Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-02-26
MANAGERS SIGNS
Brainy Leaders Use Very Few
Signals With Their Players.
NO SET RULES TO GOVERN
Bright Men Adapt Themselves to
Circumstances in Every
Game.
BY TED SULLIVAN.

There is one class of base ball fall
lacies that 1 want to sllatter into as
many pieces as Buffalo Bill does the
glass balls with his rifle. 1t is the bug
abo0 of base ball managers signs This
supposed 100000 signs are commented
upon by class of ignorant bali players
for the edification of verdant and gullible
reporters, who want to bring into deri-
sion some of the best and well posted
managers of the national game. Let me
state to the army of base ball enthusi
asts through the breadth Of this country
that any professional club with any pre-
tensions of success must have some
signs or other or 1t is not ball club.
Signs regulate themselves and are used
cording to the intelligence or experience
of the players they guide. The man.
ager must govern himself by the wit OF
the men he has under him. So, with
different men. different methods. You
cannot go by any set rules In base ball,
because what is right at one stage OF
the game under certain conditions would
be wrong at another time. This rot
Of men like Jennings having more signs
than players is an insult to the intelli-
gence Of any base ball man. They may
have four or five signs or maybe three
to govern certain plays that may arise
In q crisis of the game, and no more. A
manager with a lot of raw material must
|
alphabet Of teamwork. then they will have
to govern themselves by it. Hundreds Of
the newcomers are nervous and anxious
to make a success. And the manager
must have circumspection enough to
know whether the player possesses wit
or not. II not possessed of this divine
spark the young fellow must be left
alone and jollied in his work.
The writer remembers having some ex-
perience with a player some years ago
In minor 1aa0no and 7 nj
that there was no craft in the young
fellow, and I did not want him to be
burdened with the semblance Of sign,
80 he would have no excuse for his fall
ure. told him that he was a free
agent, and the only signs for him were
to hit the ball when he chose catch It in
any field and throw it where hie judy
ment thought it was right. He went
the diamond. jollied him every way.
asked him il he had any excuse He
said no. But he did tell me that il he
had sign or two to go by he thought
he would be a winner.
Now, reader. IL this individual had
the handicap of even one sign he would
tell his friends If he was released that
the one sign was the cause of his
misfortune, so this IL one class of ball
players. In my base ball career ] made
had forty signs in game Of ball. And
1T was carried out to perfection by the
wits that played for me, who. joshed
| the other players by telling them that
1t was so: yet four signs were the
limit I used with beginners, and one
or two that may have to be put into
practice in the crisis OF a game. To
| make my essay more clear to the pub
lie. some ball players are as tmpervious
| to taking signs as ducks back Is to alb
| alone. Their destiny in the national
game is purely mechanical and IL you
introduce any chess or. dominoes in
their ball playing they are lost. Glass
! A players of superior intelligence who
have played for "a year or SO are easily
| handled by a manager. AS the plays
| of the game come mp those men gen.
orally know what action to take, and
i the manager only steps in at the crisis
of the game. where his superior knowl-
edge Of the issue knows what tactics
to pursue.
| Take the class Of players like Evers,
Callahan. Lord. Cobb and others Of like
base ball intellect. and the intuition of
one another's actions will lead them
| to know what to do.
| And when that class Of men are set on
q ball idd. the plays Of the game come
| UP before them as clear as the cards In
a game Of euchre. yet there must be q
head to that combination Of players too.
the machinery of its playing, that the
human nature part OF 1t the audience
never catch sight Of. The moral effect
one play has on another the audience
never notices. but the hidden works Of q
base ball clock they never see. 1t ID the
movements Of the hands that they notice.
but not the friction Of its inside works,
which sometimes make the hands move
Ierratically There have to be signs be-
tween pitcher and catcher. second base
man and third. baseman. and those
have to be operated while the team u in
the field You cannot make pebble q
diamond, no matter how mach you polish
It, And certain class of players could
play one hundred years and retain moth
ing but the polish Of the pebble. But q
diamond will be q diamond, no matter
what 1t Is incased In. That Is the DIFF
ference between some ball players intel,
tects and othetaL a. between the polished
pebble and the real diamond