Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-17
WINNING BALL TEAMS.
Ted Sullivan Discourses on the Secret
of Success.

of Success.
One of the great fallacies of many major
leagues in the past ten years is their high
knowledge of quantity and their minor
knowledge of quality" The champion
clubs of the major leagues. both past and
present, were never burdened with sur
plus of men. 1t is the man Of brains who
keeps pace with conditions and rises equal
to any demands. There are only two kinds
of people In the world who never change
their mind, and they are dead or insane
There are, however, certain things in the
world that never can undergo a changeA-a
chipmunk can never be lion. jackdaw
an eagle or black crow turn white. To
speak in the vernacular, 1t Is the quality
of the men In the major leagues that
counts and not the quantity. The work
of club that wins pennant In the major
league brings on many arguments which
are generally false logic. You will hear
them say: There is New York-they only
use two pitchers, Mathewson and McGin-
nifty" and they refer to other features or
the New York club that ought to be imi-
tated. My answer to those assertions is:
There are not many pitchers at present or
the Mathewson and McGinnity caliber-nor
are there many Mansfieds in the theatrical
profession, and other leaders in other pro-
LESSONS. It is combination of things that
makes up the winner. The New York
Giants have a mastery team behind both
Mathewson and McGinnity. And that team
Z
play that will whirl on any piece of dead
wood in the shape of a player tFat may be
cast among them. This fact was more
than demonstrated In the great Baltimore
club Of the middle sos. That team had in
its ranks such kindred and magnetic spir-
it's as McGraw, Doyle. Joe Kelley, Jen-
nings, Brady and Keeler. The style of play
Of those men was SO rapid that players that
looked slow in other clubs. when they
Joined the Orioles became at once so In
fected with the esprit de corps" of that
great team that their work on the ball
field would lead a person to believe they
were operated on by a galvanic battery.
But that combination In the Baltimore club
was "quality"-and a quality of such rarely
that the base ball world will be many
moons and suns older before that collection
of base bali talent will be on the same pay
roll again.
Quantity once In while must be got
together to pick and mold quality, but
any executive of the major league club that
pretends to be a base ball expert should
know. like woodman, the difference be-
tween Eastwood and oak and pine and
hickory.
I viii say. however. there is no business
in the world that is run as much by poll
tics as base ball. When a dwarf OF
diminutive intellect can be boosted anead
of giant of brains the business must In
deed have many angles to 1t. This comes
from the fact that very few magnates
have passed through the playing machin-
ery of the game and they chiefly depend
ON their advisers who are inpeiled half the
time by malice prejudice or ignorance.
The greatest military captain of any age,
the first Napoleon, said that an army OF
sheep led by lion could do more than an
army of lions led by a sheep" and in a
like spirit 1t applies to leader OF a base
ball club. TED SULLIVAN.