Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-04-21
CLARK GRIFFITH ADMITS
THAT HE is A HARD LOSER

I can put up his good coin and engage me to
do 1t for him, and he can depend upon me
| to try to bring in the merchandise, and
when he does that, I'm accepting the COM
mission with no other idea than to get
| all that can. I'm not going to sit down
and write jollying letters and kilograms TO
a boss every day, explaining this, apolog1z-
ing for that predicting the big stun for
| him along that way. I'm running an en-
terprise for him that's big on the business
side as we'll as big on the sentimental side.
On the business side alone there's a whole
big package on the shoulders Of ball
club manager. 1t isn't tiddledywlnks. It's
getting the money. It's Keeping the gate
up to the notch. The burden is just as
big on the sentimental side. The fans
want results. not superheated steam. Apol-
ogies don't go with them. They want the
goods in the original packages. They're
willing to be loyal If they're given any
kind of a chance-but they don't want
any fooling and they won't stand for any
fooling. They're to be considered whole
up at the gate. And the fans don't, l
think, want these good losers at the head
of their ball clubs. They're mostly hard
losers themselves, are the fans. and when
the boss of their club takes bad losing
streak nice and pretty they're liable to en-
gage In line of thinks.
Back to the crab business. then. 1
never found that a manager could do much
with ball players by being gay and clipper
with them. There's got to be some kind or
a leader to any old kind of an outfit. l
don't mean that any manager could get
by with the Job if he tried to beat his play
ers with a large gnarled and knotted war
club every ten or twenty minutes. Ball
players, as a rule. are pretty independent,
if not chesty, lot, and they won't stand
for bullying. But they don't have to be
bullied. They only have to be managed
Some Players Need Prodding.
1.-The game is full of players who won't
do their best unless they're poked at and
prodded to 1t all the time. This doesn't
mean that all of these fellows are mean
dubs or cutters. They're just naturally
sluggish. and, just as some of the greatest
race horses sluggish and require all
sorts of drilling and pounding to be kept
tuned up to their work. so 1t is with ball
players of the type I'm talking about. They
don't lay down. But they've got to be
stung up to their work right along, other
wise they're liable to begin to loll around
and chew on blades of grass and gaze
dreamy at those little gilt clouds flying
over the top of the grand stand. Ihey
can't be kept up TO the pitch where they
belong by manager who does the Al
phonse-a nd Castor business. In not 60
ing to one of my ball players and don my
cap to him and ask him if he won't be so
obliging to insert just a trifie more OF
ginger. combined with paprika and tobasco,
into his operations on the bail lot. m GO
quick, while he's still got work and is on
the pay-list. and it's just as likely as not
that, if my lunch isn't resting well that
day I'll stick in some little reminder about
the bushes. and about how folks have been
known TO go back to them when they be-
came too dreamy and reflective and things
on the ball parks of major league towns.
This may make me out crab. l guess 1t
does. But If ii does. I'm a charter mem
Der of the Crabs Circle, and I'm going to
remain in good standing, and be smack up
to the minute with my dues just as long as
m the skipper of any mans ball team.
There players. too, who actually do
lay down on their team-suk Ike httle gris
that have lost their jacks out OF their
apron pockets, and want TO be pampered
and petted and mollycodded into being
nice and lively and cute. Well, IN four
teen different kinds of crab with that
kind, and I'm not gurgling out any apollo
gies for it, either. ! don't profess to be
jerry to everything that's coming on on
earth. but l always know when ball
player is just in the middle, OF poor-play-
ing streak due to being out of FORM and
when he is just sulking. The man who Is
in the rut and failing to hand In the best
stuff he Is capable of merely because he Is
temporarily out of shape, IS not man 10
be nagged at or picked on, but handied
right side up and with care. Nevertheless,
the fact that he, perhaps. along with three
or four of his mates on the team, ls IN that
sort of condition is an aggravation and
source of irritation to a ball club manager,
and if the manager has any leaning toward
crabbiness that's one OF the situations
that's liable to add fuel to his tendency
Again, ball players can't help 1t when they
join the Grip list. It's not their fault II
they become disabled in the game But the
simple fact that they do become olaspled
and unfit TO play doesn't make II an! me
sweeter for the manager. It's gong TO get
on his nerves and crabbness is only an
other name for nerves
The Manager Who is a Grab"
e, ,itcbipp staff goes Wrune-Of;en all in
a bunch That gives the manager another
nudge-in TO add To his reputation as crab.
II doesn't do him any good to have the
bunch streak along and say: Hard luck,
DO What he wants IS games, not sym
pathy And being constituted that way,
there's nothing to it at ali-hes crab.
"One or other of the umpires shows
Observation-Disclosures or not. II makes no
difference-to give a manager the punk end
of it all over the circuit. The manager
frets and worries and bucks about it. He's
a crab,
Two or three OF the best men on the
team, having inadvertently partaken of too
much macaroni au gratin at lunch. spend the
whole afternoon on the ball yard making
fat-witted plays. The manager kicks in and
tells them a few little things that are sim
mering under his cap Crab for that man
ager.
team lose their batting wicks at a critical
period of the season and are unable to hit
a sand-bar If they're standing on it. The
manager feels a whole lot wrought up over
that. Crab!
And so on down the whole line. I'm
not making the least effort to excuse my
self for being crab you understand. I'm
just explaining why | am must be one
why / have become one since l hired out
to manage ball club, rather.
Some day, maybe, I'll be there with all
of that clipper. grinny, how-are- you-Reg-
gle stuff when I'm out on the ball lot super
vising "A game but if | ever do reach that
stage | can whatever team I'm running
losing about twenty-seven games in a row
every little while, and a green ticket In my
uniform coat pocket for the BOBBY hatch.