The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-01-30

AS a result the money had to be
wired back to Baltimore and another
order sent to Demontreville.
To get Demont had to trade Ma
coon for him. That. 1 think. was my
first real good trade. Then trouble
came.
Manager Hanlon, in Brooklyn, got
wind of what l was doing. He
promptly announced that Jennings
would be traded to Baltimore for De-
montreville and Jerry Nops, one of
our best pitchers. In this Won der
Horst, the owner of both clubs.
backed him up. 1 was up against 1t.
1t eventually turned out that / kept
Jennings and later held on to De-
/ montreville.
| To give you an idea of the excite
ment over deals in those days 1 re-
print a clipping from one of the
| Baltimore papers, Jennings was not
| a gift of the kindhearted Mr.. Hanlon.
| Manager Eddie knows trick worth
| two of that kindhearted dodge. De-
montreville and Nops go to Brooklyn
| for Jennings and the wise men navi-
| eating the Brooklyn and Baltimore
| syndicate explain it in way that
would be interesting to a novelist
! seeking new plot.
| Was After Jennings
| "As the magnates tell it Won der
| Horst was trying to get Jennings
V ithout McGraw knowing it, McGraw
was trying to trade Magoon for De-
mont without Won der Horst knowing
it, and Hanlon was trying to get Nops
and Demont without anybody know
ing it,"
| Anyway, went west with Nops and
| Jennings on the club. Nops, by the
| way. was one of the greatest left
handed pitchers of his day. Finally
| l persuaded Won der Horst to let ms
keep Demontreville. But l will moi
go into the many complications oil
that trade which kept baseball fans
| stirred up for quite a while.
My really good constructive worl,
of that first season as manager
was to develop Joe McGinnity ane
tossed to me from Brooklyn. Seeing
that l was not to get the best of an,
| transfers I decided the best thing t.
do was to bet the best out of VIVA
| came to me.
Joe McGinnity was one of the bes
| pitchers l ever knew. He had al
kinds of stuff-natural ability-bu
his greatness lay in his aptitude FOL
remembering the weakness of op
| posing batters. In pinch he knew
what to do and how to do 1t. / neve
knew him to make the same mistake
twice.
AS old ball players will tell you
had q penchant for remembering
what kinds of balls certain batter
had hit best in past games. Tha
has been my biggest aid in all m.
years in baseball. 1 have had to d.
the remembering for most of m,
clubs. 1t Is rare that man come
along like McGinnity, or Mathewson
who will remember with me.
Discussed Plans
With McGinnity and the othe
pitchers / discussed these thing
daily. We had pretty good idea o
! what we would do, but most of Their
, would forget. McGinnity did not for
get. That made him great pitche
J his faculty for avoiding a mistak
in judgment the second time.
: You may be surprised to know tina
I haye had many catchers who coul
not remember their instructions fror
J the bench to the plate.
Starting with this collective deter
mination to build up a team and wi
we made a great showing that frs
year, bringing the Baltimore clu
right up in the race. 1t was still
, 12-club league and our unexpecte
squirt WIS widely discussed. AS
result I had several offers from othe
clubs. Ny services were in deman
as manager. Among the clubs tina
tried to get me was Chicago. Vo
der Horst and Hanlon declared, how
ever, that they would not sell m
contract for $4,000 and gave thl
out to the papers.
l was eager for further progress
, things were brewing.
copyright. 1923. United States and