This Gold Bat, Presented to Daubert by Brooklyn Fans on April 9, 1913, Brought Him the Batting Supremacy of the National League JAKE DAUBERT—A Self-Made Success The Romantic Career of Brooklyn’s Idol—Daubert, Like Ed Walsh, Began Life as a Coal Miner— How He Boosted His Batting Average a Hundred Points in a Year—Expects to End Where He Began—In a Mine By F. C. LANE HREE hundred and seven was my no reason to. Last year I admit I last season’s batting average but reached that mark, but everything broke T I am not a three hundred hitter. just right for me. To tell the truth I I would like to think I am, but I have was very lucky, for I know that my aver- 33 34 THE BASEBALL MAGAZINE age batting gait is nowhere near three of every ball player’s ambition. There hundred. I think I am about a .250 hit- is a good reason for this. Success in ter. I cannot claim to be any more, but most occupations is not easy to define. of course I shall always do my best.” This is partly because every individual has his own idea of what success really A REMARKABLE LIFE STORY is, but more because there is no clear dividing line which separates the success- We were seated in the lobby of the ful from the unsuccessful man. In other Copley Square Hotel in Boston. The words, the average man never knows speaker was Jake Daubert, already ac- definitely whether or not he has reached knowledged by those who knew as one his goal. He may be successful in the of the greatest fielders in the game. With eyes of his associates without being a simple frankness which is character- aware of the fact, or he may be success- istic of the man, he had been recounting ful in his own eyes with no apparent the graphic story of his life; a story that cause for such opinion so far as anyone touched the lowest depths of despond- else can see. In the ball player’s case ency, yet reached at times to heights of there is no such doubt and uncertainty. promise that seemed dim and visionary For his special benefit, it would seem, an even to himself. The man who, at the age arbitrary sign has been established as of twenty-seven, had fought and over- definite almost as the dead line at Ander- come more difficulties than most men sonville Prison. This is the three hun- ever confront in a lifetime, was unfold- dred batting average. True, the batter ing the story of his career. It was a who slumps below this figure is not dramatic story, beginning with the time necessarily a failure, neither is the player when he was a poor breaker-boy in a who can hit and do nothing else neces- Pennsylvania coal mine, with never a sarily a success. But in his own eyes, hope that rose beyond the murky air of and the eyes of the public as well, the a typical mining village. Year after year big leaguer who can hit safely three of monotonous routine, varied only by times in ten is separated thereby from the danger of sudden death by cave-in, the great majority of his fellow players. or explosion, a story of ceaseless strug- The stars may shine below the range gle at the hardest and most hopeless of of vision. But you can’t see them till tasks seemed the limit of his hopes. they rise above the horizon. The .300 Then came the sudden shifting of the mark is the batter’s horizon. There may scene from this dreary atmosphere to a be star batters below that mark. But field where his peculiar talents should the public doesn’t see them till they climb win for him a measure of success far above the .300 mark. greater than he had ever dared to dream. Without conscious effort in a voice that DAUBERT VERSUS CHASE thrilled with earnestness he told his story until the listener shared in the modest It was in the spring of 1912 that Dau- triumph of the coal miner buried deep bert told me the story of his remarkable in the obscurity of his dreary calling rise into baseball prominence, a success who all at once found himself famous. that was nevertheless darkened by his But through his story there ran an under- fancied deficiency as a batter. A brief current of sadness. space of two years, however, is a long “I think I was naturally a pretty fair time in a game so full of uncertainties fielder and, of course, in the amateur as baseball, but it is safe to say that no games we had in the mining country I period, even in baseball, had witnessed a was as good a batter as the rest. But greater transformation in a player with that wasn’t saying very much. It is true acknowledged talents than the case of when I was a minor leaguer I seemed Daubert. The Brooklyn captain was fa- to be able to hit, but that doesn’t carry mous even before he entered the majors a man very far in the majors. And I as a wonderfully clever fielder. His tal- don’t mind saying that any ball player, ent was not obscured in the least when whoever he is, would rather be able to