In September of 1896 Westfield Massachusetts’ William “Adonis” Terry would write an article for the Chicago News which also appeared in the Brooklyn Eagle regarding the evolution of pitching regulations and its effect on the game. This is a great article for two important reasons; A) This is in Terry’s own words, B) There was no one in the game at the time as successful as Terry who not only survived the changes over the years but also thrived, especially in the later years of his career when the last change to the pitching format was the most drastic. He was one of only a very few who made the successful transition of pitching from 55’ 6” to 60’ 6”.
Born in Westfield Massachusetts, Terry began his professional career in 1883 with the then Brooklyn Grays pitching side-arm in the pitcher’s box that all us modern day vintage ballists are familiar with. By the time his major league career was over in 1897, he was pitching from 60’ 6” and throwing off a rubber slab.
It is interesting to note the irony in this where we modern ballists struggle playing backwards with the rules of the late 19th century while Terry tells of the struggles of the 19th century ballists playing forward. To learn more about the career of Adonis Terry checkout http://adonisterry.tripod.com
Dan “Gunner” Genovese
‘Hard To Pitch Nowadays’
Adonis Terry
September, 1896
Pitching today is a very different job from what it was twenty years ago, or ten or even five. Rules have been changed and tinkered with; distances have been lengthened and a myriad of tricks, calculated to embarrass the pitcher, have been vainly tried. Unless the rulemakers take into their heads to so fix the rules that the pitcher will simply have to stand up and lob the ball over the plate the pitcher will remain autocrat of the game and batting averages will continue to be under .500.
No matter what the changes in the rules might be, the men who were the pitchers under one style remained pitchers under the next arrangement. Some of them have been driven out of the business by the changes from time to time, but the pitchers who survived had been pitchers before and they have never succeeded in inventing rules which would make twirlers out of short stops or great box stars out of fielders.
Pitching under the ancient round arm delivery was a curious process and I fancy that only the short distances prevented the pitchers from being hit even harder than they were, and some of the old time games had scores large enough to satisfy any crank on batting. Then the pitchers were allowed to get their arms higher and higher, until all restrictions were done away with and they could throw where and when they wanted. The system under which the Chicago team won its glory (Chicago White Stockings won back-to-back National League pennants in 1885 & 1886) was that which allowed the batter to call for a ball where he wanted it, high or low, and the command which this necessitated from the pitcher was marvelous. Seven balls were called before a batter could take his base and the number was none too great under such circumstances. During the period of the call for your ball rule an idiocy requiring the pitcher to keep both feet on the ground while throwing the ball was perpetrated (for the 1885 season the National League implemented this rule in order to slow velocity). If you don’t think that rule was a strain, just take a ball and try to throw it, even with moderate speed, and keep both feet fixed on the ground. It requires a gyration of arm and body that’s worse then seven Delsarte lessons (A popular form of expression through dance that encompasses almost gymnastic type movements).
With the three strike and four ball rule, originally four strikes and five balls, the pitchers began to develop great speed and fine control. Then the howl about the pitcher domination began to be raised and the batting cranks commenced to scream about the advantage given the pitcher. Even so, the science of batting and the art of fielding were advancing just as rapidly as the talent of the pitcher. There were fewer strikeouts to the game in 1892, last year of the fifty feet distance, than used to be the rule in 1887. The ball was coming in faster no doubt, but the keen eyed fellows at the rubber weren’t missing it to any great degree. It was the work of the fellows in the field that was killing the batting. There were games where only one hit would be chalked up for a team, and yet the winning pitcher would have only four or five strikeouts. The fielders have taken care of all the rest. Something had to be done, however, to still the popular clamor for more batting, and, of course, the poor pitcher had to suffer. So the box was abolished, a small strip of rubber substituted, science and change of place and pace were discouraged by compelling the pitcher to keep his foot on that slab, and the slab itself was set back in the diamond (Interestingly, Terry would comment in an earlier article in February of 1895 that some of the early struggles and cheating pitchers would perform with the rubber. With the rubber, being just 12” wide at the time, many pitchers would stand either far off to the left or far off to the right of the rubber because pitchers who pitched from the rubber would create a deep hole, nearly six inches causing pitchers to become off-balance and lose command. Umpires would rarely enforce this rule and opposing captains would never point this out. Eventually, the rubber was widened to 24” wide). That worked pretty well. The slugger had a fraction more time to judge the ball. As I said, they could hit it before, but they had to make quick haphazard snaps at the ball. Now they have time to, at least, make an attempt to place it. The result was a most satisfactory increase in the slugging.
But all the rules ever invented to hamper the pitcher couldn’t kill his fielders, and the men behind the pitcher have now learned to play for men under the new rules just as under the old. Batting averages were a shade lower in 1895 than in 1894, and are quite a little smaller so far this season. The fielders have gauged their men…that is all.
Formerly a pitcher could go in every other day with perfect safety. Now a rest of at least two days between games is necessary, and many pitchers cannot be worked more than one day in four. The extra distance makes a man work that much harder to send the ball up the way he used to do. There has been a change, too, in the tricks of the trade. We used to largely rely upon great speed, with short, fast curves, alternated with a slow ball. You can all remember the drop ball of Buffington and Ramsey, Luby’s sharp outcurve, Keefe’s slow ball, John Clarkson’s variety of fast and slow balls (Terry cites pitchers, some Hall of Famers and some of limited success, whose careers were, for the most part, finished when the pitching distance was moved back five feet). Nowadays, the curves are necessarily wider and slower, and all such scientific tricks as a change of pace, keeping the ball up around the batter’s neck and the simple process of sending it over at medium speed, straight and true, with trust in the fielder for safety, are the proper scheme. A drop curve is hard to throw now, and a drop curve pitchers had a terrible time the first year of the new rules, as everything they threw would hit the plate. A wide out-curve can be seen and judged much easier than in the old days, and an incurve works rather batter. The fast, high ball, with a little raise to it, and a drop by a man that can keep it up from the plate, are the curves of the day.
Chicago News
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
September 15, 1896
