The sun., 1919-04-06
BATTERY MEN MAKE
EXCELLENT LEADERS
Most Successful Major League
Managers Started Career
as Catchers.
FIVE ARE NOW IN CHARGE
Robinson, Moran, Mitchell,
Stallings and Hickey Were
Backstops.
FIVE ARE NOW IN CHARGE

Why il Il that when a club owner
selects q baseball manager nowadays
he generally selects a man who in his
playing days was battery man7 The
drift In recent years has been from tho
playing manager. until there Ii not .
single one in the game to-day. And in
selecting new managers the drift II I'M
cuestionably toward former battery
men, particularly former catchera
OF the sixteen major league managers
ten were battery men when they played
seven were catchers and three pitchers.
The National League ESPECIALLY il strong
for catching managers. Five OF the
leaders for 1919 In the parent league
donned the big mitt and bird cage In their
younger days-Wilbert Robinson Of the
Brooklyns, Pat Moran OF the Cincin-
natl Reds, Fred Mitchell of the Chicago
Cubs. George Stallings OF the Boston
Braves and Branch Hickey of the st.
Louis Cardinals. Then Jack Coombs.
the new manager of the Phillies. IL one
of the pitching stars developed during
this generation.
In the American League. Connie Mack
Of the Athletics and Lee F'ohl Of the
z Cleveland Italians formerly were catch
ers, while Clark Griffith of the Wash
inEton Senators and Ed Barrow Of the
Boston Red Sox are former pitchers.
Barrow, however. only pitched as an
amateur. Throughout his professional
baseball career he has been employed
az a manager.
Oddly enough fow of tho men named
were stars during their playing dayp
Wilbert Robinson, Jack Coombs and
Clark Griffith were the best players Of
the lot. Robbie was a splendid catcher
in his day. He always was good
target for pitchers to fire at. He also
was a dangerous hitter while backstop-
ping for the old Baltimore Orioles, and
holds a record Of seven consecutive hits
IN nine inning game.
Coombs a Great Pitcher.
Coombss work is recent enough for
all fans TO be well acquainted with II,
Coofnbs Bender and Plank OF the old
Athletics formed the nucleus of one Of
the greatest pitching STATS the game
over has known. During his career In
Philadelphia Coombs helped Mack win
pennants and worlds championships.
and held up records which any pitcher
should be proud Of
In 1906, when Jack was youth just
out of college, he won a famous "a in
ming game from the Red Sox. He never
lost a worlds series game, though he
has appeared In three series In 1910
he won three of the four games tho
Athletics won from the Cubs. winning
the second and third games in success
sion The Same year he Set up an
American League record OF IS shutouts.
but this record since has been beaten by
Alexander in the National League. when
he piled up 16 shutouts In 1916.
After recovering from serious ILL
ness, Coombs made a great comeback
with the Brooklyns in 1915. He won ten
straight games from the Giants before
they tripped him up.
Clark Grifflth was a mighty clever
pitcher with the old Chicago Nationals
before jumping to the American League
in 1901, though 'Niriff- continued to do
good work for both the White SoS and
Yankees. Grin is no husky. but he has
q strong, wiry frame, and had quite q
good fast bail as well as a sharp-break-
ing curve.
OF the rest Connie Mack was about
the best. though Mack never could hit
we'll enough to be termed a star. He
caught for Buffalo and Washington
when those clubs were in the National
League and later on put in quite term
much Of q batting average, but could
hit pretty we'll In the pinch. During his
stay in Washington he caught old Hank
o'Day. the National League umpire.
Scribe RidicuIed Connie Mack.
Though Mack was smart catcher in
his playing days. It is interesting to note
that critics OF the '90s did not al
ways think so. A veteran scribe re-
Gently got quite number of laughs by
digging up lot of notes of a quarter
OF century ago One of them referred
very sarcastically TO Connie. 1t read :
Manager Buckenberger OF the Pirates
says he will retain Mack, his lean catch
or, in the hopes that some day he can
make thinking ball player out OF him. "
Mack remained in Pittsburg long
enough to succeed Buckenberger as man.
ager. They still tell some OF the "in-
side" tricks Connie used to attempt in
Pittsburg Once he locked lot OF balls
into the Pittsburg safe surrounded with
cracked ice. The frozen balls were limp
affairs, with no life to them. Connie
arranged to have tho other team to bat
against the iced balls, while when the
Pittsburgs batted the frozen horsehides
were put aside and the Pirates hit the
real lively balls.
Pat Moran stuck quite q spell IN the
National League as a catcher. Though
Pat was a good reliable man he never
classed with the real top notchers. He
was second catcher on the Cubs during
their days OF greatest glory, but Johnny
King did practically all the catching
on Chances old championship. and when