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CARL HUBBELL AND HIS “SCREW BALL” HEAD FOR BASE BALL’S HALL OF FAMElt;•BY GAYLE TALBOT,Associated Press Sports Writer.NEW YORK.—A skinny little guy. lithe and loose as a running stream, stands out there on the rubber, squinting his eyes to see what his catcher has on his mind.Presently he ties himself in a knot, unwinds smoothly, and with an easy motion of his left arm sends the white sphere drifting toward the plate. Prom the press box it doesn't look like a fast ball. It comes up lazily on the outside comer and at tfes right moment appears to “break outward maybe 2 or 3 inches.It looks a lot like what the kids call an “in-shoot, only it bends the opposite way for a southpaw. You say to yourself: “Hah, I could murder that thing. It looks that easy.But is it? Watch the batter. Bracing himself, he swings from the heels, a mighty effort. Bat and ball meet and a squashy sound echoes through the stands. The pellet pops skyward and an infielder saunters over to trap it— like shooting catfish in a tub.And that is Carl Hubbell of the Giants and his “screw ball. Both the man and his pet delivery are heading toward base ball’s hall of fame as fast as the Summer days pass. Ten, twenty years from now we’ll be saying. “I saw Carl Hubbell back in 1933. There was a pitcher.On July 27 the slim pecan farmer from Oklahoma scored his eighth shutout of the year, blanking Brooklyn, 2to 0. At the same time he ran his string of consecutive scoreless innings to 38' n in chalking up his sixteenth victory, and on his next appearance boosted his total of run less frames in p. row to 46 to crack a 25-year-old National League record.The last man to pitch eight shutouts in a National League season was Babe Adams, in 1920. Grover Cleveland Alexander turned in 16 for the Phillies in 191C. Back in his prime with Washington Walt Johnson once pitched 56 successive scoreless innings. Alexander and Johnson are the only so-called “modern’’ moundsmen in the same class with Hubbell as shutout artists.With two more months to go the Giants’ vizard should come close to Alex’s great record, and he seems certain to pass Adams’ mark that has stood for 13 years.If you have suspected there is more to Hubbell’s “screw ball than appears from the grandstand you are dead right, as any batter who has observed1Here’s a fine action shot cf Carl Hubbell. the Giants’ sensational shutout ace. fianked by two mound immortals of another base ball generation. Grover Cleveland Alexander (topi and Walter Johnson (below). Carl ls the slickest whltewasher to ccme along since their heyday.its gyrations at first hand will be glad . to attest.“It looks like a cinch as it comes up, declared on^ well known sludger. “But just as ycu get ready to knock it out of the county it starts doing things. It seems to wobble and bend and drop, all at the same time.That would seem to explain everything, including those shutouts. Any ball that cuts up like tjiat isn't to be trusted.“And it doesn’t bother his arm at all, marveled Manager Bill Terry. “He can throw that thuag three out of four times and never feel it the next day.” Hubbell is supposed to have complained bitterly in one game because, after he had tossed five straight “screw balls’’ his catcher insisted cn a curve on the next pitch. “What's the idea of n^ver wanting me to throw a screw ball? he demanded of the backstop in a mid-diamond conference.
Newspaper Details
Washington Evening Star
Washington, Washington-DC, US
Sun, Aug 06, 1933
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Michael W.
NA, 17 Apr 2023
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