Mar 25, 1936 - The Washington Post - This Morning . . . With Shirley Povich.
This Morning . . . With Shirley Povich.
Deland. Fla.. March 24. THERE may he nothing significant in the fact that Bucky Harris is managing the club that last year managed to get more runners on base by being hit with pitched balls than any other team in the league, but it's an idea.
In his hey-day with the Nats, Harris himself was the master of the art of getting one's self hit by a pitched ball, and he may or may not have imparted his skill in that direction to his present crew of athletes. But in Cecil Travis, the Nats last year had the individual champion at the getting-hit business. It apparently is a distinction peculiar to Washington teams because the last generation of fans have learned to regard Kid Elberfeld, Washington third baseman, as the man who could best maneuver his anatomy into the line of a pitch and thus get on base.
Clark Griffith declares with some pride that it was Harris' ability to get himself hit with pitched balls that played a powerful part in the Nats' pennant triumphs of 1924 and 1925.
So frequently was the boy manager of the Washington club getting pinked at the plate that reports spread throughout the league that Harris was wearing a special pad across his ribs the better to take the blow.
That accusation Harris laughs off, but he does tell the story of the day late in the 1925 pennant race when, with the bases full and the score tied in the ninth inning and himself due at bat, he announced to his mates on the bench that he was going to win the ball game even if he had to take a pitch in the back. And that's what happened. On the first inside ball that Charley Huffing threw, Harris faked a violent effort to get out of the way, got himself hit and forced over the winning run.
Elberfeld's skill at the business of getting himself hit lay chiefly in his clever trick of turning toward the plate on inside balls and getting hit on the arms, according to Griffith. Possessor of a good eye at the plate, Elberfeld was uncanny in the manner in which he was able to get his arms in the way of a pitch at the same time appearing to make an honest effort to duck.
So clever was Elberfeld, according to Griffith, that he once dared any pitcher to hurt him in spring practice one day when he revealed his trick. Always holding his arms at an angle to the pitch, he never took more than a glancing blow and even Walter Johnson's fast ball failed to hurt him.
Despite his record of being hit more times last year than any other player in the league, young Cecil Travis apparently does not make the deliberate attempt to get himself socked that Elberfeld and Harris did. It is merely Travis' preference for inside pitches that has earned him this distinction.
Travis, who came to the Nats as a leftfield hitter, despite the fact that he is left-handed, for two years has been attempting to pull the ball to rightfield and thus get the full power of his body behind his swing. He dislikes to miss the opportunity to hit at an inside ball and thus it is, when the pitch is too far inside, he gets himself socked so frequently.
In Short-
Despite the fact that he is the champion at this getting-hit business, Travis is no more bat-shy than one of Bobby Burke's fast balls ... After Thornton Lee, of the Indians, had put him in the hospital for two weeks with a bean ball. Travis returned to the game and the first pitcher he faced was Lee... He was shy, all right. one base shy of a home run ... Billy Starr, recognized now as the best handler of pitchers among the Nats' catching staff, would be the team's No. 1 catcher if he were able to hit .250 ... In recent games, Dee Miles has re-established himself solidly in the race for the rightfield job ... The red-haired Chattanooga graduate who was a sore disappointment to Harris in the early weeks here, now has begun to smack the ball solidly ... When he hit his home run in the first inning today it was his second in ten consecutive times at bat ... both balls were well powdered ... Miles, with a sweep stroke, possesses the most unorthodox style at bat of any player on the club, but he gets tremendous power into his swing when he pulls the ball to rightfield.
Deland. Fla.. March 24. THERE may he nothing significant in the fact that Bucky Harris is managing the club that last year managed to get more runners on base by being hit with pitched balls than any other team in the league, but it's an idea.
In his hey-day with the Nats, Harris himself was the master of the art of getting one's self hit by a pitched ball, and he may or may not have imparted his skill in that direction to his present crew of athletes. But in Cecil Travis, the Nats last year had the individual champion at the getting-hit business. It apparently is a distinction peculiar to Washington teams because the last generation of fans have learned to regard Kid Elberfeld, Washington third baseman, as the man who could best maneuver his anatomy into the line of a pitch and thus get on base.
Clark Griffith declares with some pride that it was Harris' ability to get himself hit with pitched balls that played a powerful part in the Nats' pennant triumphs of 1924 and 1925.
So frequently was the boy manager of the Washington club getting pinked at the plate that reports spread throughout the league that Harris was wearing a special pad across his ribs the better to take the blow.
That accusation Harris laughs off, but he does tell the story of the day late in the 1925 pennant race when, with the bases full and the score tied in the ninth inning and himself due at bat, he announced to his mates on the bench that he was going to win the ball game even if he had to take a pitch in the back. And that's what happened. On the first inside ball that Charley Huffing threw, Harris faked a violent effort to get out of the way, got himself hit and forced over the winning run.
Elberfeld's skill at the business of getting himself hit lay chiefly in his clever trick of turning toward the plate on inside balls and getting hit on the arms, according to Griffith. Possessor of a good eye at the plate, Elberfeld was uncanny in the manner in which he was able to get his arms in the way of a pitch at the same time appearing to make an honest effort to duck.
So clever was Elberfeld, according to Griffith, that he once dared any pitcher to hurt him in spring practice one day when he revealed his trick. Always holding his arms at an angle to the pitch, he never took more than a glancing blow and even Walter Johnson's fast ball failed to hurt him.
Despite his record of being hit more times last year than any other player in the league, young Cecil Travis apparently does not make the deliberate attempt to get himself socked that Elberfeld and Harris did. It is merely Travis' preference for inside pitches that has earned him this distinction.
Travis, who came to the Nats as a leftfield hitter, despite the fact that he is left-handed, for two years has been attempting to pull the ball to rightfield and thus get the full power of his body behind his swing. He dislikes to miss the opportunity to hit at an inside ball and thus it is, when the pitch is too far inside, he gets himself socked so frequently.
In Short-
Despite the fact that he is the champion at this getting-hit business, Travis is no more bat-shy than one of Bobby Burke's fast balls ... After Thornton Lee, of the Indians, had put him in the hospital for two weeks with a bean ball. Travis returned to the game and the first pitcher he faced was Lee... He was shy, all right. one base shy of a home run ... Billy Starr, recognized now as the best handler of pitchers among the Nats' catching staff, would be the team's No. 1 catcher if he were able to hit .250 ... In recent games, Dee Miles has re-established himself solidly in the race for the rightfield job ... The red-haired Chattanooga graduate who was a sore disappointment to Harris in the early weeks here, now has begun to smack the ball solidly ... When he hit his home run in the first inning today it was his second in ten consecutive times at bat ... both balls were well powdered ... Miles, with a sweep stroke, possesses the most unorthodox style at bat of any player on the club, but he gets tremendous power into his swing when he pulls the ball to rightfield.
