Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-07-24
WIN, LOSE OR
DRAW ;, FRANCE, ,7Auu
The Manager But Not the Kids

IN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE two managerial heads
Jack Tghes at Detroit and Bobby Bragans at Cleveland
rolled early But the Yankees making a runaway
and Tghe and Bragan fair prey for their sops
to be thrown to the public What the of Owner
Bob Carpenter of the Philies?
Carpenter and his general manager, Roy Hamey,
bounced Mayo Smith at time when the PhileS, while
slumppagued and in sixth place still much closer
to the top in the National League than the No club in
the American
The inconsistencies of baseball brass illustrated
anew when Eddie Sawyer former physiology teacher
placed Smith The only other time Sawyer had been
big league manager he sacked back in midseason of
1852, by the same Carpenter and the Phies He
wasn't winning" Carpenter had explained
Now, apparently, Carpenter would have you believe
that Sawyer has learned how to win. You couldn't say,
however that he's been practicng Eddie has been dis
associated with baseball for the last six since he got
the
HAMEY TOLD THE Associated Press that he had been
considering the move for about month This the same
Hamey who less than month ago gave Manager Smith
personal vote of confidence He asserted that it wasn't
Mayo's fault the Phies got off slowly. HE can't hit,
field or pitch for his players Hamey said
Smith is tall, rugged-ooking, uniformly cordial
in his mid 40s who when interviewed after his firing
simply said:
at sudden, but that's baseball"
His appointment Philes' manager was pretty sud-
den, too. When he was named in l955-and Mayo be-
came the fourth manager for Carpenter since
seemed to know who he Although he looks so much
like ex-balplayer Smith wasn't in the big leagues
very long.
He had played briefly for the old Philadelphia
Athletics but except for that quick fling he had travelled
for 81 years in the bushes first player and later
as a manager
EARLY IN MARCH, 1855, asked Smith how he hap
pened to work up to the Phllies job
II didn't" Mayo replied. Il live in Lake WORTH Fla,
and sell rugs during the offseason Last season man.
aged Birmingham One day in october the phone rang
This is Roy Hamey' voice said. How would you
like to manage the Philies"
Very much told him.
You're our man. Hamey said. Come to Phla-
delphia and see us
II signed contract I'd never thought of managing
the Philes I'd been managing in the Yankee farm
chain But, then, Hamey used to be with the Yankees
Smith always impressed this observer as knowl-
edgeable baseball Not so lucky as Sawyer, Joe
Mccarthy Eddie Dyer Walt Aston and others who lacked
the ability to their playing days. When Mayo
took charge of the Phes they five years removed
from their Whz Kid days
PHYsIoLoGIsT SAWYER who never played one
game of big league ball had been fortunate The former
associate professor at Ithaca College inherited the Whz
Kids and two years later in 1850 they won pennant
Now, as when Smith took in S. not many remain.
And the survivors no longer whzzes, longer kids.
Robin Roberts lost 10 and % for Smith in IS
and 81 to lead the National League in defeats The other
erstwhile Whz Kids-Curt Simmons Bob Miller Stan
Lopata, Willie Jones and Richie AShburn-havent been
much
Nobody could get excited about the Phies after so
The clrb lacked scoring punch and depth
Since Smith became their manager, the PhillieS
considered pennant threats and sometimes not
we'll He is nice guy being replaced by nice Only
Owner Carpenter is likely to discover that while he
has the Whiz Kid manager back Sawyer hasn't got
the Kids.