Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 86, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 May 1917 — CLIMB OF SOUTHPAWS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CLIMB OF SOUTHPAWS

Work of Left-Handers Marks Development of Baseball. Babe Ruth of Boston and Fertile Schupp of New York Were Most Effective Pitchers in Their Re- ' spective Leagues. Babe Ruth of the Red Sox and Ferdle Schupp of the Giants were the most effective pitchers in their respective leagues during the past Season, and both of them are left-handers. This is one of the things that marks the development of baseball. In the early days of the game a southpaw was a rare article. The National league was organized in 1876, and during its first ten years of existence there were, so far as we know, Just about seven good left-hand-ers in fast company. These were Richmond, Baldwin, Shaw, Morris, Casey, Ramsey and Cushman. Today there are ten times that many port-siders on the reserve lists of the two big leagues. No pitching staff is considered complete without at least a couple of good ones. Yet, in 40 years of organized baseball it is probable that not over fifty southpaws really have made good. It is easy to look back and recall most of the better ones since those early days. It is a short list: Breiten-

stein, Esper, Clausen, McGill, White, Altrock, Klobedanz, Hannehill, Lelfeld, Pfeister, Waddell, Wiltse and, of course, that ageless veteran, Eddie Plank. Half of this number were only ordinary pitchers. Three or four of them at most belong in a class with such great righthanders as Keefe, Radbourne, Clarkson, Carruthers, Ging, Ehret, Meekin, Young, Rusie, Nichols, McGinnity, Overall, Donovan, Walsh, Wood, Adams, Coombs, Bender, Mathewson, Johnson and Alexander. Waddell belongs in this class and so does Wiltse, one of the greatest of southpaws and a pitcher who never was given the general recognition he deserved. In the eight years previous to last season only twice did a left-hander top one of the big leagues in the records of the pitchers. In 1908 the lenders were Reulbach and Walsh; in 1009 they were Camnitz and Mullin, and in 1910 they were Cole and Bender. Marquard was the most effective twirler in the National league in 1911, but Covington led Johnson’s; organization. Hendrix and Wood were in front in 1912. Mathewson and Johnson in 1913. In 1914 Leonard was first in the American league and Doak In the National. Alexander and Wood were the leaders in 1915, Marquard and Leonard, therefore, were the only southpaws to lead their leagues in a decade, but things appear to be looking up for the clan. Besides Ruth and Schupp. the big leagues now have such left-handers as “Old Man” I'lank, Marquard, Leonard, Rixey, Sallee, Benton, Coveleski, (hillop, Nehf, Vaughn, Smith, Tyler, Mogridge, Koob, Harper, Russell and Sister.

Babe Ruth.