Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 171, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1918 — PINCH HITTING NOT NECESSARY ON TEAM [ARTICLE]

PINCH HITTING NOT NECESSARY ON TEAM

Sixteen Men Are Plenty for Any Team, Says Brooklyn Owner. t.. McCormick, Hyatt and Lellvelt Are Only Ones That Ever Made Good, Says Napoleon Lajoie of Indianapolis Club. Najoleon Lajoie, now manager of the Indianapolis club, and one of the greatest hitters the game has known, a man, who had a big league batting average of around .350 for 20 years, declares the policy of some to carry players to act merely as pinch hitters is not one of wisdom. “You can count the men who have . filled such a role and mad. good on the fingers of one hand,” slid Larry. “Moose McCormick was on« If I remember right, Pittsburgh ha 1 a player named Hyatt who broke ii to a box score only when he hit for someone else. They tell me Hyatt was quite a success along that line for a year or so. When we had Jack Lelivelt with us in 1913 he came through nicely with many a safe hit. “But the man who sits on the bench day after day and only occasionally gets a chance to go to bat and try to hit in a regular.game has not much of an opportunity to deliver. The odds are all 'against him. Of course, you may say he gets his batting practice every day the same as the other batters. True enough, but that does not count like hitting practice in real games. Few pitchers use much stuff in batting practice. “I have had some experience in the pinch-hitting business myself. .Remember when Ed Klepfer broke a finger on one of my hands and the thumb on the other hand? Remember how Joe Birmingham called on me several times to hit before I was ready to get back in the game regularly? I’ll admit I delivered until the pitchers insisted on handing me bases on balls, but I had not been out of the game long enough to lofee my batting eye. But if I were to sit on a bench and be nothing more than a pinch hitter, perhaps I would not be any more successful than many others w T ho have tried to deliver and failed. But I woifld not say I would fall down until I had tried.”