Louis Lee Arms, writing for The St. Louis Star in 1913, like many of his contemporaries, presaged the pitch clock when reporting on the ace of the Philadelphia Athletics pitching staff:
“The next time Eddie Plank pitches at American League Park many fans who desire to get home approximately during the same month that they started for the ball yard, so that their friends may not think they have been upon a European tour or some other long vacation, will forego the pleasure of watching even such a brilliant baseball scientist as Plank in action.”
Arms called Plank “the most aggravating pitcher” in the league.
“He draws himself within himself after the fashion of a mud turtle once he finds himself in a pinch and there is nothing but the shell.”
Arms said in his last start against St. Louis, Plank “consumed from thirty to sixty seconds” between each pitch:
“Plank’s reasoning is obvious. He figures that wit a man in the batting box anxious to hit, the longer he hesitates in throwing the ball the more perturbed and overwrought becomes the batsman, with the result that he cannot hit normally, highly psychological as anyone can see.”
Plank
Arms described Plank’s routine after a pitch:
“Receive the ball from the catcher.
Then drop it.
Rub dust on it.
Expectorate upon the glove.
Rub the ball vigorously upon the glove.
Turn and talk in an animated way to Eddie Collins.
Step upon the pitching slab facing the catcher.
Nod dissent to several signals.
Expectorate again upon the glove.
Nod an assent to the signal of the catcher.
Back off the pitching slab.
Pluck several blades of glass.
Walk up to it again.
Turn and gaze about the ball field to see that the outfield is properly placed.
Wave one outfielder into position
Make a sarcastic remark to the umpire.
Make ready to pitch.
Consume five seconds in looking steadfastly at the ground.
Pitch.”
Arms concluded:
“Exaggeration Not a bit of it. This is exactly what Plank did on several occasions Monday in the first and second innings when he was in a pinch.”
Plank slowly won 18 games and one more in the World Series for the World Champion Athletics.
When he died 13 years later, Umpire Billy Evans said of Plank’s routine:
“No pitcher in the history of the game ever kept the batter or umpire as much on edge.”
Baseball History Daily 
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