brought into relief against the back- hit than anything else.” ground of Major League superiority. In The three hundred mark is the goal fact his brilliant fielding has shone all JAKE DAUBERT—A SELF-MADE SUCCESS 35 the brighter through four years’ associa- tion with the stars of the diamond. With the passing of Hal Chase and his wiz- ardly fielding, Daubert has come into his own. No player ever basked in a greater popularity than Chase. For years the public was dazzled by his unrivaled skill. There was an ease, a grace, a glit- ter about his work which perhaps no other first baseman has ever equaled. But the very brilliancy of his exploits blinded the eye of the usually observing fan to a number of serious defects. The public is prone to lavish too much of its favor on the athlete who can do certain things connected with his work a little better than anyone else can do them. In their admiration for a popular idol they are all too inclined to lose sight of much more substantial merits or defects in the mere external. We have no criti- cisms to make of Chase, but, even before the popularity of the once great High- land star began to wane, we were priv- ileged to select Jake Daubert as the great- est first baseman on the diamond. We believe the public admired Chase for what he might have been as well as for his admitted matchless skill in fielding his position. We also believe the same public will appreciate Daubert rather for what he is, all the more so since his suc- cess has been won in the face of tre- mendous difficulties solely by sterling merit. Daubert has probably never made or never will make some of the sensa- tional plays which Chase alone could han- dle. But we believe he is a more valu- able all round player to-day than Chase was, even in his prime, and while his As He Looked the Day He Was Signed fielding may lack something of that fin- by Cleveland ish, or rather glitter, for which Chase was famous, the Brooklyn captain is un- acteristic modesty he set the .250 mark doubtedly one of the most brilliant first as his proper average. basemen the game has ever known. Why take Jake Daubert as a type of batting success? If you are trying to DAUBERT’S BATTING RISE WAS learn at first hand how championships RECENT are won, why not consider Ty Cobb, who has worn the batting crown for years? Two years ago, then, Daubert, while a or Napoleon Lajoie, who has won so wonderful fielder, was not a sensational many laurels they fairly clutter up the batter. He started his Major League walls of his trophy room? or that reso- career with an average of .266. The lute old warrior, Hans Wagner, and his second season he batted for .307. This ”Seventeen Seasons’ Success”? was very good, but even he himself, as DAUBERT PHILOSOPHY we have seen, considered it a pace which his fancied limitations as a batter would Any ball player would rather be a not allow him to maintain. With char- good batter than anything else. 36 THE BASEBALL MAGAZINE

I used to dream about hitting .300 other batters of his league, the undis- in the Majors, but I never expected to puted champion. get there. “I should think it would be an awful Two seasons I hit for .307, but I struggle to fight your way to the head of couldn’t believe I deserved that aver- the batting profession,” I once said to age. Joe Jackson, perhaps the greatest natural I felt sure it was far beyond my nat- batter who ever lived. “It is some job ural gait and counted myself very all right,” answered Joe, “but,” he added lucky to reach the mark once. significantly, “it isn’t so hard to get to I figured I was a .250 hitter, and the head of the procession as it is to that whatever success I might have keep there.” would be due to fielding. In view of the many times the Cleve- It is true that I hit last year for .350, lander has reached that coveted station, just an even 100 points higher than I only to be dragged back and supplanted thought two seasons ago was my nat- by his tireless rival, Ty Cobb, there was ural speed. much sage philosophy in his remark. Boosting a batting average 100 What he said has a direct bearing on points looks like a hard task. Daubert’s great record. It is a much I believe three things accounted for more exhausting strain to keep up a .300 my success last year: First, luck; sec- pace, day after day, in the face of gilt- ond, the knowledge experience had edged pitching than to get there in the given me; third, simply trying to do first place, as witness the large number my best at all times. of embryo batsmen who start the season Some batters are natural hitters like with a rush, and a sweep, and a three Hans Wagner and Joe Jackson. These hundred average, only to drift steadily men are born batters, and don’t seem downward in the stress and strain of to need much experience. mid-season.

