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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pitching in a Pinch, by Christy Mathewson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Pitching in a Pinch
+       or, Baseball from the Inside
+
+Author: Christy Mathewson
+
+Commentator: John N. Wheeler
+
+Release Date: July 30, 2010 [EBook #33291]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PITCHING IN A PINCH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PITCHING IN A PINCH
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Christy Mathewson
+
+Copyright by L. Van Oeyen, Cleveland, Ohio]
+
+
+
+
+  PITCHING IN A PINCH
+
+  OR BASEBALL FROM THE INSIDE
+
+
+  BY CHRISTY MATHEWSON
+
+
+  WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
+  JOHN N. WHEELER
+
+
+  ILLUSTRATED
+
+
+  GROSSET & DUNLAP
+  PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
+
+  Made in the United States of America
+
+
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT, 1912
+  BY CHRISTOPHER MATHEWSON
+
+  This edition is issued under arrangement with the publishers
+  G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, NEW YORK AND LONDON
+
+  The Knickerbocker Press, New York
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+Introducing a reader to Christy Mathewson seems like a superfluous piece
+of writing and a waste of white paper. Schoolboys of the last ten years
+have been acquainted with the exact figures which have made up Matty's
+pitching record before they had ever heard of George Washington, because
+George didn't play in the same League.
+
+Perfectly good rational and normal citizens once deserted a reception to
+the Governor of the State because Christy Mathewson was going to pitch
+against the Chicago club. If the committee on arrangements wanted to make
+the hour of the reception earlier, all right, but no one could be expected
+to miss seeing Matty in the box against Chance and his Cubs for the sake
+of greeting the Governor.
+
+Besides being a national hero, Matty is one of the closest students of
+baseball that ever came into the Big League. By players, he has long been
+recognized as the greatest pitcher the game has produced. He has been
+pitching in the Big Leagues for eleven years and winning games right
+along.
+
+His great pitching practically won the world's championship for the Giants
+from the Philadelphia Athletics in 1905, and, six years later, he was
+responsible for one of the two victories turned in by New York pitchers in
+a world's series again with the Athletics.
+
+At certain periods in his baseball career, he has pitched almost every day
+after the rest of the staff had fallen down. When the Giants were making
+their determined fight for the championship in 1908, the season that the
+race was finally decided by a single game with the Cubs, he worked in nine
+out of the last fifteen games in an effort to save his club from defeat.
+And he won most of them. That has always been the beauty of his
+pitching--his ability to win.
+
+Matty was born in Factoryville, Pa., thirty-one years ago, and, after
+going to Bucknell College, he began to play ball with the Norfolk club of
+the Virginia League, but was soon bought by the New York Giants, where he
+has remained ever since and is likely to stay for some time to come, if he
+can continue to make himself as welcome as he has been so far. He was
+only nineteen when he joined the club and was a headliner from the start.
+Always he has been a student and something of a writer, having done
+newspaper work from time to time during the big series. He has made a
+careful study of the Big League batters. He has kept a sort of baseball
+diary of his career, and, frequently, I have heard him relate unwritten
+chapters of baseball history filled with the thrilling incidents of his
+personal experience.
+
+"Why don't you write a real book of the Big Leaguers?" I asked him one
+day.
+
+And he has done it. In this book he is telling the reader of the game as
+it is played in the Big Leagues. As a college man, he is able to put his
+impressions of the Big Leagues on paper graphically. It's as good as his
+pitching and some exciting things have happened in the Big Leagues,
+stories that never found their way into the newspapers. Matty has told
+them. This is a true tale of Big Leaguers, their habits and their methods
+of playing the game, written by one of them.
+
+JOHN N. WHEELER.
+
+NEW YORK, March, 1912.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                              PAGE
+
+     I--THE MOST DANGEROUS BATTERS I HAVE MET                    1
+
+    II--"TAKE HIM OUT!"                                         21
+
+   III--PITCHING IN A PINCH                                     54
+
+    IV--BIG LEAGUE PITCHERS AND THEIR PECULIARITIES             74
+
+     V--PLAYING THE GAME FROM THE BENCH                         93
+
+    VI--COACHING--GOOD AND BAD                                 117
+
+   VII--HONEST AND DISHONEST SIGN STEALING                     140
+
+  VIII--UMPIRES AND CLOSE DECISIONS                            161
+
+    IX--THE GAME THAT COST A PENNANT                           183
+
+     X--WHEN THE TEAMS ARE IN SPRING TRAINING                  206
+
+    XI--JINXES AND WHAT THEY MEAN TO A BALL-PLAYER             230
+
+   XII--BASE RUNNERS AND HOW THEY HELP A PITCHER TO WIN        255
+
+  XIII--NOTABLE INSTANCES WHERE THE "INSIDE" GAME HAS FAILED   381
+
+
+
+
+Pitching in a Pinch
+
+
+
+
+Pitching in a Pinch
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+The Most Dangerous Batters I Have Met
+
+     _How "Joe" Tinker Changed Overnight from a Weakling at the Plate to
+     the Worst Batter I Had to Face--"Fred" Clarke of Pittsburg cannot be
+     Fooled by a Change of Pace, and "Hans" Wagner's Only "Groove" Is a
+     Base on Balls--"Inside" Information on All the Great Batters._
+
+
+I have often been asked to which batters I have found it hardest to pitch.
+
+It is the general impression among baseball fans that Joseph Faversham
+Tinker, the short-stop of the Chicago Cubs, is the worst man that I have
+to face in the National League. Few realize that during his first two
+years in the big show Joe Tinker looked like a cripple at the plate when I
+was pitching. His "groove" was a slow curve over the outside corner, and I
+fed him slow curves over that very outside corner with great regularity.
+Then suddenly, overnight, he became from my point of view the most
+dangerous batter in the League.
+
+Tinker is a clever ball-player, and one day I struck him out three times
+in succession with low curves over the outside corner. Instead of getting
+disgusted with himself, he began to think and reason. He knew that I was
+feeding him that low curve over the outside corner, and he started to look
+for an antidote. He had always taken a short, choppy swing at the ball.
+When he went to the clubhouse after the game in which he struck out three
+times, he was very quiet, so I have been told. He was just putting on his
+last sock when he clapped his hand to his leg and exclaimed:
+
+"I've got it."
+
+"Got what?" asked Johnny Evers, who happened to be sitting next to Tinker.
+
+"Got the way to hit Matty, who had me looking as if I came from the home
+for the blind out there to-day," answered Joe.
+
+"I should say he did," replied Evers. "But if you've found a way to hit
+him, why, I'm from away out in Missouri near the Ozark Mountains."
+
+"Wait till he pitches again," said Tinker by way of conclusion, as he took
+his diamond ring from the trainer and left the clubhouse.
+
+It was a four-game series in Chicago, and I had struck Tinker out three
+times in the first contest. McGraw decided that I should pitch the last
+game as well. Two men were on the bases and two were out when Tinker came
+to the bat for the first time in this battle, and the outfielders moved in
+closer for him, as he had always been what is known as a "chop" hitter. I
+immediately noticed something different about his style as he set himself
+at the plate, and then it struck me that he was standing back in the box
+and had a long bat. Before this he had always choked his bat short and
+stood up close. Now I observed that he had his stick way down by the
+handle.
+
+Bresnahan was catching, and he signalled for the regular prescription for
+Tinker. With a lot of confidence I handed him that old low curve. He
+evidently expected it, for he stepped almost across the plate, and, with
+that long bat, drove the ball to right field for two bases over the head
+of George Browne, who was playing close up to the infield, scoring both
+runs and eventually winning the game.
+
+"I've got your number now, Matty!" he shouted at me as he drew up at
+second base.
+
+I admit that he has had it quite frequently since he switched his batting
+style. Now the outfielders move back when Tinker comes to the plate, for,
+if he connects, he hits "'em far" with that long bat. Ever since the day
+he adopted the "pole" he has been a thorn in my side and has broken up
+many a game. That old low curve is his favorite now, and he reaches for it
+with the same cordiality as is displayed by an actor in reaching for his
+pay envelope. The only thing to do is to keep them close and try to
+outguess him, but Tinker is a hard man to beat at the game of wits.
+
+Many a heady hitter in the Big League could give the signs to the opposing
+pitcher, for he realizes what his weakness is and knows that a twirler is
+going to pitch at it. But, try as hard as he will, he cannot often cover
+up his "groove," as Tinker did, and so he continues to be easy for the
+twirler who can put the ball where he wants it.
+
+Fred Clarke, of Pittsburg, has always been a hard man for me to fool on
+account of his batting form. A hitter of his type cannot be deceived by a
+change of pace, because he stands up close to the plate, chokes his bat
+short, and swings left-handed. When a pitcher cannot deceive a man with a
+change of pace, he has to depend on curves. Let me digress briefly to
+explain why a change of pace will not make the ball miss Clarke's bat. He
+is naturally a left-field hitter, and likes the ball on the outside corner
+of the plate. That means he swings at the ball late and makes most of his
+drives to left field.
+
+How is a batter fooled by a change of pace? A pitcher gives him a speedy
+one and then piles a slow one right on top of it with the same motion. The
+batter naturally thinks it is another fast ball and swings too soon--that
+is, before the ball gets to him. But when a man like Clarke is at the bat
+and a pitcher tries to work a change of pace, what is the result? He
+naturally swings late and so hits a fast ball to left field. Then as the
+slow one comes up to the plate, he strikes at it, granted he is deceived
+by it, timing his swing as he would at a fast ball. If it had been a fast
+ball, as he thought, he would have hit it to left field, being naturally a
+late swinger. But on a slow one he swings clear around and pulls it to
+right field twice as hard as he would have hit it to left field because
+he has obtained that much more drive in the longer swing. Therefore, it is
+a rule in the profession that no left-handed batter who hits late can be
+deceived by a change of pace.
+
+"Rube" Ellis, a left-handed hitter of the St. Louis Club, entered the
+League and heard complimentary stories about my pitching. Ellis came up to
+bat the first day that I pitched against him wondering if he would get
+even a foul. He was new to me and I was looking for his "groove." I gave
+him one over the outside corner, and he jabbed it to left field. The next
+time, I thought to work the change of pace, and, swinging late, he hauled
+the ball around to right field, and it nearly tore Fred Tenny's head off
+en route over first base. Five hits out of five times at bat he made off
+me that day, and, when he went to the clubhouse, he remarked to his team
+mates in this wise:
+
+"So that is the guy who has been burning up this League, huh? We've got
+better 'n him in the coast circuit. He's just got the Indian sign on you.
+That's all."
+
+I did a little thinking about Ellis's hitting. He used a long bat and held
+it down near the end and "poled 'em." He was naturally a left-field
+hitter and, therefore, swung late at the ball. I concluded that fast ones
+inside would do for Mr. Ellis, and the next time we met he got just those.
+He has been getting them ever since and now, when he makes a hit off me,
+he holds a celebration.
+
+"Hans" Wagner, of Pittsburg, has always been a hard man for me, but in
+that I have had nothing on a lot of other pitchers. He takes a long bat,
+stands well back from the plate, and steps into the ball, poling it. He is
+what is known in baseball as a free swinger, and there are not many free
+swingers these days. This is what ailed the Giants' batting during the
+world's series in 1911. They all attempted to become free swingers
+overnight and were trying to knock the ball out of the lot, instead of
+chopping it.
+
+In the history of baseball there have not been more than fifteen or twenty
+free swingers altogether, and they are the real natural hitters of the
+game, the men with eyes nice enough and accurate enough to take a long
+wallop at the ball. "Dan" Brouthers was one, and so was "Cap" Anson.
+Sherwood Magee and "Hans" Wagner are contemporary free swingers. Men of
+this type wield a heavy bat as if it were a toothpick and step back and
+forth in the box, hitting the ball on any end of the plate. Sometimes it
+is almost impossible to pass a man of this sort purposely, for a little
+carelessness in getting the ball too close to the plate may result in his
+stepping up and hitting it a mile. Pitchers have been searching for
+Wagner's "groove" for years, and, if any one of them has located it, he
+has his discovery copyrighted, for I never heard of it.
+
+Only one pitcher, that I can recall, always had it on Wagner, and that man
+was Arthur Raymond, sometimes called "Bugs." He seemed to upset the German
+by his careless manner in the box and by his "kidding" tactics. I have
+seen him make Wagner go after bad balls, a thing that "Hans" seldom can be
+induced to do by other twirlers.
+
+I remember well the first time I pitched against Wagner. Jack Warner was
+catching, and I, young and new in the League, had spent a lot of time with
+him, learning the weaknesses of the batters and being coached as to how to
+treat them. Wagner loomed up at the bat in a pinch, and I could not
+remember what Warner had said about his flaw. I walked out of the box to
+confer with the catcher.
+
+"What's his 'groove,' Jack?" I asked him.
+
+"A base on balls," replied Warner, without cracking a smile.
+
+That's always been Wagner's "groove."
+
+There used to be a player on the Boston team named Claude Ritchey who "had
+it on me" for some reason or other. He was a left-handed hitter and
+naturally drove the ball to left field, so that I could not fool him with
+a change of pace. He was always able to outguess me in a pinch and seemed
+to know by intuition what was coming.
+
+There has been for a long time an ardent follower of the Giants named Mrs.
+Wilson, who raves wildly at a game, and is broken-hearted when the team
+loses. The Giants were playing in Boston one day, and needed the game very
+badly. It was back in 1905, at the time the club could cinch the pennant
+by winning one contest, and the flag-assuring game is the hardest one to
+win. Two men got on the bases in the ninth inning with the score tied and
+no one out. The crowd was stamping its feet and hooting madly, trying to
+rattle me. I heard Mrs. Wilson shrill loudly above the noise:
+
+"Stick with them, Matty!"
+
+Ritchey came up to the bat, and I passed him purposely, trying to get him
+to strike at a bad ball. I wouldn't take a chance on letting him hit at a
+good one. Mrs. Wilson thought I was losing my control, and unable to stand
+it any longer she got up and walked out of the grounds. Then I fanned the
+next two batters, and the last man hit a roller to Devlin and was thrown
+out at first base. I was told afterwards that Mrs. Wilson stood outside
+the ground, waiting to hear the crowd cheer, which would have told her it
+was all over.
+
+She lingered at the gate until the fourteenth inning, fearing to return
+because she expected to see us routed. At last she heard a groan from the
+home crowd when we won in the fourteenth. Still she would not believe that
+I had weathered the storm and won the game that gave the Giants a pennant,
+but waited to be assured by some of the spectators leaving the grounds
+before she came around to congratulate us.
+
+All batters who are good waiters, and will not hit at bad balls, are hard
+to deceive, because it means a twirler has to lay the ball over, and then
+the hitter always has the better chance. A pitcher will try to get a man
+to hit at a bad ball before he will put it near the plate.
+
+Many persons have asked me why I do not use my "fade-away" oftener when it
+is so effective, and the only answer is that every time I throw the
+"fade-away" it takes so much out of my arm. It is a very hard ball to
+deliver. Pitching it ten or twelve times in a game kills my arm, so I save
+it for the pinches.
+
+Many fans do not know what this ball really is. It is a slow curve pitched
+with the motion of a fast ball. But most curve balls break away from a
+right-handed batter a little. The fade-away breaks toward him.
+
+Baker, of the Athletics, is one of the most dangerous hitters I have ever
+faced, and we were not warned to look out for him before the 1911 world's
+series, either. Certain friends of the Giants gave us some "inside"
+information on the Athletics' hitters. Among others, the Cubs supplied us
+with good tips, but no one spread the Baker alarm. I was told to watch out
+for Collins as a dangerous man, one who was likely to break up a game any
+time with a long drive.
+
+I consider Baker one of the hardest, cleanest hitters I have ever faced,
+and he drives the ball on a line to any field. The fielders cannot play
+for him. He did not show up well in the first game of the world's series
+because the Athletics thought they were getting our signs, and we crossed
+Baker with two men on the bases in the third inning. He lost a chance to
+be a hero right there.
+
+The roughest deal that I got from Baker in the 1911 series was in the
+third game, which was the second in New York. We had made one run and the
+ninth inning rolled around with the Giants still leading, 1 to 0. The
+first man at the bat grounded out and then Baker came up. I realized by
+this time that he was a hard proposition, but figured that he could not
+hit a low curve over the outside corner, as he is naturally a right-field
+hitter. I got one ball and one strike on him and then delivered a ball
+that was aimed to be a low curve over the outside corner. Baker refused to
+swing at it, and Brennan, the umpire, called it a ball.
+
+I thought that it caught the outside corner of the plate, and that Brennan
+missed the strike. It put me in the hole with the count two balls and one
+strike, and I had to lay the next one over very near the middle to keep
+the count from being three and one. I pitched a curve ball that was meant
+for the outside corner, but cut the plate better than I intended. Baker
+stepped up into it and smashed it into the grand-stand in right field for
+a home run, and there is the history of that famous wallop. This tied the
+score.
+
+A pitcher has two types of batters to face. One is the man who is always
+thinking and guessing and waiting, trying to get the pitcher in the hole.
+Evers, of the Cubs, is that sort. They tell me that "Ty" Cobb of Detroit
+is the most highly developed of this type of hitter. I have never seen him
+play. Then the other kind is the natural slugger, who does not wait for
+anything, and who could not outguess a pitcher if he did. The brainy man
+is the harder for a pitcher to face because he is a constant source of
+worry.
+
+There are two ways of fooling a batter. One is literally to "mix 'em up,"
+and the other is to keep feeding him the same sort of a ball, but to
+induce him to think that something else is coming. When a brainy man is at
+the bat, he is always trying to figure out what to expect. If he knows,
+then his chances of getting a hit are greatly increased. For instance, if
+a batter has two balls and two strikes on him, he naturally concludes that
+the pitcher will throw him a curve ball, and prepares for it. Big League
+ball-players recognize only two kinds of pitched balls--the curve and the
+straight one.
+
+When a catcher in the Big League signals for a curved ball, he means a
+drop, and, after handling a certain pitcher for a time, he gets to know
+just how much the ball is going to curve. That is why the one catcher
+receives for the same pitcher so regularly, because they get to work
+together harmoniously. "Chief" Meyers, the big Indian catcher on the
+Giants, understands my style so well that in some games he hardly has to
+give a sign. But, oddly enough, he could never catch Raymond because he
+did not like to handle the spit ball, a hard delivery to receive, and
+Raymond and he could not get along together as a battery. They would cross
+each other. But Arthur Wilson caught Raymond almost perfectly. This
+explains the loss of effectiveness of many pitchers when a certain catcher
+is laid up or out of the game.
+
+"Cy" Seymour, formerly the outfielder of the Giants, was one of the
+hardest batters I ever had to pitch against when he was with the
+Cincinnati club and going at the top of his stride. He liked a curved
+ball, and could hit it hard and far, and was always waiting for it. He was
+very clever at out-guessing a pitcher and being able to conclude what was
+coming. For a long time whenever I pitched against him I had "mixed 'em
+up" literally, handing him first a fast ball and then a slow curve and so
+on, trying to fool him in this way. But one day we were playing in
+Cincinnati, and I decided to keep delivering the same kind of a ball, that
+old fast one around his neck, and to try to induce him to believe that a
+curve was coming. I pitched him nothing but fast ones that day, and he was
+always waiting for a curve. The result was that I had him in the hole all
+the time, and I struck him out three times. He has never gotten over it.
+Only recently I saw Seymour, and he said:
+
+"Matty, you are the only man that ever struck me out three times in the
+same game."
+
+He soon guessed, however, that I was not really mixing them up, and then I
+had to switch my style again for him.
+
+Some pitchers talk to batters a great deal, hoping to get their minds off
+the game in this way, and thus be able to sneak strikes over. But I find
+that talking to a batter disconcerts me almost as much as it does him, and
+I seldom do it. Repartee is not my line anyway.
+
+Bender talked to the Giant players all through that first game in the 1911
+world's series, the one in which he wore the smile, probably because he
+was a pitcher old in the game and several of the younger men on the New
+York team acted as if they were nervous. Snodgrass and the Indian kept up
+a running fire of small talk every time that the Giants' centre-fielder
+came to the plate.
