There was once a “freak” pitch called the “licorice ball.” It was banned from baseball (along with several other “freak” deliveries) even before the spitball.
The earliest reference to a “licorice ball” I’ve found is from 1910. The pitch is mentioned in a report on the goings-on in the Cactus League,i but is described as a “big league trick,” so it may have been used elsewhere earlier. The description of the pitch’s intended use here was different from how it was described several years later. In this case, it was s defensive act, to prevent the opposing pitcher from throwing an effective “spit ball.” This was at a time when the same ball was generally used throughout the entire game, so any alterations to the baseball by one pitcher could affect the ball’s use by the other.
It was the licorice ball versus the slipper elm [(“spit ball”)ii] Monday, in that Labor day game. . . . Knowing that he could not pitch his game in the condition that he was in, Anderson tried a big league trick to prevent Kane’s spits all over almost every ball he throws . . . .
To prevent this, Anderson went into the game with enough licorice to smear the mouths of a half hundred small boys. Before the second inning was over, the brand new balls looked like the big burnt wood bat that Powell, Douglas’s catcher, uses to such good advantage. Concealed in his rear pocket, it was applied freely to the ball in the hope that it would prevent Kane’s real spitters from breaking.
El Paso Herald, September 7, 1910, page 11.
When the President of the Canadian League inspected a “Licorice” ball a few years later, a description of its use was consistent with the earlier report.
London claimed that the Senators put licorice on the ball in order to spoil Bobby Hicks’ spitter. The ball used was inspected by President Fitzgerald and declared to be in good shape. He therefore notified the London club that their protest had been disallowed.
The Ottawa Journal, July 31, 1913, page 4.
Earlier that season, the “licorice ball” was spotted in the Pacific Coast League, in a game between Los Angeles and Sacramento. The catcher was thrown out of the game for “discoloring new balls with licorice.”iii That umpire was ahead of his time, because the major leagues would not ban the “licorice ball” for another seven years.
The “licorice ball” got a lot of press in 1915, and continuing until it was banned in the Major Leagues in 1920, one year before the now-more familiar “spit ball” was finally banned. This time the pitch was an offensive weapon, not defensive, using partial discoloration of the ball to confuse the batter’s recognition of the spin and speed of the pitch.
 |
San Bernardino News (California), March 15, 1915, page 6. |
The pitch first came into prominence in what was framed as what would today have become a “Twitter feud” or “beef” between Tom Seaton, pitcher for the Brooklyn Feds (Brooklyn’s Federal League team) and Hall-of-Famer, Christy Mathewson. Tom Seaton pitched the “licorice ball,” Christy Mathewson thought it was illegal.
Tom Seaton had better watch out or he will get into a controversy with Christy Mathewson. The latest winter league freak is the “licorice ball,” of which the star pitcher of the Brooklyn Feds is supposed to be the inventor. An acquaintance of Seaton has been spreading news about this wonderful idea of his. The first essential in the use of the “licorice ball” is to have a piece of hard, black licorice in the jowls. The pitcher must apply black saliva to one side of the ball, leaving the other side clean. He must throw it in such a way that the black revolves around the white and gives the batter’s eye alternate flashes of light and dark that will cause him to wink or blink and thereby fail to get an accurate gauge on where it is coming.
We retailed this yarn to Christy Mathewson the other day and the veteran pitcher of the Giants had one of the best laughs in his life.
“I believe Seaton is the same fellow who thought he could get away with an emeryless emery ball by scarring the horsehide with his hard fingernails,” said Big Six. “I wonder what his fingernails are made out of if they are strong enough for that. Perhaps his brain is composed of the same substance. But even he ought to know that the ‘licorice ball’ would be barred for the same reason that the emery ball is - defacing it. Even if it were allowed, the only effect I can imagine it having is putting the catcher’s glove on the bum.”
Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), January 16, 1915, page 7.
Spitball pitching isn’t a common practice in the big leagues any more, yet the fact stands out that the best pitchers in the leagues use the moistened twister. . . .
Tom Seaton, pitcher for the Brookfeds, has discovered the “licorice ball.”
“And lemme tell you,” asserted Tom when announcing his discovery, “that ball is going to be some fooler - some fooler, believe me.”
“What’s it like?”
“Well, first of all I get five cents worth of licorice. Then I put a chunk of it in my mouth. Pretty soon the saliva gets very black. Are you following me?”
“We’re ahead of you.”
“Now as soon as I get that licorice worked up nicely I smear half of the ball with the black saliva. Then I let loose with all my speed.”
“And then?”
“Well, when that ball whistles up toward the plate it’s sure to confuse the batter. As the ball whirls round and round the batter alternately sees black and white. That’ll cause him to pause, in fascination. While he’s in that pause bing! The ball has whistled over the plate for a strike.
“Great idea,” ain’t it” concluded Seaton.
The Allentown Democrat (Allentown, Pennsylvania), March 15, 1915, page 6.
