Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-01-18

sucn a situation and it's a question
that at first seems hard to answer
Yet, after studying the records of both
men, 1t seems that the honor of being
the greatest leader must rightly be
given to McGraW
This statement is made in face of
the fact that Mack has won as MANY
pennants-hve in number-as has
McGraw, and that Mack has grabbed
three world series championships in
four starts, while McGraw has won
but once in four starts.
The success of the Athletics has
been due mainly to the ability of the
players; the success Of the Giants has
been due mainly to the wonderful I'M
canny power of McGraw to weld a
bunch OF mediocre ball players into
pennant winning combination.
McGraw Plans Each Battle.
In 1913 Mack won the American
League pennant because his team as
a whole ranked as not only the best in
that league, but the best in the world.
With McGraw it was different. He
entered the race in the spring of 1913
with only one reliable, brainy pitcher
the wonderful Mathewson-and
with a team that, on paper and in
actual natural strength, ranked be-
low three other teams in the National
League.
Yet the Giants won the pennant by
a wide margin Why? The answer
is McGraw. He took his ordinary,
mechanical ball players and made
them into machine. Then he oiled
the machine with his own wonderful
fighting spirit, supplied the brains
that his men lacked, thought for
them, acted for them and did about
everything but play the game for
them.
With any other manager but Nc
Graw at the helm, the Giants never
would have been in the race last year.
When the team crumpled up early in
the summer and seemed to have gone
to pieces utterly, other manage
would have felt that there was no
chance to finish in the lead But Nc
Graw was different. He never gave
in, and he never let his men quit. The
more they were >pummeled and
pounded around by their rivals the
faster he sent them back at their OPP
ponents
The situation in 1913 was no excep-
ton to what it has been in other
years. Fate seems to have ruled that
each year Mack is to have a wonder
McGraw is to have nothing but me-
chanical men.
Athletics a Brainy Team.
Look over the list of the men who
have played on the Giant teams since
McGraw took charge back in 1903.
Excepting Mathewson, there never
has been one man on the Giant roster
who compared In brains with Eddie
Collins, Danny Murphy. Harry Davis
and the other heady men that Mack
has had
Mack started in the American
League with a team noted for its
brains. And it seems that each year
when some star has dropped from the
Athletic armament another has risen
to take his place. Always on the
Athletics roster have there been men
of brains, men who could do their
own thinking, who could plan their
own actions.
In McGraw's case he has under him
year after year only men who were
mechanical baseball stars, with Math-
ewson the exception, OF course. Yet
he has taken these men, lent them
some of his own brains, aroused their
latent fighting blood, and has kept the
Giants at or around the top for ten
years.
How many will dispute us when we
say that Mack at the head OF the 1918
Giants would not have breezed home
a winner? Mack would have been a
failure as manager of the Giants, and
would be a failure as manager OF any
team numbering on its roster men OF
such caliber as the present day
Giants.