1998 Volume 121 No 1–4 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

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Lou: Well, there's no question about the three greatest and
most outstanding ballplayers in the history of baseball have
been Ruth, Cobb and Wagner. Now personally, Ruth was a
typical fan's ballplayer and Cobb was a typical individual
ballplayer, because I believe
he had more enemies
on the ball
field than any
man in the history
of baseball
because he
played it so hard
and he thought
of nobody. I
mean cutting
slashing or anything
to gain his
end, he went
through. And yet
I think Honus
Wagner was the
typical ballplayers'
ballplayer or the
manager's ballplayer. Because
he was always thinking of winning and doing what he
could for the other fellow, for himself, and for his manager
and for the fans.
Anc: That's Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Honus Wagner.
Lou: That's right.
Anc: Do you think there's a different-of course, this is a question
that comes up from time to time-do you think there's really
a different brand of baseball played in the National and
The constant milling around, the hundreds
of photographers, the hundreds of
newspaper men, and the thousands of
requests for autographs on scorecards and
baseballs and things Kke that. They tend to
tense a ballplayer up.
American Leagues
Lou: (Laughter) Well, being an American Leaguer I'd be
naturally prejudiced, but the differences is not exactiy noticeable,
I don't beUeve. Of course, the American League will
use the figures in the World Series and All Star games of the
last ten or twelve years as proof.
Anc: When you take the star players from both leagues, I
imagine each has about as many star players as the other.
Lou: Well, no question about it.
Anc: Do ballplayers read the sport sections as avidly as
the fans do, that is, read the sports pages, the line-ups of
the day's games and do they resent criticisms of sportswriters
and the boos of the fans
Lou: They don't resent the fair criticism and they probably
read the sports pages much more closely than the
fan does because ballplayers know how to read the box
score. They read down below and they read everything
very carefuUy, and they can probably give you more of a
resume of a ballgame from not being there. They can tell
you more about it. That's how closely they read the box
score.
Anc: It's business to them and fun for the average public.
Lou: Right, we read it every morning as a business, where
the fan will only read it at his convenience, you see.
Anc: Are the pitchers able to get an idea of the weakness
of the various players from the box scores at all
Lou: Definitely. We may have trouble with a certain type
hitter and we may pitch him high, we may pitch him low,
we may switch on him, we may do different things. And
yet we see a certain type pitcher that will have success
with them continually, and we know his type of pitching
will be a weakness, so we tend to throw him accordingly.
Anc: I've often wondered, how is it possible for one pitcher
to know all about every batter that he pitches against. Is
that entirely possible
Lou: Absolutely is. A lot of major league ballplayers even
go so far that they don't depend on their memory at all.
They go home at night and jot down the weaknesses of
certain hitters and any time they come to that town they
take out that notebook, and review the notes and they
refresh themselves, and when they walk out at the
ballpark they know the first man hits a high ball. They
know the second man, the third
man hit low balls, and then
they pitch accordingly.
Anc: You've got to have an
education of some sort to
play baseball
Lou: No question about
it!
Anc: Do you believe the
young player should receive
thorough seasoning in the
minor leagues
16 THE SCROLL SPRING 1998 http://www.phidelt-ghq.com