The letter, written in a boyish scrawl and with a Des Plaines postmark, was unsigned but carried an urgent request:
More Top Picks Best Book Holders For Hands Free Reading
“What should I do? I want to be a pitcher.”
Instructions follow:
“There are young players in baseball who have what might be called natural control. Before they picked up a baseball for the first time, I venture to say that they could throw stones and pebbles more accurately then their companions, even if they were not able to throw them so far. Possibly every other boy in the neighborhood could throw a green apple swifter, but it was this particular boy, with greater accuracy, who hit the mark.
“That is what I call natural control, and the moment that boy begins to practice pitching it will be found that he keeps the ball near the plate all the time, and that he is effective against other teams, much to the surprise of his companions, who note that he is not a swift thrower nor a long-distance thrower.
“Every boy who tries to become a pitcher should make an effort to secure the same control of a ball as this boy has with his natural gift of accuracy. Speed is decidedly a bad qualification for pitching unless accuracy goes with it. That is why so many slow pitchers are successful in professional baseball. Speed that gives bases on balls is equivalent to giving base hits, and to permit hits to be made is the first step toward defeat.
“To obtain this control of the ball, which is so essential to success, there is nothing to my mind like practice. It is not necessary that one should paint out a white spot on some dark background and throw at it until tired. I know of young pitchers who have tried that sort of thing, and it always amused me. The most that it did was to accustom them to hitting with some accuracy a stationary target. A batter is not a stationary target, hence the worthlessness of such practice.
“I would have a young player, even if he possesses some natural control, and surely if he possesses none, pitch to a catcher over an improvised plate. Better still, if he can’t, get somebody to be the batter while he remains pitcher all the time.
“Providing it is not possible to get anyone to act as batter, be sure to have the plate-a piece of board of the proper size will do-and the catcher behind it. The catcher should sign for a high ball and a low ball, and whether the beginner knows much about curving the ball or not, he should be asked to put it first to one side of the plate and then to the other to improve his accuracy.
“Young players will be astonished to see how much this simple practice will do to assist their efficiency. After awhile they will quite unconsciously copy the cross-fire of which much is heard nowadays. Cross-fire is only the ability of the pitcher to direct the ball across home base on a certain angle between the pitcher and the plate.
“My advice would be not to try to use speed while this practice is going on because that is wearing on the arm. Merely get the ball to the plate with sufficient force to cause it to come within the batter’s reach, at a certain point which the pitcher had in mind when he permitted the ball to leave his hand.
“Young players have watched the professionals warm up before the game, and no doubt have seen the catcher drop his glove in front of him to act as a temporary base. The warming up is not so much to develop the speed in the pitcher’s arm, which would be bound to come out in an inning or so, as it is to get the arm trained to do what the pitcher wants it do.
“I did not give a base on balls in the game which I allowed no hits and no runs be made, and I knew almost from the very first ball which left my hand that afternoon that I should be able to put the ball exactly where I wanted to. I shall advise all young pitchers to seek the same result. It may be a long time to succeed, but there is likely to come a day when the pitcher suddenly discovers that he has got control at last, and from that moment he is the master of the batter and need have little to fear as to his future.
“Having learned accuracy in the delivery of the ball, the next thing is to master the curves. Some may have thought that it was essential to know how to curve a ball before anything else. Experience, to my mind, teaches to the contrary in this respect.
“Any young player, who has good control of the ball, will become a successful curve pitcher long before the beginner who is endeavoring to master both curves and control at the same time. The curve is merely an accessory to control. Witness how many good pitchers there were before the curved ball was heard of and how many there are now who employ straight balls as much as they do curves in their work.”
So said the legendary Cy Young, who won a record 511 games, in his 1912 article “How to Pitch.”