Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1920 — HURLER RUTH TELLS SECRET OF BATTING [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HURLER RUTH TELLS SECRET OF BATTING

Home Run king Says “Keep Your Eye on the Ball.” . 1. —-•—-♦— —v, / •"' ■■" New York Yankee’s Newly Acquired Pitcher and Outfielder Tries to Follow Advice Given Him by Veteran Player. •Keep your eye on the ball f* Sounds like golf, but Babe Ruth* leading manufacturer of home runs, was speaking about baseball. Babe, who was recently purchased by the New York Yankees from the Boston Red Sox, doesn’t do much batting off the field. He doesn’t believe in trying to score base hits with his chin, but every once in a while he can be persuaded to go to bat in the conversational league, and when he does he generally knocks a couple of verbal home runs. Naturally, the all-important question for Ruth to answer is “What is the secret of successful batting?” It was in reply that Ruth unhesitatingly answered: “When a pitcher is preparing to de liver a ball try to guess what he intends to throw, a curve or a fast one,’ continued Ruth, “but just because you have made up your mind he is going to throw a curve do not be. too sure of it. Always remember the pitcher is also trying to outguess, the batter. That Is part of a pitcher’s work. Once he releases the ball never take your eye off it. If you do you are gone. Watch it all the way. Watch it as it breaks and watch it as you sta'rt your swing. ' The hatter who watches the ball only part of the way in Its flight to the plate seldom becomes a good hitter, for if the pitcher

is throwing a curve it seldom breaks until it is within a few feet of the plate. It is almost impossible to tell whether a thrown ball is going to curve or not until the actual break occurs. For this reason it is necessary for a batter never to take his eye oft the ball. “When I was a youngster just beginning to play any kind of real baseball a veteran player impressed upon me the necessity of keeping my. eye on the ball, and I have never forgotten it. It has become second nature with me, and yet I never step to the plate that the warning ‘Keep your eye on the ball,’ does not flash through my mind. “Next to keeping his eye on the ball a tatter must learn to hit with a free and easy swing. Getting started quickly toward first base is something that demands close attention. Many a base hit has been lost by a slow start from the plate and mapy a base hit has been made by getting away quickly. “There are many more things about batting, but these are the chief things to remember and practice.”

Babe Ruth.