Speed-Up

Workmanlike, nine-inning pitching performances by strong-armed hurlers are a rarity these days. Baseball games are often dragged out to dreary, argumentative, three-hour marathons and slow-moving, histrionic pitchers are primarily responsible for the delays. Last week, in an attempt to get back to the oldfashioned, snappy, two-hour game,* Cleveland General Manager Hank Greenberg tried a newfangled method.

Using a fire-engine red Jeepster, Greenberg hustled relief pitchers out of Cleveland's bull pen, got them to the mound in a matter of seconds compared to the ambling three to five minutes usually required. Less colorful, but equally timesaving, were two other Greenberg suggestions which the Indians now follow: 1) make a pitcher wait his batting turn in the "on deck" circle instead of in the dugout, and 2) make him go to the mound more promptly at the start of each inning. These stunts, the Cleveland management figured, had already cut the time of games by something like 20 minutes.

* Shortest nine-inning game on record: the 51-minute game between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Phillies, Sept. 28, 1919, which the Giants won, 6 to 1. Batteries: New York, Jess Barnes and Earl Smith. Philadelphia, Lee Meadows and John B. Adams.

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