. Most of the in-field hitting now is toward short-stop and
second base, and the best of third basemen are not able to average over
three or four chances to a game. But, though the amount of his work has
been diminished, it still retains its difficult nature. The length of
the throw to first, and the short time given him in which to make it,
occasion many wild throws, and if he fumbles the ball at all, the
opportunity is lost. Fleet runners who hit left-handed, and others who
merely "bunt" the ball, can be caught only by the quickest and cleanest
work; so that, everything considered, it is not surprising to find the
third baseman generally at the foot of the in-field averages.

A third baseman, like a second baseman, should be a man of at least
average size, and Denny, who is by long odds the best in the profession,
is a large man. He will have a longer reach for both thrown and batted
balls, he will be a better mark to throw at, and, by reason of his
superior weight, he will have more confidence in the face of reckless
base-running. But not every player of proper size who can stop a ball
and throw it accurately to first is capable of becoming a good third
baseman. The New York team of 1887 demonstrated the odd fact that a man
who seemed entirely unable to play second base, could yet play third in
good style, while another who was but an average third baseman could
take care of second equal to any one. The explanation probably lies in
the fact that the positions require men of different temperaments. At
second base a player of nervous tendency grows anxious waiting for the
ball to come, and by the time it reaches him is unable to get it in his
hands, while at third base, where the action is much quicker, such a man
is perfectly at home, because he is not given time to become nervous.
The same curious fact is seen when an infielder is changed to an out-
field position; he finds it impossible, at first, to stop ground-hits,
because they seem never to be going to reach him, and he is completely
"rattled" by the long wait. For the same reason the most difficult hits
which an infielder has to handle are the slow, easy, bounding balls that
under ordinary circumstances a child could stop.

The proper place for a third baseman to play must be governed by the
nature of the case. For an ordinary right-hand batter, likely to hit in
any direction, and no one on the bases, he should play from fifteen to
twenty feet toward second and