+
+Snodgrass got hit by pitched balls twice, and this seemed to worry Bender.
+When the New York centre-fielder came to the bat in the eighth inning, the
+Indian showed his even teeth in the chronic grin and greeted Snodgrass in
+this way:
+
+"Look out, Freddie, you don't get hit this time."
+
+Then Bender wound up and with all his speed drove the ball straight at
+Snodgrass's head, and Bender had more speed in that first game than I ever
+saw him use before. Snodgrass dodged, and the ball drove into Thomas's
+glove. This pitching the first ball at the head of a batter is an old
+trick of pitchers when they think a player intends to get hit purposely or
+that he is crowding the plate.
+
+"If you can't push 'em over better than that," retorted Snodgrass, "I
+won't need to get hit. Let's see your fast one now."
+
+"Try this one," suggested Bender, as he pitched another fast one that cut
+the heart of the plate. Snodgrass swung and hit nothing but the air. The
+old atmosphere was very much mauled by bats in that game anyway.
+
+"You missed that one a mile, Freddie," chuckled the Indian, with his grin.
+
+Snodgrass eventually struck out and then Bender broke into a laugh.
+
+"You ain't a batter, Freddie," exclaimed the Indian, as he walked to the
+bench. "You're a backstop. You can never get anywhere without being hit."
+
+If a pitcher is going to talk to a batter, he must size up his man. An
+irritable, nervous young player often will fall for the conversation, but
+most seasoned hitters will not answer back. The Athletics, other than
+Bender, will not talk in a game. We tried to get after them in the first
+contest in 1911, and we could not get a rise out of one of them, except
+when Snodgrass spiked Baker, and I want to say right here that this much
+discussed incident was accidental. Baker was blocking Snodgrass out, and
+the New York player had a perfect right to the base line.
+
+Sherwood Magee of the Philadelphia National League team is one of the
+hardest batters that I ever have had to face, because he has a great eye,
+and is of the type of free swingers who take a mad wallop at the ball, and
+are always liable to break up a game with a long drive. Just once I talked
+to him when he was at the bat, more because we were both worked up than
+for any other reason, and he came out second best. It was while the Giants
+were playing at American League Park in 1911 after the old Polo Grounds
+had burned. Welchonce, who was the centre-fielder for the Phillies at the
+time, hit a slow one down the first base line, and I ran over to field the
+ball. I picked it up as the runner arrived and had no time to straighten
+up to dodge him. So I struck out my shoulder and he ran into it. There was
+no other way to make the play, but I guess it looked bad from the stand,
+because Welchonce fell down.
+
+Magee came up to bat next, threw his hat on the ground, and started to
+call me names. He is bad when irritated--and tolerably easy to irritate,
+as shown by the way in which he knocked down Finnegan, the umpire, last
+season because their ideas on a strike differed slightly. I replied on
+that occasion, but remembered to keep the ball away from the centre of the
+plate. That is about all I did do, but he was more wrought up than I and
+hit only a slow grounder to the infield. He was out by several feet. He
+took a wild slide at the bag, however, feet first, in what looked like an
+attempt to spike Merkle. We talked some more after that, but it has all
+been forgotten now.
+
+To be a successful pitcher in the Big League, a man must have the head and
+the arm. When I first joined the Giants, I had what is known as the "old
+round-house curve," which is no more than a big, slow outdrop. I had been
+fooling them in the minor leagues with it, and I was somewhat chagrined
+when George Davis, then the manager of the club, came to me and told me to
+forget the curve, as it would be of no use. It was then that I began to
+develop my drop ball.
+
+A pitcher must watch all the time for any little unconscious motion before
+he delivers the ball. If a base runner can guess just when he is going to
+pitch, he can get a much better start. Drucke used to have a little motion
+with his foot just before he pitched, of which he himself was entirely
+unconscious, but the other clubs got on to it and stole bases on him
+wildly. McGraw has since broken him of it.
+
+The Athletics say that I make a motion peculiar to the fade-away. Some
+spit-ball pitchers announce when they are going to throw a moist one by
+looking at the ball as they dampen it. At other times, when they "stall,"
+they do not look at the ball. The Big League batter is watching for all
+these little things and, if a pitcher is not careful, he will find a lot
+of men who are hard to pitch to. There are plenty anyway, and, as a man
+grows older, this number increases season by season.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+"Take Him Out"
+
+     _Many a Pitcher's Heart has been Broken by the Cry from the Stands,
+     "Take Him Out"--Russell Ford of the New York Yankees was Once Beaten
+     by a Few Foolish Words Whispered into the Batter's Ear at a Critical
+     Moment--Why "Rube" Marquard Failed for Two Years to be a Big
+     Leaguer--The Art of Breaking a Pitcher into Fast Company._
+
+
+A pitcher is in a tight game, and the batter makes a hit. Another follows
+and some fan back in the stand cries in stentorian tones:
+
+"Take him out!"
+
+It is the dirge of baseball which has broken the hearts of pitchers ever
+since the game began and will continue to do so as long as it lives.
+Another fan takes up the shout, and another, and another, until it is a
+chorus.
+
+"Take him out! Take him out! Take him out!"
+
+The pitcher has to grin, but that constant cry is wearing on nerves strung
+to the breaking point. The crowd is against him, and the next batter hits,
+and a run scores. The manager stops the game, beckons to the pitcher from
+the bench, and he has to walk away from the box, facing the crowd--not the
+team--which has beaten him. It is the psychology of baseball.
+
+Some foolish words once whispered into the ear of a batter by a clever
+manager in the crisis of one of the closest games ever played in baseball
+turned the tide and unbalanced a pitcher who had been working like a
+perfectly adjusted machine through seven terrific innings. That is also
+the "psychology of pitching." The man wasn't beaten because he weakened,
+because he lost his grip, because of any physical deficiency, but because
+some foolish words--words that meant nothing, had nothing to do with the
+game--had upset his mental attitude.
+
+The game was the first one played between the Giants and the Yankees in
+the post-season series of 1910, the batter was Bridwell, the manager was
+John McGraw, and the pitcher, Russell Ford of the Yankees. The cast of
+characters having been named, the story may now enter the block.
+
+Spectators who recall the game will remember that the two clubs had been
+battling through the early innings with neither team able to gain an
+advantage, and the Giants came to bat for the eighth inning with the score
+a tie. Ford was pitching perfectly with all the art of a master craftsman.
+Each team had made one run. I was the first man up and started the eighth
+inning with a single because Ford slackened up a little against me,
+thinking that I was not dangerous. Devore beat out an infield hit, and
+Doyle bunted and was safe, filling the bases. Then Ford went to work. He
+struck out Snodgrass, and Hemphill caught Murray's fly far too near the
+infield to permit me to try to score. It looked as if Ford were going to
+get out of the hole when "Al" Bridwell, the former Giant shortstop, came
+to the bat. Ford threw him two bad balls, and then McGraw ran out from the
+bench, and, with an autocratic finger, held up the game while he whispered
+into Bridwell's ear.
+
+"Al" nodded knowingly, and the whole thing was a pantomime, a wordless
+play, that made _Sumurun_ look like a bush-league production. Bridwell
+stepped back into the batter's box, and McGraw returned to the bench. On
+the next pitch, "Al" was hit in the leg and went to first base, forcing
+the run that broke the tie across the plate. That run also broke Ford's
+heart. And here is what McGraw whispered into the attentive ear of
+Bridwell:
+
+"How many quail did you say you shot when you were hunting last fall, Al?"
+
+John McGraw, the psychologist, baseball general and manager, had heard
+opportunity knock. With his fingers on the pulse of the game, he had felt
+the tenseness of the situation, and realized, all in the flash of an eye,
+that Ford was wabbling and that anything would push him over. He stopped
+the game and whispered into Bridwell's ear while Ford was feeling more and
+more the intensity of the crisis. He had an opportunity to observe the
+three men on the bases. He wondered what McGraw was whispering, what trick
+was to be expected. Was he telling the batter to get hit? Yes, he must be.
+Then he did just that--hit the batter, and lost the game.
+
+Why can certain pitchers always beat certain clubs and why do they look
+like bush leaguers against others? To be concrete, why can Brooklyn fight
+Chicago so hard and look foolish playing against the Giants? Why can the
+Yankees take game after game from Detroit and be easy picking for the
+Cleveland club in most of their games? Why does Boston beat Marquard when
+he can make the hard Philadelphia hitters look like blind men with bats in
+their hands? Why could I beat Cincinnati game after game for two years
+when the club was filled with hard hitters? It is the psychology of
+baseball, the mental attitudes of the players, some intangible thing that
+works on the mind. Managers are learning to use this subtle, indescribable
+element which is such a factor.
+
+The great question which confronts every Big League manager is how to
+break a valuable young pitcher into the game. "Rube" Marquard came to the
+Giants in the fall of 1908 out of the American Association heralded as a
+world-beater, with a reputation that shimmered and shone. The newspapers
+were crowded with stories of the man for whom McGraw had paid $11,000, who
+had been standing them on their heads in the West, who had curves that
+couldn't be touched, and was a bargain at the unheard-of price paid for
+him.
+
+"Rube" Marquard came to the Giants in a burst of glory and publicity when
+the club was fighting for the pennant. McGraw was up against it for
+pitchers at that time, and one win, turned in by a young pitcher, might
+have resulted in the Giants winning the pennant as the season ended.
+
+"Don't you think Marquard would win? Can't you put him in?" Mr. Brush, the
+owner of the club, asked McGraw one day when he was discussing the
+pitching situation with the manager.
+
+"I don't know," answered McGraw. "If he wins his first time out in the Big
+Leagues, he will be a world-beater, and, if he loses, it may cost us a
+good pitcher." But Mr. Brush was insistent. Here a big price had been paid
+for a pitcher with a record, and pitchers were what the club needed. The
+newspapers declared that the fans should get a look at this "$11,000
+beauty" in action. A double header was scheduled to be played with the
+Cincinnati club in the month of September, in 1908, and the pitching staff
+was gone. McGraw glanced over his collection of crippled and worked-out
+twirlers. Then he saw "Rube" Marquard, big and fresh.
+
+"Go in and pitch," he ordered after Marquard had warmed up.
+
+McGraw always does things that way, makes up his mind about the most
+important matters in a minute and then stands by his judgment. Marquard
+went into the box, but he didn't pitch much. He has told me about it
+since.
+
+"When I saw that crowd, Matty," he said, "I didn't know where I was. It
+looked so big to me, and they were all wondering what I was going to do,
+and all thinking that McGraw had paid $11,000 for me, and now they were to
+find out whether he had gotten stuck, whether he had picked up a gold
+brick with the plating on it very thin. I was wondering, myself, whether I
+would make good."
+
+What Marquard did that day is a matter of record, public property, like
+marriage and death notices. Kane, the little rightfielder on the
+Cincinnati club, was the first man up, and, although he was one of the
+smallest targets in the league, Marquard hit him. He promptly stole
+second, which worried "Rube" some more. Up came Lobert, the man who broke
+Marquard's heart.
+
+"Now we'll see," said Lobert to "Rube," as he advanced to the plate,
+"whether you're a busher." Then Lobert, the tantalizing Teuton with the
+bow-legs, whacked out a triple to the far outfield and stopped at third
+with a mocking smile on his face which would have gotten the late Job's
+goat.
+
+"You're identified," said "Hans"; "you're a busher."
+
+Some fan shouted the fatal "Take him out." Marquard was gone. Bescher
+followed with another triple, and, after that, the official scorer got
+writer's cramp trying to keep track of the hits and runs. The number of
+hits, I don't think, ever was computed with any great amount of
+exactitude. Marquard was taken out of the box in the fifth inning, and he
+was two years recovering from the shock of that beating. McGraw had put
+him into the game against his better judgment, and he paid for it dearly.
+
+Marquard had to be nursed along on the bench finishing games, starting
+only against easy clubs, and learning the ropes of the Big Leagues before
+he was able to be a winning pitcher. McGraw was a long time realizing
+on his investment. All Marquard needed was a victory, a decisive win, over
+a strong club.
+
+
+[Illustration: Photo by L. Van Oeyen, Cleveland, Ohio
+
+Ty Cobb and Hans Wagner
+
+"An American and National League star of the first magnitude. Fans of the
+rival leagues never tire of discussing the relative merits of these two
+great players. Both are always willing to take a chance, and seem to do
+their best work when pressed hardest."]
+
+
+The Giants played a disastrous series with the Philadelphia club early in
+July, 1911, and lost four games straight. All the pitchers were shot to
+pieces, and the Quakers seemed to be unbeatable. McGraw was at a loss for
+a man to use in the fifth game. The weather was steaming hot, and the
+players were dragged out, while the pitching staff had lost all its
+starch. As McGraw's eye scanned his bedraggled talent, Marquard, reading
+his thoughts, walked up to him.
+
+"Give me a chance," he asked.
+
+"Go in," answered McGraw, again making up his mind on the spur of the
+moment. Marquard went into the game and made the Philadelphia batters,
+whose averages had been growing corpulent on the pitching of the rest of
+the staff, look foolish. There on that sweltering July afternoon, when
+everything steamed in the blistering heat, a pitcher was being born again.
+Marquard had found himself, and, for the rest of the season, he was
+strongest against the Philadelphia team, for it had been that club which
+restored his confidence.
+
+There is a sequel to that old Lobert incident, too. In one of the last
+series in Philadelphia, toward the end of the season, Marquard and Lobert
+faced each other again. Said Marquard:
+
+"Remember the time, you bow-legged Dutchman, when you asked me whether I
+was a busher? Here is where I pay you back. This is the place where you
+get a bad showing up."
+
+And he fanned Lobert--whiff! whiff! whiff!--like that. He became the
+greatest lefthander in the country, and would have been sooner, except for
+the enormous price paid for him and the widespread publicity he received,
+which caused him to be over-anxious to make good. It's the psychology of
+the game.
+
+"You can't hit what you don't see," says "Joe" Tinker of Marquard's
+pitching. "When he throws his fast one, the only way you know it's past
+you is because you hear the ball hit the catcher's glove."
+
+Fred Clarke, of the Pittsburg club, was up against the same proposition
+when he purchased "Marty" O'Toole for $22,500 in 1911. The newspapers of
+the country were filled with figures and pictures of the real estate and
+automobiles that could be bought with the same amount of money, lined up
+alongside of pictures of O'Toole, as when the comparative strengths of the
+navies of the world are shown by placing different sizes of battleships in
+a row, or when the length of the _Lusitania_ is emphasized by printing a
+picture of it balancing gracefully on its stern alongside the Singer
+Building.
+
+Clarke realized that he had all this publicity with which to contend, and
+that it would do his expensive new piece of pitching bric-à-brac no good.
+O'Toole, jerked out of a minor league where he had been pitching quietly,
+along with his name in ten or a dozen papers, was suddenly a national
+figure, measuring up in newspaper space with Roosevelt and Taft and J.
+Johnson.
+
+When O'Toole joined the Pirates near the end of the season, Clarke knew
+down in his heart the club had no chance of winning the pennant with
+Wagner hurt, although he still publicly declared he was in the race. He
+did not risk jumping O'Toole right into the game as soon as he reported
+and taking the chance of breaking his heart. Opposing players, if they
+are up in the pennant hunt, are hard on a pitcher of this sort and would
+lose no opportunity to mention the price paid for him and connect it
+pointedly with his showing, if that showing was a little wobbly. Charity
+begins at home, and stays there, in the Big Leagues. At least, I never saw
+any of it on the ball fields, especially if the club is in the race, and
+the only thing that stands between it and a victory is the ruining of a
+$22,500 pitcher of a rival.
+
+Clarke nursed O'Toole along on the bench for a couple of weeks until he
+got to be thoroughly acclimated, and then he started him in a game against
+Boston, the weakest club in the league, after he had sent for Kelly,
+O'Toole's regular catcher, to inspire more confidence. O'Toole had an easy
+time of it at his Big League début, for the Boston players did not pick on
+him any to speak of, as they were not a very hard bunch of pickers. The
+Pittsburg team gave him a nice comfortable, cosy lead, and he was pitching
+along ahead of the game all the way. In the fifth or sixth inning Clarke
+slipped Gibson, the regular Pittsburg catcher, behind the bat, and O'Toole
+had won his first game in the Big League before he knew it. He then
+reasoned I have won here. I belong here. I can get along here. It isn't
+much different from the crowd I came from, except for the name, and that's
+nothing to get timid about if I can clean up as easily as I did to-day.
+
+Fred Clarke, also a psychologist and baseball manager, had worked a
+valuable pitcher into the League, and he had won his first game. If he had
+started him against some club like the Giants, for instance, where he
+would have had to face a big crowd and the conversation and spirit of
+players who were after a pennant and hot after it, he might have lost and
+his heart would have been broken. Successfully breaking into the game an
+expensive pitcher, who has cost a club a large price, is one of the
+hardest problems which confronts a manager. Now O'Toole is all right if he
+has the pitching goods. He has taken his initial plunge, and all he has to
+do is to make good next year. The psychology element is eliminated from
+now on.
+
+I have been told that Clarke was the most relieved man in seven counties
+when O'Toole came through with that victory in Boston.
+
+"I had in mind all the time," said Fred, "what happened to McGraw when he
+was trying to introduce Marquard into the smart set, and I was afraid the
+same thing would happen to me. I had a lot of confidence in the nerve of
+that young fellow though, because he stood up well under fire the first
+day he got into Pittsburg. One of those lady reporters was down to the
+club offices to meet him the morning he got into town, and they always
+kind of have me, an old campaigner, stepping away from the plate. She
+pulled her pad and pencil on Marty first thing, before he had had a chance
+to knock the dirt out of his cleats, and said:
+
+"'Now tell me about yourself.'
+
+"He stepped right into that one, instead of backing away.
+
+"'What do you want me to tell?' he asks her.
+
+"Then I knew he was all right. He was there with the 'come-back.'"
+
+But the ideal way to break a star into the Big League is that which marked
+the entrance of Grover Cleveland Alexander, of the Philadelphia club. The
+Cincinnati club had had its eye on Alexander for some time, but "Tacks"
+Ashenbach, the scout, now dead, had advised against him, declaring that he
+would be no good against "regular batters." Philadelphia got him at the
+waiver price and he was among the lot in the newspapers marked "Those who
+also joined." He started out in 1911 and won two or three games before
+anyone paid any attention to him. Then he kept on winning until one
+manager was saying to another:
+
+"That guy, Alexander, is a hard one to beat."
+
+He had won ten or a dozen games before it was fully realized that he was a
+star. Then he was so accustomed to the Big League he acted as if he had
+been living in it all his life, and there was no getting on his nerves.
+When he started, he had everything to gain and nothing to lose. If he
+didn't last, the newspapers wouldn't laugh at him, and the people wouldn't
+say:
+
+"$11,000, or $22,500, for a lemon." That's the dread of all ball players.
+
+Such is the psychology of introducing promising pitchers into the Big
+Leagues. The Alexander route is the ideal one, but it's hard to get stars
+now without paying enormous prices for them. Philadelphia was lucky.
+
+There is another element which enters into all forms of athletics. Tennis
+players call it nervousness, and ball players, in the frankness of the
+game, call it a "yellow streak." It is the inability to stand the gaff,
+the weakening in the pinches. It is something ingrained in a man that
+can't be cured. It is the desire to quit when the situation is serious. It
+is different from stage fright, because a man may get over that, but a
+"yellow streak" is always with him. When a new player breaks into the
+League, he is put to the most severe test by the other men to see if he is
+"yellow." If he is found wanting, he is hopeless in the Big League, for
+the news will spread, and he will receive no quarter. It is the cardinal
+sin in a ball player.
+
+For some time after "Hans" Wagner's poor showing in the world's series of
+1903, when the Pittsburg club was defeated for the World's Championship by
+the Boston American League club, it was reported that he was "yellow."
+This grieved the Dutchman deeply, for I don't know a ball player in either
+league who would assay less quit to the ton than Wagner. He is always
+there and always fighting. Wagner felt the inference which his team mates
+drew very keenly. This was the real tragedy in Wagner's career.
+Notwithstanding his stolid appearance, he is a sensitive player, and this
+hurt him more than anything else in his life ever has.
