The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1914-10-02

George Stallings, manager of the
Boston Braves, is one of the very few
men who can encourage ball players to
hard work and even enthusiasm by
abusing them. And by abuse l do not
mean Il gentle prod In the ribs. That is
not the style of Stailings. He aims a
full load of verbal shot right at the vic
TINS head and lets go with both bar
rels. And he keeps on firing until the
last man is out in the ninth. There
have been extreme cases where he
failed to find the verbal load effective
and resOrted to plain fist and skill.
Those cases are rare, but not beyond
his pale. If there was ever a DR.. Jekyll
and Mr.. Hyde in baseball it is this
same man Stallings-the wizard who
has brought mediocre team from the
ignominy of the tail end to all the glO-
ries of the top rung of the ladder
OFF the field there could be no gentler
man, no bigger hearted man. He loves
his players as chums and even advises
them in their private affairs If any I'll
luck should befaH them-outside of
baseball-his purse strings are always
open.
Stallings is genuinely fond of his
players personally, and there Is much
evidence that this fondness is mutual
As striking instance of it, a year or
SO ago when Mrs. Stallings was i'll in
Buffalo the members Of the team re-
ceiyed $500 rs their share of the extra
money for exhibition games. Instead
of dividing it up, as Is customary, they
forwarded the whole amount to a for
ist that flowers might be sent to the
wife of their leader every day. And
this was done until the end came six
weeks later.
The Braves always say their last
pleasant word to Stallings at luncheon
and prepare themselves for the worst.
They know full We'll that at the park
they will find a different being From
Il man of gentle breeding and Chester
fieldian manners he is suddenly trans
formed into Il slave driver whose
tongue cuts like Il lash. No matter
how much of a star n player may be,
he never escapes that lash. He ex-
poets biting sarcasm and steels him
self accor lingly.
3; During the recent Labor day games
at Boston Mathewson had the Braves
beaten up to the last half of the ninth
inning. Already Stallings had worn out
a pair of trousers sliding up and down
the bench and was acting like a wild
man. The players tell of how he sud
denly turned and saw Josh Deyore
In corner. Always he has considered
Josh lucky.
Get up there Josh, and take a crack
q hn np1a
IS a smart guy, and | guess the only
way to offset brains is with bone. Now
you The rest cannot be printed in
family newspaper.
DevOre, hiding a smile, went to the
plate and, sure enough, beat out an
inteld hit that really put the Braves
in position to win the game. There
were no words of praise when Josh
got back to the bench, but the next
day he got a suit of clothes.
By these methods Stallings has a
knack of being able to get big league
work out of Il minor league player 1t
was his patience with Dick Rudolph
as well as the hard knocks that made
him great pitcher, and he also fooled
everybody by making "A real first base
man out of Schmidt
Though the Brave leader is an edu-
Gated mana college graduate-he al
lows himself to be influenced by all
the superstitions Of the game. One of
his beliefs is that birds on the field
bring bad luck. Watch the Braves
some time and you will see the players
shooing away sparrows that happen to
light on the grass near by One day
one of the Philadelphia players placed
dead bird in front of the Boston
bench, and Stalings almost had fit
He raved all afternoon. On another
=, day they dropped cracked corn on the
y grass to draw the sparrows toward
StallinGs, and the ground keeper was
busy for the rest of the afternoon for
fear that it would bring bad luck.
George Stallings was born in Had
dock, Ga, near Macon, and still main.
tains the old colonial home that has
housed the Stallingses for three or -four
generations. He has a plantation OF
several thousand acres and spends al
of his time there when not running his
BAH club.
When a player Stallings was q
catcher, but never what might be
called great one. He played on q
team with Henry Fabian, now ground
keeper ut the Polo grounds, and Henry
Eays Stallings was famed as a dresser
Thirty years ago he was known as
Dude Stallings, and Henry declare.
that he always carried three or four
trunks while playing on a bush league
team.
Early in his career Stallings devel
Oped traits of leadership and has man
aged successfully no less than eigh
different ball clubs In these are in
Guided the Detroit Tigers. the New
York Americans and the Braves O
late years he also managed the Buffal
and Newark clubs of the Internationa