The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-31
SIGN SYSTEM INV
 THE BIG LEAGUES
 OUT OF DATE NOW
Certain Successful Pilot of Big League Says He Has
 Only Three Signals
By GEORGE CHADWICK

l(Copyrieht, 1891, by The Ase-Herald)
 New York, July 30.-After watch ing the games of the major leagues for half the season, an opinion has been reached that the manager who has tied himself up with compli- cated system of signs, to try to guide hss players, is in the sere and yellow.
 Very likely this will impress some managers who have reputations for being very keen, astute and re- sourceful, that the writer does not know much about the subject, but time will tell, as Aunt Tabitha said when she planted the first asparagus shoot
 player walked to bat in a game this week between two contenders in one of the major leagues. Before he went to the plate-there was a man on first-he undoubtedly got his instructions. By the time that he got to the plate the manager had changed his mind and there was the greatest ado to get the player at bat straight ened out.
 wig-wng Stuff
 Somebody shouted to the coacher at first base. There was lot of wig wagging to him from the bench. He wig wagged to the man who was coaching at the third base. The lat ter wig wagged to the bench or to the batter, or to one of the other assistant coaches-he certainly wig wagged to some ebody--and the game | 1.S-s< A. 1n n11 |, 1t T bat wig-waggcd.
 An idea of some kind was event. ually thrust through the skull of the batter and after super-human exer- tfon he struck out. Nvhan he had re- turned to the bench he was greeted With cordial demonstrations of dis approval on the part of the manager.
 Cant you read sign?"
 Yes but I can't read dictionary in a minute"
 "Yot do as you're told, or it will cost you something."
 -s Knowing that discretion was the better part of $50.00 or so, the player sank into a comatose condition of discreetness. He was playing the game safe.
 So He Struck Out
 His original instructions had been to bunt on the first ball that looked like a strike. The runner at first was to be on the alert and pro- tect himself. The manager changed his mind and decided that he would have the player take a strike, and then gave the hit and run sign to the runner on the second attempted strike
 As it came out, the batter took three strikes because he forgot to give the hit and run sign on the second strike and was afraid to try to bunt for fear that the runner tt first would be caught mapping. The pitcher fooled him on the next one by a fast shoot inside on which he struck out.
 That man on the bench has had the heads of every player on the team filled with that sort of stuff all of the season." said the chap who didn't make the play "Ive got so that don't know whether am first ball hitter or second ball hitter, or whether I am supposed to wait or to hit 1. out into the next iot. Every man on the team is damned up with signs. It's signs signs, signs until I hate the word and the manager Is alibi-ing himself all of the time by saying that we don't give the signs or get them"
 Has Just Three Signs
 It IS not fair to manager to tell ms stock in trade, but it is fair to tell what he said and withhold his name, If he agrees. One of the man. agers, who is doing fairly well in the major league this year, was asked II he was doing much sign business.
 I've got just three." was the re- ply. T started with more. but I found that I didn't need them. sbe cause the pitching is so bad that my team can hit anything. I don't play Tor one run, except in an emergency I've pulled as many or more games out of the fire as any manager this year, and I've had every coacher in the league watching my players for signs, because everybody has an idea that we run everything by signs. I am only following this year what my observation and reading have taught me. When the pitching was poor in other years 1 know that the teams which won championships were more or less free hitters. The one big thing was to keep base runners on the alert all of the time. That's the secret of this teams success As nearly as we can, we let the base runners know what the batter will try to do, whether it will be d bunt or a slam, and to which field the ball will be driven if the batter can place it. That's all the sign busi- ness that is working on this team and if we should happen to finish well up in the first division. I'm going to announce at the end of the year that we won our place with three old-fashioned, honest-to -good- ness signs that any one might read and don't believe that anyone has caught on to them yet'
 One SiGn Fiend High Up
 Other managers have said much the same thing. Some have not gone so far Four of them have signified very plainly that they don't believe hard hitting makes it so necessary for signs. One manager says he can name three teams in the major leagues that are sign-rabid.
 'Only one of the three" he con. tinued, "has chance to win a cham even bet that that team does not win. Even it's pitchers dare not pitch without getting bench signs, and to my mind, that IS sign business gone crazy"
 May be true
 Spit ball pitching was the cause of the intricate sign system which had been built up in baseball by cer- tain managers who were of the di- visions which, might be called the one-man party in baseball. In other words. they believe that the manager should dominate the game to the exclusion of the players.
 The annihilation of the spitball and the return to stalwart hitting may develop new string of managers and the game may get back nearer to the ideals, where the individual player shone because he had q chance to use his own judgment.
 In the days of the old Baltimorcs, when Hanlon was manager, it was said of the players that they took tha si xns frnYfa him and exacntad fhn