El Paso Herald · El Paso, Texas · 1913

How Great Men Play the Game: Jimmy Archer

Scar takes up Jimmy Archer of the Cubs in July 1913: the squat throw he invented, the signals with Evers that tell him every move coming, and the perpetual never-ceasing everlasting good-natured smile.

Scar’s subject this time is Jimmy Archer, catcher, Chicago Cubs, and the panel is a full scouting report in pen and ink. “He works closer to the plate than any other catcher in the major leagues — in that way he gets the batter’s goat before a ball is pitched.”

The centerpiece claim comes with a patent notice: “With his famous squat throw which he invented he can catch a runner napping off first or third without changing his position behind the bat.” No windup, no rising from the crouch, just the ball suddenly arriving at first base. There is espionage too, diagrammed with dotted lines: “By a system of signals with Evers he knows every move the batter and base runner are going to make.” And the bat is not idle: “He gets pitchers going by hitting the bad ones to all corners of the lot.”

The corner inset is the keeper. “And did you ever notice? — that perpetual never-ceasing everlasting good-natured smile of his.” Four adjectives deep, and the drawing backs every one of them. The Herald carried the How Great Men Play the Game series through the summer and fall of 1913, and this site is running the whole set. The parade resumes with Honus Wagner in a couple of weeks.