A ONE-HUNDRED-POINT BOOST We admit the batting greatness of these men. We know of the wonderful Daubert not only hit at a pace which records they have made. And if our he deemed beyond his strength (the .300 theme had been merely one of batting mark), but he increased that pace be- championships, we would have con- yond what he considered humanly pos- sulted them as experts of the highest sible. He deemed .250 his true average. ability. But our theme is not merely He finished last season champion of the one of batting championships. It is at National League, with a mark of .350. once narrower and broader. It is the Boosting a batting average one hundred story of what one man accomplished in points is rather an unusual feat, even in the face of obstacles that were all but baseball. Some players might feel puffed insuperable; one man, a slender athlete up about it, and no one could blame with a losing club, who was considered them very much. But that is not the a good fielder but never a brilliant batter. case with Jake Daubert. It is the story of this man, who thought “How did you do it, Jake?” I asked in his own heart that when he exceeded the Brooklyn captain just after his re- the .250 mark he was doing really better turn from his recent successful trip to than he had any right to expect; but Cuba. “How did you lead the National who, nevertheless, patiently, persistently, League this year? A man who told me though most of his best effort went un- less than two years ago that he wasn’t rewarded, almost unobserved, struggled good for more than .250?” on, scaled the heights which looked so in- “Do you know,” he answered in his accessible, nor paused even with an as- usual honest directness of speech, “I sured position beyond the three hundred really can’t say. I don’t know. It is mark which he himself deemed beyond the hardest thing in the world for me his strength; but kept right on until, after to explain.” disappointments and discouragements It was hard for Daubert to explain you will never know, he at length found how he had done what he considered himself on the very pinnacle, above all impossible. I appreciated his difficulty. JAKE DAUBERT—A SELF-MADE SUCCESS 37

But what he could not tell me off hand, in answer to my unexpected question, he gave me in a number of long conver- sations at his new Brooklyn home; name- ly, what he considered the reasons for his remarkable progress in batting. I. Experience is the first factor in success as a batsman. “When I worked in the mines, they used to have to pound the jumper. That is, one man would hold a heavy iron peg and the rest would swing on it with sledge hammers. If you tried it you probably couldn’t hit it at all, and yet those men who are used to such work can keep pounding away with their full strength and never miss, though they hardly have their mind on the work-at all. It is just practice, like everything else, and there is no doubt that practice has made a better hitter of me than I was before.” Great batters are born, not made, in the sense that they must possess some natural talent for the craft. But the public easily exaggerates the importance of this obvious truth. “They remember that Joe Jackson has always been a terrific hitter, that Nap Lajoie and Hans Wagner and many other great stars were wonders almost from the first. This is true. They were born batters, if you will, but whether they gained it in the amateur ranks or in the minors, or somewhere else, they acquired a necessary finish to their extra- ordinary talents by that simple old rem- edy—experience.” (Jake does so cheer- fully enough.) “I do not believe I ever practiced more than the average player, but I know that practice, or rather ex- perience, has probably done a great deal to put me where I am now. “None of us are any more than hu- man. No batter is so great at the start that he can’t improve with experience. That is my belief at least, but I will speak for myself at any rate and say that in my own case I would put confi- dence first. Jake Won the Cup in 1911 as the Most Popular Brooklyn Player II. No man can bat without confidence. “When I joined the Brooklyn team,” said Jake, “the pitchers looked about ten the floor. “That was my first trouble, feet high, and, as for me, I felt about so lack of confidence. big,” and he indicated with his hand an “Confidence is the foundation of all elevation about a foot and a half above batting. I have gained confidence now, 38 THE BASEBALL MAGAZINE

themselves. Jake might have added, though he did not do so, that his own lack of confidence which so handicapped his early batting career was a dominant trait of his character in other respects as well. No one ever truthfully accused Jake Daubert of overestimating his abil- ity in any line. III. Of course, good physique is an asset to a ball player. There is a certain type of physical build peculiar to most athletic sports. Pitchers are almost invariably men of more than DAUBERT PHILOSOPHY “I think a man must have some nat- ural ability as a batter to start with, but the rest depends upon the use he makes of it. Whatever their ability, most batters need experience. I know I would never have gone very far without it Most young players fail to hit through their own imagination. They Jacob Daubert, Sr., Who Worked in the Coal think the pitcher is a good deal more Mines 57 Years wonderful than he is and underrate their own importance. The first time I faced a big league or I would never have been able to keep pitcher in a box, he looked as big as a above the .200 mark. By confidence I house. do not mean that every time I step to A batter wouldn’t go very far with- the plate I expect to hit safe. I do ex- out confidence. When I was batting pect to make a try for it, and generally .266 for Brooklyn I lacked confidence. do at least hit the ball. I know now that Now I have it. By confidence I do not all pitchers, even the greatest, are only mean certainty I will make a safe hit human beings like myself, that they are every time