Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-29
CUBS WON PENNANT
BY BEING CAREFUL
Worlds Champions Kept Close
Watch on All the Little De-
tails of the Game-Others
Learn Something.

The complete history of a base ball
season is never written promptly. Every
campaign teaches It's lessons the results
Of which are not at once made manifest
but which crop out In succeeding cam
paigns. Wise manager Is he who looks
back over the work Of his aggregation.
sees the errors that have been made and
profits in the future by his experiences.
ial at the time. but loom up disastrously
in the light of future happenings.
If there is one thing that should be
learned more clearly than anything
else from the great National League race,
which closed with the Cubs victory over
the Giants at New York, Thursday, Octo-
Der 8, 1t Is the necessity Of keeping care
full track of the little details and never
passing over the seemingly insignificant
things \ local fan said to me the other
day: II believe Chicago owes its pennant
to the fact that come member of the
team was wise enough to discover that
in many games where the winning run
was scored in the ninth inning, with a
man on first, the runner failed to ad-
vance to second while the man on third
was scoring No doubt that thing has
happened scores of times, but it was
never discovered until Evers made the
claim in Pittsburg that Gill had failed to
advance to second on a hit which scored
runner from third with the decisive
tally. The Cubs failed to gain the point
they raised that time, but they called the
attention Of the umpire to the possibilities
under such circumstances. with the re-
play was made. 1t was detected. and it
saved the Cubs from defeat. Some
people say that Chicago's winning the
pennant was on a fluke. but 1 think
such people forget what constitutes a real
ball player The stars have not only
they have brains, and brains win out in
the end All of which sounds very much
like the truth to the writer.
There is no doubt that the managers
of the two teams which lost out in the
National League after making such a
grand fight for honOrs can now look
back and figure out scores of places
where tiny mistakes We're made, and
where victory might have perched upon
their banners had the right thing been
done. How many times has a batsman
failed to reach first base, because he had
popped up what appeared to be dead
easy fly, and taken it for granted that
the ball would drop safe into the glove
of an opposing fielder. when the latter
has missed the ball, but thrown out the
runner because he was not interested
enough to run 1t out? OF course. nine
times out of ten such watchfulness may
avail nothing, Out the winning or the
pennant may hang on what happens in
the tenth instance.
Without going further into the matter.
it seems safe to predict that one big
result of the great 1908 race will be more
careful play next season on the part of
all teams that seem from the start to have
a Chance to win the flag. Their managers
will surely overlook nothing nor leave
a stone unturned TO gain every victory
that is possible. This means another
nd L.,
terest on the part of the people, who
never tire of watching the grand old
game when 1t is earnestly and enthus-
iastically played.