+
+When the Pittsburg club played Detroit in 1909 for the championship of the
+world, many, even of Wagner's admirers, said, "The Dutchman will quit." It
+was in this series he vindicated himself. His batting scored the majority
+of the Pittsburg runs, and his fielding was little short of wonderful. He
+was demonstrating his gameness. Many men would have quit under the
+reflection. They would have been unable to withstand the criticism, but
+not Wagner.
+
+Many persons implied that John Murray, the rightfielder on the Giants, was
+"yellow" at the conclusion of the 1911 world's series because, after
+batting almost three hundred in the season, he did not get a hit in the
+six games. But there isn't a man on the team gamer. He hasn't any nerves.
+He's one of the sort of ball players who says:
+
+"Well, now I've got my chew of tobacco in my mouth. Let her go."
+
+There is an interesting bit of psychology connected with Wagner and the
+spit-ball. It comes as near being Wagner's "groove" as any curve that has
+found its way into the Big Leagues. This is explained by the fact that
+the first time Wagner ever faced "Bugs" Raymond he didn't get a hit with
+Arthur using the spitter. Consequently the report went around the circuit
+that Wagner couldn't hit the spit-ball. He disproved this theory against
+two or three spit-ball pitchers, but as long as Raymond remained in the
+League he had it on the hard-hitting Dutchman.
+
+"Here comes a 'spitter,' Hans. Look out for it," Raymond would warn
+Wagner, with a wide grin, and then he would pop up a wet one.
+
+"Guess I'll repeat on that dose, Hans; you didn't like that one."
+
+And Wagner would get so worked up that he frequently struck out against
+"Bugs" when the rest of his club was hitting the eccentric pitcher hard.
+It was because he achieved the idea on the first day he couldn't hit the
+spit-ball, and he wasn't able to rid his mind of the impression. Many fans
+often wondered why Raymond had it on Wagner, the man whose only "groove"
+is a base on balls. "Bugs" had the edge after that first day when Wagner
+lost confidence in his ability to hit the spit-ball as served by Raymond.
+
+In direct contrast to this loss of confidence on Wagner's part was the
+incident attendant upon Arthur Devlin's début into the Big League. He had
+joined the club a youngster, in the season of 1904, and McGraw had not
+counted upon him to play third base, having planned to plant Bresnahan at
+that corner. But Bresnahan developed sciatic rheumatism early in the
+season, and Devlin was put on the bag in the emergency with a great deal
+of misgiving.
+
+The first day he was in the game he came up to the bat with the bases
+full. The Giants were playing Brooklyn at the Polo Grounds, and two men
+had already struck out, with the team two runs behind. Devlin came out
+from the bench.
+
+"Who is this youthful-looking party?" one fan asked another, as they
+scanned their score cards.
+
+"Devlin, some busher, taking Bresnahan's place," another answered.
+
+"Well, it's all off now," was the general verdict.
+
+The crowd settled back, and one could feel the lassitude in the
+atmosphere. But Devlin had his first chance to make good in a pinch. There
+was no weariness in his manner. Poole, the Brooklyn pitcher, showing less
+respect than he should have for the newcomer in baseball society, spilled
+one over too near the middle, and Arthur drove out a home run, winning
+the game. Those who had refused to place any confidence in him only a
+moment before, were on their feet cheering wildly now. And Devlin played
+third base for almost eight years after that, and none thought of
+Bresnahan and his rheumatism until he began catching again. Devlin, after
+that home run, was oozing confidence from every pore and burned up the
+League with his batting for three years. He got the old confidence from
+his start. The fans had expected nothing from him, and he had delivered.
+He had gained everything. He had made the most dramatic play in baseball
+on his first day, a home run with the bases full.
+
+When Fred Snodgrass first started playing as a regular with the Giants
+about the middle of the season of 1910, he hit any ball pitched him hard
+and had all the fans marvelling at his stick work. He believed that he
+could hit anything and, as long as he retained that belief, he could.
+
+But the Chalmers Automobile Company had offered a prize of one nice,
+mild-mannered motor car to the batter in either league who finished the
+season with the biggest average.
+
+Snodgrass was batting over four hundred at one time and was ahead of them
+all when suddenly the New York evening papers began to publish the daily
+averages of the leaders for the automobile, boosting Snodgrass. It
+suddenly struck Fred that he was a great batter and that to keep his place
+in that daily standing he would have to make a hit every time he went to
+the plate. These printed figures worried him. His batting fell off
+miserably until, in the post season series with the Yankees, he gave one
+of the worst exhibitions of any man on the team. The newspapers did it.
+
+"They got me worrying about myself," he told me once. "I began to think
+how close I was to the car and had a moving picture of myself driving it.
+That settled it."
+
+Many promising young players are broken in their first game in the Big
+League by the ragging which they are forced to undergo at the hands of
+veteran catchers. John Kling is a very bad man with youngsters, and
+sometimes he can get on the nerves of older players in close games when
+the nerves are strung tight. The purpose of a catcher in talking to a man
+in this way is to distract his attention from batting, and once this is
+accomplished he is gone. A favorite trick of a catcher is to say to a new
+batter:
+
+"Look out for this fellow. He's got a mean 'bean' ball, and he hasn't any
+influence over it. There's a poor 'boob' in the hospital now that stopped
+one with his head."
+
+Then the catcher signs for the pitcher to throw the next one at the young
+batter's head. If he pulls away, an unpardonable sin in baseball, the dose
+is repeated.
+
+"Yer almost had your foot in the water-pail over by the bench that time,"
+says the catcher.
+
+Bing! Up comes another "beaner." Then, after the catcher has sized the new
+man up, he makes his report.
+
+"He won't do. He's yellow."
+
+And the players keep mercilessly after this shortcoming, this ingrained
+fault which, unlike a mechanical error, cannot be corrected until the new
+player is driven out of the League. Perhaps the catcher says:
+
+"He's game, that guy. No scare to him."
+
+After that he is let alone. It's the psychology of batting.
+
+Once, when I first broke into the League, Jack Chesbro, then with
+Pittsburg, threw a fast one up, and it went behind my head, although I
+tried to dodge back. He had lots of speed in those days, too. It set me
+wondering what would have happened if the ball had hit me. The more I
+thought, the more it struck me that it would have greatly altered my face
+had it gotten into the course of the ball. Ever afterwards, he had it on
+me, and, for months, a fast one at the head had me backing away from the
+plate.
+
+In contrast to this experience of mine was the curing of "Josh" Devore,
+the leftfielder of the Giants, of being bat shy against left-handers.
+Devore has always been very weak at the bat with a southpaw in the box,
+dragging his right foot away from the plate. This was particularly the
+case against "Slim" Sallee, the tenuous southpaw of the St. Louis
+Nationals. Finally McGraw, exasperated after "Josh" had struck out twice
+in one day, said:
+
+"That fellow hasn't got speed enough to bend a pane of glass at the home
+plate throwing from the box, and you're pullin' away as if he was shooting
+them out of a gun. It's a crime to let him beat you. Go up there the next
+time and get hit, and see if he can hurt you. If you don't get hit,
+you're fined $10."
+
+Devore, who is as fond of $10 as the next one, went to the bat and took
+one of Sallee's slants in a place where it would do the least damage. He
+trotted to first base smiling.
+
+"What'd I tell you?" asked McGraw, coaching. "Could he hurt you?"
+
+"Say," replied "Josh," "I'd hire out to let them pitch baseballs at me if
+none could throw harder than that guy."
+
+Devore was cured of being bat shy when Sallee was pitching, right then and
+there, and he has improved greatly against all left-handers ever since, so
+much so that McGraw leaves him in the game now when a southpaw pitches,
+instead of placing Beals Becker in left field as he used to. All Devore
+needed was the confidence to stand up to the plate against them, to rid
+his mind of the idea that, if once he got hit, he would leave the field
+feet first. That slam in the slats which Sallee handed him supplied the
+confidence.
+
+When Devore was going to Philadelphia for the second game of the world's
+series in the fall of 1911, the first one in the other town, he was
+introduced to "Ty" Cobb, the Detroit out-fielder, by some newspaper man
+on the train, and, as it was the first time Devore had ever met Cobb, he
+sat down with him and they talked all the way over.
+
+"Gee," said "Josh" to me, as we were getting off the train, "that fellow
+Cobb knows a lot about batting. He told me some things about the American
+League pitchers just now, and he didn't know he was doing it. I never let
+on. But I just hope that fellow Plank works to-day, if they think that I
+am weak against left-handers. Say, Matty, I could write a book about that
+guy and his 'grooves' now, after buzzing Cobb, and the funny thing is he
+didn't know he was telling me."
+
+Plank pitched that day and fanned Devore four times out of a possible
+four. "Josh" didn't even get a foul off him.
+
+"Thought you knew all about that fellow," I said to Devore after the game.
+
+"I've learned since that Cobb and he are pretty thick," replied "Josh,"
+"and I guess 'Ty' was giving me a bad steer."
+
+It was evident that Cobb had been filling "Josh" up with misinformation
+that was working around in Devore's mind when he went to the plate to
+face Plank, and, instead of being open to impressions, these wrong
+opinions had already been planted and he was constantly trying to confirm
+them. Plank was crossing him all the time, and, being naturally weak
+against left-handers, this additional handicap made Devore look foolish.
+
+In the well-worn words of Mr. Dooley, it has been my experience "to trust
+your friends, but cut the cards." By that, I mean one ball player will
+often come to another with a tip that he really thinks worth while, but
+that avails nothing in the end. A man has to be a pretty smart ball player
+to dispense accurate information about others, because the Big Leaguers
+know their own "grooves" and are naturally trying to cover them up. Then a
+batter may be weak against one pitcher on a certain kind of a ball, and
+may whale the same sort of delivery, with a different twist to it, out of
+the lot against another.
+
+That was the experience I had with "Ed" Delehanty, the famous slugger of
+the old Philadelphia National League team, who is now dead. During my
+first year in the League several well-meaning advisers came to me and
+said:
+
+"Don't give 'Del' any high fast ones because, if you do, you will just
+wear your fielders out worse than a George M. Cohan show does the chorus.
+They will think they are in a Marathon race instead of a ball game."
+
+Being young, I took this advice, and the first time I pitched against
+Delehanty, I fed him curved balls. He hit these so far the first two times
+he came to bat that one of the balls was never found, and everybody felt
+like shaking hands with Van Haltren, the old Giant outfielder, when he
+returned with the other, as if he had been away on a vacation some place.
+In fact, I had been warned against giving any of this Philadelphia team of
+sluggers high fast ones, and I had been delivering a diet of curves to all
+of them which they were sending to the limits of the park and further,
+with great regularity. At last, when Delehanty came to the bat for the
+third time in the game, Van Haltren walked into the box from the outfield
+and handed the ball to me, after he had just gone to the fence to get it.
+Elmer Flick had hit it there.
+
+"Matty," he pleaded, "for the love of Mike, slip this fellow a base on
+balls and let me get my wind."
+
+Instead I decided to switch my style, and I fed Delehanty high fast ones,
+the dangerous dose, and he struck out then and later. He wasn't expecting
+them and was so surprised that he couldn't hit the ball. Only two of the
+six balls at which he struck were good ones. I found out afterwards that
+the tradition about not delivering any high fast balls to the Philadelphia
+hitters was the outgrowth of the old buzzer tipping service, established
+in 1899, by which the batters were informed what to expect by Morgan
+Murphy, located in the clubhouse with a pair of field-glasses and his
+finger on a button which worked a buzzer under the third-base coaching
+box. The coacher tipped the batter off what was coming and the
+signal-stealing device had worked perfectly. The hitters had all waited
+for the high fast ones in those days, as they can be hit easier if a man
+knows that they are coming, and can also be hit farther.
+
+But, after the buzzer had been discovered and the delivery of pitchers
+could not be accurately forecast, this ability to hit high fast ones
+vanished, but not the tradition. The result was that this Philadelphia
+club was getting a steady diet of curves and hitting them hard, not
+expecting anything else. When I first pitched against Delehanty, his
+reputation as a hitter gave him a big edge on me. Therefore I was willing
+to take any kind of advice calculated to help me, but eventually I had to
+find out for myself. If I had taken a chance on mixing them up the first
+time he faced me, I still doubt if he would have made those two long hits,
+but it was his reputation working in my mind and the idea that he ate up
+high fast balls that prevented me from taking the risk.
+
+Each pitcher has to find out for himself what a man is going to hit. It's
+all right to take advice at first, but, if this does not prove to be the
+proper prescription, it's up to him to experiment and not continue to feed
+him the sort of balls that he is hitting.
+
+Reputations count for a great deal in the Big Leagues. Cobb has a record
+as being a great base runner, and I believe that he steals ten bases a
+season on this reputation. The catcher knows he is on the bag, realizes
+that he is going to steal, fears him, hurries his throw, and, in his
+anxiety, it goes bad. Cobb is safe, whereas, if he had been an ordinary
+runner with no reputation, he would probably have been thrown out.
+Pitchers who have made names for themselves in the Big Leagues, have a
+much easier time winning as a consequence.
+
+"All he's got to do is to throw his glove into the box to beat that club,"
+is an old expression in baseball, which means that the opposing batters
+fear the pitcher and that his reputation will carry him through if he has
+nothing whatever on the ball.
+
+Newspapers work on the mental attitude of Big League players. This has
+been most marked in Cincinnati, and I believe that the local newspapers
+have done as much as anything to keep a pennant away from that town. When
+the team went south for the spring practice, the newspapers printed
+glowing reports of the possibilities of the club winning the pennant, but,
+when the club started to fall down in the race, they would knock the men,
+and it would take the heart out of the players. Almost enough good players
+have been let go by the Cincinnati team to make a world's championship
+club. There are Donlin, Seymour, Steinfeldt, Lobert and many more. Ball
+players inhale the accounts printed in the newspapers, and a correspondent
+with a grouch has ruined the prospects of many a good player and club. The
+New York newspapers, first by the great amount of publicity given to his
+old record, and then by criticising him for not making a better showing,
+had a great deal to do with Marquard failing to make good the first two
+years he was in New York, as I have shown.
+
+A smart manager in the Big League is always working to keep his valuable
+stars in the right frame of mind. On the last western trip the Giants made
+in the season of 1911, when they won the pennant by taking eighteen games
+out of twenty-two games, McGraw refused to permit any of the men to play
+cards. He realized that often the stakes ran high and that the losers
+brooded over the money which they lost and were thinking of this rather
+than the game when on the ball field. It hurt their playing, so there were
+no cards. He also carried "Charley" Faust, the Kansas Jinx killer, along
+to keep the players amused and because it was thought that he was good
+luck. It helped their mental attitude.
+
+The treatment of a new player when he first arrives is different now from
+what it was in the old days. Once there was a time when the veteran looked
+upon the recruit with suspicion and the feeling that he had come to take
+his job and his bread and butter from him. If a young pitcher was put
+into the box, the old catcher would do all that he could to irritate him,
+and many times he would inform the batters of the other side what he was
+going to throw.
+
+"He's tryin' to horn my friend Bill out of a job," I have heard catchers
+charge against a youngster.
+
+This attitude drove many a star ball player back to the minors because he
+couldn't make good under the adverse circumstances, but nothing of the
+sort exists now. Each veteran does all that he can to help the youngster,
+realizing that on the younger generation depends the success of the club,
+and that no one makes any money by being on a loser. Travelling with a
+tail-end ball club is the poorest pastime in the world. I would rather
+ride in the first coach of a funeral procession.
+
+The youngster is treated more courteously now when he first arrives. In
+the old days, the veterans of the club sized up the recruit and treated
+him like a stranger for days, which made him feel as if he were among
+enemies instead of friends, and, as a result, it was much harder for him
+to make good. Now all hands make him a companion from the start, unless
+he shows signs of being unusually fresh.
+
+There is a lot to baseball in the Big Leagues besides playing the game. No
+man can have a "yellow streak" and last. He must not pay much attention to
+his nerves or temperament. He must hide every flaw. It's all part of the
+psychology of baseball. But the saddest words of all to a pitcher are
+three--"Take Him Out."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+Pitching in a Pinch
+
+     _Many Pitchers Are Effective in a Big League Ball Game until that
+     Heart-Breaking Moment Arrives Known as the "Pinch"--It Is then that
+     the Man in the Box is Put to the Severest Test by the Coachers and
+     the Players on the Bench--Victory or Defeat Hangs on his Work in that
+     Inning--Famous "Pinches."_
+
+
+In most Big League ball games, there comes an inning on which hangs
+victory or defeat. Certain intellectual fans call it the crisis; college
+professors, interested in the sport, have named it the psychological
+moment; Big League managers mention it as the "break," and pitchers speak
+of the "pinch."
+
+This is the time when each team is straining every nerve either to win or
+to prevent defeat. The players and spectators realize that the outcome of
+the inning is of vital importance. And in most of these pinches, the real
+burden falls on the pitcher. It is at this moment that he is "putting all
+he has" on the ball, and simultaneously his opponents are doing everything
+they can to disconcert him.
+
+Managers wait for this break, and the shrewd league leader can often time
+it. Frequently a certain style of play is adopted to lead up to the pinch,
+then suddenly a slovenly mode of attack is changed, and the team comes on
+with a rush in an effort to break up the game. That is the real test of a
+pitcher. He must be able to live through these squalls.
+
+Two evenly matched clubs have been playing through six innings with
+neither team gaining any advantage. Let us say that they are the Giants
+and the Chicago Cubs. Suddenly the Chicago pitcher begins to weaken in the
+seventh. Spectators cannot perceive this, but McGraw, the Giants' manager,
+has detected some crack. All has been quiet on the bench up to this
+moment. Now the men begin to fling about sweaters and move around, one
+going to the water cooler to get a drink, another picking up a bat or two
+and flinging them in the air, while four or five prospective hitters are
+lined up, swinging several sticks apiece, as if absolutely confident that
+each will get his turn at the plate.
+
+The two coachers on the side lines have become dancing dervishes, waving
+sweaters and arms wildly, and shouting various words of discouragement to
+the pitcher which are calculated to make his job as soft as a bed of
+concrete. He has pitched three balls to the batter, and McGraw vehemently
+protests to the umpire that the twirler is not keeping his foot on the
+slab. The game is delayed while this is discussed at the pitcher's box and
+the umpire brushes off the rubber strip with a whisk broom.
+
+There is a kick against these tactics from the other bench, but the damage
+has been done. The pitcher passes the batter, forgets what he ought to
+throw to the next man, and cannot get the ball where he wants it. A base
+hit follows. Then he is gone. The following batter triples, and, before
+another pitcher can be warmed up, three or four runs are across the plate,
+and the game is won. That explains why so many wise managers keep a
+pitcher warming up when the man in the box is going strong.
+
+It is in the pinch that the pitcher shows whether or not he is a Big
+Leaguer. He must have something besides curves then. He needs a head, and
+he has to use it. It is the acid test. That is the reason so many men, who
+shine in the minor leagues, fail to make good in the majors. They cannot
+stand the fire.
+
+A young pitcher came to the Giants a few years ago. I won't mention his
+name because he has been pitching good minor-league ball since. He was a
+wonder with the bases empty, but let a man or two get on the sacks, and he
+wouldn't know whether he was in a pitcher's box or learning aviation in
+the Wright school, and he acted a lot more like an aviator in the crisis.
+McGraw looked him over twice.
+
+"He's got a spine like a charlotte russe," declared "Mac," after his
+second peek, and he passed him back to the bushes.
+
+Several other Big League managers, tempted by this man's brilliant record
+in the minors, have tried him out since, but he has always gone back.
+McGraw's judgment of the man was correct.
+
+On the other hand, Otis Crandall came to the New York club a few years ago
+a raw country boy from Indiana. I shall never forget how he looked the
+first spring I saw him in Texas. The club had a large number of recruits
+and was short of uniforms. He was among the last of the hopefuls to arrive
+and there was no suit for him, so, in a pair of regular trousers with his
+coat off, he began chasing flies in the outfield. His head hung down on
+his chest, and, when not playing, a cigarette drooped out of the corner of
+his mouth. But he turned out to be a very good fly chaser, and McGraw
+admired his persistency.
