74

V--PLAYING THE GAME FROM THE BENCH 93

VI--COACHING--GOOD AND BAD 117

VII--HONEST AND DISHONEST SIGN STEALING 140

VIII--UMPIRES AND CLOSE DECISIONS 161

IX--THE GAME THAT COST A PENNANT 183

X--WHEN THE TEAMS ARE IN SPRING TRAINING 206

XI--JINXES AND WHAT THEY MEAN TO A BALL-PLAYER 230

XII--BASE RUNNERS AND HOW THEY HELP A PITCHER TO WIN 255

XIII--NOTABLE INSTANCES WHERE THE "INSIDE" GAME HAS FAILED 381

Pitching in a Pinch

Pitching in a Pinch

I

The Most Dangerous Batters I Have Met

_How "Joe" Tinker Changed Overnight from a Weakling at the Plate to
the Worst Batter I Had to Face--"Fred" Clarke of Pittsburg cannot be
Fooled by a Change of Pace, and "Hans" Wagner's Only "Groove" Is a
Base on Balls--"Inside" Information on All the Great Batters._

I have often been asked to which batters I have found it hardest to pitch.

It is the general impression among baseball fans that Joseph Faversham
Tinker, the short-stop of the Chicago Cubs, is the worst man that I have
to face in the National League. Few realize that during his first two
years in the big show Joe Tinker looked like a cripple at the plate when I
was pitching. His "groove" was a slow curve over the outside corner, and I
fed him slow curves over that very outside corner with great regularity.
Then suddenly, overnight, he became from my point of view the most
dangerous batter in the League.

Tinker is a clever ball-player, and one day I struck him out three times
in succession with low curves over the outside corner. Instead of getting
disgusted with himself, he began to think and reason. He knew that I was
feeding him that low curve over the outside corner, and he started to look
for an antidote. He had always taken a short, choppy swing at the ball.
When he went to the clubhouse after the game in which he struck out three
times, he was very quiet, so I have been told. He was just putting on his
last sock when he clapped his hand to his leg and exclaimed:

"I've got it."

"Got what?" asked Johnny Evers, who happened to be sitting next to Tinker.

"Got the way to hit Matty, who had me looking as if I came from the home
for the blind out there to-day," answered Joe.

"I should say he did,"