The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1910-03-14

Dali SdulSS, DIS pldyGu lOUdy ny the
greatest professional teams, are mar
wells of science, planning and mental
exertion-according to sundry writer's
VINO have of late been calculating the
fine points of the pastime. If these
able critics tell the truth in every de-
tail ball game as played today is
a complex series of moves and coun-
ter moves beside which Lasker's ablest
chess performance is about equal to
an anchored skiff matched against
steam launch. According to some of
the able writer's who have been writ
ing thrilling stories of the national
game, a big league is now run, when
in battle, by a set of signals, crisis
and countersigns and with a special
set of emergency signals always in
readiness in case the opposition should
guess the purport of the original code.
A kick of the coachers right foot,
says one of these writer's, means one
movement for the batsman and base
runner; kick of the left foot means
another; pulling grass with the right
hand means to do this and jerking it
violently with the left hand means to
do the other thing. If the manager
on the bench shades his eyes with his
palm it means steal; if he hits the
water barrel viciously with his left
foot, it means to sacrifice. In short
according to the magazine writer's and
the brilliant critics of the day-base-
ball is controlled, all the way through
the stages of the active play, by these
int criS
crossing signs and codes.
All of which would be extremely in
structive were it not for the fact that
it isn't SO, and that, in all these
stories, the writer's either built upon
their imaginations, or-more likely
were strung" and 'joshed' by the
ball players to whom they went for
information. AS a plain, hard fact,
no ball team ever played the game
under a long and complex code Of
signals. 1t would be an utter impos-
sibiilty, physical and mental abb
surdity-a task that no ball tosser, no
matter how retentive his memory,
could overcome.
Could anything De more hilariously
farcial than the idea that a base run
every possible manner in which to
trap and erase him, and quickly shift
ing circumstances mOnopoliZing every
instant Of his time, would solemnly
await half a dozen criss-crossed sig
mails, or rack his brain trying, in such
an instant, to recall what was meant
when the captain kicked up his left
foot or the coacher winked his right
eye through a shield made by two
fingers Of the left hand?
The generalship Of the ball field is
an ever shifting series of quickly de-
vised schemes, not a fifth part OF
them figured out or practiced before
each individual game began. The
signal code of the ball field is limited
to eight or ten simple tricks, and
must ever be so for the reason that
the brain of the ball player is not
that of Euclid, Plato or Archimedes.
The last named gentleman, perhaps,
might memorize a series of 500 sig
nails, have them all tabulated and
ready for instant reference, and choose
from the 500 the one to fit a special
case when that special case had to
be dealt with in the fleeing space of
seven seconds, but the average ball
players mental architecture isn't
framed that way.
Baseball generalship plays great
part in the winning of ball games,
but it is the genius of Improvisation,
the generalship to cope with constant
new conditions, that wins out, and
not set studies of the academic order.
Here is something that can be safe
ly stated, after seeing and describing
5000 gamcN or more: There was
never yet a ball game in which some
thing did not happen that never hap
pened in any game before. There was
never yet a ball game in which some
entirely new play or combination OF
plays did not arise, and the men who
met the new combinations with the
quickest scope of comprehension were
the ones who won.
ANY captain or manager, before
game, can review the events of earlier
battles, and say, cheerfully: when
that thing happens again, we will be
ready for it''-and then, almost in
fallibly, that particular thing will not
occur, and they will have to deal with
and bewildering.
A close-fought ball game means
generalship against generalship, and,
in addition, generalship against the
strange, weird, incomprehensible luck
of the diamond. The finest calcula-
ton may work out to a nicety-and
it may be ruined by slip, wide
thrown ball, or the breaking of bat.
and-once and forever-bear this in
mind, that there is nothing so laugh
able, so delightful to crowd. or so
backbreaking to the success Of a ball
club, as the failure of a finely planned
bit of generalship in execution.
One Of the finest bits of general
ship I ever saw, in idea and detailed
workings, was a play that was tried
twice the same day by two hostile
clubs. In one case, the theory worked
out to perfection-in the other it was
an utter failure. 1t ruined one side
and saved the other, and the team
that won that day took down flag
a few weeks later.
The Chicago White Sox and the
Athletics were batting