The Washington herald., 1918-01-15
MANAGER'SJOB
AN EASY ONE
Company or Battery Com
mander Has Tough Going
Alongside Baseball
Pilot.
by GRANTLAND RICE
The Baseball Manager and the
Company Captain.


There was day, somewhere
back. through the mists. when We
used to pity the managers OF GER
tain ball clubs. These managers had
twenty-five men to look after and
develop. Some Of these men were
boneheads: some were crabs: some
were lazy: others refused to keep
training
But compared to the company or
battery commander the baseball
manager has a job made out OF
rose leaves and nectar, one flowing
with milk and honey.
We ran into . company captain
few days ago. one who had once
managed q minor league ball club
for a few months.
Il thought that job was rough
at the time" he said, but COM
pared to the assignment attached TO
a company commander ] can see
now what an easy time i had.
In running a ball club you
handle twenty-five men. These. in the
main, are men who love their
game, who are well paid and who
are working only two or three
hours a day. And you have no
particular interest in their private
life or private affairs.
In handling a company you are
in charge of 25O men. In place OF
getting $500 a month they get $50.
In place Of working three hours a
day they work ten or twelve hours
a day. In place OF loving thel'
game, many of them hate il. And
each one has his trouble. personal
and impersOnal. public and private.
You have to look after il all. You
are called upon to keep up their
ability and morale in a game which
few men like-the game OF war. OF
long. hard preparation in order TO
get ready to stand under shrapnel
or go over the top"
Just suppose" the captain con-
tinUed. "a baseball manager had 20
look after 25J>men in place OF twenty
five. Suppose he had to work them
ten and twelve hours a day. Sup
pose he had 10 make up his team
from men who had no use for base
ball and who. iG the main. had played
very little baseball in their lives.
''Or suppoS,. as several OF the COM
pany commanders have. he had 10
handle men who couldn't speak Eng
lish and who, in the main. had no
particular idea as TO what il was
all about.
That he had to develop these men
so they COT Id stand up before. not
a line drive by Ty Cobb or Iris speaS-
CT, hut a line OF machine guns n
a spray Of shrapnel or a sweep OF gas
That he lad to so get the CONT
dence Of these 80 mon that even &.
they did not quite appreciate Just what
it was all about they would still
stick with hin and stand with hirI
even il the heart of hell was thrown
against the line.
Il wonder. Then. Just what the av-
erage base5lI manager would thinS
Of his old yob-the job of handling
twenty or twenty-five highly trained
athletes drs wing down big pay for
playing a game they loved to play
and had played all their Hves-for
playing a game that meant increased
health instead ofYa long row Of crosses
someufere in France or q line of
i1ounds through Flanders?
Baseball is a great game" U.e c
c continued. ''bU. IL is strictly uino,
les,gue compared 10 the game D, war.
Its emotions, its problems, its deveI-
opment are insignifcantly small COM
pared to the red game now ruling
the world. One company commander
IN one year will have more hard work
and far greater variety OF prob
6ms to face than John J. McGraw
OF Hughey Jennings or Connie Mack
has known in any ten years Of his
existence"
And anyone who has been in the big
ger game, who has absorbed fIom the
'hside-not from the outside looking
on-the trouble and work that face
a company commander, will under
stand that the captain is eminently
correct in his diagnosis-so correct
that there isn't even the chance for
an argument or debate