman. Curve-pitchers should remember that it is frequently a good point to play to drop the curve for a ball or two. In fact, this must be done when a change of pace is made, for the curve is the result of speed in delivery, and will not follow a slow-pitched ball. And, by the way, we here state that it is a fallacy to imagine that a pitcher has several curves at command in delivery. Only three are possible, viz., the one resulting in the case of a slow toss of the ball to the bat, which is formed by the attraction of gravity, to the right or the left, just as the pitcher imparts the rotary motion of the ball so that it revolves to one side or the other. |
| Source | New York Clipper |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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