19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

BIG LEAGUE SECRETS: CAUSE AND EFFECT
Sirs:
As an avid baseball fan, to whom the pitcher has always been the most interesting player on the team (I married one who gave it up to study medicine), I want you to know how much Sal Maglie's fine article (SI, March 17) will increase my enjoyment of the game.

Maglie's three points, control, confidence and knowledge, so perfectly explained, give me a much deeper insight into the game.
MARY ADDINGTON
Bellevue, Wash.

SIRS:
THREE SKETCHES OF BASEBALL IN THE MARCH 17 ISSUE SHOW IMPOSSIBLE BASEBALL STITCHING. SUCH A BALL REALLY WOULD DO TRICKS FOR SAL MAGLIE. SORRY RAVIELLI. A COMMON ERROR.
WALTER F. O'MALLEY
PRESIDENT
LOS ANGELES DODGERS
LOS ANGELES

?Right. The stitching on regulation baseball runs continuously so that a ball viewed head-on has its V stitches running down one side but up the other.—ED.

Sirs:
I found the issue that included batting tips from Roy Sievers (SI, March 31) in my locker. Later I was told that Frank Lane put it there. Anyway, I read it and stopped short when Sievers mentioned watching the ball. I discovered I had not been following the ball all the way to the plate, which may well account for my batting slump in spring training. At any rate, things are looking much better now in this department.
ROCKY COLAVITO
Cleveland Indians
Cleveland

Sirs:
To me a photograph will never compare with an illustration.

I am a baseball fan, and I shall get much more from the game because of your articles, and Mr. Riger's drawings (SI, March 31) are—well, let's just say they are perfection.
GERTRUDE GILSKY
Detroit

Sirs:
As a baseball coach of 35 years standing, with a son in the Milwaukee system, I can say this about Big League Secrets: you have hit a home run with me.
NORMAN H. MACCONNELL
Newton, Mass.

SPARSE: ALGERINE CLARIFIED
Sirs:
The following quotation is from Sparse Grey Hackle's excellent article on Penn's Creek (SI, April 7): "No one but a real 'algerine' would even try to follow a fish over those boulders...and that brings us to a fascinating and curious word which is not merely local to the area but apparently dying out. Its derivation is a mystery...but its present meaning is, approximately: a native, an oldtimer; a hard-case hunter or fisherman whose passion for the sport drives him to any lengths...."

I would be most interested, having fished Penn's, to know more about the origin of this word. Perhaps Sparse would oblige?
HENRY DALY
Albany, N.Y.