Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 122, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1918 — ATHLETICS HELPED BY SIGNAL TIPPING [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ATHLETICS HELPED BY SIGNAL TIPPING

Harry Davis, Mack’s Old Lieutenant, Tells, of Success. ? Knew Just What Jim Vaugh Was Going to Pitch in Certain Game, but Couldn’t Beat Him—Makes Baseball Uncertain. Harry Davis at a recent banquet in Philadelphia admitted that a consider-

able amount of the Athletics’ success was due to their ability to “get” the signals of the opposing outfit. Sometimes it was the sixth and seventh inning before the “signal scouts” managed to discover what the catcher or pitcher was “signing,” but when they did get it the old slamming started. This is supposed to account for many “ninth-inning fin-

ishes” credited to the Mackmen, who were not so much on fielding, but were long on hitting. However, the signal getting wasn’t always successful, even for such sharpers as Davis and Bender, and Connie Mack’s old lieutenant related an incident in this connection: “It was on opening day of Shibe park,” says Davis. “The Yankees were opposing the Athletics. Jim Vaughn, now of the Cubs, was pitching for New York. As early as the second inning, we discovered that Vaughn and not the catcher gave the signs. Thig condition was created by the Yanks to outguess us. “They had suspected that we would try to steal the sign from the catcher. Well, about as early as the second inning we discovered through studying the actions of Vaughn that whenever he intended to pitch a curve he would hold the ball in his right hand before offering it to the batter. When he inpitch a fast one, he would keep it in his left hand. “Now, we knew every pitch he made just what was coming up. What did we do to him? Well, it wouldn’t be any story if we had beaten him by 25 runs. Instead of beating him, he shut us out, 2 to 0, in spite of the fact that we knew what he was pitching. This is what makes baseball the uncertain game it is.”

Harry Davis.