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The Mechanics of Baseball

By Babe Ruth

The Sultan of Swat! The Bustin’ Babe! The most colorful player the game has ever seen! In these terms we habitually think of Babe Ruth. In this article he reveals many of the secrets that have made him the game’s most valuable player.

IT SEEMS strange to talk or write of baseball mechanics. Yet the term is a good one, for we who play baseball are as much mechanicians as the engineers who develop airplanes, the men who operate engines or the mechanic who tinkers with an automobile in a garage. The only difference is in the engine. Read the rest of this entry »

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How Science Has Aided National Game

Much of Improvement in Baseball Is Attributed to Evolution and Steady Progress of Mechanics and Invention WHEN Babe Ruth hits three home runs in one game or the home team cracks out a barrage of base hits to score seven or eight times in one inning, it does not necessarily mean that long-distance hitting in modern baseball comes from superiority of today’s players over those of years past. Read the rest of this entry »

Portable?

Electric Eyes Gauge Speed of Baseball

How fast can a baseball player throw a ball? A portable machine that answers this question was tried out recently at Cleveland, Ohio. Hurled into a tunnel, the ball cuts across two light beams aimed at photo-electric cells, and a mechanism registers the speed by a light flashed onto a vertical scale. Bob Feller, Cleveland pitcher, threw a ball at the rate of about seventy-five miles an hour in a test with the machine.

Belgian General Learns to Bat

GENERAL JACQUES, of the Belgian army, received a lesson in batting from an expert during his stay in America, when Babe Ruth showed the famous soldier how to “line ‘em out.” The Babe demonstrated where to meet the ball, how to stand at the plate, and how to swing.

The general proved to be an apt pupil for a man who had never had his hands on a baseball, and is said to have knocked out a couple of creditable hits. His lessons in batting, however, were not extensive enough to put him in the home run class.

Remember, it would be inappropriate to watch television wearing anything less than your Sunday best.

Television – a Season Pass to Baseball!

Every home game —day or night — played by the New York Giants, Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers will be seen over television this season!

Owning a television receiver in the New York area will be like having a season pass for all three ball clubs. And in other cities, preparations for the future telecasting of baseball are being made.
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Psychic Baseball

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EVERY MOVE IN BALL GAME IS SHOWN ON SCREEN

Play by play, practically every movement made in a baseball game at a distant park is reproduced with realistic accuracy on a thirty-foot screen for the enjoyment of theater patrons with the aid of an ingenious electrical apparatus invented by an eastern man. It is virtually a motion-picture machine without film or projector, the figures being made to move across the screen by a succession of quickly flashing lights which are wired to the telegraph instruments. Read the rest of this entry »

Mirror Teaches Batting

A huge mirror mounted on a wooden frame constitutes a new method whereby baseball “rookies” are taught proper batting form at the St. Louis Cardinals’ winter training quarters at Orlando, Florida. Standing before the mirror, the player swings his bat and quickly improves his reflected form.

Bazooka Turns Pitcher

Using the tube of a bazooka he carried during the war, Pete Wald, a New York optometrist, devised. the mechanical baseball pitcher shown below. The tube carries the balls to a motor-driven throwing arm.

Eavesdropping Mike Listens In on Umpire’s Scraps at Ball Park
So THAT baseball fans may eavesdrop on arguments between the umpire and players next spring, a “disappearing microphone” has been included in a new public-address system at a Wichita, Kans., stadium. Pressing a foot lever allows the microphone to pop from its underground box near the home plate. Through loudspeakers, the spectators then enjoy the novelty of hearing what is going on. In case a dispute becomes too heated for sensitive ears, the mike hastily retreats. As at left, it may also be used for announcements.

Camouflaged Bat Bewilders the Pitcher, But Gets Banned

THERE’S an old saying about necessity, being the mother of invention. “Goose” Goslin, outfielder for the St. Louis Browns, was having a hard time hitting that old “apple” during the spring training so he adopted a black and white striped bat, shown at the right, and proceeded to pound his way out of the slump.

This was the first time in baseball history that a camouflaged bat was used. It was designed by Willis Johnson, club secretary, who planned to equip other players with bats decorated with cross-rings, blocks and triangles until the “higher ups” declared the use of the bat illegal.

Old And New Communication Methods Combined

Old and new methods of communication were combined recently when a Cincinnati radio station used carrier pigeons to speed pictures of a baseball game between Cincinnati Rends and Pittsburgh Pirates to its studio for immediate transmission.