Clipping:A critique of sacrifice hitting
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| Date | Wednesday, May 8, 1889 |
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| Text | [from Ren Mulford's column] The sacrifice hit craze has had its day. In their places sacrifice hits are all right, but to begin in the first inning to try to “go out,” in order to send a runner forward a base, seems absolute folly without an excuse for its practice. The element of uncertainty and possibility in a game of ball is so great that it appears to be bad policy to send a man to absolute destruction. Just in illustration and I'm done. In the last St. Louis game here Nicol led off in the first inning with a hit and stole second. Then McPhee, instead of trying to hit the ball safely was ordered to sacrifice, and he did. Nicol gained third on his out, but Reilly's attempt to sacrifice resulted in a bunted fly to Comiskey, and Carpenter sent Boyle a foul. With the auspicious opening not a semblance of a tally was made. McPhee certainly had a chance to make a hit which would have sent Nicol home, but under this new craze he was allowed to be offered up as a sacrifice—a dead sure out exchanged for a chance for a possible hit, a tally and another runner on base! Was the advancement of Nicol one base worth the loss of all those other chances? I say not. |
| Source | Sporting Life |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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