Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-31

VALUE Of A MANAGER
Can Make a Weak Base Ball
Team Win Victories.
0'ROUR KE'S METHOD
WHAT ANSON'S INFIELD
THOUGHT OF HIM.
i
O'ROURKE'S METHOD
Billy Barnie and His Signals-When
Tom Lotus Lost His Temper
Directing From the Bench.
BY HUGH s. FULLERTON.

The manager of professional ball club
is about 80 per cent of the playing strength
OF his team. Whenever you see team of
good ball players dragging along in the
ruck OF the race just put it down that the
fault lies with the manager. Whenever
you see team of mediocre players win a
pennant give the manager the bulk of the
credit.
Inc manager first must get together the
talent best suited to his needs from the
available material and then make 1t work
Almost any man, backed by sufficient
money can get together good ball club,
out not one IN thousand make them
work together so as to win consistently
through a season.
To prove these statements look at the
American League race of last season The
three strongest clubs finished in the ruck
while Philadelphia and Chicago-the weak
teams well handled-landed first and sec
ond.
This however. should not detract any,
thing from John McGraw's credit in landing
the New York club winners in the National
League. He had the best club-but ii
would have finished third or fourth with
some other manager.
Bill o'Rourke's Way.
The best manager of ball club in the
world today is Bill ORourke
Bill has a system of handling ball play
ers that is efficacious to the greatest de-
gree of any ever invented. He knows that
there are but two ways to convince ball
players; TO take their money from them in
fines, or to whip them. Bill doesn't be-
lieve that managers should take money
from their players.
When one of O'Rourke's players tries TO
loaf, or gets drunk or tries to disorganize
the club. Bill simply takes him around
back of the clubhouse, and, In fair battle,
whips him into tractability. The player
who whips BIZ probably will be made
manaser-but that has not happened yet.
What Players Thought of Arson.
Arson generally was considered one of
the great managers-but he was not.
I'll never forget the shock I experienced
when l discovered that fact The old team
the champions-needed no manager: they
played ball on the cooperative plan and
one man had about as much to say as the
others. The teams Arson managed in his
latter years were Anson's-and they did
not do we'll
The idea the players had of Anson's
managerial ability was shown during the
hearing of the case of Burns against the
Pittsburg ball club years ago. Burns. with
a dead arm, was unloaded upon Temple by
the Chicago club and he started with a
long term contract. The club dropped him
and he brought suit on the contract 1t
happened that one of the lawyers for the
Pittsburg club knew some of the inner
workings of the old stone wall infeld"
Arson was called to the stand He
praised Burns to the skies. He declared
he was a great ball player He declared
he was good judge of ball players IN
deed, under questioning, he said he would
take Burns judgment of a player almost
he would his own.
Burns was called
Mr.. Burns" said the opposing lawyer
do you remember a conversation that you
had with Mr.: j concerning signs used on
70 loo 900 inf .
Il had many conversations with him
about the club" said Burns.
DO you remember telling him about
your secret signals?'
Il may haye--I don't remember any
especial conversations"
Don't you remember that In converse
ton with Mr.. ]. you told him that you
and Williamson and Pfefer had set of
signals that you didn't let the Old Man
know, because he was such a old Junk
head he couldn't understand them?
Yes, sir" said Burns. And then Arson
was sorry he had praised Burns judge
of players.
Directing From the Bench.
The relative merits of a bench manager
and a playing manager have been discussed
everywhere. l believe, however, that the
bench manager is far more effective, unless
the playing manager happens to be a born
demonstration and able to show the men
how to do just what he orders them to do
McGraw. for instance, was as great a man
ager on the field as off, perhaps even great
er. Joe Kelley was just great a failure.
Chance can make good anything he asks
his men to do. Chance. McGraw, Fielder
Jones' Jake Stahl and others are successes
because they are great players. besides
having managerial abilities. Yet Collins
and Lajoie-their superiors-are failures be-
cause they lack something of the mana
gerial instinct. and, worse than that, ap
pear TO have lost control over their men.
1t is well even for a bench manager If
his men cannot remember what he did or
did not do when he was a player. Once,
when poor Tom Burns was managing Chi
cago, he ordered Gene Demont to cut one to
right field.
why, yuh ole gray headed fool said
Demont, "yuh nevah hit .2i0 In yoh life.
What do yuh mean tryin' tub tell ball
playahs how tub hit?''
Billy BARNES Signals.
Billy Barnie was one of the great old
time managers-and quite a success. He
was the perfecter of the sign system in
playing base ball. The teams that he han
died had to sit up late at night studying
the signs that he made up for them They
VOW to this day that once he invented a
signal TO tell a man whether to slide head
first or feet first when he was stealing sec
Ond.
When Lotus Lost His Temper.
Tom Loftus-now out In Dubuque and out
of the game which he loves and which he
honored for years-was one fine manager
who never broke much ice, because ice
picks were scarce He was a winner in the
old Western-a winner of games but not of
money-but when he got into big company
he was unlucky in getting teams.
Never but once did 1 see Tom mad. That
was at Boston years ago. Chicago had the
game won by big majority but In the
ninth Boston broke loose and hammered
out run after run In vain LOTUS called up
the endorsements and tried to sion the