I face a pitcher, but cer- not half as much to be dreaded as I tainty that I can hit the ball. thought they were once, and that there Pitchers, however famous, are hu- is nothing supernatural about their skill. man beings like the rest of us. “I remember very well the first time It doesn’t take much physical I ever faced Christy Mathewson in the strength to be a .300 hitter. All ball box. He looked to me as big as a house. players are in athletic trim, but, if a You see, I was over-awed by my opin- .300 hitter needed any great weight or ion of his ability more than by the man muscle, I would never have made good himself. That is not saying that Mathew- myself. son is not a wonderful pitcher, because he is, but I was guilty of the same error average height, strength, and weight. It which makes nine-tenths of the young is conceded that these qualifications are batters so much clay in a master-pitcher’s all but essential to that particular posi- hands. They exaggerate the pitcher’s tion. There are physical qualifications ability and underestimate their own. for other positions on the diamond, and The cure for this is confidence.” it would not be fair to say that they do Daubert’s estimate of the value of con- not have some influence over a batter’s fidence is undoubtedly accurate. Most success. But in the main there is no batters are defeated not by the skill of reason, so far as build is concerned, why the opposing pitcher or any lack of skill any baseball player of average strength on their own part. They really defeat should not become a three hundred hitter. JAKE DAUBERT—A SELF-MADE SUCCESS 39

In the days of Anson it would have seemed contrary to common sense to suppose that a player could become a champion batter unless he was a big man physically, with a proportionate amount of brute strength. The batters of that day were usually sluggers. They were men who liked to swing the bat with the full force of their powerful shoulders and drive the ball a mile. The slugger will always play an important part in DAUBERT PHILOSOPHY It doesn’t take much strength to drive a ball out of the infield. The slugging batter puts his strength into extra bases, rather than extra hits. The slugger can drive the ball farther on account of his strength than the man who lacks his muscle, but he can’t drive it safe any oftener. I never was a slugger myself, for I haven’t the strength or that style of batting which the sluggers almost al- ways use. I am a chop hitter rather than a The Ball Player’s Children, Louise and George, slugger. Seven Years Ago When Their Father You can tell by looking at a batter Was a Miner whether he is a natural chop hitter or a slugger. Sam Crawford is a typical slugger erally sluggers. But I seldom try to with broad shoulders and great physi- slug, myself.” cal strength. IV. Speed is the word, to-day. Joe Jackson is a slugger, though he looks rather slender. He is of that de- If there be one word which more ceiving wiry build, and has a good deal nearly expresses the whole spirit of mod- of strength in his shoulders and arms. ern baseball than any other, that word Frank Baker doesn’t look very is “speed.” The spectators demand a strong, but he is big-boned, and his game that is full of electric thrills and wrists unusually developed. exhilarates by its variety and energy. They want a game that is filled with baseball, but, along with his acknowl- scintillating plays, but that does not last edged ability to hit the ball hard and beyond its allotted time. Many of the drive it far into the field for extra bases, so-called innovations of baseball are de- has grown up the recognized need for signed to shorten the games. The um- the smaller, slenderer athlete who, in- pires are instructed to keep things mov- stead of swinging at the ball, chops at it ing. In recognition of the popular and is content with driving it only a few clamor for excitement, baseball has feet, so long as he can gain the coveted grown fast in every department. haven of first base. Fleetness of foot is a valuable quality, “A man must have some strength to almost a necessary quality in the star be a great batter, but not so much as player. Some few, like Cravath or La- most people think. If he did, I should joie, are forgiven their slowness on the never be much of a batter myself, for bases for their tremendous hitting power. I am not unusually strong in any way. As a whole, however, speed bears a most Of course, the stronger and heavier a conspicuous part in batting success. “It player is, the harder he will be able to is thirty yards from home plate to first hit the ball. The clean-up men are gen- base. I figure that a fast base-runner 40 THE BASEBALL MAGAZINE

DAUBERT PHILOSOPHY V. Daubert, unlike McGraw, believes Cactus Cravath, Heine Zimmerman, in luck. and Chief Meyers are all typical slug- John McGraw once said there is no gers. luck in baseball. Probably he didn’t An ideal example of a chop hitter, mean exactly that, and in any case this quick, nervous, active, is John Evers. misleading declaration of the little Na- Some players can slug or chop at a poleon has been given an exaggerated ball with equal skill. Ty Cobb is the prominence among his many wiser say- greatest of batters largely on this ac- ings. A daring critic here and there count. may deny the influence, even the very The fielders never know where to existence, of luck, but players and fans play for him. The man who always with few exceptions unite in saying that slugs is at a disadvantage if the fielders many of the weird, freaky and unusual can lay for his hits. plays are merely the workings of poor, Speed is as useful to the batter as to blinded chance. For there are certain the base stealer. plays in almost every game which cannot When a slow runner gets to first on be ascribed either to the brilliancy or a hit he has earned his passage. stupidity of the players involved. A fast man gets to first on a play Luck, or fortune, or fate, or whatever that will be an infield out to the slow