+
+"What are you?" McGraw asked him one day.
+
+"A pitcher," replied Crandall. Two words constitute an oration for him.
+
+"Let's see what you've got," said McGraw.
+
+Crandall warmed up, and he didn't have much of anything besides a sweeping
+outcurve and a good deal of speed. He looked less like a pitcher than any
+of the spring crop, but McGraw saw something in him and kept him. The
+result is he has turned out to be one of the most valuable men on the
+club, because he is there in a pinch. He couldn't be disturbed if the
+McNamaras tied a bomb to him, with a time fuse on it set for "at once." He
+is the sort of pitcher who is best when things look darkest. I've heard
+the crowd yelling, when he has been pitching on the enemy's ground, so
+that a sixteen-inch gun couldn't have been heard if it had gone off in the
+lot.
+
+"That crowd was making some noise," I've said to Crandall after the
+inning.
+
+"Was it?" asked Otie. "I didn't notice it."
+
+One day in 1911, he started a game in Philadelphia and three men got on
+the bases with no one out, along about the fourth or fifth inning. He shut
+them out without a run. It was the first game he had started for a long
+while, his specialty having been to enter a contest, after some other
+pitcher had gotten into trouble, with two or three men on the bases and
+scarcely any one out. After he came to the bench with the threatening
+inning behind him, he said to me:
+
+"Matty, I didn't feel at home out there to-day until a lot of people got
+on the bases. I'll be all right now." And he was. I believe that Crandall
+is the best pitcher in a pinch in the National League and one of the most
+valuable men to a team, for he can play any position and bats hard.
+Besides being a great pinch pitcher, he can also hit in a crush, and won
+many games for the Giants in 1911 that way.
+
+Very often spectators think that a pitcher has lost his grip in a pinch,
+when really he is playing inside baseball. A game with Chicago in Chicago
+back in 1908 (not the famous contest that cost the Giants a championship;
+I did not have any grip at all that day; but one earlier in the season)
+best illustrates the point I want to bring out. Mordecai Brown and I were
+having a pitchers' duel, and the Giants were in the lead by the score of 1
+to 0 when the team took the field for the ninth inning.
+
+It was one of those fragile games in which one run makes a lot of
+difference, the sort that has a fringe of nervous prostration for the
+spectators. Chance was up first in the ninth and he pushed a base hit to
+right field. Steinfeldt followed with a triple that brought Chance home
+and left the run which would win the game for the Cubs on third base. The
+crowd was shouting like mad, thinking I was done. I looked at the hitters,
+waiting to come up, and saw Hofman and Tinker swinging their bats in
+anticipation. Both are dangerous men, but the silver lining was my second
+look, which revealed to me Kling and Brown following Hofman and Tinker.
+
+Without a second's hesitation, I decided to pass both Hofman and Tinker,
+because the run on third base would win the game anyway if it scored, and
+with three men on the bags instead of one, there would be a remote chance
+for a triple play, besides making a force out at the plate possible.
+Remember that no one was out at this time. Kling and Brown had always been
+easy for me.
+
+When I got two balls on Hofman, trying to make him hit at a bad one, the
+throng stood up in the stand and tore splinters out of the floor with its
+feet. And then I passed Hofman. The spectators misunderstood my motive.
+
+"He's done. He's all in," shouted one man in a voice which was one of the
+carrying, persistent, penetrating sort. The crowd took the cry up and
+stamped its feet and cheered wildly.
+
+Then I passed Tinker, a man, as I have said before, who has had a habit of
+making trouble for me. The crowd quieted down somewhat, perhaps because it
+was not possible for it to cheer any louder, but probably because the
+spectators thought that now it would be only a matter of how many the Cubs
+would win by. The bases were full, and no one was out.
+
+But that wildly cheering crowd had worked me up to greater effort, and I
+struck Kling out and then Brown followed him back to the bench for the
+same reason. Just one batter stood between me and a tied score now. He was
+John Evers, and the crowd having lost its chortle of victory, was begging
+him to make the hit which would bring just one run over the plate. They
+were surprised by my recuperation after having passed two men. Evers
+lifted a gentle fly to left field and the three men were left on the
+bases. The Giants eventually won that game in the eleventh inning by the
+score of 4 to 1.
+
+But that system doesn't always work. Often I have passed a man to get a
+supposedly poor batter up and then had him bang out a base hit. My first
+successful year in the National League was 1901, although I joined the
+Giants in the middle of the season of 1900. The Boston club at that time
+had a pitcher named "Kid" Nichols who was a great twirler. The first two
+games I pitched against the Boston club were against this man, and I won
+the first in Boston and the second in New York, the latter by the score of
+2 to 1.
+
+Both teams then went west for a three weeks' trip, and when the Giants
+returned a series was scheduled with Boston at the Polo Grounds. There was
+a good deal of speculation as to whether I would again beat the veteran
+"Kid" Nichols, and the newspapers, discussing the promised pitching duel,
+stirred up considerable enthusiasm over it. Of course, I, the youngster,
+was eager to make it three straight over the veteran. Neither team had
+scored at the beginning of the eighth inning. Boston runners got on second
+and third bases with two out, and Fred Tenney, then playing first base on
+the Boston club, was up at the bat. He had been hitting me hard that day,
+and I decided to pass him and take a chance on "Dick" Cooley, the next
+man, and a weak batter. So Tenney got his base on balls, and the sacks
+were full.
+
+Two strikes were gathered on Cooley, one at which he swung and the other
+called, and I was beginning to congratulate myself on my excellent
+judgment, which was really counting my chickens while they were still in
+the incubator. I attempted to slip a fast one over on Cooley and got the
+ball a little too high. The result was that he stepped into it and made a
+three base hit which eventually won the game by the score of 3 to 0. That
+was once when passing a man to get a weak batter did not work.
+
+I have always been against a twirler pitching himself out, when there is
+no necessity for it, as so many youngsters do. They burn them through for
+eight innings and then, when the pinch comes, something is lacking. A
+pitcher must remember that there are eight other men in the game, drawing
+more or less salary to stop balls hit at them, and he must have confidence
+in them. Some pitchers will put all that they have on each ball. This is
+foolish for two reasons.
+
+In the first place, it exhausts the man physically and, when the pinch
+comes, he has not the strength to last it out. But second and more
+important, it shows the batters everything that he has, which is
+senseless. A man should always hold something in reserve, a surprise to
+spring when things get tight. If a pitcher has displayed his whole
+assortment to the batters in the early part of the game and has used all
+his speed and his fastest breaking curve, then, when the crisis comes, he
+"hasn't anything" to fall back on.
+
+Like all youngsters, I was eager to make a record during my first year in
+the Big League, and in one of the first games I pitched against Cincinnati
+I made the mistake of putting all that I had on every ball. We were
+playing at the Polo Grounds, and the Giants had the visitors beaten 2 to
+0, going into the last inning. I had been popping them through, trying to
+strike out every hitter and had not held anything in reserve. The first
+man to the bat in the ninth got a single, the next a two bagger, and by
+the time they had stopped hitting me, the scorer had credited the
+Cincinnati club with four runs, and we lost the game, 4 to 2.
+
+I was very much down in the mouth over the defeat, after I had the game
+apparently won, and George Davis, then the manager of the Giants, noticed
+it in the clubhouse.
+
+"Never mind, Matty," he said, "it was worth it. The game ought to teach
+you not to pitch your head off when you don't need to."
+
+It did. I have never forgotten that lesson. Many spectators wonder why a
+pitcher does not work as hard as he can all through the game, instead of
+just in the pinches. If he did, they argue, there would be no pinches. But
+there would be, and, if the pitcher did not conserve his energy, the
+pinches would usually go against him.
+
+Sometimes bawling at a man in a pinch has the opposite effect from that
+desired. Clarke Griffith, recently of Cincinnati, has a reputation in the
+Big Leagues for being a bad man to upset a pitcher from the coacher's box.
+Off the field he is one of the decentest fellows in the game, but, when
+talking to a pitcher, he is very irritating. I was working in a game
+against the Reds in Cincinnati one day, just after he had been made
+manager of the club, and Griffith spent the afternoon and a lot of breath
+trying to get me going. The Giants were ahead, 5 to 1, at the beginning of
+the seventh. In the Cincinnati half of that inning, "Mike" Mitchell
+tripled with the bases full and later tallied on an outfield fly which
+tied the score. The effect this had on Griffith was much the same as that
+of a lighted match on gasolene.
+
+"Now, you big blond," he shouted at me, "we've got you at last."
+
+I expected McGraw to take me out, as it looked in that inning as if I was
+not right, but he did not, and I pitched along up to the ninth with the
+score still tied and with Griffith, the carping critic, on the side
+lines. We failed to count in our half, but the first Cincinnati batter got
+on the bases, stole second, and went to third on a sacrifice. He was there
+with one out.
+
+"Here's where we get you," chortled Griffith. "This is the point at which
+you receive a terrible showing up."
+
+I tried to get the next batter to hit at bad balls, and he refused, so
+that I lost him. I was afraid to lay the ball over the plate in this
+crisis, as a hit or an outfield fly meant the game. Hoblitzell and
+Mitchell, two of Griffith's heaviest batters, were scheduled to arrive at
+the plate next.
+
+"You ought to be up, Mike," yelled the Cincinnati manager at Mitchell, who
+was swinging a couple of sticks preparatory to his turn at the bat. "Too
+bad you won't get a lick, old man, because Hobby's going to break it up
+right here."
+
+Something he said irritated me, but, instead of worrying me, it made me
+feel more like pitching. I seldom talk to a coacher, but I turned to
+Griffith and said:
+
+"I'll bring Mike up, and we'll see what he can do."
+
+I deliberately passed Hoblitzell without even giving him a chance to hit
+at a single ball. It wasn't to make a grand stand play I did this, but
+because it was baseball. One run would win the game anyway, and, with more
+men on the bases, there were more plays possible. Besides Hoblitzell is a
+nasty hitter, and I thought that I had a better chance of making Mitchell
+hit the ball on the ground, a desirable thing under the conditions.
+
+"Now, Mike," urged Griffith, as Mitchell stepped up to the plate, "go as
+far as you like. Blot up the bases, old boy. This blond is gone."
+
+That sort of talk never bothers me. I had better luck with Mitchell than I
+had hoped. He struck out. The next batter was easy, and the Giants won the
+game in the tenth inning. According to the newspaper reports, I won
+twenty-one or twenty-two games before Cincinnati beat me again, so it can
+be seen that joshing in pinches is not effective against all pitchers. A
+manager must judge the temperament of his victim. But Griffith has never
+stopped trying to rag me. In 1911, when the Giants were west on their
+final trip, I was warming up in Cincinnati before a game, and he was
+batting out flies near me. He would talk to me between each ball he hit
+to the outfield.
+
+"Got anything to-day, Matty?" he asked. "Guess there ain't many games left
+in you. You're getting old."
+
+When I broke into the National League, the Brooklyn club had as bad a
+bunch of men to bother a pitcher as I ever faced. The team had won the
+championship in 1900, and naturally they were all pretty chesty. When I
+first began to play in 1901, this crowd--Kelly, Jennings, Keeler and
+Hanlon--got after me pretty strong. But I seemed to get pitching
+nourishment out of their line of conversation and won a lot of games. At
+last, so I have been told, Hanlon, who was the manager, said to his
+conversational ball players:
+
+"Lay off that Mathewson kid. Leave him alone. He likes the chatter you
+fellows spill out there."
+
+They did not bother me after that, but this bunch spoiled many a promising
+young pitcher.
+
+Speaking of sizing up the temperament of batters and pitchers in a pinch,
+few persons realize that it was a little bit of carelessly placed
+conversation belonging to "Chief" Bender, the Indian pitcher on the
+Athletics, that did as much as anything to give the Giants the first game
+in the 1911 world's series.
+
+"Josh" Devore, the left-fielder on the New York team, is an in-and-out
+batter, but he is a bulldog in a pinch and is more apt to make a hit in a
+tight place than when the bases are empty. And he is quite as likely to
+strike out. He is the type of ball player who cannot be rattled. With
+"Chief" Myers on second base, the score tied, and two out, Devore came to
+the bat in the seventh inning of the first game.
+
+"Look at little 'Josh,'" said Bender, who had been talking to batters all
+through the game.
+
+Devore promptly got himself into the hole with two strikes and two balls
+on him, but a little drawback like that never worries "Josh."
+
+"I'm going to pitch you a curved ball over the outside corner," shouted
+Bender as he wound up.
+
+"I know it, Chief," replied "Josh," and he set himself to receive just
+that sort of delivery.
+
+Up came the predicted curve over the outside corner. "Josh" hit it to left
+field for two bases, and brought home the winning run. Bender evidently
+thought that, by telling Devore what he was actually going to pitch, he
+would make him think he was going to cross him.
+
+"I knew it would be a curve ball," Devore told me after the game. "With
+two and two, he would be crazy to hand me anything else. When he made that
+crack, I guessed that he was trying to cross me by telling the truth.
+Before he spoke, I wasn't sure which corner he was going to put it over,
+but he tipped me."
+
+Some batters might have been fooled by those tactics. It was taking a
+chance in a pinch, and Bender lost.
+
+Very few of the fans who saw this first game of the 1911 world's series
+realize that the "break" in that contest came in the fifth inning. The
+score was tied, with runners on second and third bases with two out, when
+"Eddie" Collins, the fast second baseman of the Athletics, and a dangerous
+hitter, came to the bat. I realized that I was skating on thin ice and was
+putting everything I had on the ball. Collins hit a slow one down the
+first base line, about six feet inside the bag.
+
+With the hit, I ran over to cover the base, and Merkle made for the ball,
+but he had to get directly in my line of approach to field it. Collins,
+steaming down the base line, realized that, if he could get the decision
+at first on this hit, his team would probably win the game, as the two
+other runners could score easily. In a flash, I was aware of this, too.
+
+"I'll take it," yelled Merkle, as he stopped to pick up the ball.
+
+Seeing Merkle and me in front of him, both heavy men, Collins knew that he
+could not get past us standing up. When still ten or twelve feet from the
+bag, he slid, hoping to take us unawares and thus avoid being touched. He
+could then scramble to the bag. As soon as he jumped, I realized what he
+hoped to do, and, fearing that Merkle would miss him, I grabbed the first
+baseman and hurled him at Collins. It was an old-fashioned, football
+shove, Merkle landing on Collins and touching him out. A great many of the
+spectators believed that I had interfered with Merkle on the play. As a
+matter of fact, I thought that it was the crisis of the game and knew
+that, if Collins was not put out, we would probably lose. That football
+shove was a brand new play to me in baseball, invented on the spur of the
+second, but it worked.
+
+In minor leagues, there are fewer games in which a "break" comes. It does
+not develop in all Big League contests by any means. Sometimes one team
+starts to win in the first inning and simply runs away from the other club
+all the way. But in all close games the pinch shows up.
+
+It happens in many contests in the major leagues because of the almost
+perfect baseball played. Depending on his fielders, a manager can play for
+this "break." And when the pinch comes, it is a case of the batter's nerve
+against the pitcher's.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+Big League Pitchers and Their Peculiarities.
+
+     _Nearly Every Pitcher in the Big Leagues Has Some Temperamental or
+     Mechanical Flaw which he is Constantly Trying to Hide, and which
+     Opposing Batters are always Endeavoring to Uncover--The Giants Drove
+     Coveleski, the Man who Beat them out of a Pennant, Back to the Minor
+     Leagues by Taunting him on One Sore Point--Weaknesses of Other
+     Stars._
+
+
+Like great artists in other fields of endeavor, many Big League pitchers
+are temperamental. "Bugs" Raymond, "Rube" Waddell, "Slim" Sallee, and
+"Wild Bill" Donovan are ready examples of the temperamental type. The
+first three are the sort of men of whom the manager is never sure. He does
+not know, when they come into the ball park, whether or not they are in
+condition to work. They always carry with them a delightful atmosphere of
+uncertainty.
+
+In contrast to this eccentric group, there are those with certain
+mechanical defects in their pitching of which opposing clubs take
+advantage. Last comes the irritable, nervous box artist who must have
+things just so, even down to the temperature, before he can work
+satisfactorily.
+
+"As delicate as prima donnas," says John McGraw of this variety.
+
+He speaks of the man who loses his love for his art when his shirt is too
+tight or a toe is sore. This style, perhaps, is the most difficult for a
+manager to handle, unless it is the uncertain, eccentric sort.
+
+As soon as a new pitcher breaks into the Big Leagues, seven clubs are
+studying him with microscopic care to discover some flaw in his physical
+style or a temperamental weakness on which his opponents can play.
+Naturally, if the man has such a "groove," his team mates are endeavoring
+to hide it, but it soon leaks out and becomes general gossip around the
+circuit. Then the seven clubs start aiming at this flaw, and oftentimes
+the result is that a promising young pitcher, because he has some one
+definite weakness, goes back to the minors. A crack in the temperament is
+the worst. Mechanical defects can usually be remedied when discovered.
+
+Few baseball fans know that the Giants drove a man back to the minor
+leagues who once pitched them out of a pennant. The club was tipped off to
+a certain, unfortunate circumstance in the twirler's early life which left
+a lasting impression on his mind. The players never let him forget this
+when he was in a game, and it was like constantly hitting him on a boil.
+
+Coveleski won three games for the Philadelphia National League club from
+the Giants back in 1908, when one of these contests would have meant a
+pennant to the New York club and possibly a world's championship. That was
+the season the fight was decided in a single game with the Chicago Cubs
+after the regular schedule had been played out. Coveleski was hailed as a
+wonder for his performance.
+
+Just after the season closed, "Tacks" Ashenbach, the scout for the
+Cincinnati club, now dead, and formerly a manager in the league where
+Coveleski got his start, came to McGraw and laughed behind his hand.
+
+"Mac," he said, "I'm surprised you let that big Pole beat you out of a
+championship. I can give you the prescription to use every time that he
+starts working. All you have to do is to imitate a snare drum."
+
+"What are you trying to do--kid me?" asked McGraw, for he was still
+tolerably irritable over the outcome of the season.
+
+"Try it," was Ashenbach's laconic reply.
+
+The result was that the first game Coveleski started against the Giants
+the next season, there was a chorus of "rat-a-tat-tats" from the bench,
+with each of the coachers doing a "rat-a-tat-tat" solo, for we decided,
+after due consideration, this was the way to imitate a snare drum. We
+would have tried to imitate a calliope if we had thought that it would
+have done any good against this pitcher.
+
+"I'll hire a fife and drum corps if the tip is worth anything," declared
+McGraw.
+
+"Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!" came the chorus as Coveleski wound up to
+pitch the first ball. It went wide of the plate.
+
+"Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!" it was repeated all through the inning.
+When Coveleski walked to the Philadelphia bench at the end of the first
+round, after the Giants had made three runs off him, he looked over at us
+and shouted:
+
+"You think you're smart, don't you?"
+
+"Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!" was the only reply. But now we knew we had
+him. When a pitcher starts to talk back, it is a cinch that he is
+irritated. So the deadly chorus was kept up in volleys, until the umpire
+stopped us, and then it had to be in a broken fire, but always there was
+the "Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!" When Coveleski looked at McGraw
+coaching on third base, the manager made as if to beat a snare drum, and
+as he glanced at Latham stationed at first, "Arlie" would reply with the
+"rat-a-tat-tat."
+
+The team on the bench sounded like a fife and drum corps without the
+fifes, and Coveleski got no peace. In the fourth inning, after the game
+had been hopelessly lost by the Philadelphia club, Coveleski was taken
+out. We did not understand the reason for it, but we all knew that we had
+found Coveleski's "groove" with that "rat-a-tat-tat" chorus. The man who
+had beaten the New York club out of a pennant never won another game
+against the Giants.
+
+"Say," said McGraw to "Tacks" Ashenbach the next time the club was in
+Cincinnati, "there are two things I want to ask you. First, why does that
+'rat-a-tat-tat' thing get under Coveleski's skin so badly, and, second,
+why didn't you mention it to us when he was beating the club out of a
+championship last fall?"
