Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-31
AREWEW OF SPORTS,
characteristics of the Man.
agement of the Local
Baseball Club.
THE WORK OF CAPT. BURNS
Successful Playing Managers in the
League Are Not Very Numerous.
TIE AMATEUR CHAMPION SCULLER
Needhams Defeat by George Dawson, the
Australian. and Its Lessons
THE WORK OF CAPT. BURNS
THE AMATEUR CHAMPION SCULLER
C0RBETT AND SULLIVAN IN TRAINING

That old biblical aphorism, "By their
fruits We shall know them," is the thorough
test of the baseball team manager. If we
keep close watch on the baseball business
Wen soon find that nothing else on earth
has anything whatever to do with the
merits of a baseball manager than the fruit
or produce of his labor. His team must
win games and lots of them if he wants to
maintain his position in the baseball swim.
Too many defeats will not do and there is
very little desire to reason about defeats
when they become too numerous. They
prompt deep-rooted desire for q victim
as that jonah who has been and is still
bringing ill-luck to the house.
The local bail team has been losing so
many games lately that change of man.
Ggement has been decided upon. Captain
Burns, who had for some time entire con-
troll of the team, has been taken down from
that throne and the scepter has again been
given to Mr.. Buckenberger. 1 do not think
that anybody will be surprised at this
change. There were certainly lots of peo-
pie surprised when Captain Burns was
placed in power, but for some time past it
has been easy to see that another change
must be made.
Captain Burns has had a fair and honest
trial. As far as these columns have been
concerned he has had every encouragement
given him. He came here as q stranger and
with no record whatever as a manager, and
that tact gained for him the very best and
most generous of public treatment He
came and took hold of very good team of
bail players who were doing tolerably well
when he took hold of them and who, 1 am
sorry to say, have never done as well since.
Well, then, We cannot but admit that
Captain Burns as a manager has been a fail
ure. l am disposed to think that he has
come to that conclusion himself by this
time. Outsiders, that is, baseball people
who do not live in Pittsburg, tell us that
Captain Burns has never shown any interest
in the team; that he has been at all times
careless and Indifferent as to the results of
games. 1 am not going to say that these
charges are true, but the fact OF their being
believed by very large section of the base
ball public is a reason sufficient to have
Captain Burns removed. The fruits of
Burns labors as a manager have been very,
very small and of very poor quality, and all
the reasoning in the world won't alter that
AdCl 1Tuc. there are tlllleS when ue1eaIS
come and when the manager cannot help
them; but on very many occasions the Pitts
burg team have lost games entirely because
OF the very poor judgment of management
The Directors Acted a Fair Part.
True there will many people contend that
the dlrectoSs of the club should never have
engaged Burns. Nov we, looking on from
the outside, often come to conclusions diff
ferent to what we would if we were on the
inside. The club directors were anxious
beyond measure to have winning team.
They had been told about the great quail
ties of Burns, both as a player and as a
general" The eagerness, the honest eager
ness OF the directors to get anything or any,
body who would make the team win |
prompted the directors to lend a willing ear
to any promises of success. And are we |
not, all of u.s. almost always ready to grasp |
at straws when our anxiety for success is as |
high as it possibly can be?
II was this anxiety to have things better |
that inspired the directors to give Burns a
try. And he was secured contrary to the |
best wishes of the friends of the club. De- |
spite this he was given absolute control 1
over the team. He had as much power as |
any manager in the country, and more than |
all, except two or three. He could get any |
player he fancied if that player was avail |
able and he could release anybody at anv |
time. In the wav OF getting PLAYERS he dis |
played very bad Judgment, indeed
Well, amid all this power and latitude |
Captain Burns has not been successful, and |
most certainly he nor his friends can in the |
least complain at the treatment Captain |
Burns has received.
Good Playing Managers Are Few |
am not surprised at the failure of Cap |
tain Burns. He came here as an untried |
o,,G -
cause he was so many years under Anson |
that he was engaged to come here. 1t is |
therefore correct TO say that he came here |
as an experiment, and had he been success |
tul as manager he would have been one of |
the few exceptions. Depend upon it, good |
playing managers" as they are termed, |
are scarce. Where one succeeds,many fall |
by the wavside regardless of what kind of |
teacher they may have had.
Notwithstanding the unique and excellent |
qualities of Anson as a manager, both |
Burns and Ptetfer have been failures as
managers, althongh they were years under |
Anson' S guidance. Some men are born to |
manage and will do SO regardless OF their |
good or bad tuition and others will never
be able to manage ball team, no matter
who or what their tutors NAV be. Who
taught Comiskey to manage a bali team?
Who taught Anson, or Ward, or Tebeau?
couldn't make Pfeffer into a Comiskey, and
it is well that many of us should remember
this fact when figuring on managers
am fully persuaded that Doth Prefer and 1
Burns got credit for what they did not do
while they played under Anson. At that
time we were always hearing of Pfeffer ad-
vising Anson to do this and Burns recon-
mending that. Bosh! Anson has always
had too much individuality to be guided by
men like Pieffer and Burns 1t was simply
because Of this false credit that Pfeffer was
lifted to such a ridiculously high standard
by few enthusiasts who never stopped to
think out the situation for themselves.
Anson and his team have failed lately
simply because of Anson having an exag-
gerated notion of his own abilities For a
time he sold to other clubs first-class
players and secured new material and sue
cessfully developed new ones There was
deal of fortune in securing this new ma
Icrial, but Anson would not believe the
fortune" feature of it. He claimed it was
merit on his part. He continued to let ex-
cellent PLAYERS go at the least provocation
until good new material was not forthcom-
ing To-day there ale numerous PLAYERS
scattered about the League that Anson has
released and if he had them now he would
have one of the best teams in the country,
So that the counselings of Burns and
Pfeffer had nothing to do with the success
OF the Chicago team.
The Prospects of tho Local Team
Although the start off of the home ball
team has not been Of the most encouraging
kind there is still a hopeful outlook. The
contest is so young yet that few games