view raw text
SPORTS CLOSE-UPS By Ira Seebachen NEW YORK, N. Yi? June 22.— Abe Lincoln was learning to split rails the first time a pitcher decided that discretion was not not only only the the better better not not only only the the better better part of valor but in the decision to walk a dangerous hitter, learned it could also be the strategy necessary to win games. Naturally, the intentional walk will always have its critics, those who believe it is their natural right to see the pitcher come wheeling down the wheeling down the middle with a nice fat one for the local batting star to lob into the seats with the accuracy of a mortar. If you stop to think, you will realize that there is no way to prevent a pitcher from walking a dangerous batter. He just doesnt have to find the plate and unless the hitter goes fishing for the bad ones, he must take the walk that is ultimately dished out. If this is cheating the fans of the action they are entitled to see, we fail to find the sympathies to expend for them. It is just as easy to sympathize with the pitcher who needs all his cunning to get the blasted ball past the tough hitters. The way the ball has been juiced up, any sort of a connection is likely to see the ball sailing into the seats. A A . A We, for one, are not one of those who feel the best part of baseball is the big slam. We go for the finesse of the game as well, for the pitcher intent on beating the batter and the batter content to reach out and pole a deftly hit and timely single. True, the game has passed beyond the Willie Keeler stage of hitting em where they aint, but who is there so brash as to say the bombing type of game today is a better game for all of it. Wheres the finesse of coming up in a payoff situation and swatting the air prodigiously three times to leave everyone stranded while trying for the homer? We have no tears — not even of the crocodile variety — for Mickey Mantle who, statistics will show, is being walked more often than not when he comes to bat. We will admit that it takes courage to pitch to him but we think, too, that if winning is the important thing, the team that deliberately walks a hitter is conceding a certain edge or advantage to an opponent which sooner or later must mitigate against the conceding team. This slight edge is enough to satisfy the most rabid fans. No matter what Mantle might hit if pitched to throughout the year, he couldnt possibly be worth as much to a team as he would be if he was conceded first base every time it was his turn to bat. On base, he represents a potential run. That potentiality must be realized a sufficient number of times, no matter how he reaches first. This is the edge his prowess brings and it is just as exciting to see him paralyze the pitchers with fear as to see him hit a couple into the seats. Thats all a part of Continued on Page Forty-Eight SPORTS CLOSE-UPS By IRA SEEBACHER ConUnuea itom Page Two the game and the cry-babies will have you believe it is unsporting. "* * * * « In other sports, there are parallel situations. In boxing, the man taking the beating can quit if he cant go on. This is his concession. It happens to be a more final one than the intentional pass but, to continue the parallel in boxing, weve often seen fighters who, believing they are ahead, deliberately, coast one round or so, giving those rounds away in the scoring so as to-have something left for the rest of the fight. Isnt that somewhat the same? Recently in a jumping affair, Billy Steinkraus decided to concede the first place jumping to the ultimate winner, knowing his horse was tired and couldnt match the almost perfect jumping round of the winner. He was roundly criticized by some. Yet he conceded because he felt he could not win and did not want to punish his horse. Here again, the critics insist there is an implied obligation to the spectator while the competitors feel there is no such obligation. "There may always be this difference of opinion but, as we see it, the spectator is allowed to watch on condition he accepts the rules and does not attempt to dictate them. The rules are not always based on the beset tenets of showmanship alone. To regard showmanship as paramount would be to concede the sporting element of a contest as secondaiy to keeping the customers happy. They Rave to be content with the results and have no right to- boo the miler who runs to win rather than set a record, the pitcher who pitches too carefully to a Mickey Mantle and the boxer who coasts a middle round when leading in the scoring. Similarly, the team that runs out the clock in football with a lot of aimless and time-consuming ground plays is playing to win, not send the customer into a tizzy with a daring and fool-ishlyv irresponsible aerial display when the victory is in the bag. Critics of these strategems just dont, understand the primary purpose which is to win within the rules.
