'Spitball' artists plague baseball
By STEVE SNIDER UPI Sports Writer
NEW YORK (UPI)—Split is a horrid word in baseball but cheat is worse. Spitballs, greaseballs, tarballs and what not apparently have been flying up to the plate in increasing numbers this season and the barons of baseball are concerned about the cheating.
National League president Warren Giles, all for drastic action, even has ordered his umpires to enforce the rules. They call for a pitcher to be tossed out of a game if he is found guilty of applying a "foreign substance" to a ball before it's pitched.
Last winter, the baseball people drew up a new code of conduct for pitchers. For one thing, they're supposed to keep their fingers away from their lips so there'll be no chance to slip a little juice on the ball to produce unnatural gyrations deemed detrimental to a batter's performance.
So far, so good. But pitchers are an inventive breed and there are ways to beat the game not only with saliva—baseball's fancy word for spit—buz grease, tar or whatever.
One example is included, in a TV commercial that's been making the rounds for quite a spell. Don Drysdale of the Los Angeles Dodgers, pushing a product which claims not to include any of that greasy kid stuff, is the star.
ATLANTA (UPI) — Kansas coach Pepper Rodgers thinks his West squad will have the running edge in Saturday's All-America football game—even without O. J. Simpson.
Rodgers predicts victory in 'All-America' game
Rodgers ran his charges through a workout Monday and then noted that "Eugene 'Mercury' Morris of West Texas, Bill Enyart of Oregon State and Ron Sayers of Nebraska are all outstanding running backs."
Rodgers added, "I haven't seen Paul Gipson of Houston yet, but I know he's another fine back."
Simpson won't be playing in Saturday's game because he is involved in stalled contract negotiations with the Buffalo Bills. Gipson is a late arrival because his wife is expecting a baby.
East coach Joe Paterno of Penn State said that although the West has more size, "I believe we are about equal in ability; I think the teams are fairly evenly matched."
Jn.27 1969
6 KANSAN
Paterno was high on late-arriving Frank Quayle, a running back from Virginia.
"Frank is extremely quick," he said. "He looked good out there today and should help us."
Computer picks people
NEW YORK (UPI)—Computer matching, which has helped boy find girl and vice versa, now is being used increasingly by American business to help fill executive, professional and technical openings with the right people.
The electronic system of matching man with job wherever feasible, already has aided an estimated 10,000 persons find higher pay and greater opportunity, according to The National Registry, a New York firm that has developed the "computerized talent bank" concept.
Reasons why individuals decide to change jobs range from a sudden necessity to be in a certain geographical location to dissatisfaction with current opportunity or salary.
Big Don is standing on the mound, ready to pitch, when the opposing manager Herman Franks come bounding out of the dugout yelling "greaseball, greaseball!" because Drysdale has been running his hands through his hair and presumably greasing up his fingers.
Drysdale, a competent actor by baseball standards, strides off the field in disgust, goes down to his clubhouse locker and returns triumphantly with a bottle of greaseless hairdressing to prove all he's no greaseball pitcher.
Detecting the presence of a "foreign substance" on a baseball is difficult for the umpires, Giles admits, so perhaps the barons of baseball may have to adopt new inspection methods.
Possession of a bottle of greaseless hair stuff would hardly suffice. The bottle might be a dummy or a refill.
A body search before a pitcher goes out to work each inning might prove fruitful, if time-consuming. The umps would have to check the hair, the hip pockets for sponges or oiled rags, the belt buckles or sharp corners that could cut a ball, the mitt for infernal gadgets and even the button on the cap.
Maybe cheating hasn't gone far enough for that in modern times but it was that way long ago—
??GETTING MARRIED??
If You Are, Or If You Desire To Live Alone—Now Is The Time To Make The Move To
MEADOWBROOK
15th and Crestline
Phone VI 2-4200
Closed Closed Closed
THE UNION BOOKSTORE will be CLOSED FRI., 27, & SAT., 28 of THIS WEEK for INVENTORY.
even before the spitball was banned.
kansas union BOOKSTORE
The spitzer, however, has been with us in spirit and occasionally in fact down through the years.
One old-time pitcher survived for years because he had sharpened a gold front tooth to knick the ball. Emery boards sewed into uniforms scuffed up the ball for other pitchers.
Then, in a general cleanup after the Black Sox scandal resulting from the 1919 world series, all that stuff was banned—spit, grease, knicks, scuffs and whatever.
Some of baseball's leading officials have urged the return of the legal spitball. That, they felt, would stop the cheating.
But maybe the old-time crusaders had the right idea, at that, when they ordered a ban on all "foreign substances" including spit.
If you give the pitchers spit, they'll want grease, too.
WHILE IN LAWRENCE BANK AT
Checking accounts .. savings accounts .. financial advice .. whatever the banking need, you'll find help in a hurry at University State. We're the Lawrence bank with the student's point of view (we're even named for you) .. try us soon.
University
State Bank
Your community
minded bank ...
955 Iowa Street.
Viking 3-4700. Member F.D.I.C.