[saminfl]

I seem to recall once there was this pitcher who was a pretty good hitter.....I think his name was Ruth or something like that.

There was another one named Drysdale. That was back before I gave up MLB because of Curt Flood.

[boop]

So Walter Johnson hit .235 lifetime? Unbelievable for a pitcher.

I should post at baseball fever, but I've always wondered certain things:

When did "relief pitching"come into vogue? In the olden days a pitcher was expected tofinish games, in factwould occasionally pitch adouble header. Was itconsidered unmanly to "need" a reliever?

Why were pitchers halfway decent hitters until say 40 years ago? Now it's a miracle if they hit .100

Speaking of Walter Johnson, he was known as a strictly fastball pitcher. No curves, no sliders, etc. what made him so effective? A strict fastball pitcher in 2012 would get destroyed by batters.

Why do guys in the early days of the century look so damn OLD? Ty Cobb looked 50 years old in 1920, but he was still a "young" man.