Despite Tom Seaton’s big talk, he was not the first pitcher caught using the pitch in the big leagues that season. That honor went to “Smokey Joe” Wood, the Boston Red Sox’ “speed marvel.” In this instance, the pitch seems to have been more about making the ball difficult to see than Seaton’s plan of dazzling the batters. The umpires refused to act.
Wood was facing the Yankees in what he finally developed into a 13-inning battle. The day was dark and as it got late it grew darker. To the grandstand and press box spectators it looked very much like Wood was doing as Donovan said - “spitting licorice juice on the ball to discolor it.” The pellet that the Smokey one hurled across the plate or thereabouts looked very dark - when you were able to see it at all. The Yankees didn’t have much to say individually. Few of them saw the ball, except when they were in the field.
Buffalo Evening News (Buffalo, New York), June 14, 1915, page 15.
Lansing State Journal (Lansing, Michigan), June 26, 1915, page 6.
Despite the pitch’s name, some people thought it may have been a different substance.
The licorice ball is the newest invention of pitchers. Bet it’s only the juice off a big chew of tobacco most of them carry around.
Evening Journal (Wilmington Delaware), May 29, 1917, page 8.
There were debates about whether it was legal or not, and whether it should be banned or not. One veteran umpire thought the pitch was A-OK. His description of the pitch and its effect on the ball seems to differ from some earlier descriptions.
Umpire Billy Evans, one of the real students of baseball, has both eyes and both ears open all the time. Billy knows what every pitcher in the American league has, or has not. He knows what kind of ball each batter is weak on and he even knows the bats. So it isn’t at all extraordinary that Billy knows all about the “Shine ball,” or as some of the dopesters call it, the “licorice ball.”
Of course, Cy Falkenberg, famous exponent of the emery ball, is using it. And Eddie Cicotte of the White Sox, has used it all season. Shore of the Red Sox and Bader of the same team, the latter one of the season’s phenoms, are using it, as are Dumont and Show of the Griffmen.
The shine ball can’t be barred, according to Evans. The pitcher just puts a high light on one side of it and it makes a lovely floater for the batter to miss. He doesn’t harm the cover of the ball and he doesn’t discolor it. It really brightens up the leather and takes off some of the dirt.
El Paso Herald (Texas), June 20, 1917, page 11.
But not everyone agreed. The American Association banned the pitch before the 1918 season.
 |
The Buffalo Enquirer (Buffalo, New York), December 18, 1917, page 10. |
The National and American Leagues took up the issue during the same off-season.
 |
The Lincoln Star (Lincoln, Nebraska), February 10, 1918, page 5. |
But they would not act until the 1920 season, when they banned all “freak” pitching, although they gave the old-time spitballers a one-year reprieve.
Chicago, Feb. 9. - The elimination of all forms of freak pitching, including the spitball, the shiner, the emery ball, the licorice ball and other types of unfair slab work, was unanimously agreed upon by the rules committee of the two major leagues in joint session here this afternoon. Withe the single exception of the spitball, the new order of things takes effect at once.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania), February 10, 1920, page 11.
The Enid Daily Eagle (Enid, Oklahoma), February 10, 1920, page 4.
By 1926, the “licorice ball” was a distant memory. An old-time pitcher brought it up in the context of yet another pitching controversy - pitchers using resin.
The controversy about the use of resin by pitchers gives the old-time ball players a big laugh.
The so-called “emery ball” was used for years before it was condemned in a great blare of publicity for possessing freak attributes that even its users were not aware of. Ten years ago the same ball that was tossed out by the umpire at the beginning of a game was still in use when the ninth inning closed.
After the first inning it was as black as an undertaker’s derby. The pitcher and infielders had changed its color by a mixture of tobacco juice, resin, licorice and dirt. On a dark day it was almost impossible to see. And still they had some pretty good hitters in those days. Delehanty, Burkett, McGraw, Chief Meyers, Larry Doyle, LaJoie, Honus Wagner and numerous others made quite a few base hits.
And today the ball has to be white as snow. If it has the slightest blemish or abrasion, it is tossed out. There must be an interesting difference in the baseball bills of the league today.
The Birmingham News (Birmingham, Alabama), March 30, 1926, page 20.
i The Cactus League was an independent league in the American Southwest and Mexico. In 1910, the league included teams from Bisbee, Arizona, El Paso, Texas, Douglas, Arizona and Cananea, Mexico. “Cactus League Standing,” Bisbee Daily Review, May 17, 1910, page 8.
ii “Slippery elm” was a tree bark, chewed by pitchers to increase salivation and, perhaps, increase the slipperiness of the spit on the ball. See, for example, The Pittsburgh Press, April 25, 1910, page 6 (“Walsh, master artist of the ‘spit ball,’ pitches it in the most common way. He uses a trifle of slippery elm bark in his mouth and moistens a spot an inch square between the seams of the ball. His thumb he clinches tightly lengthwise on the opposite seam and, swinging his arm straight overhand with terrific force, he drives the ball straight at the plate.”).
iii The Tacoma Daily Ledger (Tacoma, Washington), April 13, 1913, page 29.
No comments:
Post a Comment