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Pitcher. Club. G %W RS RE %BH BoB SO %FC
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Breitenst'n St. Louis 49 .551 6.32 3.06 .280 162 138 .902
Colcolough Pittsburgh 15 .533 9.13 4.87 .354 59 19 .844
Cuppy Cleveland 37 .583 7.13 3.24 .298 119 63 .916
Carsey Philadelphia 31 .580 7.93 3.84 .314 95 40 .831
Clarkson St. Louis 26 .308 8.11 4.19 .318 102 42 .794
Chamberlain Cincinnati 19 .526 7.45 3.70 .309 78 57 .729
Dwyer Cincinnati 39 .500 7.3 4.13 .317 97 47 .902
Daub Brooklyn 26 .423 7.89 3.70 .306 71 33 .694
Esper Wash. and Balti. 26 .500 8.3 4.88 .339 59 36 .929
Ehret Pittsburgh 41 .436 7.05 4.17 .306 111 91 .808
Gumbert Pittsburgh 31 .600 7.23 4.87 .326 73 60 .909
Griffith Chicago 32 .656 6.46 3.59 .300 79 67 .901
German New York 17 .471 7.82 3.53 .288 48 15 .842
Gleason St.L. and Balti. 29 .586 6.00 3.45 .312 59 39 .841
Hemming Louis. and Balti. 40 .500 6.02 2.85 .295 140 75 .893
Hawke Baltimore 23 .562 7.17 4.08 .311 58 50 .887
Hutchinson Chicago 30 .467 7.47 3.33 .314 125 60 .716
Hawley St. Louis 47 .413 7.04 3.72 .303 121 117 .708
Inks Balti. and Louis. 24 .478 7.96 4.04 .337 75 37 .846
Killen Pittsburgh 24 .583 6.25 3.87 .303 83 57 .909
Knell Louisville 30 .200 8.46 3.60 .329 97 65 .693
Kennedy Brooklyn 42 .545 7.55 4.21 .302 134 101 .771
Menafee Louis. and Pitts. 37 .351 6.59 3.67 .309 85 78 .904
Mercer Washington 38 .421 7.18 4.09 .303 105 57 .852
Meekin New York 47 .790 4.91 2.38 .253 147 127 .798
Maul Washington 24 .458 8.08 4.08 .307 60 31 .785
Mullane Balt. and Cleve. 17 .470 8.17 4.17 .297 80 44 .740
McMahon Baltimore 34 .735 5.51 3.00 .269 109 55 .869
McGill Chicago 24 .291 8.12 3.83 .321 98 55 .846
Nichols Boston 46 .711 6.78 3.56 .291 108 98 .856
Parrott Cincinnati 37 .459 7.24 3.94 .307 120 61 .824
Rusie New York 49 .734 4.73 2.12 .253 189 204 .867
Stratton Louis. & Chicago 21 .476 9.43 5.24 .366 52 29 .931
Stockdale Washington 16 .375 7.60 3.60 .353 39 8 .825
Stivetts Boston 39 .692 7.49 3.43 .306 100 73 .913
Stein Brooklyn 42 .619 6.26 3.05 .280 162 72 .785
Staley Boston 25 .520 8.88 5.72 .344 55 29 .744
Sullivan Wash. and Cleve. 23 .348 8.26 3.74 .320 97 28 .714
Terry Chicago 19 .278 9.73 4.00 .334 91 43 .782
Taylor Philadelphia 33 .719 5.30 2.76 .281 85 79 .796
Weyhing Philadelphia 33 .545 6.72 3.49 .324 101 79 .845
Wadsworth Louisville 21 .190 9.38 4.66 .360 97 58 .703
Westervelt New York 18 .412 7.39 3.83 .297 62 28 .654
Young Cleveland 47 .532 5.83 3.17 .293 100 100 .902
Tie games—Cuppy, 1; Dwyer, 1; Daub, 1; Ehret, 1; Gumbert, 1; Hawley, 1; Inks, 1; Meekin, 4; Nichols, 1; Stein, 1; Terry, 1; Taylor 1; Westervelt,1. —————————————————————————————————————-
The Batting of 1894.
THE TEAM-WORK AT THE BAT.
