Los Angeles herald., 1906-06-25
NJ 'GRAW FAVORS
HITTING GAME
MANAGER OF GIANTS NOT PAR
TIAL TO ART OF BUNTING
Champions Win Because They Use
the Hit and Run style and Pay
Small Attention to Sac
rfloe Play

1nere are a great many things about
the New York team that are not seen
by the common run of spectators. It
Is enough for New Workers. to know
that they win and everybody loves a
winner.
st, Louisans can Judge only of what
they see. What do they think of the
series In Chicago when the Cubs were
defeated in three out of four games?
1t was no slump that humbled the
Cubs. They beat Brooklyn and Phila-
delphia and Boston after the Giants
had come and gone. They outhit the
Giants in every game, too. So did the
Cardinals, but base hits do not always
win.
The New York Giants play a game
some parts of which are unfamiliar to
many Of their rivals. The team is a
fairly well balanced aggregation of
talent, led by the best manager in
the country. When 1t comes to maxi
Ing his men play the sort of baseball
that he wants McGraw has no equal.
He is original and forceful and he Is
a ruler. There are no cliques in his
club and he will not stand for dumb
playing.
10 tne unexpected
To do the unexpected is McGraw's
system. He has cut out many of the
old stereotyped plays that other man
ayers cling to simply because they
are sure, because they know no other
as it is taught to them instead of
evolving something new.
1t is the opinion of keen baseball men
those who have been players in par
ticular-that the game is slowly un-
dergoing a revolution. The manager
who takes advantage of changing con-
ditions is bound to be successful and
that is part of the secret of McGraw's
success.
Styles change slowly in baseball, but
none the less surely, and it is a fact
that the fashion is reverting to the old
style of straight hitting. In other
words, the sacrifice hit has been over
done, and no better proof of it is
found than in the fact that the worlds
champions, the Giants, do not play that
style of game.
They have demonstrated, to them
selves at least, that the sacrifice should
be the exception and not the rule, and
no one can say that their method of
playing the game has not been success
full. Just watch the scores and notice
the number of sacrifices and the num-
ber of stolen bases credited to the
Giants and you will have the proof
II other managers follow this method
the game may undergo no slight
change. as the practical abolishment
of the sacrifice hit means more hitting
and bigger scores. If thev do not the
Giants, or any other team that Nc
Graw manages, will always be we'll to
the front, If not a winner.
l.. 90 Nl.1
not only play ball intelligently, but
they can talk of 1t intelligently, and
after hearing their argument on the
sacrifice hit question, one can not help
but feel convinced to some degree.
They believe that they can beat the
best team in the American league, not
alone by good pitching, but by the ad-
vantage which their style of play gives
them.
Don't Like Sacrifice
"I can't understand why all the
American league managers and several
in the National league persist in work.
ing the sacrifice to DEATH" said mem
ber of the New York club recently.
at is play which is generally cut
and dried before it is made. The batter
deiberate tely kills his own chance to
get on the bases to advance a man one
base. 1t takes base hit to bring the
runner in, so why not try to get 1t with
a man on first and nobody out instead
of deliberately throwing away one
chance?
"You will find that the man who is
sent up to sacrifice will make base hits
with justifiable frequency, if he is al
lowed to hit it out, to score more runs
than the sacrifice hit leads to. Every
man on this club goes up determined
to get to base. We try to perform the
unexpected. The sacrifice is play
that every infielder looks for in the
American league as soon as a runner
gets on first with nobody out. Incl
dentally that is the reason the scores
are so low in the American league.
They lose too many men by sacrificing.
"The old Baltimore club-a team
composed of small men like McGraW,
Keeler, Jennings and others-first made
the bunt and the hit-and-run play
famous.
THE hit-and-run is still good play,
but the sacrifice has been done to a
piont where it is no longer scientific
hitting, but mechanical ball playing
of dubious merit and value. Take a
team of well balanced hitting power,
like the New York club, and the hit
and-run play is a strong point of at
tack.
"As 1 said before, all of our batters
go up with the intention of getting on,
either through hit or a walk. There
is always the chance, too, that some
body will make an error. A fast man
like George Browne may bunt, but he
beats them out as often as he is caught
We run out all our hits and often get
an extra base through an outfielder's
tumble. 1t pays to play the game all
the time"