+
+"Never thought of it," asserted Ashenbach. "Just chanced to be telling
+stories one day last winter about the old times in the Tri-State, when
+that weakness of Coveleski's happened to pop into my mind. Thought maybe
+he was cured."
+
+"Cured!" echoed McGraw. "Only way he could be cured of that is to poison
+him. But tip me. Why is it?"
+
+"Well, this is the way I heard it," answered Ashenbach. "When he was a
+coal miner back in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, he got stuck on some Jane who
+was very fond of music. Everybody who was any one played in the Silver
+Cornet Band down in Melodeon Hall on Thursday nights. The girl told
+Coveleski that she couldn't see him with an X-ray unless he broke into the
+band.
+
+"'But I can't play any instrument,' said the Pole.
+
+"'Well, get busy and learn, and don't show around here until you have,'
+answered the girl.
+
+"Now Coveleski had no talent for music, so he picked out the snare drum as
+his victim and started practising regularly, getting some instruction from
+the local bandmaster. After he had driven all the neighbors pretty nearly
+crazy, the bandmaster said he would give him a show at the big annual
+concert, when he tried to get all the pieces in his outfit that he could.
+Things went all right until it was time for Coveleski to come along with a
+little bit on the snare drum, and then he was nowhere in the neighborhood.
+He didn't even swing at it. But later, when the leader waved for a solo
+from the fiddle, Coveleski mistook it for his hit-and-run sign and came in
+so strong on the snare drum that no one could identify the fiddle in the
+mixup.
+
+"The result was that the leader asked for waivers on old Coveleski very
+promptly, and the girl was not long in following suit. That snare drum
+incident has been the sore point in his makeup ever since."
+
+"I wish I'd known it last fall about the first of September," declared
+McGraw.
+
+But the real snapper came later when the Cincinnati club was whipsawed on
+the information. In a trade with Philadelphia, Griffith got Coveleski for
+Cincinnati along with several other players. Each game he started against
+us he got the old "rat-a-tat-tat." Griffith protested to the umpires, but
+it is impossible to stop a thing of that sort even though the judges of
+play did try.
+
+The Pole did not finish another game against the Giants until his last in
+the Big League. One day we were hitting him near and far, and the
+"rat-a-tat-tat" chorus was only interrupted by the rattle of the bats
+against the ball, when he looked in at the bench to see if Griffith wanted
+to take him out, for it was about his usual leaving time.
+
+"Stay in there and get it," shouted back Griff.
+
+Coveleski did. He absorbed nineteen hits and seventeen runs at the hands
+of the Giants, this man who had taken a championship of the National
+League away from us.
+
+That night Griffith asked for waivers on him, and he left the Big Leagues
+for good. He was a good twirler, except for that one flaw, which cost him
+his place in the big show. There is little mercy among professional ball
+players when a game is at stake, especially if the man has taken a
+championship away from a team by insisting upon working out of his turn,
+so he can win games that will benefit his club not a scintilla.
+
+Mordecai Brown, the great pitcher of the Chicago Cubs and the man who did
+more than any other one player to bring four National League pennants and
+two world's championships to that club, has a physical deformity which has
+turned out to be an advantage. Many years ago, Brown lost most of the
+first finger of his right hand in an argument with a feed cutter, said
+finger being amputated at the second joint; while his third finger is
+shorter than it should be, because a hot grounder carried part of it away
+one day. In some strange way, Brown has achieved wonders with this
+crippled hand. It is on account of the missing finger that he is called
+"Three Fingered" Brown, and he is better known by that appellation than by
+his real name.
+
+Brown beat the Giants a hard game one day in 1911, pitching against me. He
+had a big curve, lots of speed, and absolute control. The Giants could
+not touch him. Next day McGraw was out warming up with Arthur Wilson, the
+young catcher on the club.
+
+"Wonder if he gets any new curve with that short first finger?" said
+McGraw, and thereupon crooked his own initial digit and began trying to
+throw the ball in different ways off it to see what the result would be.
+Finally he decided:
+
+"No, I guess he doesn't get anything extra with the abbreviated finger,
+but that's lucky for you fellows, because, if I thought he did, I'd have a
+surgeon out here to-morrow operating on the first fingers of each of you
+pitchers."
+
+Brown is my idea of the almost perfect pitcher He is always ready to work.
+It is customary for most managers in the Big Leagues to say to a man on
+the day he is slated to pitch:
+
+"Well, how do you feel to-day? Want to work?"
+
+Then if the twirler is not right, he has a chance to say so. But Brown
+always replies:
+
+"Yes, I'm ready."
+
+He likes to pitch and is in chronic condition. It will usually be found at
+the end of a season that he has taken part in more games than any other
+pitcher in the country. He held the Chicago pitching staff together in
+1911.
+
+"Three Fingered" Brown is a finished pitcher in all departments of the
+game. Besides being a great worker, he is a wonderful fielder and sure
+death on bunts. He spends weeks in the spring preparing himself to field
+short hits in the infield, and it is fatal to try to bunt against him. He
+has perfected and used successfully for three years a play invented by
+"Joe" McGinnity, the former Giant pitcher. This play is with men on first
+and second bases and no one out or one out. The batter tries to sacrifice,
+but instead of fielding the ball to first base, which would advance the
+two base runners as intended, Brown makes the play to third and thus
+forces out the man nearest the plate. This is usually successful unless
+the bunt is laid down perfectly along the first base line, so that the
+ball cannot be thrown to third base.
+
+The Cubs have always claimed it was this play which broke the Detroit
+club's heart in the world's series in 1908, and turned the tide so that
+the Cubs took the championship. The American League team was leading in
+the first game, and runners were on first and second bases, "Ty" Cobb
+being on the middle sack. It was evident that the batter would try to
+sacrifice. Brown walked over to Steinfeldt, playing third base, pulling
+out a chew of tobacco as he went.
+
+"No matter what this guy does or where he hits it, stick to your bag,"
+ordered Brown.
+
+Then he put the chew of tobacco in his mouth, a sign which augurs ill for
+his opponents, and pitched a low one to the batter, a perfect ball to
+bunt. He followed the pitch through and was on top of the plate as the
+batter laid it down. The ball rolled slowly down the third base line until
+Brown pounced on it. He whirled and drove the ball at Steinfeldt, getting
+Cobb by a foot. That play carried Detroit off its feet, as a sudden
+reversal often will a ball club, when things are apparently breaking for
+it. Cobb, the Tigers' speed flash, had been caught at third base on an
+attempted sacrifice, an unheard of play, and, from that point on, the
+American Leaguers wilted, according to the stories of Chance and his men.
+
+It is Brown's perfect control that has permitted catchers like Kling and
+Archer to make such great records as throwers. This pitcher can afford to
+waste a ball--that is, pitch out so the batter cannot hit it, but putting
+the catcher in a perfect position to throw--and then he knows he can get
+the next one over. A catcher's efficiency as a thrower depends largely on
+the pitcher's ability to have good enough control of the ball to be able
+to pitch out when it is necessary. Brown helps a catcher by the way in
+which he watches the bases, not permitting the runners to take any lead on
+him. All around, I think that he is one of the most finished pitchers of
+the game.
+
+Russell Ford, of the New York American League club, has a hard pitching
+motion because he seems to throw a spit ball with a jerk. He cannot pitch
+more than one good game in four or five days. McGraw had detected this
+weakness from watching the Highlanders play before the post-season series
+in 1910, and took advantage of it.
+
+"If Ford pitches to-day," said McGraw to his team in the clubhouse before
+the first game, "wait everything out to the last minute. Make him pitch
+every ball you can."
+
+McGraw knew that the strain on Ford's arm would get him along toward the
+end of the game. In the eighth inning the score was tied when Devore came
+to the bat. No crack in Ford was perceptible to the rest of us, but McGraw
+must have detected some slight sign of weakening. He stopped "Josh" on the
+way to the plate and ordered:
+
+"Now go ahead and get him."
+
+By the time the inning was over, the Giants had made four runs, and
+eventually won the game by the score of 5 to 1. McGraw just played for
+this flaw in Ford's pitching, and hung his whole plan of battle on the
+chance of it showing.
+
+"Old Cy" Young has the absolutely perfect pitching motion. When he jumped
+from the National League to the Boston American League club some years
+ago, during the war times, many National League players thought that he
+was through.
+
+"What," said Fred Clarke, the manager of the Pittsburg club, "you American
+Leaguers letting that old boy make good in your set? Why, he was done when
+he jumped the National. He'd lost his speed."
+
+"But you ought to see his curve ball," answered "Bill" Dineen, then
+pitching for the Boston Americans.
+
+"Curve ball," echoed Clarke. "He never had any curve that it didn't take a
+microscope to find. He depended on his speed."
+
+"Well, he's got one now," replied Dineen.
+
+Clarke had a chance to look at the curve ball later, for, with Dineen,
+Young did a lot toward winning the world's championship for Boston from
+Pittsburg in 1903. The old pitcher was wise enough to realize, when he
+began to lose his speed, that he would have to develop a curve ball or go
+back to the minors, and he set to work and produced a peach. He is still
+pitching--for the National League now--and he will win a lot of games yet.
+When he came back in 1911, the American Leaguers said:
+
+"What, going to let that old man in your show again? He's done."
+
+Maybe he will yet figure in another world's championship. One never can
+tell. Anyway, he has taken a couple of falls out of Pittsburg just for
+good luck since he came back to the National League.
+
+Some pitchers depend largely on their motions to fool batters. "Motion
+pitchers" they might be called. Such an elaborate wind-up is developed
+that it is hard for a hitter to tell when and from where the ball is
+coming. "Slim" Sallee of the St. Louis Nationals hasn't any curve to
+mention and he lacks speed, but he wins a lot of ball games on his motion.
+
+"It's a crime," says McGraw, "to let a fellow like that beat you. Why, he
+has so little on the ball that it looks like one of those Salome dancers
+when it comes up to the plate, and actually makes me blush."
+
+But Sallee will take a long wind-up and shoot one off his shoe tops and
+another from his shoulder while he is facing second base. He has good
+control, has catalogued the weaknesses of the batters, and can work the
+corners. With this capital, he was winning ball games for the Cardinals in
+1911 until he fell off the water wagon. He is different from Raymond in
+that respect. When he is on the vehicle, he is on it, and, when he is off,
+he is distinctly a pedestrian.
+
+The way the Giants try to beat Sallee is to get men on the bases, because
+then he has to cut down his motion or they will run wild on him. As soon
+as a runner gets on the bag with Sallee pitching, he tries to steal to
+make "Slim" reduce that long winding motion which is his greatest asset.
+But Sallee won several games from the Giants last season because we could
+not get enough men on the bases to beat him. He only gave us four or five
+hits per contest.
+
+For a long time, "Josh" Devore, the Giants' left-fielder, was "plate shy"
+with left-handers--that is, he stepped away--and all the pitchers in the
+League soon learned of this and started shooting the first ball, a fast
+one, at his head to increase his natural timidity. Sallee, in particular,
+had him scared.
+
+"Stand up there," said McGraw to "Josh" one day when Sallee was pitching,
+"and let him hit you. He hasn't speed enough to hurt you."
+
+"Josh" did, got hit, and found out that what McGraw said was true. It
+cured him of being afraid of Sallee.
+
+As getting men on the bases decreases Sallee's effectiveness, even if he
+is a left-hander, so it increases the efficiency of "Lefty" Leifield of
+Pittsburg. The Giants never regard Sallee as a left-hander with men on the
+bases. Most southpaws can keep a runner close to the bag because they are
+facing first base when in a position to pitch, but Sallee cannot. On the
+other hand, Leifield uses almost exactly the same motion to throw to first
+base as to pitch to the batter. These two are so nearly alike that he can
+change his mind after he starts and throw to the other place.
+
+He keeps men hugging the bag, and it is next to impossible to steal bases
+on him. If he gets his arm so far forward in pitching to the batter that
+he cannot throw to the base, he can see a man start and pitch out so the
+catcher has a fine chance to get the runner at second. If the signal is
+for a curved ball, he can make it a high curve, and the catcher is in
+position to throw. Leifield has been working this combination pitch either
+to first base or the plate for years, and the motion for each is so
+similar that even the umpires cannot detect it and never call a balk on
+him.
+
+A busher broke into the League with the Giants one fall and was batting
+against Pittsburg. There was a man on first base and Leifield started to
+pitch to the plate, saw by a quick glance that the runner was taking too
+large a lead, and threw to first. The youngster swung at the ball and
+started to run it out. Every one laughed.
+
+"What were you trying to do?" asked McGraw.
+
+"I hit the ball," protested the bush leaguer. That is how perfect
+Leifield's motion is with men on the bases. But most of his effectiveness
+resides in that crafty motion.
+
+Many New York fans will remember "Dummy" Taylor, the deaf and dumb pitcher
+of the Giants. He won ball games for the last two years he was with the
+club on his peculiar, whirling motion, but as soon as men got on the bases
+and he had to cut it down, McGraw would take him out. That swing and his
+irresistible good nature are still winning games in the International
+League, which used to be the Eastern.
+
+So if a pitcher expects to be a successful Big Leaguer, he must guard
+against eccentricities of temperament and mechanical motion. As I have
+said, Drucke of the Giants for a long time had a little movement with his
+foot which indicated to the runner when he was going to pitch, and they
+stole bases wildly on him. But McGraw soon discovered that something was
+wrong and corrected it. The armor of a Big Leaguer must be impenetrable,
+for there are seven clubs always looking for flaws in the manufacture, and
+"every little movement has a meaning of its own."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+Playing the Game from the Bench
+
+     _Behind Every Big League Ball Game there Is a Master Mind which
+     Directs the Moves of the Players--How McGraw Won Two Pennants for the
+     Giants from the "Bench" and Lost One by Giving the Players Too Much
+     Liberty--The Methods of "Connie" Mack and Other Great Leaders_
+
+
+The bench! To many fans who see a hundred Big League ball games each
+season, this is a long, hooded structure from which the next batter
+emerges and where the players sit while their club is at bat. It is also
+the resort of the substitutes, manager, mascot and water cooler.
+
+But to the ball player it is the headquarters. It is the place from which
+the orders come, and it is here that the battle is planned and from here
+the moves are executed. The manager sits here and pulls the wires, and
+his players obey him as if they were manikins.
+
+"The batteries for to-day's game," says the umpire, "will be Sallee and
+Bresnahan for St. Louis; Wiltse and Meyers for New York."
+
+"Bunt," says McGraw as his players scatter to take their positions on the
+field. He repeats the order when they come to the bat for the first
+inning, because he knows that Sallee has two weaknesses, one being that he
+cannot field bunts and the other that a great deal of activity in the box
+tires him out so that he weakens. A bunting game hits at both these flaws.
+As soon as Bresnahan observes the plan of battle, he arranges his players
+to meet the attack; draws in his third baseman, shifts the shortstop more
+down the line toward third base, and is on the alert himself to gather in
+slow rollers just in front of the plate. The idea is to give Sallee the
+minimum opportunity to get at the ball and reduce his fielding
+responsibilities to nothing or less. There is one thing about Sallee's
+style known to every Big League manager. He is not half as effective with
+men on the bases, for he depends largely on his deceptive motion to fool
+the batters, and when he has to cut this down because runners are on the
+bases, his pitching ability evaporates.
+
+After the old Polo Grounds had been burned down in the spring of 1911, we
+were playing St. Louis at American League Park one Saturday afternoon, and
+the final returns of the game were about 19 to 5 in our favor, as near as
+I can remember. We made thirteen runs in the first inning. Many spectators
+went away from the park talking about a slaughter and a runaway score and
+so on. That game was won in the very first inning when Sallee went into
+the box to pitch, and McGraw had murmured that mystic word "Bunt!"
+
+The first batters bunted, bunted, bunted in monotonous succession. Sallee
+not yet in very good physical condition because it was early in the
+season, was stood upon his head by this form of attack. Bresnahan redraped
+his infield to try to stop this onslaught, and then McGraw switched.
+
+"Hit it," he directed the next batter.
+
+A line drive whistled past Mowrey's ears, the man who plays third base on
+the Cardinals. He was coming in to get a bunt. Another followed. The break
+had come. Bresnahan removed Sallee and put another pitcher into the box,
+but once a ball club starts to hit the ball, it is like a skidding
+automobile. It can't be stopped. The Giants kept on and piled up a
+ridiculous and laughable score, which McGraw had made possible in the
+first inning by directing his men to bunt.
+
+The Giants won the championship of the National League in 1904 and the New
+York fans gave the team credit for the victory. It was a club of young
+players, and McGraw realized this fact when he started his campaign. Every
+play that season was made from the bench, made by John McGraw through his
+agents, his manikins, who moved according to the wires which he pulled.
+And by the end of the summer his hands were badly calloused from pulling
+wires, but the Giants had the pennant.
+
+When the batter was at the plate in a critical stage, he would stall and
+look to the "bench" for orders to discover whether to hit the ball out or
+lay it down, whether to try the hit and run, or wait for the base runner
+to attempt to steal. By stalling, I mean that he would tie his shoe or fix
+his belt, or find any little excuse to delay the game so that he could get
+a flash at the "bench" for orders. A shoe lace has played an important
+role in many a Big League battle, as I will try to show later on in this
+story. If it ever became the custom to wear button shoes, the game would
+have to be revised.
+
+As the batter looked toward the bench, McGraw might reach for his
+handkerchief to blow his nose, and the batter knew it was up to him to hit
+the ball out. Some days in that season of 1904 I saw McGraw blow his nose
+during a game until it was red and sore on the end, and then another day,
+when he had a cold in his head, he had to do without his handkerchief
+because he wanted to play a bunting game. Until his cold got better, he
+had to switch to another system of signs.
+
+During that season, each coacher would keep his eye on the bench for
+orders. Around McGraw revolved the game of the Giants. He was the game.
+And most of that summer he spent upon the bench, because from there he
+could get the best look at the diamond, and his observations were not
+confined to one place or to one base runner. He was able to discover
+whether an out-fielder was playing too close for a batter, or too far
+out, and rearrange the men. He could perhaps catch a sign from the
+opposing catcher and pass it along to the batter. And he won the pennant
+from the bench. He was seldom seen on the coaching lines that year.
+
+Many fans wonder why, when the Giants get behind in a game, McGraw takes
+to the bench, after having been out on the coaching lines inning after
+inning while the club was holding its own or winning. Time and again I
+have heard him criticised for this by spectators and even by players on
+other clubs.
+
+"McGraw is 'yellow,'" players have said to me. "Just as soon as his club
+gets behind, he runs for cover."
+
+The crime of being "yellow" is the worst in the Big Leagues. It means that
+a man is afraid, that he lacks the nerve to face the music. But McGraw and
+"yellow" are as far apart as the poles, or Alpha and Omega, or Fifth
+Avenue and the Bowery, or any two widely separated and distant things. I
+have seen McGraw go on to ball fields where he is as welcome as a man with
+the black smallpox and face the crowd alone that, in the heat of its
+excitement, would like to tear him apart. I have seen him take all sorts
+of personal chances. He doesn't know what fear is, and in his bright
+lexicon of baseball there is no such word as "fear." His success is partly
+due to his indomitable courage.
+
+There is a real reason for his going to the bench when the team gets
+behind. It is because this increases the club's chances of winning. From
+the bench he can see the whole field, can note where his fielders are
+playing, can get a peek at the other bench, and perhaps pick up a tip as
+to what to expect. He can watch his own pitcher, or observe whether the
+opposing twirler drops his throwing arm as if weary. He is at the helm
+when "on the bench," and, noting any flaw in the opposition, he is in a
+position to take advantage of it at a moment's notice, or, catching some
+sign of faltering among his own men, he is immediately there to strengthen
+the weakness. Many a game he has pulled out of the fire by going back to
+the bench and watching. So the idea obtained by many spectators that he is
+quitting is the wrong one. He is only fighting harder.
+
+The Giants were playing Pittsburg one day in the season of 1909, and
+Clarke and McGraw had been having a great guessing match. It was one of
+those give-and-take games with plenty of batting, with one club forging
+ahead and then the other. Clarke had saved the game for Pittsburg in the
+sixth inning by a shoe-string. Leifield had been pitching up to this
+point, and he wasn't there or even in the neighborhood. But still the
+Pirates were leading by two runs, having previously knocked Ames out of
+the box. Doyle and McCormick made hits with no one out in our half of the
+sixth.
