San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-01-24

team is playing the game" There
is where a good manager proves his
| value. a team of stars with an incom-
| petent man to handle them would
cause no end of trouble and dissension,
while nine youngsters in the hands of
a man of experience to guide them
will make up a team that is hard to
beat. A good illustration is the Dali
lasteam of '95, under the management
| of Ted Sullivan. With few eXcep-
tons all of the players of that team
were youngsters, and they regarded
| Sullivan as one who understands the
game and always cheerfully took his
advice They sacrificed" or they hit
| it out" as Ted ordered them, for they
knew that he was telling them some
thing that would prove useful to them
| some day. Now take the San Anto-
Mo team of 80. We had no stars to
boast of, but there were a few players
| on the team that would have been a
| nucleus with the proper man to ham
| die them. BrOphey was out OF place,
and the only matter to be regretted
| is that San Antonio had to suffer by
| his inexperience. He did not know the
| first principles of the game and could
| not tell his players what to do. They
had to look to their captain for in
structions, and the reader can guess
| the rest.
The professional players under con-
| tract to clubs in the various leagues
have their innings in the winter, says
c. II. Zuber. in the Cincinnati Times
Star. To hear them talk, when the
| frost is on the pumpkin" and up to
the time for spring practice one would
imagine that the magnates all are
covering little men, who trembled at
the sound of a players voice and are
doing nothing but worrying these days.
Any shocks of the earth that may take
place during the winter could be attrl-
buted to a concerted shaking of fear
on the part of many club presidents
! if one were to think seriously of what
| the players say about this time of the
year. However, it is safe to say that
! instead of concerted fear it is concert
| ed laughter that makes the magnateS
shake the earth these winter days. The
| buster of the players who say posi-
| lively and Vehemenently that they will
not sign for next season unless their
| demands are granted bringsSmiles to
| the magnates. They know better. At
| present the majority OF players in sew
| eral minor leagues-including the
| strong western and the almost equally
| strong eastern league-declare that
they will not play next season for the
| salaries that will be offered them,
! reduction being necessary in the stars
salaries in order to come under the
newly established salary limits. How
ever, when the order is given to start
in the spring, all will be in line, and
at the salary which the magnates fix,
and not that which the players de-
| mand.
Occasionally we read something "a
bout scoring. 1t is very easy to criu-
else the faults of scorers, but can
anyone suggest a remedy by which
| the figures of two or more scores, kept
by different persons on the same game
in different parts of the grand stand
or grounds can be made to tally? By
strictly following the rule on scoring
this cannot be accomplished.
A scorer, like an umpire, is supposed
to use a little discretion on certain
plays that come up. For instance, a
baserunner goes from first to second.
The catcher drops the ball and the
runner reaches the base safely. The
question is did the runner have a suf-
ficient lead to reach the base safely
even if the catcher would not have
dropped the ball and thrown it to the
I second baseman, or, is the man fast
or slow runner. The same way with
charging errors to fielders. For in
stance, a ball is hit to shOrtstop, the
! scorer must consider the batsman's
sprinting abilities, and also follow the
course of the ball, whether the ball is
hit direct to shortstop. fast or slow, OF
or what kind of bound it takes before
it reaches the fielder. Often a ball
| will start off directly to the fielder's
right side, but just before reaching him
will bound to his left side, and vice
versa. 1t must be remembered that
a man can field ball much quicker
and more perfect when the ball bounds
true to the side from which the fielder
1 lIlTONS. AISulItIlS AlldI Oh AlNiA
just such plays show that there are
few minds alike in scoring; some are
too mild and others too severe.
The short, stocky man predOminates
in baseball nowadays. Formerly a
ball player, like a policeman. was Sc.
lected as much on account Of his ply.
sique as for his ability on the diamond
In fact an impression prevailed many
, years ago that small-sized man haC
no business trying to play ball and tn,
l remark was frequently heard regard
$ ing some new aspirant for fame on tn
diamond: He plays we'll but he's to-
5 small" This has all changed and tn
J. majority of baseball players are short
1 stout and even squatty. While as
S rule the first basemen are tall, the re
g nainder of the infield in most team
e is guarded by small men. The reasoI
= probably is that the progress of tn
e game requires increased activity il