The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1895-12-29

Nuays the crack men are those who can
think and act quickly. Batting and sure
hc4diug are not enough. The University
Of cnnsyivania nine Of lS9l ~ an Tx
ample Of what can be done with lot
pf young. fellows ready aud anxious TO
learn and careful TO follow directions.
They played all the college teams that
season-Yalc, Harvard, Princeton. La
fayette, Lehigh, State college and Con
nell, besides playing the philadelphia
League team. They heat the phillics
once, and in every game they played the
league men they made tight scores o TO
y II to 10, etc, making MS hustle. They
Jailed to score twenty or more runs In
only one game played on their own
grounds against college clubs, aud that
was the one against Cornell, when the
scare was q to U.
systematic batting plan does | drilled
the boys from the winter practically
right up 10 the time the league season
opened In Philadelphia. This last spring
they We're coached only up to March. and
had no chance TO SEQ them work out
of doors, They failed to keep up the
system. and were not SO successful.
My sole idea in going South this next
spring is 10 get every man down to a
systematic style of playing: to have every
man play for New York City, and not for
individual records. The best combina-
ton that can be made from the twenty
eight men In hand will be the regular
team. No favoritcs win be played. With
the pitchers we have signed, and good
hard preparatory work under mapped
out plan of run getting, there Is no rca.
son why The New Works shouldn't stand
well up in the race.
Last season. when the Philadclphjas
went down to the Soldiers home at
Hampton, Va. we used TO shove back
the chairs after breakfast and have n
talk together each day in our private
dining room. That's the way good plays
are planned. Later they were praciicpd.
II was the very fact that the New
Iorks had no thorough understanding
among themselves that made us in rhila-
delpha 80 M against them with such
confidence.
When men were caught between the
bases II was plain the batter aud runner
were doing as each pleased and not act
ing part of n combination agreed upon.
1t is this idea of inside plays simple
enough. hut misleading TO your oppo.
nents-that yields runs. Runs win
games. Games won mean champion
ships captured. 1t was PLAIN to every body
how tho Baltimores would kick among
themselves If Esper. lloffer or any of
the pitchers pitched a single ball in an
inning that each inielder did not antci
pate by catching the signal,
Every man nowadays has 10 under
stand what's coming next. OF course
there are slips and miscaculat tons. but
that's baseball. Ii would be no fun If
it was all clockwork. Its great thing
TO know the pccullGritics of your oppo-
nenfs, and the newcomers are hnnd.
capped considerably by their lack of ne
dnnintance with the old-timers' habits
of play, but with an experienced captain
and few old-tmers TO coach them
even n team of new men of ordinary
abilities. we'll drilled and enthusiastic.
will make any of them hustle
When team gets to playing like n
football eleven. all acting on the signal,
like machine, The men themselves will
insist each upon the others doing biz,
part and nheying orders implicitly. Tenn
work helps immensely. aud when you
get on winning streak you don't want
to fan down through anybodys blundcr
or wilfullness. Arthur A. Irwin.