+
+It looked like the "break," and McGraw was urging his players on to even
+up the score, when Clarke suddenly took off his sun glasses in left field
+and stooped down to tie his shoe. When he removes his sun-glasses that is
+a sign for a pitcher to warm up in a hurry, and "Babe" Adams sprinted to
+the outfield with a catcher and began to heat up. Clarke took all of five
+minutes to tie that shoe, McGraw violently protesting against the delay in
+the meantime. Fred Clarke has been known to wear out a pair of shoe laces
+in one game tying and untying them. After the shoe was fixed up, he jogged
+slowly to the bench and took Leifield out of the box. In the interim,
+Adams had had an opportunity to warm up, and Clarke raised his arm and
+ordered him into the box. He fanned the next two men, and the last batter
+hit an easy roller to Wagner. We were still two runs to the bad after that
+promising start in the sixth, and Clarke, for the time being, had saved
+the game by a shoe string.
+
+McGraw, who had been on the coaching lines up to this point, retired to
+the bench after that, and I heard one of those wise spectators, sitting
+just behind our coop, who could tell Mr. Rockefeller how to run his
+business but who spends his life working as a clerk at $18 a week, remark
+to a friend:
+
+"It's all off now. McGraw has laid down."
+
+Watching the game through eyes half shut and drawn to a focus, McGraw
+waited. In the seventh inning Clarke came to bat with two men on the
+bases. A hit would have won the game beyond any doubt. In a flash McGraw
+was on his feet and ran out to Meyers, catching. He stopped the game, and,
+with a wave of his arm, drew Harry McCormick, playing left field, in close
+to third base. The game went on, and Wiltse twisted a slow curve over the
+outside corner of the plate to Clarke, a left-handed hitter. He timed his
+swing and sent a low hit singing over third base. McCormick dashed in and
+caught the ball off his shoe tops. That made three outs. McGraw had saved
+our chances of victory right there, for had McCormick been playing where
+he originally intended before McGraw stopped the contest, the ball would
+have landed in unguarded territory and two runs would have been scored.
+
+But McGraw had yet the game to win. As his team came to the bat for the
+seventh, he said:
+
+"This fellow Adams is a youngster and liable to be nervous and wild.
+Wait."
+
+The batters waited with the patience of Job. Each man let the first two
+balls pass him and made Adams pitch himself to the limit to every batter.
+It got on Adams's nerves. In the ninth he passed a couple of men, and a
+hit tied the score. Clarke left him in the box, for he was short of
+pitchers. On the game went to ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, innings. The
+score was still tied and Wiltse was pitching like a machine. McGraw was on
+the bench, leaving the coaching to his lieutenants. The club was still
+waiting for the youngster to weaken. At last, in the thirteenth, after one
+man had been put out, the eye of McGraw saw Adams drop his pitching arm to
+his side as if tired. It was only a minute motion. None of the spectators
+saw it, none of the players.
+
+"Now hit it, boys," came the order from the "bench." The style was
+switched, and the game won when three hits were rattled out. McGraw alone
+observed that sign of weakening and took advantage of it at the opportune
+time. He won the game from the bench. That is what makes him a great
+manager, observing the little things. Anyone can see the big ones. If he
+had been on the coaching lines, he would not have had as good an
+opportunity to study the young pitcher, for he would have had to devote
+his attention to the base runners. He might have missed this sign of
+wilting.
+
+McGraw is always studying a pitcher, particularly a new one in the League.
+The St. Louis club had a young pitcher last fall, named Laudermilk, who
+was being tried out. He had a brother on the team. In his first game
+against the Giants, played in St. Louis, he held us to a few scattered
+hits and gave us a terrific battle, only losing the game because one of
+his fielders made a costly error behind him. The papers of St. Louis
+boosted him as another "Rube" Waddell. He was left-handed. McGraw laughed.
+
+"All I want," he said, "is another crack at that Buttermilk after what I
+learned about him this afternoon. He can't control his curve, and all you
+fellows have got to do is wait for his fast one. He gave you that fight
+to-day because he had you all swinging at bad curve balls."
+
+Laudermilk made another appearance against the Giants later, and he made
+his disappearance in that game in the fourth inning, when only one was out
+to be exact, after we had scored five runs off him by waiting for his fast
+one, according to McGraw's orders.
+
+After winning the pennant in 1904 by sitting on the bench, keeping away
+from the coaching lines, and making every play himself, McGraw decided
+that his men were older and knew the game and that he would give them more
+rein in 1905. He appeared oftener on the coaching lines and attended more
+to the base runners than to the game as a whole. But in the crises he was
+the man who decided what was to be done. The club won the pennant that
+year and the world's championship. The players got very chesty immediately
+thereafter, and the buttons on their vests had to be shifted back to make
+room for the new measure. They knew the game and had won two pennants,
+besides a championship of the world.
+
+So in the season of 1906 McGraw started with a team of veterans, and it
+was predicted that he would repeat. But these men, who knew the game, were
+making decisions for themselves because McGraw was giving them more
+liberty. The runners went wild on the bases and tried things at the wrong
+stages. They lost game after game. At last, after a particularly
+disastrous defeat one day, McGraw called his men together in the clubhouse
+and addressed them in this wise:
+
+"Because you fellows have won two championships and beaten the Athletics
+is no reason for you all to believe that you are fit to write a book on
+how to play baseball. You are just running wild on the bases. You might as
+well not have a manager. Now don't any one try to pull anything without
+orders. We will begin all over again."
+
+But it is hard to teach old ball-players new tricks, and several fines
+had to be imposed before the orders were obeyed. The club did not win the
+championship that year.
+
+When McGraw won the pennant in 1911, he did it with a club of youngsters,
+many of them playing through their first whole season as regulars in the
+company. There were Snodgrass and Devore and Fletcher and Marquard. Every
+time a batter went to the plate, he had definite orders from the "bench"
+as to what he was to attempt--whether to take two, or lay the ball down,
+or swing, or work the hit and run. Each time that a man shot out from
+first base like a catapulted figure and slid into second, he had been
+ordered by McGraw to try to steal. If players protested against his
+judgment, his invariable answer was:
+
+"Do what I tell you, and I'll take the blame for mistakes."
+
+One of McGraw's laments is, "I wish I could be in three places at once."
+
+I never heard him say it with such a ring to the words as after Snodgrass
+was touched out in the third game of the 1911 world's series, in the tenth
+inning, when his life might have meant victory in that game anyway. I
+have frequently referred to the incident in these stories, so most of my
+readers are familiar with the situation. Snodgrass was put out trying to
+get to third base on a short passed ball, after he had started back for
+second to recover some of the ground he had taken in too long a lead
+before the ball got to Lapp. McGraw's face took on an expression of agony
+as if he were watching his dearest friend die.
+
+"If I could only have been there!" he said. "I wish I could be in three
+places at once."
+
+He meant the bench, the first base coaching line, and the third base line.
+At this particular time he was giving the batters orders from the bench.
+It was one of those incidents which come up in a ball game and have to be
+decided in the drawing of a breath, so that a manager cannot give orders
+unless he is right on the spot.
+
+It is my opinion that it is a big advantage to a team to have the manager
+on the bench rather than in the game. Frank Chance of the Chicago Cubs is
+a great leader, but I think he would be a greater one if he could find one
+of his mechanical ability to play first base, and he could sit on the
+bench as the director general. He is occupied with the duties of his
+position and often little things get by him. I believe that we beat the
+Cubs in two games in 1909 because Chance was playing first base instead of
+directing the game from the bench.
+
+In the first contest Ames was pitching and Schlei catching. Now, Schlei
+was no three hundred hitter, but he was a good man in a pinch and looked
+like Wagner when compared to Ames as a swatter. Schlei came up to the bat
+with men on second and third bases, two out, and a chance to win or put us
+ahead if he could make a hit. The first time it happened, McGraw unfolded
+his arms and relaxed, which is a sign that he is conceding something for
+the time being.
+
+"No use," he said. "All those runners are going to waste. We'll have to
+make another try in the next inning. They will surely pass Schlei to take
+a chance on Ames."
+
+Then Overall, who was pitching, whistled a strike over the plate and
+McGraw's body tightened and the old lines around the mouth appeared. Here
+was a chance yet.
+
+"They're going to let him hit," he cried joyfully.
+
+Schlei made a base hit on the next pitch and scored both men. Almost the
+same thing happened later on in the season with men on second and third
+bases, and Raymond, another featherweight hitter, pitching. It struck me
+as being an oversight on the part of Chance on both occasions, probably
+because he was so busy with his own position and watching the players on
+the field that he didn't notice the pitcher was the next batter. He let
+Schlei hit each time, which probably cost him two games.
+
+The Giants were playing St. Louis at the Polo Grounds in 1910, and I was
+pitching against Harmon. I held the Cardinals to one hit up to the ninth
+inning, and we had the game won by the score of 1 to 0, when their first
+batter in the ninth walked. Then, after two had been put out, another
+scratched a hit. It looked as if we still had the game won, since only one
+man was left to be put out and the runners were on first and second bases.
+Mowrey, the red-headed third baseman, came to the bat.
+
+"Murray's playing too near centre field for this fellow," remarked McGraw
+to some of the players on the bench.
+
+Hardly had he said it when Mowrey shoved a long fly to right field, which
+soared away toward the stand. Murray started to run with the ball. For a
+minute it looked as if he were going to get there, and then it just tipped
+his outstretched hands as it fell to the ground. It amounted to a
+three-base hit and won the game for the Cardinals by the score of 2 to 1.
+
+"I knew it," said McGraw, one of whose many rôles is as a prophet of evil.
+"Didn't I call the turn? I ought to have gone out there and stopped the
+game and moved Murray over. I blame myself for that hit."
+
+That was a game in which the St. Louis batters made three hits and won it.
+It isn't the number of hits, so much as when they come, that wins ball
+games.
+
+Frequently, McGraw will stop a game--bring it to a dead standstill--by
+walking out from the bench as the pitcher is about to wind up.
+
+"Stop it a minute, Meyers," he will shout. "Pull Snodgrass in a little bit
+for this fellow."
+
+The man interested in statistics would be surprised at how many times
+little moves of this sort have saved games. But for the McGraw system to
+be effective, he must have working for him a set of players who are
+taking the old look around for orders all the time. He has a way of
+inducing the men to keep their heads up which has worked very well. If a
+player has been slow or has not taken all the distance McGraw believes is
+possible on a hit, he often finds $10 less in his pay envelope at the end
+of the month. And the conversation on the bench at times, when men have
+made errors of omission, would not fit into any Sunday-school room.
+
+During a game for the most part, McGraw is silent, concentrating his
+attention on the game, and the players talk in low tones, as if in church,
+discussing the progress of the contest. But let a player make a bad break,
+and McGraw delivers a talk to him that would have to be written on
+asbestos paper.
+
+Arthur Wilson was coaching at third base in one of the games in a series
+played in Philadelphia the first part of September, 1911. There were
+barely enough pitchers to go around at the time, and McGraw was very
+careful to take advantage of every little point, so that nothing would be
+wasted. He feels that if a game is lost because the other side is better,
+there is some excuse, but if it goes because some one's head should be
+used for furniture instead of thinking baseball, it is like losing money
+that might have been spent. Fletcher was on second base when Meyers came
+to bat. The Indian pushed the ball to right field along the line. Fletcher
+came steaming around third base and could have rolled home safely, but
+Wilson, misjudging the hit, rushed out, tackled him, and threw him back on
+the bag. Even the plodding Meyers reached second on the hit and McGraw was
+boiling. He promptly sent a coacher out to relieve Wilson, and his oratory
+to the young catcher would have made a Billingsgate fishwife sore. We
+eventually won the game, but at this time there was only a difference of
+something like one, and it would have been a big relief to have seen that
+run which Wilson interrupted across the plate.
+
+McGraw is always on Devore's hip because he often feels that this
+brilliant young player does not get as much out of his natural ability as
+he might. He is frequently listless, and, often, after a good hit, he will
+feel satisfied with himself and fan out a couple of times. So McGraw does
+all that he can to discourage this self-satisfaction. "Josh" is a great
+man in a pinch, for he hangs on like a bulldog, and instead of getting
+nervous, works the harder. If the reader will consult past history, he
+will note that it was a pinch hit by Devore which won the first
+world-series game, and one of his wallops, combined with a timely bingle
+by Crandall, was largely instrumental in bringing the second victory to
+the Giants. McGraw has made Devore the ball-player that he is by skilful
+handling.
+
+The Giants were having a nip and tuck game with the Cubs in the early part
+of last summer, when Devore came to the bat in one of those pinches and
+shot a three bagger over third base which won the game. As he slid into
+third and picked himself up, feeling like more or less of a hero because
+the crowd was announcing this fact to him by prolonged cheers, McGraw
+said:
+
+"Gee, you're a lucky guy. I wish I had your luck. You were shot full of
+horseshoes to get that one. When I saw you shut your eyes, I never thought
+you would hit it."
+
+This was like pricking a bubble, and "Josh's" chest returned to its normal
+measure.
+
+Marquard is another man whom McGraw constantly subjects to a
+conversational massage. Devore and Marquard room together on the road,
+and they got to talking about their suite at the hotel during a close game
+in Philadelphia one day. It annoys McGraw to hear his men discussing
+off-stage subjects during a critical contest, because it not only
+distracts their attention, but his and that of the other players.
+
+"Ain't that room of ours a dandy, Rube?" asked Devore.
+
+"Best in the lot," replied Marquard.
+
+"It's got five windows and swell furniture," said Devore.
+
+"Solid mahogany," said McGraw, who apparently had been paying no attention
+to the conversation. "That is, judging by some of the plays I have seen
+you two pull. Now can the conversation."
+
+Devore went down into Cuba with the Giants, carrying quite a bank roll
+from the world's series, and the idea that he was on a picnic. He started
+a personally conducted tour of Havana on his first night there and we lost
+the game the next day, "Josh" overlooking several swell opportunities to
+make hits in pinches. In fact he didn't even get a foul.
+
+"You are fined $25," said McGraw to him after the game.
+
+"You can't fine me," said Devore. "I'm not under contract."
+
+"Then you take the next boat home," replied the manager. "I didn't come
+down here to let a lot of coffee-colored Cubans show me up. You've got to
+either play ball or go home."
+
+Devore made four hits the next day.
+
+In giving his signs from the bench to the players, McGraw depends on a
+gesture or catch word. When "Dummy" Taylor, the deaf and dumb twirler, was
+with the club, all the players learned the deaf and dumb language. This
+medium was used for signing for a time, until smart ball players, like
+Evers and Leach, took up the study of it and became so proficient they
+could converse fluently on their fingers. But they were also great
+"listeners," and we didn't discover for some time that this was how they
+were getting our signs. Thereafter we only used the language for social
+purposes.
+
+Evers and McGraw got into a conversation one day in the deaf and dumb
+language at long range and "Johnny" Evers threw a finger out of joint
+replying to McGraw in a brilliant flash of repartee.
+
+Every successful manager is a distinct type. Each plays the game from the
+bench. "Connie" Mack gives his men more liberty than most. Chance rules
+for the most part with an iron hand. Bresnahan is ever spurring his men
+on. Chance changes his seat on the bench, and there is a double steal.
+"Connie" Mack uncrosses his legs, and the hit and run is tried.
+
+Most managers transmit their signs by movements or words. Jennings is
+supposed to have hidden in his jumble of jibes some catch words.
+
+The manager on the bench must know just when to change pitchers. He has to
+decide the exact time to send in a substitute hitter, when to install
+another base runner. All these decisions must be made in the "batting" of
+an eye. It takes quick and accurate judgment, and the successful manager
+must be right usually. That's playing the game from the bench.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+Coaching Good and Bad
+
+     _Coaching is Divided into Three Parts: Offensive, Defensive, and the
+     Use of Crowds to Rattle Players--Why McGraw Developed Scientific
+     Coaching--The Important Rôle a Coacher Plays in the Crisis of a Big
+     League Ball Game when, on his Orders, Hangs Victory or Defeat._
+
+
+Critical moments occur in every close ball game, when coaching may win or
+lose it. "That wasn't the stage for you to try to score," yelled John
+McGraw, the manager of the Giants, at "Josh" Devore, as the New York
+left-fielder attempted to count from second base on a short hit to left
+field, with no one out and the team one run behind in a game with the
+Pirates one day in 1911, when every contest might mean the winning or
+losing of the pennant.
+
+"First time in my life I was ever thrown out trying to score from second
+on a base hit to the outfield," answered Devore, "and besides the coacher
+sent me in."
+
+"I don't care," replied McGraw, "that was a two out play."
+
+As a matter of fact, one of the younger players on the team was coaching
+at third base at the time and made an error of judgment in sending Devore
+home, of which an older head would not have been guilty. And the Pirates
+beat us by just that one run the coacher sacrificed. The next batter came
+through with an outfield fly which would have scored Devore from third
+base easily.
+
+Probably no more wily general ever crouched on the coaching line at third
+base than John McGraw. His judgment in holding runners or urging them on
+to score is almost uncanny. Governed by no set rules himself, he has
+formulated a list of regulations for his players which might be called the
+"McGraw Coaching Curriculum." He has favorite expressions, such as "there
+are stages" and "that was a two out play," which mean certain chances are
+to be taken by a coacher at one point in a contest, while to attempt such
+a play under other circumstances would be nothing short of foolhardy.
+
+With the development of baseball, coaching has advanced until it is now an
+exact science. For many years the two men who stood at first and third
+bases were stationed there merely to bullyrag and abuse the pitchers,
+often using language that was a disgrace to a ball field. When they were
+not busy with this part of their art, they handed helpful hints to the
+runners as to where the ball was and whether the second baseman was
+concealing it under his shirt (a favorite trick of the old days), while
+the pitcher pretended to prepare to deliver it. But as rules were made
+which strictly forbade the use of indecent language to a pitcher, and as
+the old school of clowns passed, coaching developed into a science, and
+the sentries stationed at first and third bases found themselves occupying
+important jobs.
+
+For some time McGraw frowned down upon scientific coaching, until its
+value was forcibly brought home to him one day by an incident that
+occurred at the Polo Grounds, and since then he has developed it until his
+knowledge of advising base runners is the pinnacle of scientific
+coaching.
+
+A few years ago, the Giants were having a nip and tuck struggle one day,
+when Harry McCormick, then the left-fielder, came to the plate and knocked
+the ball to the old centre-field ropes. He sped around the bases, and when
+he reached third, it looked as if he could roll home ahead of the ball.
+"Cy" Seymour was coaching and surprised everybody by rushing out and
+tackling McCormick, throwing him down and trying to force him back to
+third base. But big McCormick got the best of the struggle, scrambled to
+his feet, and finally scored after overcoming the obstacle that Seymour
+made. That run won the game.
+
+"What was the matter with you, Cy?" asked McGraw as Seymour came to the
+bench after he had almost lost the game by his poor coaching.
+
+"The sun got in my eyes, and I couldn't see the ball," replied Seymour.
+
+"You'd better wear smoked glasses the next time you go out to coach,"
+replied the manager. The batter was hitting the ball due east, and the
+game was being played in the afternoon, so Seymour had no alibi. From the
+moment "Cy" made that mistake, McGraw realized the value of scientific
+coaching, which means making the most of every hit in a game.
+
+I have always held that a good actor with a knowledge of baseball would
+make a good coacher, because it is the acting that impresses a base
+runner, not the talking. More often than not, the conversation of a
+coacher, be it ever so brilliant, is not audible above the screeching of
+the crowd at critical moments. And I believe that McGraw is a great actor,
+at least of the baseball school.
+
+The cheering of the immense crowds which attend ball games, if it can be
+organized, is a potent factor in winning or losing them. McGraw gets the
+most out of a throng by his clever acting. Did any patron of the Polo
+Grounds ever see him turn to the stands or make any pretence that he was
+paying attention to the spectators? Does he ever play to the gallery? Yet
+it is admitted that he can do more with a crowd, make it more malleable,
+than any other man in baseball to-day.
