The evening world., 1916-10-18
Brooklyn Manager Hopes to
Remedy Teams Well Known
Weakness - Doesn't Fear
Giants in 1917 Pennant Race.
Bv BOzeman BuiaeF.

SsSs
w goodby TO Brooklyn yesterday
and went to his home In Dalti.
more TO. spend the winter. Before
closing the baseball book, though. tie
manager Of the Dodgers for the Arst
time spoke some pungeut truths about
the series and baseball in general.
"Wo have n chance 70 win the pen
nant next year" he said. but not
with the club that was beaten by the
Red Sox. 1 have several youngsters
coming along and 1t Is my purpose to
make several trades during the win
ter that will strengthen my infeld.
The public knows how badly that par-
ticular strength Is needed. Our pitch
ing stan is all right and with proper
defensive support will hum through a
season. They would have hummed
through tho Worlds Series but for
the constant encouragement duo to
weak support.
Nov, ! am soi~a to say something
that have not said before: We were
not beaten by the "brsaks" Of the
game or luck, ~ some call IT,. We
we're beaten because we had . team
inferior to that Of the Red Sox. y
would have got worse instead Of bet.
ter. The poor work Of the infield
broke the hearts Of the young pitch
ers and thers was no use in trying to
spur them on. When . pitcher works
beautifully for several innings only
to have his efforts shot TO pieces by
q weak defense he simply can't keep
going.
didn't try. Those boys worked hard.
but YOU simply can't put fast feet on
a slow man, and you can't make q
ball player cover ground with enthusi-
asm. He must have the reach and
speed given him by Nature. All the
false pep in the world will not take
the place Of a fast pair Of legs and q
big pair OF hands.
5Our inield simply could not cover
the ground that the Red Sox could
and that's all there IL to II. ! TIN now
after some new ones that Will.
This failure on our part at
tribute In a large degree 10 inc rule
limiting National League teams TO
twenty-one players. l had no able
substitutes and no ball club V strong
err tina its reserve strength. In one
OF the games, n you will remember, ]
sent Pfeffer, the pitcher, In as q
pinch hitter. Many people thought
this strange. But II wasn't strange
| lie was the best man l had on the
bench. NV other substitutes were
Getz. O'Mara and MerlSle. The latter
had been used without success and
Pfeffer Is certainly a better pinch
hitter than either GetE or oMara
Can you imagine a team goinE into
"a big series with 30 Few sups''ku,es
as that? The Red Sox, on the othei
hand. had more than they needed
Their league limit allowed them foui
more ~players And four good bull
~nlayers are a whole armful when they
are needed in a pinch.
"If the W. clubs had beer on ar
even basis In their regular strength
the Red Sox would still have had ar
advantage. They would have twenty
Ave players to our twenty-one-that'.
something like 10 per cent: ISN'T IL
and there Is your answer.
you started out to say something
about the pennant next year." TO-
minded Robbie.
Yes" ne said. II think we have Z
chance. The club We will nave u
heat Is the Giants. They have a gres
club now, and 1t will be hard TO stol
them. | am not afraid Of Brooklyn
being able to beat them. we away
could do that. But the trouble Is
they may be able to beat more OF tn
other clubs than We do. For som
reason tho Giants have never peel
able 10 hit our pitchers while We hav'
been able 10 hit theirs.
Before l get away there is anothe
thing hat ! want 10 make clear" sal
Uncle Wllbert. Ever since we los
that second game in Boston. when tn
Red Sox sent Gamer In as a pinch
hitter and he made . hit that won tn