Word: shortstopping
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...years ago, after 31 months in the Army, Jackie signed up as a shortstop for the barnstorming Kansas City Monarchs. It was a Negro club featuring old and reliable Pitcher "Satchel" Paige, who would have been a big leaguer once, had the big leagues been willing to admit Negroes sooner. The grubby life with the Monarchs was a shock to college-bred Jackie. The Monarchs traveled around in an old bus, often for two or three days at a time (the league stretches from Kansas City to Newark) without a bath, a bed, or a hot meal, and then crawled...
...Help at First. Branch Rickey's do's & don'ts strangely enough, did not include any instructions on how to play baseball. Although Jackie had played second base or shortstop all his life, he was handed a first-baseman's mitt and sent out to sink or swim at a new position -first base. Being right-handed was no help: first base is a left-hander's position. It is easier for a left-hander to throw from first to any other base, and easier to pick a man off the bag. Only...
...biggest difficulty is trying to forget that he is a shortstop. Fielding ground balls, he scoops them up as if he had a quick throw to make. And because he does not crouch down to block the ball, a lot of grounders dribble between his legs. He also can't seem to break his habit of catching put-out throws two-handed. The Cardinals' Stan Musial, for example, gets a far longer reach by taking throws singlehanded...
...experience in the outside contests will be Bill Fitz, Varsity first baseman, and Jack Forte, first string captain and second baseman. Pitchers on Samborski's list of possible starters are Bill Harrison and Bill Foster, with either George Strout or Bill Hickey as battery mates. John Harrison is at shortstop, and Bob Carlson at third base. In the outfield George Taylor or Fred Glimp, Bob Peterson, Chip Gannon, and Dick Guidera are among the possible starters...
...pretty good pitching (Phil Marchildon, Dick Fowler, Bob Savage, Russ Christopher), mediocre fielding, and almost the weakest hitting in the league (Outfielder Barney McCoskey is the only .300 hitter). What can't be measured statistically is their hustle, a lot of it contributed by Rookie Ferris Fain and Shortstop Eddie Joost. One day recently, Star Pitcher Marchildon was being pretty casual about his pre-game warmup. Shouted one of Connie's enthusiastic young men: "Look, if you don't want to pitch today, let somebody else do it!" Marchildon pitched...