you choose to call it, has been given a runner. reputation it does not wholly deserve. The value of speed in batting is this: True, it has been overworked and mis- The sprinter beats out the slow runner used. A man who has failed in his am- in a dash from home plate to first base bitions too easily recognizes in luck the by about a stride. The fast man drives cause of his misfortunes. A man who a ball to shortstop and beats out the has made a success is too prone to claim throw by a foot. The slow runner all his credit for himself. This is the drives the ball to shortstop in exactly odd feature in Jake Daubert’s explana- the same way, but is caught at first. tion of his success. Result, fast man makes a single, slow “I cannot claim that I have really man is out. Result, the value of speed, earned my success. I am not trying to or, as I would put it, some men bat say, of course, that success is anything .300 with their legs as well as their unusual, but to me it seems great com- arms. pared with what I hoped to do when I was a coal miner. It is so much better will beat the slow one to first by about than anything I supposed possible for one step. That is, a scratch hit is me that I cannot believe it is merely the made and the slow man will be called result of my own efforts. True, I have out, for a good percentage of the worked hard at all times and have al- plays at first base are closer than a ways played my best. But I consider hair.” myself a very lucky man. Speed is usually considered more as “Luck is a big item in baseball. I will an advantage of a base-runner than as not say it is the most important thing a necessary element in batting. But it in the game, because I do not believe it is an undoubted truth that a fast man is, but I know that it is a great deal more like Ty Cobb converts many apparently important than many people suppose, and certain outs to scratch hits, and it is I think it has done better with me than equally true that the slow-footed batter I deserve. has a tremendous handicap to overcome “The infield hit helped me as much as in his very lack of speed. any one thing to win the batting cham- “I believe a good deal of getting down pionship. The infield hit is mostly luck. to first is due to the start. Some men People may tell you differently, but they have taken a good step down the base don’t know what they are talking about. path and are going full speed before Does anybody suppose that when I, or other players equally fleet of foot have any other batter, drive a slow roller to gotten fairly started. A fast start is just short stop and manage to beat the throw as important as speed anywhere else.” to first that that is what we are trying JAKE DAUBERT—A SELF-MADE SUCCESS 41

With the Toledo Club on Umbrella Rock, Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, in 1909. Can You Find Jake in the Picture? to do? Anybody with any intelligence to short or wherever it is hit, and the knows this is not so. I will not speak difficulty the receiver may have in getting for other players but I will speak for hold of it in time to catch me at first. myself. When I swing at a pitched ball Now, if I go to first on a play of that and connect with a hit of this kind it kind, the official scorer will call it a hit. means only one thing. It means I have It is a hit, but it was caused by no ability absolutely failed to do what I was try- on my part. Remember that I had failed ing to do. What I actually had in mind to do what I intended. As far as my was to drive the ball through the infield. ability went, I had no license to reach No batter in his senses, unless he was first base at all, but luck stepped very trying to bunt, would have anything else kindly on the diamond and took things in mind. I swung at the ball, and in- out of my hands, so to speak, and stead of doing what I had in mind, with- changed a very bad play on my part into out first hitting it hard, I almost missed a hit. If that isn’t luck, what is it? Of it. As soon as I swung I knew that I course, people will say that a man’s speed had missed it, but the only thing for me must be allowed for in a case like this. to do was to drop the bat on the instant I have already admitted that speed was and run as fast as I could to first base. a valuable thing for any batter to have. This is the only thing any batter can do It is true that a fast man can beat out an in such a case. All the time I am cover- infield hit that a slow man would fail ing that long 30-yard distance between on, and you can call that special talent home plate and first, you can picture me if you want to. But I claim that a fast blaming myself for making such a bad man, no matter how great his speed, has swipe at that ball, and all the time I well no more license to make errors like this know that, outside of my own speed, the than a slow man. It takes more than only thing that can mend matters now is speed to beat out infield hits. They are the slowness with which that ball travels failures on the batter’s part, pure and 42 THE BASEBALL MAGAZINE

drive it straight with my full strength. Here, I have actually done what I set out to do. I have actually done all that any batter could do; all that lies within the possibilities of human skill. But what happens? The ball travels straight into some infielder’s hands or curves into the far outfield near enough to one of the outfielders so that he can catch it. The result? I get no credit in the batting records for doing all that a human being could do. That is, meeting the ball square and driving it hard. So you see luck doesn’t always favor the batter. But what I mean to say when I claim that I have been lucky in making some evi- dently real hits is merely this: I made more than my fair share of these lucky raps, and believe I was no more unlucky in hitting balls to the fielders’ hands than the average batter, so I am willing to admit that luck ought to get some of the credit for whatever might seem above the ordinary in my batting record for 1913.”

