The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1910-07-26
THE TRIALS OF A BALL TEAM MANAGER ARE MANY


known as the manager of the out
fit. It's true he is getting q pretty
good salary for his work, and it is
also true that he probably doesn't
set in the game very often, but
the position he holds is far from
being the snap a lot of baseball
fans appear to think 1t is.
In the first place the manager Is
the official buffer between the
players, the public and the press.
The manager gets his men to-
gether in the spring several weeks
before the season opens, and, If he
is in one of the bigger leagues
which tho American public sup
ports, he heads for the southern
training camp. In the party are a
number of youngsters whom the
manager has never even seen, but
who have been touted to him as
wonders by scouts, or friends in
terested, mostly in the player
himself. Now the training season
may last four or five weeks, and
in that time 1t is up to the head
man to pick his team for the COM
ing struggle and weed out the
weaker brethren.
So he is up against 1t at the
start. He knows what his old
men can do, as he has seen them,
but he has only vague knowl
edge of the youngsters work-and
this second-hand-so he puts the
youngsters through the PAGES,
right from the tap of the gong.
The regulars are permitted to
take more time, to round into
shape slowly, as the manager
would be foolish to take a chance
and let one good man injure him
self or go stale before the season
begins. But the. grind is on for
tho youngsters, and they are ex-
pected to show their stuff right
from the start. Sounds hard, you
say, but it's the only thing pos
|sible.
Maybe one or two of the young
sters show enough form to war
rant holding fhap, Tba otLar.
don't and are turned adrift or are
shipped back to the bushes for
more seasoning. Probably some
other team grabs one or two of
them and they develop into stars,
while the new ones the manager
held onto blow up and some of his,
old reliables slow up. Then the
hammer dents the manager in the
head, the fans pan him and they
forget that he isn't gifted with
second sight, but instead is just
an ordinary sort of human, who
knows quite good deal about
baseball and who is more than
anxious to get winning team in
the field.
Then there is the question of
pulling players out of the game
at critical moments. The mana
gers team needs hit to win or
tie, SO a pinch hitter is sent up.
This man may have been called
upon time and again in just such
an emergency and delivered, but
this time he fails and the team
is whipped. Once again the man
ager is roasted to a nice brown
for making the change.
But most of this roasting
comes from yanking pitchers
when they show signs of weaken
ing, Clarke Griffith, manager of
the Reds, will pull pitcherI
quicker than any other manager.
When Griff managed the New
York Americans he jerked pitch
ers so frequently that the fans
drubbed him ."Yank," and from
that sprung the present nickname
of the American league club in
this country's biggest town
Yankees"
Fielder Jones, who won a
worlds championship with a me-
diocre ball team which didn't have
any license to win, changed his
players frequently, and his repu-
tation as manager rested solely
on his almost uncanny ability to
put in the right player at the
right time. -
John McCloskey. now manag-
Ing Milwaukee in the American
was great on making
sudden switches, and he usually
had the right bunch. McCloskeyl
changed pitchers three times In
one inning one day when he was
the Cardinals, and he
won his game. The fans said he
was wise and had great head.
The next day he yanked a pitcher
In the middle of an inning, trotted
out another one and the Cardinals
were swamped. What the fans
said about McCloskey then cannot
be printed in a family paper.
The manager is the person re-
sponsible for the offensive and de-
fensive tactics OF his team, and If
he WINS he4is great. But let him