Omaha daily bee., 1888-10-14
CAUSES OF THEIR. DEFEATS.
Why the Omaha Ball Team Ended
in Fourth Place.
Ard a Fair Share Of Their Failure At
tributabie to Boose-The Club
Will Disband for n Season
on To.Morrow.
CHICKERING'S AMONG THE MEN.


The Omaha base ball team will disband at
Milwaukee tomorrow, and the players go
their several ways. They were paid off IN
full by President Mccormick last week, and
the parting between the management and
the players was of the mos friendly DISPOSE
ton. Each one attested to his satisfaction
as to his Omaha experience, and expressed
the wish to return here when the robins nest
again. The one regret pervading the team
was that they were unable to quit the season
in a better position than fourth place Vain
regret, Whose fault was 1t that this was the
case! Now that the season, with its
trials and triumphs, its victories and defeats,
its vcxations, pcrplexltles and dIsappolnt-
pointinents Is over, 1T can hurt no one, put
NAV do a good deal of good, to enter into a
brlef analysis of the cause of the Omaha
teams comparatively poor showing. As far
as the team is concerned, 1t was made OF
strong material individually, and 1t was con
fideutly expected would prove so collect
lively, considering the harmony that existed
within the ranks of the victorious Oshkosh
team of the year before, and which was the
same team almost wholly, only being re-
christened. What changes there were
were only for the best-stronger, bet
ter, more skilful men, and yet
nothing PANIED out as expected.
Omaha had Frank Selee, the old Oskosh
manager. too, a man reported to be well up
in the managerial sciencc-an old player,
thoroughly vcrsed in the game, down 10 the
minutest technicality, and with a long stand
ing acquaintance with the best of the profess
sion in the land. During trying clrcum-
| stances. amidst flying breakers and lowing
skies, he plotted Oshkosh to victory, as he
| had several clubs before, and yet he comes to
Omaha with a much more powerful comOlna-
ton than he was ever at the head OF before,
and makes but a trifie better showing than
the cheapest, poorest teams III the assocla-
.s-- ~ ,,,.a tItp IN nr.n pl nrtr ia fn-
peated. Was it the team, or was it the man
ageri
The answer is easily vouchsafed. 1t was
the team in the main. When they first came
here they gave promise of great Things;
they were well selected, well captained and
admirably managed; they were confident OF
success, and determined and aggressive If
anyone dared suppose defeat at the hands OF
even the champion Des Moines, or the
| Apostles or the Cowboys. They were ball
PLAYERS, every one of them, and Omaha was
proud Of them and lionized them to an extent
that proved their decentralization and ruin.
With the first stroke of ill-success dissension
began 10 crop out among the players; leai'
ousy merged into enmity and half the time
many of the players were not on
speaking terms with each other. There were
cliques and clans, and each worked 10 the
others derrogation. The old Oshkosh Gle
ment was especially tabooed by new players
coming into the team, and the old Oshkosh
element was responsible for the bulk of the
devilment. Internal disintegration soon sc,
in, and by the middle of the summer the
team was in anarchy. They did as they
pleased, defying both management, manager
and the people. Some of the best, hlghes,
priced and most valuable players black
guarded the directory and the town wher
and where and before whom they saw
proper. They drank and caroused, "a
the whole city knew, during the
most critical stages in the champion
ship season, and Is it any wonder that they
did not or could not play winning balli o
course there were exceptions in all the rot
ten work; there was a number of as consci
e%ntious, reliable and honorable players IN TIT
Omaha team as in any team in the country
but they were decidedly in the minority
OF course naturally enough Manager Selee
was blamed, but he did all within his power
without disrupting the team completely, anC
the public has never been aware OF the heav,
fines he assessed upon these intractable ant
recalcitrant players. The trouble di'
not set in until the season
was at its height, and Manage
Selee was put to his wits ends to get an,
kind of work out of his men, and under tn
peculiar existing circumstances he did well
After one looks over the matter analytical
it doesn't seem such q wonder after all tina
Omaha did not come anywhere near winnin
the pennant for 1889.