March 27, 1910 - The New York Times - Elberfeld and Fake Bunt
Elberfeld and Fake Bunt
The "Kid" Tells of His Experience with Yankees and Good Plan to Beat It.
"Kid" ELberfeld, Unglaub, and Schaeffer of the Washington American League Club had quite a discussion at the training quarters at Norfolk, Va., recently over the different plays that develop in a game, and how to overcome them. Elberfeld told of his first experience with a fake bunt and what he thought was a good plan to break it up.
"The Yankees wre playing against the Tigers at the time with Bush on second and Ty Cobb at the bat. The signal was given for Bush to go up with the pitcher's arm and Cobb leaned over to make a bunt. I darted in about three steps, saw Cobb pull back and then tried to regain third to take the throw from Kleinow and stop Bush. Kleinow cut loose with his throw third all right, but I could not get in front of Bush, and as a result the ball hit me on the side of the head, rolled over to the bleachers, and Mr. Bush kept on home.
"The play was a corker, and for a couple of weeks I tried all sorts of plans to break it up, but without success. We finally came to the conclusion that the only way to beat it was for the pitcher to go after the ball and let the third baseman stay on the sack. If the runner on second is a fast man, he starts promptly, and the third baseman moves but two steps away from the sack; it is almost impossible to head him off. If the pitcher goes in for the ball, he can get the man at third or if he turns back to second the batter can be thrown out at first."
The "Kid" Tells of His Experience with Yankees and Good Plan to Beat It.
"Kid" ELberfeld, Unglaub, and Schaeffer of the Washington American League Club had quite a discussion at the training quarters at Norfolk, Va., recently over the different plays that develop in a game, and how to overcome them. Elberfeld told of his first experience with a fake bunt and what he thought was a good plan to break it up.
"The Yankees wre playing against the Tigers at the time with Bush on second and Ty Cobb at the bat. The signal was given for Bush to go up with the pitcher's arm and Cobb leaned over to make a bunt. I darted in about three steps, saw Cobb pull back and then tried to regain third to take the throw from Kleinow and stop Bush. Kleinow cut loose with his throw third all right, but I could not get in front of Bush, and as a result the ball hit me on the side of the head, rolled over to the bleachers, and Mr. Bush kept on home.
"The play was a corker, and for a couple of weeks I tried all sorts of plans to break it up, but without success. We finally came to the conclusion that the only way to beat it was for the pitcher to go after the ball and let the third baseman stay on the sack. If the runner on second is a fast man, he starts promptly, and the third baseman moves but two steps away from the sack; it is almost impossible to head him off. If the pitcher goes in for the ball, he can get the man at third or if he turns back to second the batter can be thrown out at first."