Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-01-22
PLAYER GETS MANAGERS IDEA
characteristics Of Manager is often
Reflected on the Players.
CARDINALS BECOME WATERS
Get the Idea from RoEer Bresnahan,
who himself was the Rect In
the Leaeue-Oher Traits
Followed.


That personal ideas and characteristics
Of the manager Of bali club can be re-
Elected in the players Is proved in the rec
ords which were recently issued showing
that ST. Louis led the National league in
the number Of bases on balls and that the
Giants led the league In hitting.
Until Bresnahau became manager Of st.
Louis the Cardinals had never been con-
sidered a good waiting club. lie was the
best waiter" McGraw ever had, and that
is why he was put az the top OF the batting
list. Roger always insisted on waiting for
that fourth ball even II he ran the chance
OF being called out on strikes. With two
strikes and three balls on him he would
often let the next one go by I'm the hope
that the umpire would give him the benefit
OF the doubt and call Il a ball When Bres-
nahan went to st. Louis he carried that
idea with him and forced all of his play
ers to become walters" 1t so happened
however. that Roger played Il too strong
and the team did not get enough hits 90
drive the runners in.
The Cardinals became such chronic
walters" that they would always take the
first strike without making any attempt to
hit at IT, Mathewson said they always al
lowed him to get the first strike on them,
and that is a big advantage. The only
man that switched on me-" said Matty,
was Konetchy, and one day when l put
him an easy one over he hit Il for three
bases. I was so surprised that for min
ute I didn't know how to proceed
Ideas of McGraw.
In the case OF the Giants their hitting
record also reflects the ideas OF McGraw
The Giant manager in his playing days
was essentially a hitter, He always be-
lieved IN protecting the base runner. II
there is a man on first he will always In
sist on the player hitting In behind the
runner or working the hit and run. He
drove that idea into his players and In thai
way a large number OF hits were recorded
that would never have been made IL &
waiting policy had been pursued
Il had rather strike out than hit a bal
toward the shortstop with a runner on
first" MoGraw said to Snodgrass one day
lie has always insisted that q wallop II
that direction does more harm than q
! strike-out as it gives a chance for a double
play On a strike-out the runner would al
least have a chance OF stealing second.
"A man who cannot hit into right fielC
| or behind a base runner Is not a good hit
ter. no matter how good may be his eye.
said the Giant manager. while the st
Louis club got more bases on balls thai
any other team, you will notice that the!
did not get anything like as many runs
A good walter is a valuable thing to hav
on a ball club. but there is a limit to II
II everybody practiced It we would hav
very few cleanup hits"
Another peculiar fact that is shown b
the new records is that Cincinnati was tn
best stealing club in the league. The Red
were also a good hitting team. Puttin
those two things together it Is hard to un
derstand why they failed to make as man
runs as the other clubs. Arthur Irwin ex
plains 1t by saying that the Reds ran base
at the wrong time. II they had save
their steam, according TO Arthur, and ha
they used 1t when a stolen base meant
lot in the game, they would have mad
many more runs. The Reds had yer
bad habit Of trying to steal second. wit
nobody out. The trouble was that the
tried it too often and the catchers &c
on to them. Arlle Latham says that II tn
Reds had practiced hitting in behind tn
runner when the steals were attempte