The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-06-06
MUCH DEPENDS
on THE MANAGER
Good Generalship is Invaluable in
Work of Baseball
Team

New York, June "a question
that perplexes fandom even more
than how aged was anastatia' is
the one rs II the manager or the
players that make for a winning
ball team2"
Let's take the case OF the Cincin-
natl Reds as one example TO show
that maybe it's the manager. The
Reds last year looked and acted like
the worst aggregation outside the
graveyard. They looked even worse
for the 1914 season because the Feds
came along and grabbed off pair
of their best pitchers and tied an
other-Chief Johnson-up in the
courts. Furthermore, they were
minus the services of one Josephus
Tinker, who batted 81 last year
and led the shortstops of the league
in fielding.
Charley Herzog. the peppery ex-.
member of the Giants, appeared at
the helm this season. Everybody felt
sorry for him. And what happened?
Oh, noe overly much, only that Her
zog, with weaker team than that of
last year began showing his gang
along at a surprising gait right at
the outset and has been keeping it
up. He's been beating the leaders,
just as easily as he has been beating
the taiienders. And the beatings his
team is doing out are no fukes-
they are clean-cut, overwhelming
victories in most cases.
Then there's Joe Birmingham of
the Maps. Harry Davis, as manager
of the Maps, failed miserably during
the first part of the 1912 season.
Davis quit the job and Birmy took it
up. From that time on the team
played 100 per cent. better baseball,
and from the last of August until the
curtain dropped they played the
best ball in the American League
Yet it was the same outfit that
couldn't win for Davis.
In 1913, under the same Birmy,
the Maps put up a thrilling fight for
the pennant, being in the race until
the last two weeks of the season.
And now in 1914, with only one of
| their pitchers gone and with their
shortstop injured, the Maps are play
ing about the worst ball in the
league.
Hughie Jennings led the Tigers to
three pennants in 1907, 1908 and
1909. Then the team seemed to
crack. The Tigers had the same
wonderful leader in 1910, 1911,
1912 and 1913 that they had in their
pennant winning days, but they could
not hit a winning stride. They
made some :nglorious finishes in
those four years.
And now Jennings is back in this
year 1914 A. D. with team that
does not look very much better than
that of last year-and he's got
fine chance for the pennant.
The ST. Louis Browns have been
joke ball team for many years AS
in the case of Charley Herzog, of the
Reds, lot of people felt pretty
sorry for Branch Hickey when he
took over the job of handling the
outfit. Hickey got under way with
last place outfit of 1913, and Rick
ey's team has proved to be one of the
big surprises in the American
league. The gang is playing real
baseball It's playing is not streaky
or its wins fukey. The games the
Browns have won are because they
have shown superior ability.
The Brooklyn Dodgers looked to
have a better team than last year.
And when Wilbert Robinson hooked
up, with them as manager, many
figured that the Dodgers would get
away in the front and stick around
with the select all the way down
the stretch. Robinson had been with
McGraw for many years. He was
McGraw's understudy, and many
figured that he was almost as much
| responsible for the success of the
Giants as McGraw himself. But un-
der Robinson the Dodgers do not
seem to be accomplishing any more
than they did under Dahlen, who
never was figured as a great success
as manager.
Going back about a dozen years
one finds that the New York Giants
used to try to see how far down
they could get in the race without
actually falling through the bottom
McGraw who has kept his men in
the fight each year and whn On 6ro