Evening star., 1938-02-27
BY FRANCIS E. STAN,
Stan Correspondent OF The Star.


ORLANDO, Fla, Feb. 26.-Fifteen
years ago, plus few stray weeks,
Clark Griffith put through long dis
tance telephone call from Washington
to a Tampa Hotel. "Bucky." asked the
owner of the Nationals, would you
like to manage the ball club?"
If Griff had hung up right at the
moment" relates Stanley Raymond
Harris. "he still would have heard me
I yelled 'yes!' loud enough to be heard
from Tampa to Washington without
phone wires. I really wanted to be a
manager and 1 wanted to make sure
Gri1 heard me" Ft$
It barely is possible that Manager
Harris exaggerates. About the carry
ing power of his voice, that is. ANY,
way. Grifith did not hang up. He
dispatched contract to the young
second baseman he had sent to Tampa
ahead OF the Washington ball club in
the winter of 1924. You know, of
course. what followed. The Senators
won their first American League pen
nant and their only world champion
ship that year.
Only Connie Surpasses Him.
The man baseball calls the Old Fox
foresaw possibilities in Harris as a
leader Of men. but it is doubtful If
even Grif envisoned the entire pic
ture. Tomorrow Bucky Harris, the
1Nv 0yhN <ko
Pennsylvania coal mines. quietly
marches to fresh honors. He begins
his fifteenth consecutive year as q
major league pilot. Only one man in
the game today holds q record that
beats Harris and he Is 75-year-o old
Connie Mack of the Philadelphia Ath-
letics
Moreover, when 41-year-old Bucky
pulls out his uniform tomorrow again
to take command OF the Washington
Arm, he ties significant record. This
will be the ninth year he has managed
the Nationals The only other man to
pilot Clark Grifnth's club for nine sea-
sons was Clark Grifith himself.
As he embarks on his fifteenth sea-
son At the helm of big league squad
1t might be interesting to look into
Harris record and the Harris person.
ality. Not since his first year at the
helm has Bucky managed q world
champion team. Not since his second
year, 1925, has one of his teams won
= pennant. Last year the Senator's
ran q poor sixth. This year the pros
poets are not rated especially bright.
But to Griffith. whose favorite man.
ager always was Harris, he Is better
baseball leader than ever.
Bucky Has Changed.
The Harris Of 1888 is a different
person from the hoy manager" Of
1924. Then he was fiery, devil-may-
care playing-manager who zoomed to
story-book success. AS he rode on the
crest in 1924 and 1925 there were
some who suspected his hats were
becoming too small for his head. This
Is stock suspicion Of the successful,
deserved or otherwise. It is true
that Harris tried the patience Of
at least, and once
banned one Of the writer's from the
Washington clubhouse It is true
that Capital fans, perhaps expecting
too much, turned against him and in
1927 ,Grimth agreed that a change
in scenery might be beneficial to all
concerned.
So it WAS that Harris moved to De-
troit to manage the Tigers. Then he
went to Boston at the head of the
Red Sox and back to Washington in
the fall of 1884 to take up his old
chores under Griffith. With the years
Harris, II less successful in the won
and lost columns, became shrewder.
In Grifith's opinion he is the best
tactician in the major leagues. No
pilot in the American League now is
more popular with newspapermen.
Few. II any, have wrung similar re-
spect from ball players.
Present Squad Like His First.
As he prepares to move shoulder-to-
shoulder with Grinth' IN the leading
Of another Washington club Into bat
tie, Bucky find himself with q squad