The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1902-06-09
CHRIS4Y MATHEUSON,
WRITER And PLAYER
Prepares Special Articles for
the Newspapers.
Recent Treatise on Team Work and It's
Advantages-0ther Notes From the
Baseball World.

Christy Mathewson, the New York
pitcher. in addition to drawing his sal
airy for exercising his twirl!ag wing
every cnce in while in the interest Of
the Giants. is putting in his spare time
Writing baseball articles for a St Louis
paper In these essays on how the na-
tionai game should be played. Mathew
son shows knowledge Of the sport that.
were it only applied to his own team,
would land Horace FogeFs aggregation
at the top Of the National League heap.
Team work was discussed the other
day by AT. Mathewson. and ne put for
ward the following views, not exactly
new by any means, but interesting # for
nothing else than to show the style of
copy the newspapers of st. Louis pay
for
Mr. Mathewson displays his baseball
rendition something like this:
Team work is the very essence Of
/ latter-day baseball. Individuality, such
as used to predominant in the game. is
submerged in the mines unifcauon.
The first idea OF team work, the
foundation OF the present elaborate sys-
TEN Of team plag. vas when the pitcher
and catcher first worked with signs.
| The old way was one finger for an in
| ball. two fingers for curve. and the
outstretched hand for straight ball
Charley Snyder, now an umpire, but
once famous catcher. is credited with
| being the first player to originate
sign outside Of the regular battery
signals. He invented a sign for the third
baseman TO run to third to receive a
quick throw from the backstop. From
| this small beginning other positions
were brought in until now there is a
| system which covers every position Of
the nine.
Team work is the secret of mines
success The system may not always
work as intended: there may be cross
ing Of signs and all that. but in the
! end the nine that has team work down
10 the greatest science. with other con
ditions equal. Will win out
Manager Hanlon has perhaps perfect
ed team work more than any other man
ager, It was through this that he was
enabled TO make a three-time winner
out OF the famous Baltimore team He
selected his men not so much for their
superior ability at the mechanical part
Of the game as for their bTaininess.
They were all heaGy players. Some
even were cast-offs from other teams
but he soon nodded them sinto an ag
gregatIon of winners that surprised the
baseball world and TevoiutioDized the
game
Team work in fielding Is secured by
every player knowing by q sign from
the catcher just what kind Of q ball Is
going to be pitched. The PLAYERS then
shift their positions accordingly
Team work in batting and base-run-
ming came later. and Manager Hanl0n
was the first to oblige every one Of his
PLAYERS 10 conform to certain system
when at bat.
The result was that, although the ORR
oles were not a heavy batting team. Vet
they accumulated runs in a most sur
prising manner. They had opposing
teams standing on their heads at first
and dumb managers and players, who
were SLOW in tumbling to Hanicn's
( game. were wont to lay IT all to luck.
e. That Baltimore team is the luCkest
on earth was a common expression
among ball players the country over the
first year Of the Orioles phenomenal
success. And # wasn't until Hanlon
had won two championships in success
sion that the system he was working
was fully caught on to-
Now there is not q team in the coUn-
try that is not following in Hanion's
and the BaItimGres' tracks. That inside
bit Of play. the hit and run game. is
only made possible By team work 4
single system by which the runner and
batter know just what the other IS TO
do and work in unison.
Two sets OF signals should he had for
one can often hear now. Look out. they
are on to your signs Then a quick
shift is necessary and often tends to
break up the other side. There are
wheels within wheels in this signal
business, and It is the object of one
team to break up the others systems.
1T IS interesting to those who know
the game thoroughly to watch this
Smashing OF science and system"
John B. Foster. IN the New York
Telegram" says players never amount
to anything after leaving New York.
Let's see: There is Ducky Holmes,
Charley Farrell, Cy Seymour. Jack
Warner, Al Setback. George Davis. sam
Strang, KID Gleason, Dan Murphy, and
4 few other ex-Giants playing good ball.
whil1 the aggregation engaged by
Free oman has already souTed the Nev'
York fans
Katoll. Of the Chicago Americans.
pitched Tor Racine against the Spaldings
the other day and not q man reached
first off Kim in q game that lasted sixty
five minutes,