Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 244, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1910 — HOW PLANK GOT HIS START [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HOW PLANK GOT HIS START

Simply Closed His Eyes and Cut Loose —Afterwards Studied the Game and Pitchers.

BY EDWARD S. PLANK.

They all say I got my start the day of the battle of Gettysburg, but they exaggerate somewhat. I was born in Gettysburg in 1875, and that gave the boys a chance to say things. I admit the 1875 without trying to get away and scalp half a dozen years oft my age as some of them do. At any rate L think I am rather a freak as a baseball player because I seldom have of any '-base anything like my own. As I told you I was born in Gettysburg and I played some baseball arbund there in an amateur way, and without giving 'the game much thought. I started to college about the time most of the other fellows are getting enough. I was twenty-five when I was began pitching for the Gettysburg college team, and I was big and strong and fast and wild and inexperienced and everything else that goes to make up a college pitcher. I simply shut my eyes and cut loose and most of those who didn’t strike out got bases on balls, and I have suspected since that a lot of them struck out just to escape from standing up there at the hat. Seriously I think the real reason for my start was that I was older, stronger and better developed than the average college man. That made me stand out among them and it attracted the attention of professional clubs. I had not thought of baseball as a profession at all until offered a job, and I joined the Athletics in May, 1901, after school closed, knowing about as much about major league ball as I know about who will make a three base hit in the morning game next Decoration day. saw that there was more to it than throwing as hard as possible and curving them. I saw I would have to do some thinking and I began to study the game. Queerly enough

I went wrong away. I was guessing wrong, but luckily for me I had enough speed and shoots to hang on by sheer pbwer until I learned more. I worked and studied hard at the game, watched the other pitchers, picked up their tricks and began to pitch with much less exertion and strain and still get results. If I had gone on the way I started I would have been out of it ln two seasons, and I’m still here. On the other hand, if I had known as much when I started about pitching, I’d bq here a long time.

Edward 8. Plank.