+
+The attitude of the spectators makes a lot of difference to a ball club. A
+lackadaisical, half-interested crowd often results in the team playing
+slovenly ball, while a lively throng can inject ginger into the men and
+put the whole club on its toes. McGraw is skilled in getting the most out
+of the spectators without letting them know that he is doing it.
+
+Did you ever watch the little manager crouching, immovable, at third base
+with a mitt on his hand, when the New York club goes to bat in the seventh
+inning two runs behind? The first hitter gets a base on balls. McGraw
+leaps into the air, kicks his heels together, claps his mitt, shouts at
+the umpire, runs in and pats the next batter on the back, and says
+something to the pitcher. The crowd gets it cue, wakes up and leaps into
+the air, kicking its heels together. The whole atmosphere inside the park
+is changed in a minute, and the air is bristling with enthusiasm. The
+other coacher, at first base, is waving his hands and running up and down
+the line, while the men on the bench have apparently gained new hope. They
+are moving about restlessly, and the next two hitters are swinging their
+bats in anticipation with a vigor which augurs ill for the pitcher. The
+game has found Ponce de Leon's fountain of youth, and the little, silent
+actor on the third base coaching line is the cause of the change.
+
+"Nick" Altrock, the old pitcher on the Chicago White Sox, was one of the
+most skilful men at handling a crowd that the game has ever developed. As
+a pitcher, Altrock was largely instrumental in bringing a world's
+championship to the American League team in 1906, and, as a coacher, after
+his Big League pitching days were nearly done, he won many a game by his
+work on the lines in pinches. Baseball has produced several comedians,
+some with questionable ratings as humorists. There is "Germany" Schaefer
+of the Washington team, and there were "Rube" Waddell, "Bugs" Raymond and
+others, but "Nick" Altrock could give the best that the game has brought
+out in the way of comic-supplement players a terrible battle for the
+honors.
+
+At the old south side park in Chicago, I have seen him go to the lines
+with a catcher's mitt and a first-baseman's glove on his hands and lead
+the untrained mob as skilfully as one of those pompadoured young men with
+a megaphone does the undergraduates at a college football game.
+
+My experience as a pitcher has been that it is not the steady, unbroken
+flood of howling and yelling, with the incessant pounding of feet, that
+gets on the nerves of a ball-player, but the broken, rhythmical waves of
+sound or the constant reiteration of one expression. A man gets accustomed
+to the steady cheering. It becomes a part of the game and his
+surroundings, as much as the stands and the crowd itself are, and he does
+not know that it is there. Let the coacher be clever enough to induce a
+crowd to repeat over and over just one sentence such as "Get a hit," "Get
+a hit," and it wears on the steadiest nerves. Nick Altrock had his
+baseball chorus trained so that, by a certain motion of the arm, he could
+get the crowd to do this at the right moment.
+
+But the science of latter-day coaching means much more than using the
+crowd. All coaching, like all Gaul and four or five other things, is
+divided into three parts, defensive coaching, offensive coaching and the
+use of the crowd. Offensive coaching means the handling of base runners,
+and requires quick and accurate judgment. The defensive sort is the advice
+that one player on the field gives another as to where to throw the ball,
+who shall take a hit, and how the base runner is coming into the bag.
+There is a sub-division of defensive coaching which might be called the
+illegitimate brand. It is giving "phoney" advice to a base runner by the
+fielders of the other side that may lead him, in the excitement of the
+moment, to make a foolish play. This style has developed largely in the
+Big Leagues in the last three or four years.
+
+Offensive coaching, in my opinion, is the most important. For a man to be
+a good coacher he must be trained for the work. The best coachers are the
+seasoned players, the veterans of the game. A man must know the throwing
+ability of each outfielder on the opposing club, he must be familiar with
+the speed of the base runner whom he is handling, and he must be so
+closely acquainted with the game as a whole that he knows the stages at
+which to try a certain play and the circumstances under which the same
+attempt would be foolish. Above all things, he must be a quick thinker.
+
+Watch McGraw on the coaching lines some day. As he crouches, he picks up a
+pebble and throws it out of his way, and two base runners start a double
+steal. "Hughie" Jennings emits his famous "Ee-Yaah!" and the third
+baseman creeps in, expecting Cobb to bunt with a man on first base and no
+one out. The hitter pushes the ball on a line past the third baseman. The
+next time Jennings shrieks his famous war-cry, it has a different
+intonation, and the batter bunts.
+
+"Bill" Dahlen of the Brooklyn club shouts, "Watch his foot," and the base
+runner starts while the batter smashes the ball on a hit and run play.
+Again the pitcher hears that "Watch his foot." He "wastes one," so that
+the batter will not get a chance at the ball and turns to first base. He
+is surprised to find the runner anchored there. Nothing has happened. So
+it will be seen that the offensive coacher controls the situation and
+directs the plays, usually taking his orders from the manager, if the boss
+himself is not on the lines.
+
+In 1911 the Giants led the National League by a good margin in stealing
+bases, and to this speed many critics attributed the fact that the
+championship was won by the club. I can safely say that every base which
+was pilfered by a New York runner was stolen by the direct order of
+McGraw, except in the few games from which he was absent. Then his
+lieutenants followed his system as closely as any one can pursue the
+involved and intricate style that he alone understands. If it was the base
+running of the Giants that won the pennant for the club, then it was the
+coaching of McGraw, employing the speed of his men and his opportunities,
+which brought the championship to New York.
+
+The first thing that every manager teaches his players now is to obey
+absolutely the orders of the coacher, and then he selects able men to give
+the advice. The brain of McGraw is behind each game the Giants play, and
+he plans every move, most of the hitters going to the plate with definite
+instructions from him as to what to try to do. In order to make this
+system efficient, absolute discipline must be assured. If a player has
+other ideas than McGraw as to what should be done, "Mac's" invariable
+answer to him is:
+
+"You do what I tell you, and I'll take the responsibility if we lose."
+
+For two months at the end of 1911, McGraw would not let either "Josh"
+Devore or John Murray swing at a first ball pitched to them. Murray did
+this one day, after he had been ordered not to, and he was promptly fined
+$10 and sat down on the bench, while Becker played right field. Many fans
+doubtless recall the substitution of Becker, but could not understand the
+move.
+
+Murray and Devore are what are known in baseball as "first-ball hitters."
+That is, they invariably hit at the first one delivered. They watch a
+pitcher wind up and swing their bats involuntarily, as a man blinks his
+eyes when he sees a blow started. It is probably due to slight
+nervousness. The result was that the news of this weakness spread rapidly
+around the circuit by the underground routes of baseball, and every
+pitcher in the League was handing Devore and Murray a bad ball on the
+first one. Of course, each would miss it or else make a dinky little hit.
+They were always "in the hole," which means that the pitcher had the
+advantage in the count. McGraw became exasperated after Devore had fanned
+out three times one day by getting bad starts, hitting at the first ball.
+
+"After this," said McGraw to both Murray and Devore in the clubhouse, "if
+either of you moves his bat off his shoulder at a first ball, even if it
+cuts the plate, you will be fined $10 and sat down."
+
+Murray forgot the next day, saw the pitcher wind up, and swung his bat at
+the first one. He spent the rest of the month on the bench. But Devore's
+hitting improved at once because all the pitchers, expecting him to swing
+at the first one, were surprised to find him "taking it" and, as it was
+usually bad, he had the pitcher constantly "in the hole," instead of being
+at a disadvantage himself. For this reason he was able to guess more
+accurately what the pitcher was going to throw, and his hitting
+consequently improved. So did Murray's after he had served his term on the
+bench. The right-fielder hit well up to the world's series and then he
+just struck a slump that any player is liable to encounter. But so
+dependent is McGraw's system on absolute discipline for its success that
+he dispensed with the services of a good player for a month to preserve
+his style.
+
+In contrast, "Connie" Mack, the manager of the Athletics, and by many
+declared to be the greatest leader in the country (although each private,
+of course, is true to his own general), lets his players use their own
+judgment largely. He seldom gives a batter a direct order unless the pinch
+is very stringent.
+
+The most difficult position to fill as a coacher is at third base, the
+critical corner. There a man's judgment must be lightning fast and always
+accurate. He encourages runners with his voice, but his orders are given
+primarily with his hands, because often the noise made by the crowd drowns
+out the shouted instructions. Last, he must be prepared to handle all
+sorts of base running.
+
+On nearly every ball club, there are some players who are known in the
+frank parlance of the profession as "hog wild runners."
+
+The expression means that these players are bitten by a sort of "bug"
+which causes them to lose their heads when once they get on the bases.
+They cannot be stopped, oftentimes fighting with a coacher to go on to the
+next base, when it is easy to see that if the attempt is made, the runner
+is doomed.
+
+New York fans have often seen McGraw dash out into the line at third base,
+tackle Murray, and throw him back on the bag. He is a "hog wild" runner,
+and with him on the bases, the duties of a coacher become more arduous. He
+will insist on scoring if he is not stopped or does not drop dead.
+
+Some youngster was coaching on third base in a game with Boston in the
+summer of 1911 and the Giants had a comfortable lead of several runs.
+Murray was on second when the batter hit clearly and sharply to left
+field. Murray started, and, with his usual intensity of purpose, rounded
+third base at top speed, bound to score. The ball was already on the way
+home when Murray, about ten feet from the bag, tripped and fell. He
+scrambled safely back to the cushion on all fours. There was nothing else
+to do.
+
+"This is his third year with me," laughed McGraw on the bench, "and that's
+the first time he has ever failed to try to score from second base on a
+hit unless he was tackled."
+
+All ball clubs have certain "must" motions which are as strictly observed
+as danger signals on a railroad. A coacher's hand upraised will stop a
+base runner as abruptly as the uplifted white glove of a traffic policeman
+halts a row of automobiles. A wave of the arm will start a runner going at
+top speed again.
+
+Many times a quick-witted ball-player wins a game for his club by his snap
+judgment. Again McGraw is the master of that. He took a game from the
+Cubs in 1911, because, always alert for flaws in the opposition, he
+noticed the centre-fielder drop his arm after getting set to throw the
+ball home. Devore was on second base, and one run was needed to win the
+game. Doyle hit sharply to centre field, and Devore, coming from second,
+started to slow up as he rounded third. Hofman, the Chicago
+centre-fielder, perceiving this slackening of pace, dropped his arm.
+McGraw noticed this, and, with a wave of his arm, notified Devore to go
+home. With two strides he was at top speed again, and Hofman, taken by
+surprise, threw badly.
+
+The run scored which won the game.
+
+The pastime of bullyragging the pitcher by the coachers has lost its
+popularity recently. The wily coacher must first judge the temperament of
+a pitcher before he dares to undertake to get on his nerves. Clarke
+Griffith, formerly the manager of Cincinnati, has a reputation for being
+able to ruin young pitchers just attempting to establish themselves in the
+Big League. Time and again he has forced youngsters back to the minors by
+his constant cry of "Watch his foot" or "He's going to waste this one."
+
+
+[Illustration: Photo by L. Van Oeyen, Cleveland, Ohio
+
+Baker out at the plate trying to stretch a triple into a home run. This
+picture shows Catcher Easterly of Cleveland waiting with the ball to touch
+Baker. The home-run hero of the Athletics is shown in the picture starting
+the fall-away slide in an effort to get away from Easterly. Harry Davis is
+approaching the plate, and Jack Sheridan is awaiting the outcome at the
+plate.]
+
+
+The rules are very strict now about talking to pitchers, but, if a
+complaint is made, Griffith declares that he was warning the batter that
+it was to be a pitchout, which is perfectly legitimate. The rules permit
+the coacher to talk to the batter and the base runners.
+
+Griffith caught a Tartar in Grover Cleveland Alexander, the sensational
+pitcher of the Philadelphia club. It was at his first appearance in
+Cincinnati that the young fellow got into the hole with several men on the
+bases, and "Mike" Mitchell coming up to the bat.
+
+"Now here is where we get a look at the 'yellow,'" yelled Griffith at
+Alexander.
+
+The young pitcher walked over toward third base.
+
+"I'm going to make that big boob up at the bat there show such a 'yellow
+streak' that you won't be able to see any white," declared Alexander, and
+then he struck Mitchell out. Griffith had tried the wrong tactics.
+
+A story is told of Fred Clarke and "Rube" Waddell, the eccentric twirler.
+Waddell was once one of the best pitchers in the business when he could
+concentrate his attention on his work, but his mind wandered easily.
+
+"Now pay no attention to Clarke," warned his manager before the game.
+
+Clarke tried everything from cajolery to abuse on Waddell with no effect,
+because the eccentric "Rube" had been tipped to fight shy of the Pittsburg
+manager. Suddenly Clarke became friendly and walked with Waddell between
+innings, chatting on trivial matters. At last he said:
+
+"Why don't you come out on my ranch in Kansas and hunt after the season,
+George? I've got a dog out there you might train."
+
+"What kind of a dog?" asked Waddell at once interested.
+
+"Just a pup," replied Clarke, "and you can have him if he takes a fancy to
+you."
+
+"They all do," replied Waddell. "He's as good as mine."
+
+The next inning the big left-hander was still thinking of that dog, and
+the Pirates made five runs.
+
+In many instances defensive coaching is as important as the offensive
+brand, which simply indorses the old axiom that any chain is only as
+strong as its weakest link or any ball club is only as efficient as its
+most deficient department. When Roger Bresnahan was on the Giants, he was
+one of those aggressive players who are always coaching the other fielders
+and holding a team together, a type so much desired by a manager. If a
+slow roller was hit between the pitcher's box and third base, I could
+always hear "Rog" yelling, "You take it, Matty," or, "Artie, Artie,"
+meaning Devlin, the third baseman. He was in a position to see which man
+would be better able to make the play, and he gave this helpful advice.
+His coaching saved many a game for the Giants in the old days. "Al"
+Bridwell, the former shortstop, was of the same type, and, if you have
+ever attended a ball game at the Polo Grounds, you have doubtless heard
+him in his shrill, piercing voice, shouting:
+
+"I've got it! I've got it!" or, "You take it!"
+
+This style of coaching saves ball-players from accidents, and accidents
+have lost many a pennant. I have always held that it was a lack of the
+proper coaching that sent "Cy" Seymour, formerly the Giant centre-fielder,
+out of the Big Leagues and back to the minors. Both Murray and he
+attempted to catch the same fly in the season of 1909 and came into
+collision. Seymour went down on the field, but later got up and played
+the game out. However, he hurt his leg so badly that it never regained its
+strength.
+
+Then there is that other style of defensive coaching which is the shouting
+of misleading advice by the fielders to the base runners. Collins and
+Barry, the second baseman and shortstop on the Athletics, worked a clever
+trick in one of the games of the 1911 world's series which illustrates my
+point. The play is as old as the one in which the second baseman hides the
+ball under his shirt so as to catch a man asleep off first base, but often
+the old ones are the more effective.
+
+Doyle was on first base in one of the contests played in Philadelphia, and
+the batter lifted a short foul fly to Baker, playing third base. The crowd
+roared and the coacher's voice was drowned by the volume of sound. "Eddie"
+Collins ran to cover second base, and Barry scrabbled his hand along the
+dirt as if preparing to field a ground ball.
+
+"Throw it here! Throw it here!" yelled Collins, and Doyle, thinking that
+they were trying for a force play, increased his efforts to reach second.
+Baker caught the fly, and Larry was doubled up at first base so far that
+he looked foolish. Yet it really was not his fault. The safest thing for a
+base runner to do under those circumstances is to get one glimpse of the
+coacher's motions and then he can tell whether to go back or to go on.
+
+"Johnnie" Kling, the old catcher of the Chicago Cubs, used to work a
+clever piece of defensive coaching with John Evers, the second baseman.
+This was tried on young players and usually was successful. The victim was
+picked out before the game, and the play depended upon him arriving at
+second base. Once there the schemers worked it as follows:
+
+When the "busher" was found taking a large lead, Evers would dash to the
+bag and Kling would make a bluff to throw the ball, but hold it. The
+runner naturally scampered for the base. Then, seeing that Kling had not
+thrown, he would start to walk away from it again.
+
+"If the Jew had thrown that time, he would have had you," Evers would
+carelessly hurl over his shoulder at the intended victim. The man usually
+turned for a fatal second to reply. Tinker, who was playing shortstop,
+rushed in from behind, Kling whipped the ball to the bag, and the man,
+caught off his guard, was tagged out. The play was really made before the
+game, when the victim was selected.
+
+It was this same Evers-Kling combination that turned the tide in the first
+inning of the most famous game ever played in baseball, the extra one
+between the Giants and the Cubs in the season of 1908. The Chicago club
+was nervous in the first inning. Tenney was hit by a pitched ball, and
+Herzog walked. It looked as if Pfeister, the Chicago pitcher, was losing
+his grip. Bresnahan struck out, and Kling, always alert, dropped the third
+strike, but conveniently at his feet. Thinking that here was an
+opportunity the crowd roared. Evers, playing deep, almost behind Herzog,
+shouted, "Go on!"
+
+Herzog took the bait in the excitement of the moment and ran--and was
+nipped many yards from first base.
+
+There are many tricks to the coacher's trade, both offensive and
+defensive, and it is the quickest-witted man who is the best coacher. The
+sentry at first yells as the pitcher winds up, "There he goes!" imitating
+the first baseman as nearly as possible, in the hope that the twirler
+will waste one by pitching out and thus give the batter an advantage. The
+coacher on third base will shout at the runner on a short hit to the
+outfield, "Take your turn!" in the dim hope that the fielder, seeing the
+man rounding third, will throw the ball home, and the hitter can thus make
+an extra base. And the job of coaching is no sinecure. McGraw has told me
+after directing a hard game that he is as tired as if he had played.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+Honest and Dishonest Sign Stealing
+
+     _Everything Fair in Baseball except the Dishonest Stealing of
+     Signals--The National Game More a Contest of the Wits than Most
+     Onlookers Imagine._
+
+
+When the Philadelphia Athletics unexpectedly defeated the Chicago Cubs in
+the world's series of 1910, the National League players cried that their
+signals had been stolen by the American League team, and that, because
+Connie Mack's batters knew what to expect, they had won the championship.
+
+But were the owners or any member of the Philadelphia club arrested
+charged with grand larceny in stealing the baseball championship of the
+world? No. Was there any murmur against the methods of Connie Mack's men?
+No, again. By a strange kink in the ethics of baseball John Kling, the
+Chicago catcher, was blamed by the other players on the defeated team for
+the signs being stolen. They charged that he had been careless in covering
+his signals and that the enemy's coachers, particularly Topsy Hartsell, a
+clever man at it, had seen them from the lines. This was really the cause
+of Kling leaving the Cubs and going to Boston in 1911.
+
+After the games were over and the series was lost, many of the players,
+and especially the pitchers, would hardly speak to Kling, the man who had
+as much as any one else to do with the Cubs winning four championships,
+and the man who by his great throwing had made the reputations of a lot of
+their pitchers. But the players were sore because they had lost the series
+and lost the extra money which many of them had counted as their own
+before the games started, and they looked around for some one to blame and
+found Kling. One of the pitchers complained after he had lost a game:
+
+"Can't expect a guy to win with his catcher giving the signs so the
+coachers can read 'em and tip the batters."
+
+"And you can't expect a catcher to win a game for you if you haven't got
+anything on the ball," replied Kling, for he is quick tempered and cannot
+stand reflections on his ability. But the pitcher's chance remark had
+given the other players an excuse for fixing the blame, and it was put on
+Kling.
+
+I honestly do not believe that Kling was in any way responsible for the
+rout of the proud Cubs. The Chicago pitchers were away off form in the
+series and could not control the ball, thus getting themselves "into the
+hole" all the time. Shrewd Connie Mack soon realized this and ordered his
+batters to wait everything out, to make the twirlers throw every ball
+possible. The result was that, with the pitcher continually in the hole,
+the batters were guessing what was coming and frequently guessing right,
+as any smart hitter could under the circumstances. This made it look as if
+the Athletics were getting the Cubs' signals.