Daubert at Eighteen BROOKLYN’S CAPTAIN IS TOO MODEST Jake Daubert has given his opinions simple, and I, for one, am willing to ad- on luck and the part it has played in his mit that, when I make one of these so- career. We have no wish to add or de- called hits, I have been helped one step tract from anything he has said. We up the batting ladder by pure luck. believe it is clear to a great majority of “I remember once, when I was at the close baseball students that luck is a tre- plate, the pitcher sent in a vicious drive mendously vital factor in most affairs which looked to me as though it would of the diamond. But we also believe hit me in the face. I stepped back to that Daubert entirely overrates the bene- dodge it and involuntarily raised the bat fit he claims to have derived from this to protect my face. I had not the slight- fickle hazard of the game. The Brook- est idea of even trying to touch the ball, lyn captain is entirely too modest, too but it struck the upraised bat exactly unassuming, too ready to disclaim credit square and bounded into the outfield so for the success he has long merited. hard that I was able to get to second Doctor Osler once said that a man of base before the fielder could catch it. sixty was old enough to die. At least That was a two-base hit in the records, that was the gist of his theory, though but how much of the credit of that hit the exact language he used escapes our belonged to me, and how much to luck? memory. No doubt the worthy Doctor’s When I say that I have been lucky this audacious claim caused more protest year, I mean for one thing that I beat than it deserved from men of eighty, out more infield hits than I ever did in a who were managing railroads or sawing single season. wood for a living, but if Osler had said “Luck doesn’t always favor the bat- that an active baseball player’s career ter, of course. Sometimes she works should terminate not at sixty, but twenty directly against him. Take another case. years earlier, his daring would have Suppose I am at the plate and the ball raised not a ripple on the placid sea of comes in. I judge it exactly right. This public opinion. time I swing my shoulders to the one- Baseball is a young man’s game. Two hundredth part of a second, meet the score years is the ultimate limit of the ball with the bat fair and square, and average star’s career. Advanced age JAKE DAUBERT—A SELF-MADE SUCCESS 43 makes a too precipitated appearance, due to the wear and tear of a profession which taxes the utmost nerve and mus- cle energy. The big league ball player knows that his career as an active player, however brilliant, is short, and he watches for the first indication of ad- vancing age as carefully as the profes- sional beauty. Age does not appear to all players in the same form. The pitcher thinks that his day is drawing to a close when his arm loses its cunning. The base-runner feels the twilight of the minors upon him when his legs go bad. The batter, too, has his peculiar weakness. VI. Keen eyesight is another thing the good batter must have. Go, of an evening, into the lobby of the hotel where the Cleveland Club is stopping, and you may notice a tall, dark, somber-looking man seated alone in a corner. It is Napoleon Lajoie, one of Three Quarters of the Daubert Family in the greatest batters who ever lived. He Cuba. A Decade Ago Daubert Never may sit there quietly a half hour at a Hoped to See a Palm stretch. Other players are busy, reading letters or the latest accounts of games, altogether what I would consider a very but Lajoie never reads in the evening. easy strike. And that wouldn’t be any Why? He is afraid he may strain his fault of your eyesight, but the fact that eyes and he knows, as all great batters your arms and hands would not swing know, that the keenness of his vision is the bat quite quickly enough, that is, they the secret of his skill. Seventeen years would not work with your eye. You of dazzling success as a batsman has not might know everything that was neces- impaired his wizardly skill. Ask any sary to know about meeting that ball American League player and they will with the bat just as well as I would, but unite in saying, “Lajoie will be a .300 the chances are the wrists and shoulders hitter as long as he can stand at the wouldn’t be exactly geared to your eye. plate.” In other words, you wouldn’t have what Says Jake Daubert, “The secret of .300 I call a good batting eye. I admit I hitting is in the eye. All batters know would be taking you at a disadvantage this and it is rather hard to explain why in such a test, but if you should ask me one man can hit twice as well as another to read a column in the newspaper, I who seems to be just as capable in every might know the meaning of every word way. When I say that a player has a in that column as well as you, but you good batting eye, I don’t mean that he would probably be able to read that col- has better eyesight than some other umn at least twice as fast as I could. player. True, the keener his eyesight There your eye would be much quicker the better, but that in itself isn’t enough. and better than mine.” The eye, the brain and the muscles must This rather homely but striking figure all work together in the same fraction tells, perhaps as well as it could be told, of a second or the eye alone is useless. Daubert’s theory of the batting eye. For instance, your eyesight is probably There is no doubt, as he contends, that it as good as mine. It may be better, for is a talent which may be trained but not all I know. If I should take you to the acquired. As he expressed it on another Brooklyn ballfield and we should both occasion, “Shooting birds on the wing is take turns with the bat against some a good illustration of what I mean. The good pitcher, you would probably miss amateur can point a shotgun at a quail 44 THE BASEBALL MAGAZINE

