Page:Spalding's Baseball Guide (1894).djvu/41

 Rh than in that of the occupant of the pitcher's 'box.' The pitcher who cannot control his temper is as unfit for his position as is a quick-tempered billiard player to excel as a winner in professional contests. Quick temper is the mortal foe of cool judgment, and it plays the mischief with that nervy condition so necessary in the development of skillful strategy. The pitcher must of necessity be subject to annoyances well calculated to try a man's temper; especially when his best efforts in pitching are rendered useless by the blunders of incompetent fielders, or he finds himself at the mercy of a prejudiced umpire. But under such trying circumstances his triumph is all the greater if he can pluck victory out of the fire of such opposition, by the thorough control of his temper." This is something only a small minority of League pitchers did in 1893.

In recording the pitchers' statistics of 1893, we are again obliged to use the figures of the percentage of victories pitched in as a criterion of the pitching excellence of the season. The League code of playing rules still continues to be lamentably deficient in the method adopted in recording earned runs. We introduced the record of runs earned twenty odd years ago, simply as a test of pitching skill; and it was intended to apply only to runs solely earned by base hits, and not by skillful base running and the fielding errors such running involves. But the League code still retains the blundering rule in this respect, which credits a run as earned off the pitching if only a single base hit be made, such hit being followed by two or more stolen bases. Consequently the official record of earned runs, which decides a pitcher's relative position in the averages by the percentage of runs earned off his pitching by a combination of base hits and stolen bases, still remains utterly useless as a criterion of excellence in box work, though it may indicate the fact that the combination has led to runs being actually earned, but not solely off the pitching.

The increased distance between the catcher and the pitcher, required under the new rules of 1893, materially helped the catcher by lessening the speed of the delivery and consequently the arduous duties of the catcher's position to that extent; and the result was fewer passed balls and more effective work behind the bat than in previous seasons. There was, however, too many changes made in the