SPITBALL HONOR GIVEN TO CHIC FRASER
BY MANAGER MITCHELL OF CHICAGO CUBS
iHITCHELI
Ed '
WALSH
" Chic"
traser.
Kto ^
GLZ^SON
Pitchers Nowadays Do Not Use Spitball Very Much.
Next to tlie origin of baseball itself
there have been more disputes over
the inventor of the curve ball, and
next to that the discovery of the
modern spitball is shrouded in mys
tery, writes I. E. Sanborn in Chicago
Tribune.
Elmer Stricklett. who came out of
the bushes to the White Sox in 1904,
lias been most generally credited with
being the first to introduce the moist
delivery in practical form. He taught
it to big Ed Walsh, who afterward
became king of the spitters, while
Stricklett never won great laurels in
the majors as a flinger.
Gives Credit to Fraser.
Now comes Manager Mitchell of !
the Cubs with the assertion that
Chic Fraser, old-time pitcher for the
Cubs and Phillies, beat Stricklett to it.
The Cub boss declares that Fraser was
monkeying with the spitball at lea <t a
rear before Stricklett was heard from,
but Chic never used it much because
ho thought it too erratic to control with
any degree of certainty.
Fraser showed Mitchell how to
throw the thing, and Mitch could get
a pretty fair break on it. You re
member that before Mitchell was a
manager he was a catcher and before
that a pitcher in the major leagues.
It was while Mitchell and Fraser were
an the Phillies together that they were
experimenting with the spitball and
the present Cub boss thinks he was
►be first pitcher to use it in a chain
pioiisjiij)
Batsman and Catcher Miss.
Chief Zimmer was doing most of
die catching then and Fraser, who was
3 great practical joker, coaxed Mitchell
nto throwing a spitter to Zimmer just
:o see what would happen in some sit
uation where it didn’t matter what did
happen.
Mitchell and Zimmer were working
ane day in a game which the Phillies
had sewed up safely. Near the end
tf the contest Mitchell had two
strikes on a batsman with two out and
nobody on bases. Zimmer called for j
| a fast ball, so Mitchell threw the spit
ball. The batsman missed it a foot
and so did Zimmer, who was so aston
ished that he forgot to go after the
passed ball and let the batsman reach
second base. The chief simply stood
looking at Mitchell and after lie had
retrieved the ball, called for a con
ference.
Zimmer Wants a "Sign."
“Say, kid,” said Zimmer, “we’ll have
to have a sign for that one, whatever
it was.” Then Mitch told him what
it was, but they did not use it much,
considering it too risks'.
Later on in the season Fraser pitch
ed up a spitball which the bats
man knocked on an easy hop to Kid
Gleason, second baseman, who was
playing close In and tried to nail a
runner scoring from third. Gleason
threw the ball against the grand stand,
then commenced looking over the turf
adjacent to his station, searching for
a wet spot on the diamond.
“The ball was wet, Chic,” exclaimed
the Kid, and showed his damp hand to
prove it. Fraser explained to him
how the ball got wet. That was an
other reason why the spitball did not
“take” very well at the start. The
fielders made too many wild throws.
Loses Pennant on It.
•Tack Chesbro was the first major
leaguer to make much use of the spit
ter. He worked hard on it in 1904
when he was one of the New York
Yankee regulars. But Chesbro did
not get perfect control of it and lost
a game that might have given the
Yankees the pennant in 1904 by mak
ing a wild pitch in the ninth inning
of the next to the last game of the
season.
In recent years the spitball is not
used anywhere nearly so much as the
public believes. There are numerous
pitchers who can use it, but they do
not do so regularly. It is merely a
bluff most of the time when they seem
to moisten the ball. That serves to
keep the batsman guessing.
“Keep Off the Grass!” This Means You, Mr. Birdman
ft ROOKLYN, N. lr.—What is said to be the first case in which an aviator
was arrested for landing in a public park without a permit came up before
Magistrate Ten Eyck in Morrisana court, when Philip A. Bjarklund, thirty-two,
of 510 West One Hundred and Twen
ty-fourth street, Manhattan, a licensed
aviator, was arraigned on a summons
charging violation of an ordinance by
landing in Van Cortlandt park without
a permit.
The charge read that he “did un
lawfully disturb the grass in a grass
plot in Van Cortlandt park by land
ing there with an airplane without a
permit from the park authorities.”
The aviator, after completing his land
ing, Immediately was served with the
summons by a patrolman. When asked by the magistrate how he pleaded, the
aviator said that he pleaded guilty to landing in the park. He also admitted
that he had no permit to land there.
The aviator stated to the magistrate that he had left Sheepshead Bay to
ily to Albany, and that while flying over the Bronx motor trouble developed
and, seeing a wide expanse of ground, he decided to land. “I had to land
somewhere,” lie said. Upon landing he found that the exhaust rod had broken.
“Did you see any signs of ‘Keep Off the Grass’ from where you were?”
asked the magistrate.
“No, sir,” replied the aviator.
Patrolman J. T. Shields explained to the court that he had served the sum
mons merely because there were a lot of people in the park at the time whose
lives might have been endangered by the landing.
The magistrate suspended sentence.
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