It goes to the credit of the leading teams in the pennant race of 1894 that the first three clubs did better team-work at the bat, and more of it, than any previous trio of the kind known in the annals of the League. In fact, competent managers and captains of teams have learned in recent years, by costly experiment, that one of the most potent factors in winning pennants is the method of handling the ash known as good team-work at the bat the very essence of which is devoting all the batsmen's efforts to forwarding runners by base hits, and not by each player's going to the bat simply to build up a high record of base hits without regard to forwarding runners on bases. Suppose the first baseman in a game to take his position at the bat makes a two or three-bagger at the outset. Of course the object of the batsman who succeeds him would be to send the runner home the best way he can, either by a base hit or a sacrifice hit. In striving to do this, the very worst plan, is to try solely for a home run hit, as it only succeeds once in thirty or forty times, and not that against skilful, strategic pitching. Time and again were batsmen, last season, left on third base after opening the innings with a three-bagger, owing to the stupid work of the succeeding batsmen in trying to "line 'em out for a homer," instead of doing real team-work at the bat. Of course, good "sacrifice hitting" is part and parcel of team-work at the bat, but this kind of hitting was not done to any special extent last season by a majority of the League batsmen.
SACRIFICE HITTING.
There is one thing about the point of play in batting known, as "sacrifice hitting" which is not as thoroughly understood as it should be. A majority of batsmen seem to be of the impression that when they are called upon to forward a base runner by a "sacrifice hit," all they have to do is to go to the bat and have themselves put out, so that the base runner at first base may be able to reach second base on the play which puts the batsmen out. This is a very erroneous idea of the true intent of a sacrifice hit. No skilful batsmen ever goes to the bat purposely to hit the ball so as to have himself put out; that would be a very silly move. On the contrary, he takes his bat in hand every time, with the primary object of making a base hit if he possibly can; but in trying for this strongest point in batting, he proposes, to make the desired hit in such a way that if he fails to make the base hit he will at least hit the ball in that direction in the field which will oblige the fielders to throw him out at first base. With this object in view he will always strive for a safe hit to right field, especially by means of a hard "bounder" in that direction, so as to force the second baseman to run to right short to field the ball, in which case the runner at first base will be able to steal to second on the hit in nine cases out of ten. Another good effort for a sacrifice hit is to bunt the ball so that it may roll towards third base, out of reach of the baseman or pitcher. A third sacrifice hit is that of a long high ball to the outfield, which admits of a chance for a catch, but so far out in the field that the runner will have an opportunity to steal a base on the catch. This latter point won't work, of course, when two men are out; moreover, it should be the last point aimed at.
A great deal of bosh has been written—mostly by the admirers of "fungo" hitting—about sacrifice hitting being something that should not be in the game, just as these fungo-hitting-advocates try to write down bunt hitting—the most difficult place hit known to the game. This class of writers think that the very acme of batting skill is the home run hit, a hit which any muscular novice in batting on amateur fields can accomplish without difficulty, and where more home runs are made in a single season than in two seasons by the best managed professional teams. The effort to make home runs leads to more chances for catches by outfielders in one game than there are home runs made in fifty. The exhaustion which follows a home run hit, with its sprinting run of 120 yards at full speed, is entirely lost sight of by the class of patrons of the game who favor home runs. One season, a few years ago, the tail-end team of the League excelled all its rivals in scoring home runs, while the pennant-winning team took the honors and the prize solely on account of its excellence in team-work at the bat. The mere record of the best averages in scoring base hits in batting seems to be regarded by the majority of "cranks" in base ball as the only sound criterion of good batting. This is one of the fallacies of the game, as such a record is unreliable. The only true criterion of good batting is the record which shows the players who excel in the batting which forwards runners; and this record the existing scoring rules, up to 1895, did not admit of, the champion batsman being regarded as the one who excels in his base-hit average, without regard to the runners his base hits forwarded. For instance, one batsman in a game will make three three-baggers, and forward but a single runner by his three hits, while another batsman by a single base hit, a good "bunt" hit and a telling "sacrifice hit," will forward four runners; and yet by the existing scoring rules the record batsman carries off all the honors in the score, and the team-worker at the bat does not get the slightest credit for the effective batting he has done.
SACRIFICE HIT RECORD.
The following is the record of the players in the League teams of 1894 who led in sacrifice hits last season. The names are given in the order of bases stolen, as recorded in the official average tables made up by Mr. Young. The percentage figures would, of course, materially change the order.