Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-05
TEAM MANAGERS
KEPT GUESSING
Strain on the Directors Of Base
Ball Players.
By TED SULLIVAN.

8ame-DObu IN It's pOiltitS hifa Pf6yAA8 SAAAs
Yet the architect of the base ball house,
the one man that has to stand all the mem
tai strain of seasons schedule. and
though he be either a giant or a pysmy In
base ball intellect. his ability will be
gauged by the standing of his team at the
end Of the championship race This one
person has never been seen in his proper
sphere. namely. the manager.
When people see manager on bench
and think he is watching nothing but the
mechanical plays OF the game they are mis-
taken The mum. the wild throw. the fun-
bled grounder are all accepted incidents OF
base ball game, no matter what class the
team Is in. 1t Is the points. or chess. OF
the game that this manager Is watching
The more base ball strategy he knows the
harder the strain will be on his mind. One
point lost In the game has turned the Is
sues of many a contest and this the d.
rector Of the club fully understands. The
people see nothing but the face and hands
Of the base ball clock-its inner works they
see not. Yet there are inner works to
base ball contest. The quick thinking brain
and the stout heart and nerve of the player
they do not see. Those are the works OF
that base ball clock. The base ball man
ager of dimfnutive brain has no strain on
his mind. He sees nothing but the me-
chanical plays of the game. be they good
or bad. He is the one that will feel sore at
mis- men lot making errors. Inefe are no
base ball electric lighted rooms in his head.
1t Is q dark dungeon of solid matter, while
on the other hand the real ball man never
finds fault with mechanical error of any
OF his men, but In fact jollies the poor fell
low when he comes TO the bench. but 1t is
the error of Judgment that this manager
Of superior brain feels-although he says
nothing Of 1t at the time. Should the game
be lost, this base ball general cannot drive
out OF his mind, not even the night after
the game, that it was lost by a certain err
ror of judgment.
Those remarks of mine were not CLEANED
from a long-distance view from the field
of action. but from solid. actual expert
ence in the guidance of many clubs Strange
to say. the tension on the mind of a man
ager who Is leading the race through a
season is far more than one that Is con-
trolling tail-ender. The reason Is this:
Any game lost by the leader may set them
back to second or third place. and the tall
ender can't go any farther back than 1t Is.
and great many tail-enders are resigned
to their position. The manager In the lead
Is at his wits end night and day to keep
the lead. and IL he Is a very brainy man of
magnetic temperament he will toss him
self from pillow to pillow at night over the
loss of game that was lost by bad gener-
alshfp. 1t IS only the high-class ball gen.
eral that Is bothered that way
When I saw COMFY Mack last year in
Washington finishing up his American
League race with the Washington team
he looked emaciated. pinched and drawn.
after his strenuous and exciting race of six
months to land his team as the winner OF
the American League. The other little
Napoleon. McGraw. with his electric-light
brain and magnetic temperament. was right
when he declared last November that he
would not like to undergo again the mental
torture In his fight for the National League
pennant. Base ball managers Of high-cass
major league teams have no easy job. and
they earn every cent Of the money they re-
cefve.
In my writings. dislike TO speak of my
personal experience In handling my many
teams. as 1t looks egotistical but I will
cite one incident to show how managers
that have the success OF their teams at
heart will evolve in their mind at night
how they could have averted a defeat OF
that afternoon. 1t also demonstrates that
the game has advanced In It's strategy by
the thinking out of certain plays by men
who have the success Of their club and
the game at heart. When the St Louis
Browns. in 1885, were straining every nerve
to retain their lead In the American Asso-
citation, they ran across a hoodoo ninth
inning defeat in Louisville of two games
In succession. In each of these games we
had margin OF two or three runs to the
good when the Louisvilles went In and
won out After suffering those two ninth
inning defeats In succession we opened In
Cincinnati full OF fight. The Browns had
the Cincinnati club 3 to 0 up to the ninth
inning. when the Cincinnati team turned on
US In that fatal inndng. making four runs
thereby beating US again in the ninth The
boys left the Cincinnati grounds that ev-
entng for their headquarters a down-cast
lot and l don't believe the players spoke
three words that night after supper so
chop-fallen were they to be haunted by
bf,f fIox
in the lead for the American Asocia ton
championship and full of fight / retired
myself at y O'Clock that night and the
incidents of that ninth inning with it's
many rnishaps kept passing through my
The problem haunted me for hours be-
fore l could sleep as to what stretegy could
have been INTRODUCED to avert the defeat of
that afternoon. Finally it dawned on my
mind that two pop flies could have been
caught by either the shortstop or second
baseman IL they were playing back in
their natural positions instead OF coming in
on the fnfield to catch the man on third
at the plate. 1t also dawned on my mind
that hot grounder would have gone into
>Snortstop Gleason's hands II he was back.
All those men would have been retired IL
my infleld were not In trying to catch the
man at the plate. I saw the strategy at
once and resolved to tell the boys next
morning OF new move We intended to
make, and that was to hereafter to play
back when we were ahead In the eighth or
ninth inning. Before we went to the ball
grounds the next day. I jollied the men
and told them of the points we lost by
cramping the infleld
The electric lights in that team. who
were Comisky. Latham. Gleason and Nfcol.
d1d not require but the smell of a base
ball point to see the outcome, so after
that the Browns were not defeated In any
ninth-fnning finishes. l believe | can safe
iy state up TO 1888 that this point az