Evening star., 1937-01-20
SCRAPPED TALENT.
A|DEDG|ANTS'P| PILOT
Got Banners by Prolonging
Major Careers Of Many
in Clubs Pinches.
BY GRANTLAND RICE.
OS ANGELES, January 40

Ill OIuU . ! UiViICOs
BY GRANTLAND RICE.
y OS ANGELES, January 90
Tommy Thevenow, recently
obtained by the Giants from
IL the Reds. has been kicked up
stairs, q fate which, happily, is not
uncommon among ball players.
The way Tommy must have looked
at it, he would have been lucky if he
could have remained with the Reds
next season, the chances being that
before the training season opened he
would be shipped to the minor leagues.
And now he is with the Giants, who
may win the National League PEN
nant again next year, thus giving
Tommy an opportunity to cut into a
world series gate again for the first
time since he left the Cardinals.
Even if the Giants do not win,
they must be figured to finish higher
than the Reds, so that Tommy is in
a better spot to collect some prize
money than he would have been had
he escaped deportation to the sticks
and held to his job in Cincinnati.
As I have said, instances like this
are pretty common among ball play
ers. A talented player-or worn
old-timer with just enough left to
make him available in a pinch
struggles along with a second divi-
sioh club-and out OF nowhere comes
q summons to join a club that is
clutching at the pennant or is just
an arms length from it.
McGraw Led Field.
THE knowledge that this can hap
pen keeps many an athlete going,
no matter how dreary his surround
tngs may be. There always is the
chance that a club up front will
need help-and that he'll be just the
man the manager Of that club thinks
will help the most
I suppose the late John Joseph Nc
Graw kicked more ball players upstairs
than any other manager the game ever
has known. This was because McGraw
was an opportunist. He wasn't one to
build for the years. He always felt
that the Giants had to have a pen
nant every year. They didn't, OF
course. But that was no fault of Nc
Graws.
Mac would put his team together as
best he could in the Spring, but If it
started to bulge at the seams, he would
begin tearing 1t apart and putting 1t
together again. Sometimes he needed
only one new player to get the effect
he wanted. Sometimes he needed three
or four. But however many he needed
he reached out and grabbed them
whether it was June or September.
That Is, in the old days. They put
up the bars on trading or buying after
June IS mainly to stop McGraw. And
in 50 doing they kept many an aspir-
ing youngster-or hopeful veteran
out Of . world series.
Bought for Immediate Use.
N1HEN he had free hand under
w the rules-and sizable bank
roll behind him-McGraw always
knew where to look for the players ne
needed in any crisis that threatened
the pennant hopes of the Giants.
Maybe the player he wanted was
nearing the end Of the string and
would be no good to him after that
season. Well, that was all right with
McGraw. He needed him right then
and he got him. even If to get him ne
might have to give up a youngster OF
rare promise.
A lot of good young ball players
got away from McGraw in circum-
stances like that. But he won lot OF
pennants-and he very often got the
promising youngsters back later on
when they were more valuable than
before because Of the added expert
ence.
When McGraw wanted a player In
q hurry, nothing stopped him. Maybe
he didn't like the player or maybe
the player had caused trouble for
other managers. McGraw reached
out and grabbed him just the. same.
Some of the best players he ever
had-players who jumped into the
breach and won pennants for him
were men for whom he had no use per-
sonally. As for the others, the record
is that McGraw got more out of the
so-called bad actors than any other
manager under whom they had played.
Most of them blew up under him, too,
finally. But not before they had done
their part to make pennants fly on the
Flagstaff at the Polo Grounds.