New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-12-27
~ GEORGE T. sTALLINGs.
Manager of the Boston Braves.

was far higher IN Nhe sN""u,"e -
clubs in August than were the or"''s
Al that time, declared 10 me-
o. "I,'s, ee soon as one Of your pitchers
.SSs ,bo Climb will sink back again.
81 have others under cover" was my
,,,lv And this manager laughed at me;
centember came along, however, ana
- nitcbers had not cracked, and we
Svere M with the Giants about Laoot
nav N was then that the followers OF
,bc New York club figured my pitching
sfsF would surely 60, for the braves
s1eilv took the lead and had TO make
the pace. always one OF the olgges.
strains of the game. But / had spent
inch time studying my men, ana
NEW them. One night about this time
! was talking TO several New York news
rsner reporters. and one said:
faDo YOU think your three pitchers
will hold on now, George?
~ they don't" replied, Il have
others TO put into the box. There is
enc Young fellow l have been nursing
,ione carefully for some time, ana l
am lust about ready to take the biahkeV
OF him now. l think he viii show you
something in another week ~.
"WeH. / come from away out IN MIS-
souri," answered this newspaper man.
u want TO be shown.
Il wasn't a week afterward that
George Davis shut out the Philadelphl.a
National League club without MT
and il there is one thing the Phllhes
can do il is paste that ball. DAVIS is
,onnsster who came to me with some
i;.tle experience, but who was still very
ropgh / turned him over to MY Right
Tve7" Fred Mitchell, and he had been
working with Davis all summer before
finally started him. | wanted conol-
tons to be right for him.
Expects Much of Davis.
Next season this boy is going TO be
orined for q great year, and think ne
r;li he a sensational surprise to the
fans He has in stock all the necessi-
ties Of a great pitcher-speed, curves,
splitter and fair control. This latter
oualitv has improved and will continue
10 improve. He is strong, SO that ne
Il ran stand lots Of work. He won the
/ strength test at his college few years
lkco. Ii did not take me long TO snow
! kny newspaper friends that | had otner
Nitehers under cover who could go tne
distance. ,.
pitched Hess in the last game OF tne
worlds series II 1t had not oeen ioI
, the danger of criticism from carplng
| fans Hess was never nearer right in
his life. and he would have won that
| game. but | was up against delicate
| situation. | thought 1t all over care
| fullv and decided to come back with
Rudolph for this reason.
The baseball world knew that hu-
dolph had had sufficient rest to be sent
back for the final game. IL hess mao
started and had lost that contest the
1 pastime might have been done some
/ very serious damage, because the cry
i would inevitably have gone up. that
the series was being prolonged inten-
tiopally, so that the contending CLUBS
would make more money. | could not
afford TO risk that.
when the Red Sox beat the Giants
| In 1912 there was some ridiculous crit,
5icism in Boston of how Stahl worked
his pitchers. Second guessers asserted
! that he should have used Joe WOOD IN
the Monday game, when the Sox mac
won three and lost only one. Instead
/ he started Buck" O'Brien, which
/ choice produced the material on which
the knockers were glad to work. TAX
ing this incident into consideration,
decided that there was nothing for me
I 10 do except to come back with Ru-
dolph, although / know now, as things
broke. that Hess would have come
through for me.
| | simply relate these incidents TO
lshow nv readers that the Boston club
was not forced to rely on three pitch
ers only through the stress OF that Ma
4 tional League campaign, and, II one OF
4 them had cracked, another man almost
as good, il not quite as good, would
have taken his turn. But so long as
L the trio was winning for me / would
4 have been foolish TO change my luck
! by working another man. That Is
4 strictly my business-to win Dali
1 games.
SAYS Braves Can Hit.
The idea that my club could not hit
was exploded toward the end of the
I race, too, because it was nothing for
Us to get FIVE and six runs to the
game, and the pitchers had pretty easy
sailing after the end Of August. The
reason that the batting averages OF
some Of the players look so bad is be-
cause the team did not make s good
start, and the men were not in condi-
ton during the first part OF the race.
| This is the period during which their
averages were hurt. But guess the
club proved conclusively in the worlds
series that II could hit
In spite of all the talk Of the Bos-
ton team cracking" after we began
our winning streak, it never worried
me until we had actually headed the
Giants and got out in front Then |
knew we had a young club, and that
the strain might begin to tear at the
L heartstrings Of some OF the players.
II All hAnk M That TINA
TO keeping every man with stih up
vigorous methods.
One Of my players I chased right
out Of the park during q double-head-
r because he missed a chance in the
teld that should have been easy for
him. The strain was telling on him,
! knew, and something drastic had to
De done. | figured that the best tonic
vas TO make him mad, and sized the
situation right, as events proved, al
hcugh was taking q chance, not only
on those two games which we're i'm
portant TO US, but also on breaking
the players heart.
The incident occurred during the
stress Of the closing months Of the
campaign. This player had been one
Of the few on the club who had shown
any Of the effects 81 the struggle.
When he missed that ball which he
should have caught in his trousers
pocket. l Immediately made up my
mind what / should do, although /
had been debating and uncertain over
The problem for days before. As he
came into the bench, said:
BEAT 1t cut of the bali park and