DAUBERT PHILOSOPHY natural ability. Whenever Ty Cobb says anything about batting, he speaks with A quick start in the sprint to first is authority. A man who is acknowledged half the race. as the greatest ball player of all time, and Speed helps the slugger to make long who has worn the batting crown for hits, but it doesn’t help his batting av- years, should know something of the erage any. gift that made him famous, and in gen- The official scorer makes no more eral we found that Jake Daubert agreed count of a four-base hit than a scratch with him. “If you stretch out your hand single. to pick an apple, you do not have to The secret of batting is in the eye. A keep your eye on that apple all the time, good batting eye means more than do you? That is the way a batter who good eyesight. is a natural hitter feels toward a base- The .200 hitter may see just as far ball. He doesn’t have to keep his eye and just as well as a .300 hitter, but on that ball all the time to know about he doesn’t make any use of it in bat- where to find it when he swings at it ting. with the bat. That is, he doesn’t have to A crack shot can hit a bird on the as a general thing, but there are excep- wing because his eye and finger on the tions. A sharp breaking curve is liable trigger act together. to twist so quickly and so near the plate The amateur hunter can see the bird that I don’t believe any batter could hit as well as the expert, but his finger it safe unless he had his eye glued on on the trigger is perhaps a fraction of that ball every second. Even then it is a second too late. hard enough sometimes to hit it square. The good batter is like the good Going back to the apple tree. If, while marksman. His wrists and shoulders you were in the act of reaching for that act with his eye. apple it should drop off the branch, even Most batters always keep their eye though you were not looking at it, you on the ball. would probably see with the tail of your Good batters can generally hit the eye that it was falling. And I believe ball without watching it all the time. every one would instinctively grab for I do not think that a batter, however that apple, and ninety-nine out of a hun- good, can hit a sharp breaking curve dred would hit it with their fingers. But, unless he has his eye on it all the time. I don’t believe that more that one in a hundred would actually get a firm hold as accurately as the crack marksman. on that apple, enough to prevent it from His eyesight may be just as good, but falling to the ground. That is about his finger on the trigger doesn’t work what happens when the batter swings at when he tells it to. It may be only a a sharp breaking curve without watching hundredth part of a second behind. That, it. He knows that the ball isn’t going to is perhaps enough. He pulls the trigger be where he thought it would be and he and misses the shot. The crack marks- reaches for it with the bat just as a per- man has absolute mastery over his mus- son would reach for a falling apple, and cles. His finger on the trigger and his with just about the same result. That eye work together, and he doesn’t miss.” is, he can generally hit the ball but al- most never square or hard.” VII. A good batter doesn’t have to Daubert believes that most people ”Watch ‘em all the way up.” have an entirely erroneous opinion as to Ty Cobb recently came forward with what star batting actually is. He is, per- a novel assertion. He claimed that the haps, inclined to minimize the so-called theory that a batter must have his eye science of the game, and goes to daring always on the ball from the time it left heights in his criticism of a number of the pitcher’s hand through every moment popular ideas. of its flight was a groundless fallacy. “They will tell you that every batter According to Ty, if he was quoted cor- has his weakness. The pitchers are sup- rectly, the star batter did not do any posed to study this weakness and pitch such thing. He merely waded in and accordingly. Now I am not denying that met the ball fairly, depending upon sheer every batter would like to have the ball JAKE DAUBERT—A SELF-MADE SUCCESS 45 cross the plate at some particular eleva- tion a little better than any other, but at the same time I think every good batter should be able to hit a fair strike that crosses the plate, inside or outside, or at any elevation, with about equal ease. I don’t think a man can call him- self a star batter unless he can do this. I am not placing myself in that list, but at the same time I do not think it makes much difference to me where the ball crosses the plate, so long as it crosses it. “I have just said that it does not make much difference to me where the ball crosses the plate, but it does make a good deal of difference how it crosses the plate. That is, it makes a good deal of difference to me whether the ball is a fast, straight one, a sharp curve, or a spitball. Here, I think every batter has his preference and his weakness. I have always been able to hit speed better than anything else, and I suppose I might be ranked as a speed hitter. I think I can hit a curve about as well, except one with a sharp break just before the plate, which is a bad ball for any batter to hit. The spitball, when it breaks right, has The Daubert Brothers—Irwin, Calvin and Jake always been hard for me to hit, and most (Left to Right). Both Brothers Were Con- batters have the same opinion. The slow sidered Better Ball Players Than Jake ball is bad, solely because one is not When He Became a Professional looking for it. Even Mathewson’s fade- away would not bother the batter so much, in my opinion, if he knew it was as a kind of by-play once in a while, just coming, and that leads a good many peo- as you might predict it would be a fair ple