Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 206, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 August 1910 — NOT SPEEDY ON THE BASES [ARTICLE]

NOT SPEEDY ON THE BASES

Manager Jennings Deplores Lack of Speed by Catchers in Getting Around Diamond. Speaking of his regular backstop, Oscar Stanage, Hughey Jennings remarked recently: “It’s about the hardest task in baseball to get a catcher that can run the bases. Roger Bresnahan is the king of all catchers running the bases. But he learned to skip around the sacks before he became a catcher. Roger, you know, broke into baseball as a pitcher, then became an Infielder and turned to catching when he went to work for John J. McGraw. I used to be a catcher myself, but I think the reason they make such poor base runners is because they do so much bending and squatting on their kneeff This develops the muscles in their legs and shortens their stride when running. Just look ’em over and see if I’m not right. Few of them ever attempt to get up speed on the base lines. As a rule you have to bat ’em around the diamond, like pitchers.”