Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-09-08
ARTICLE VIII.

to win the game, and figuring that II
may be done In an inning or two, he
chooses one of his star pitchers to go
10 the hill But the runs don't come and
the teams fight from six to nine more
innings before the game is decided, ana
then the manager who had used his star
Tor relief work loses.
The damage is many-fold. In the first
place, the game is lost, and each game
counts heavily toward the finish, In the
second place, the star pitcher was sacri-
need. Then again, It is possible that
the manager figured on using the leading
finger to face a touch team in the next
game, but has to send second-string
man to the hill and loses that game, too.
The manager did not make a mistake.
lie used good baseball Judgment. He
merely stacked up against the luck of
the game and 1t failed him.
Then there is the possibility that any
of the teams will lose a player that Is
impossible to replace The wise man
ager tries to prepare for any emergency.
He keeps as many good utility men on
the bench as the rules permit. But there
are cogs In every machine, that virtually
are necessary IL the machine is to turn
out its expected amount OF work.
Boston. for instance blamed its poor
start on the accident which kept Evers
away from the team for number OF
weeks. II the Braves feel that way
about 1t, / suppose the mental depres-
sion which follows his being injured does
have an effect.
1t is fact that breaks" mitigate
more against some clubs than they do
against others. The Boston club last
year got lot of good luck and then
they got some that was not so good.
But they kept their heads up and
which way the luck went. l know
plenty of National Beaguers thought
when Red" Smith broke his leg in the
last series Of the league race at Brook
lyn that the Braves wouldn't have a
chance to capture the worlds champion
ship. They believed the moral effect of
losing a player who had done such brill
liant work would be fatal
Everybody knows what did happen.
Charley Deal went in there, did his best
and the Boston club overthrew the club
that American Leaguers had boasted was
unbeatable.
1 know that up to the present moment
our boys have had the pepper" and the
spirit which has overcome some breaks"
that might have been serious had we per-
mitted ourselves to look back at them
AS have sajd before, Manager Moran in
sisted we go out on the field to win each
game as 1t came and think as little as
possible Of the past and the future. We
talk over our mistakes and try to play
the game so that we don't do a wrong
thing more than once. But we have never
worried about the breaks" AS a team.
we took the luck as 1t was dished out
to us.
The biggest thing we have had to over
come perhaps has been the mental atti-
tude of the fans. Ask a loyal rooter for
our club-one of the kind who has been
pulling with the Phillies for more than
a score of years-what he thinks of our
chances and he'll answer. They sure
look good to me. but 1 don't know
whether they can keep 1t up"
Don't get the idea that 1 mean they
have not supported us. II ever a club
get more enthusiastic backing from the
home fans than Moran's club received this
year, I don't know where 1t was. The
crowds have been generally good, and
that helps a club.
But in Philadelphia there is that old
"wait- t-till-next-year" feeling that it is
hard to overcome.
Personally-and l know I speak for the
players when I say this-we have gone
on playing our best and have been con-
fident that we had a team which would
be there" at the finish II we got
the pitching and batting. We never
have believed that we would fail to win
the pennant just because the teams of
years gone by did not win it,
It's not the time for me to say that
we will win It. I know that We must get
some breaks" from this time on. But
/ can assure you that we are in the
fight to remain in it. and-well, we have
taken some hard knocks now and then
and come up smiling and confident that
we'd get revenge.