to what I think is another error. day to-morrow. If I had depended on “They tell you that there is always a my ability to foresee what the pitcher war of wits going on between the batter had in mind, I would have been lucky and the pitcher. The pitcher is always to bat upon the .200 mark. I am not trying to outguess the batter, while the laying this down as a rule for anyone batter is trying to do as much with the else to follow. There may be batters pitcher. They will tell you to study the who help their averages by ability at this pitcher’s style of delivery, which is all kind of guesswork. I have no such abil- right and good sound advice. They will ity myself and will not claim to have it. also tell you that the batter at the plate I am merely giving my own experience, is always trying to guess what kind of understand. I may.be wrong. My sys- a ball the pitcher is going to give him tem may seem too simple. It is simple. next, whether it will be a ball or a strike, When I am at the plate, instead of try- fast or slow, and so on. I know that a ing to figure out what the pitcher has good many batters, perhaps the great in mind, I am keeping myself alert and majority, try to outguess the pitcher. It ready to take a swipe at any kind of a may be useful to them, but it was never ball that comes along. All the energy of much good in my own case. Per- that I might put into this mind reading haps they can read the pitcher’s mind stunt seems better placed to me when it and foresee what kind of a ball he is is in my wrists or shoulders, where I going to pitch next, but I have no such can get at it handy whenever I want to second sight power myself. I know I use it quick. You see, I have the notion, never try to outguess the pitcher save when I am at the plate, that the main 46 THE BASEBALL MAGAZINE

DAUBERT PHILOSOPHY as any batter can come to directing the course of the ball after he has swung on I lay a good deal of my success to it with the bat. luck. I have beat out more infield hits this “I believe a great many fans give the year than ever before. batter a number of special talents which An infield hit is a failure on the bat- he would be the last one to claim for ter’s part. He swings at the ball and himself, and, while there is a good deal almost misses it, but beats the throw of truth in all of them, I have never paid to first by a combination of luck and much attention to them myself, and do speed. not believe they have helped me any in Place hitting is the rarest thing in whatever batting success I may have baseball. Once or twice a season a gained.” batter may be able to drive the ball Jake’s temperamental modesty, which just where he wants it to go. As a amounts almost to lack of self-con- general thing, all he can do is to send fidence, is as much in evidence when he it either to right or left. is talking about his career as a whole as The batter who hits a ball hard has when he is discoursing on batting or done all any man can do. If it goes other branches of the baseball art. into a fielder’s hands, it isn’t his fault. “My wife was talking over our cir- The difference between a grounder cumstances the other evening,” said Dau- and a fly ball is the difference of an bert in his usual unassuming way, “and inch or less in the elevation of the bat she said to me, ‘Jake, perhaps the num- No batter can swing at a twisted ber 13 is unlucky for some people, but it curve and judge his swing that fine. hasn’t been for us. This is the first year, No batter can tell as a sure thing Jake, that we have been able to take whether he will hit a grounder or a fly things easy. Do you know, I am sorry to ball. see the old year slipping away, for I am I never tried to outguess the pitcher. afraid we may never see another year Some players may be able to do so, but that will be quite so good to us as this I have no such ability. has been,’ and she was right. Every- If I depended on outguessing the thing seems to have come our way this pitcher I would not hit over .200. year. Our Cuban trip was very pleasant and a success. We won most of our games, made some money, and the boys were satisfied. I had a good year in thing for me to do is not to hypnotize the baseball, no doubt much better than I pitcher, but to hit the ball. But I admit deserved, but I am afraid it will not last. I may be all wrong. It seems like a dream to me. It was “Once in a while, somebody who ought only yesterday that I thought I would al- to know better makes a few remarks ways be a coal miner. I never expected about place hitting. It seems, according to be anything else, and even now I don’t to these people, that there are batters feel any too sure of things. It doesn’t who can not only hit the ball but make it go about where they want it. There may seem right that I should be so fortunate. be such players. I have never met them. I never expected to be so fortunate, I know I have no such ability. never supposed it was possible, and I am “Once or twice in a whole season a afraid it can’t last. I can’t help feeling batter may meet a ball that is just to his it will all slip away from me some day liking and drive it through the particular and that I shall finish my life where I gap in the infield he aims for. That is started, in the coal mines.” place hitting, and I won’t say it does not We don’t wonder that success seems exist. But it is the rarest thing in the like a dream to you, Jake. But we don’t world. The most any batter can ever believe the greatest first baseman on the expect to do, as a general thing, is to diamond, the most valuable all round drive the ball, at will, either to right or player in the National League, and its left field. That is not place hitting in leading batter, will ever have to spend any sense of the word, but it is as near his declining years in the coal mines.