+
+"Why, I changed signs every three innings, Matty," Kling told me
+afterwards in discussing the charge. "Some of the boys said that I gave
+the old bended-knee sign for a curve ball. Well, did you ever find
+anything to improve on the old ones? That's why they are old."
+
+But the Cubs still point the finger of scorn at Kling, for it hurts to
+lose. I know it, I have lost myself. Even though the Athletics are charged
+with stealing the signs whether they did or not, it is no smirch on the
+character of the club, for they stole honestly--which sounds like a
+paradox.
+
+"You have such jolly funny morals in this bally country," declared an
+Englishman I once met. "You steal and rob in baseball and yet you call it
+fair. Now in cricket we give our opponents every advantage, don't cher
+know, and after the game we are all jolly good fellows at tea together."
+
+This brings us down to the ethics of signal stealing. Each game has its
+own recognized standards of fairness. For instance, no tricks are
+tolerated in tennis, yet the baseball manager who can devise some scheme
+by which he disconcerts his opponents is considered a great leader. I was
+about to say that all is fair in love, war, and baseball, but will modify
+that too comprehensive statement by saying all is fair in love, war, and
+baseball except stealing signals dishonestly, which listens like another
+paradox. Therefore, I shall divide the subject of signal stealing into
+half portions, the honest and the dishonest halves, and, since we are
+dealing in paradoxes, take up the latter first.
+
+Dishonest signal stealing might be defined as obtaining information by
+artificial aids. The honest methods are those requiring cleverness of eye,
+mind, and hand without outside assistance. One of the most flagrant and
+for a time successful pieces of signal stealing occurred in Philadelphia
+several years ago.
+
+Opposing players can usually tell when the batsman is getting the signs,
+because he steps up and sets himself for a curve with so much confidence.
+During the season of 1899 the report went around the circuit that the
+Philadelphia club was stealing signals, because the batters were popping
+them all on the nose, but no one was able to discover the transmitter. The
+coachers were closely watched and it was evident that these sentinels were
+not getting the signs.
+
+It was while the Washington club, then in the National League, was playing
+Philadelphia that there came a rainy morning which made the field very
+wet, and for a long time it was doubtful whether a game could be played
+in the afternoon, but the Washington club insisted on it and overruled the
+protests of the Phillies. Arlie Latham, now the coacher on the Giants',
+was playing third base for the Senators at the time. He has told me often
+since how he discovered the device by which the signs were being stolen.
+He repeated the story to me recently when I asked him for the facts to use
+in this book.
+
+"There was a big puddle in the third base coaching box that day," said
+Latham. "And it was in the third inning that I noticed Cupid Childs, the
+Philadelphia second baseman, coaching. He stood with one foot in the
+puddle and never budged it, although the water came up to his shoe-laces.
+He usually jumped around when on the lines, and this stillness surprised
+me.
+
+"'Better go get your rubbers if you are goin' to keep that trilby there,'
+I said to him. 'Charley horse and the rheumatism have no terrors for you.'
+
+"But he kept his foot planted in the puddle just the same, and first thing
+the batter cracked out a base hit.
+
+"'So that's where you're gettin' the signs?' I said to him, not guessing
+that it really was. Then he started to jump around and we got the next
+two batters out right quick, there being a big slump in the Philadelphia
+hitting as soon as he took his foot out of that puddle.
+
+"When the Washington club went to bat I hiked out to the third base line
+and started to coach, putting my foot into the puddle as near the place
+where Childs had had his as I could.
+
+"'Here's where we get a few signs,' I yelled, 'and I ain't afraid of
+Charley horse, either.'
+
+"I looked over at the Philadelphia bench, and there were all the extra
+players sitting with their caps pulled down over their eyes, so that I
+couldn't see their faces. The fielders all looked the other way. Then I
+knew I was on a warm scent.
+
+"When the Washington players started back for the field I told Tommy
+Corcoran that I thought they must be getting the signs from the third base
+coaching box, although I hadn't been able to feel anything there. He went
+over and started pawing around in the dirt and water with his spikes and
+fingers. Pretty soon he dug up a square chunk of wood with a buzzer on the
+under side of it.
+
+"'That ought to help their hitting a little,' he remarked as he kept on
+pulling. Up came a wire, and when he started to pull on it he found that
+it was buried about an inch under the soil and ran across the outfield. He
+kept right on coiling it up and following it, like a hound on a scent, the
+Philadelphia players being very busy all this time and nervous like a
+busher at his début into Big League society. One of the substitutes
+started to run for the clubhouse, but I stopped him.
+
+"Tommy was galloping by this time across the outfield and all the time
+pulling up this wire. It led straight to the clubhouse, and there sitting
+where he could get a good view of the catcher's signs with a pair of
+field-glasses was Morgan Murphy. The wire led right to him.
+
+"'What cher doin'?' asked Tommy.
+
+"'Watchin' the game,' replied Murphy.
+
+"'Couldn't you see it easier from the bench than lookin' through those
+peepers from here? And why are you connected up with this machine?'
+inquired Tommy, showin' him the chunk of wood with the buzzer attached.
+
+"'I guess you've got the goods,' Murphy answered with a laugh, and all the
+newspapers laughed at it then, too. But the batting averages of the
+Philadelphia players took an awful slump after that.
+
+"'Why didn't they tip me?' asked Murphy as he put aside his field-glasses
+and went to the bench and watched the rest of the game from there. And we
+later won that contest, our first victory of the series, which was no
+discredit to us, since it was like gamblin' against loaded dice,"
+concluded "Arlie."
+
+The newspapers may have laughed at the incident in those days, but since
+that time the National Commission has intimated that if there was ever a
+recurrence of such tactics, the club caught using them would be subjected
+to a heavy fine and possibly expulsion from the League. So much have
+baseball standards improved.
+
+The incident is a great illustration of the unfair method of obtaining
+signs. Since then, there have come from time to time reports of teams
+taking signals by mechanical devices. The Athletics once declared that the
+American League team in New York had a man stationed behind the fence in
+centre field with a pair of glasses and that he shifted a line in the
+score board slightly, so as to tip off the batters, but this charge was
+never confirmed. It was said a short time ago that the Athletics
+themselves had a spy located in a house outside their grounds and that he
+tipped the batters by raising and lowering an awning a trifle. When the
+Giants went to Philadelphia in 1911 for the first game of the world's
+series in the enemy's camp, I kept watching the windows of the houses just
+outside of the park for suspicious movements, but could discover none.
+Once in Pittsburg I thought that the Pirates were getting the Giants'
+signals and I kept my eyes glued to the score board in centre field,
+throughout one whole series, to see if any of the figures moved or changed
+positions, as that seemed to be the only place from which a batter could
+be tipped. But I never discovered anything wrong.
+
+There are many fair ways to steal the signs of the enemy, so many that the
+smart ball-player is always kept on the alert by them. Baseball geniuses,
+some almost magicians, are constantly looking for new schemes to find out
+what the catcher is telling the pitcher, what the batter is tipping the
+base runner to, or what the coacher's instructions are. The Athletics have
+a great reputation as being a club able to get the other team's signs if
+they are obtainable. This is their record all around the American League
+circuit.
+
+Personally I do not believe that Connie Mack's players steal as much
+information as they get the credit for, but the reputation itself, if they
+never get a sign, is valuable. If a prizefighter is supposed to have a
+haymaking punch in his left hand, the other fellow is going to be
+constantly looking out for that left. If the players on a club have great
+reputations as signal stealers, their opponents are going to be on their
+guard all the time, which gives the team with the reputation just that
+much advantage. If a pitcher has a reputation, he has the percentage on
+the batter. Therefore, this gossip about the signal-stealing ability of
+the Athletics has added to their natural strength.
+
+"Bill," I said to Dahlen, the Brooklyn manager, one day toward the end of
+the season of 1911, when the Giants were playing their schedule out after
+the pennant was sure, "see if you can get the Chief's signs."
+
+Dahlen coached on first base and then went to third, always looking for
+Meyers's signals. Pretty soon he came to me.
+
+"I can see them a little bit, Matty," he reported.
+
+"Chief," I said to Meyers that night as I buttonholed him in the
+clubhouse, "you've got to be careful to cover up your signs in the Big
+Series. The Athletics have a reputation of being pretty slick at getting
+them. And to make sure we will arrange a set of signs that I can give if
+we think they are 'hep' to yours."
+
+So right there Meyers and I fixed up a code of signals that I could give
+to him, the Chief always to use some himself which would be "phoney" of
+course, and might have the desirable effect of "crossing them."
+
+In the first championship game at the Polo Grounds, Topsy Hartsell was out
+on the coaching lines looking for signals, and the Chief started giving
+the real ones until Davis stepped into a curve ball and cracked it to left
+field for a single, scoring the only run made by the Athletics. Right here
+Meyers stopped, and I began transmitting the private information, although
+the Chief continued to pass out signals that meant nothing. The Athletics
+were getting the Indian's and could not understand why the answers seemed
+invariably to be wrong, for a couple of them struck out swinging at bad
+balls, and one batter narrowly avoided being hit by a fast one when
+apparently he had been tipped off to a curve and was set ready to swing at
+it. They did not discover that I was behind the signals, although to make
+this method successful the catcher must be a clever man. If he makes it
+too obvious that his signals are "phoney" and are meant to be seen, then
+the other club will look around for the source of the real ones. Meyers
+carefully concealed his misleading wig-wags beneath his chest protector,
+under his glove and behind his knee, as any good catcher does his real
+signs, so they would not look at my head.
+
+Many persons argue: if a man sees the signs, what good does it do him if
+he does not know what they mean? It is easy for a smart ball-player to
+deduce the answers, because there are only three real signs passed between
+a pitcher and catcher, the sign for the fast one, for the curve ball and
+for the pitchout. If a coacher sees a catcher open his hand behind his
+glove and then watches the pitcher throw a fast one, he is likely to guess
+that the open palm says "Fast one."
+
+After a coacher has stolen the desired information, he must be clever to
+pass it along to the batter without the other club being aware that he is
+doing it. He may straighten up to tell the batter a curve ball is coming,
+and bend over to forecast a fast one, and turn his back as a neutral
+signal, meaning that he does not know what is coming. If a coacher is
+smart enough to pass the meanings to the batter without the other team
+getting on, he may go through the entire season as a transmitter of
+information. To steal signs fairly requires quickness of mind, eye and
+action. Few players can do it successfully. Perhaps that is why it is
+considered fair.
+
+If a team is going to make a success of signal stealing it must get every
+sign that is given, for an occasional crumb of information picked up at
+random is worse than none at all. First, it is dangerous. A batter, tipped
+off that a curved ball is coming, steps up to the plate and is surprised
+to meet a fast one, which often he has not time to dodge. Many a good
+ball-player has been injured in this way, and an accident to a star has
+cost more than one pennant.
+
+"Joe" Kelley, formerly manager of the Reds, was coaching in Cincinnati one
+day several years ago, and "Eagle Eye Jake" Beckley, the old first
+baseman and a chronic three hundred hitter, was at the bat. I had been
+feeding him low drops and Kelley, on the third base line, thought he was
+getting the signals that Jack Warner, the Giant catcher in a former cast
+of characters, was giving. I saw Kelley apparently pass some information
+to Beckley, and the latter stepped almost across the plate ready for a
+curve. He encountered a high, fast one, close in, and he encountered it
+with that part of him between his neck and hat band. "Eagle Eye" was
+unconscious for two days after that and in the hospital several weeks.
+When he got back into the game he said to me one day:
+
+"Why didn't you throw me that curve, Matty, that 'Joe' tipped me to?"
+
+"Were you tipped off?" I asked. "Then it was 'Joe's' error, not mine."
+
+"Say," he answered, "if I ever take another sign from a coacher I hope the
+ball kills me."
+
+"It probably will," I replied. "That one nearly did."
+
+It is one of the risks of signal stealing. Beckley had received the wrong
+information and I felt no qualms at hitting him, for it was not a wild
+pitch but a misinterpreted signal which had put him out of the game. His
+manager, not I, was to blame. For this reason many nervous players refuse
+to accept any information from a coacher, even if the coacher thinks he
+knows what is going to be pitched, because they do not dare take the risk
+of getting hit by a fast one, against which they have little protection if
+set for a curve. On this account few National League clubs attempt to
+steal signs as a part of the regular team work, but many individuals make
+a practice of it for their own benefit and for the benefit of the batter,
+if he is not of the timid type.
+
+As soon as a runner gets on second base he is in an excellent position to
+see the hands of the catcher, and it is then that the man behind the bat
+is doing all that he can cover up. Jack Warner, the old Giant, used
+sometimes to give his signals with his mouth in this emergency, because
+they were visible from the pitcher's box, but not from second base. The
+thieves were looking at his hands for them. In the National League, Leach,
+Clarke, Wagner, Bresnahan, Evers, Tinker and a few more of the sort are
+dangerous to have on second. Wagner will get on the middle sack and watch
+the catcher until he thinks that he has discovered the pitchout sign,
+which means a ball is to be wasted in the hope that a base runner can be
+caught. Wagner takes a big lead, and the catcher, tempted, gives the
+"office" to waste one, thinking to nail "Hans" off second. The Dutchman
+sees it, and instead of running back to second dashes for third. He starts
+as the catcher lets go of the ball to throw to second and can usually make
+the extra base.
+
+Many coachers, who do not attempt to get the signs for fast and curved
+balls, study the catcher to get his pitchout sign, because once this is
+recognized it gives the team at the bat a great advantage. If a coacher
+sees the catcher give the pitchout signal he can stop the runner from
+trying to steal and the pitcher has wasted a ball and is "in the hole."
+Then if his control is uncertain the result is likely to be disastrous.
+
+Several players in the National League are always trying to get the
+batter's signs. Bresnahan, the manager and catcher of the St. Louis club,
+devotes half his time and energy to looking for the wireless code employed
+by batter and base runner. If he can discover the hit and run sign, then
+he is able to order a pitchout and catch the man who has started to run in
+response to it several feet at second base. He is a genius at getting this
+information.
+
+Once late in 1911, when the New York club was in St. Louis on the last
+trip West, I came up to the bat with Fletcher on first base. I rubbed the
+end of my stick with my hand and Roger exclaimed:
+
+"Why, that's your old hit and run, Matty! What are you trying to do, kid
+me?"
+
+"I forgot you knew it, Rog," I answered, "but it goes."
+
+He thought I was attempting to cross him and did not order a pitchout. The
+sign had been given intentionally. I hit the ball and had the laugh on
+him. If a catcher can get a pitchout on a hit and run sign he upsets the
+other team greatly. Take a fast man on first base and the batter signs him
+that he is going to hit the next ball. The runner gets his start and the
+ball comes up so wide that the batter could not half reach it with a
+ten-foot bat. The runner is caught easily at second base and it makes him
+look foolish. That is why so many catchers devote time to looking for
+this signal. It is a great fruit bearer.
+
+Many of the extra players on the bench are always on the alert for the hit
+and run sign. This is a typical situation:
+
+The Giants were playing the Pittsburg club one day in 1911. Byrne was on
+first base. Fred Clarke was at bat and Byrne started for second while
+Clarke hit the ball to right field, Byrne reaching third base on the play.
+
+"What did he do?" asked Ames.
+
+"Did you get it, Matty?" inquired Wiltse.
+
+"No," I answered. "Did you?"
+
+"I think he tapped his bat on the plate," replied Wiltse. The next time
+Clarke came up we were all looking to see if he tapped his bat on the
+plate. Byrne was again on first base. The Pirates' manager fixed his cap,
+he stepped back out of the box and knocked the dirt out of his cleats, and
+he did two or three other natural things before the pitch, but nothing
+happened. Then he tapped his bat on the plate.
+
+"Make him put them over, Chief," yelled Wiltse which, translated, meant,
+"Order a pitch-out, Chief. He just gave Byrne the hit and run sign."
+
+Meyers signed for a pitchout, and Byrne was caught ten feet from second.
+Wiltse on the bench had really nailed the base runner. As soon as a sign
+is discovered it is communicated to the other players, and they are always
+watching for it, but try to conceal the fact that they recognize it,
+because, as soon as a batter discovers that his messages are being read,
+he changes his code.
+
+From these few facts about signals and sign stealing some idea of the
+battle of wits that is going on between two ball clubs in a game may be
+obtained. That is why so few men without brains last in the Big Leagues
+nowadays. A young fellow broke in with the Giants a few years ago and was
+very anxious to make good. He was playing shortstop.
+
+"Watch for the catcher's signs and then shift," McGraw told him one day.
+It is well known in baseball that a right-handed hitter will naturally
+push a curve over the outside corner of the plate toward right field and
+over the inside he will pull it around toward third base. But this
+youngster was overanxious and would shift before the pitcher started to
+deliver the ball. Some smart player on another club noticed this and
+tipped the batters off to watch the youngster for the signs. When he
+shifted toward second base the batter set himself for a ball over the
+outside corner. For a long time McGraw could not understand how the other
+teams were getting the Giants' signs, especially as it was on our home
+grounds. At last he saw the new infielder shift one day and the batter
+prepare for an inside ball.
+
+"Say," he said to the player, rushing on the field after he had stopped
+the pitcher, "do you know you are telegraphing the signs to the batters by
+moving around before the pitcher throws the ball?"
+
+Bill Dahlen, formerly a shortstop on the Giants, used to shift, but he was
+clever enough to wait until the pitcher had started his motion, when it
+was too late for the batter to look at him.
+
+Ball-players are always looking to steal some sign so that they may
+"cross" the enemy. In the language of the Big Leagues it is "signs," never
+"signals." And in conclusion I reiterate my former sentiments that all is
+fair in love, war and baseball except stealing signs dishonestly.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+Umpires and Close Decisions
+
+     _Ball-players and Umpires are Regarded by the Fans as Natural
+     Enemies, and the Fans Are about Right--Types of Arbiters and how the
+     Players Treat them--"Silk" O'Loughlin, "Hank" O'Day, "Tim" Hurst,
+     "Bob" Emslie, and Others, and Close Ones they have Called--Also Some
+     Narrow Escapes which have Followed._
+
+
+When the Giants were swinging through the West in 1911 on the final trip,
+the club played three games in Pittsburg, with the pennant at that time
+only a possibility more or less remote. The Pirates still had a chance,
+and they were fighting hard for every game, especially as they were
+playing on their home grounds.
+
+The first contest of the series was on Saturday afternoon before a crowd
+that packed the gigantic stands which surrounded Forbes Field. The throng
+wanted to see the Pirates win because they were the Pirates, and the
+Giants beaten because they were the Giants, and were sticking their heads
+up above the other clubs in the race. I always think of the horse show
+when I play in Pittsburg, for they have the diamond horse-shoe of boxes
+there, you know. No; I'm wrong--it's at the Metropolitan Opera House they
+have the diamond horse-shoe. Any way, the diamond horse-shoe of boxes was
+doing business at Forbes Field that Saturday afternoon.
+
+This story is going to be about umpires, but the reader who has never seen
+the Forbes Field folks must get the atmosphere before I let the yarn into
+the block. Once, on a bright, sunny day there, I muffed fly after fly
+because the glint of Sol's rays on the diamonds blinded me. Always now I
+wear smoked glasses. "Josh" Devore is so afraid that he will lose social
+caste when he goes to Pittsburg that he gets his finger-nails manicured
+before he will appear on the field. And the lady who treated him one day
+polished them to such an ultimate glossiness that the sun flashed on them,
+and he dropped two flies in left field.
+
+"Look here, Josh," warned McGraw after the game, "I hire you to play ball
+and not to lead cotillions. Get some pumice stone and rub it on your
+finger-nails and cut out those John Drew manicures after this."
+
+This crowd is worse after umpires than the residents of the bleachers. The
+game on that Saturday worked out into a pitchers' battle between Marty
+O'Toole, the expensive exponent of the spit ball, and "Rube" Marquard, the
+great left-hander. Half of "Who's Who in Pittsburg" had already split
+white gloves applauding when, along about the fourth or fifth inning, Fred
+Clarke got as far as third base with one out. The score was nothing for
+either side as yet, and of such a delicate nature was the contest that one
+run was likely to decide it.
+
+"Hans" Wagner, the peerless, and the pride of Pittsburg, was at the bat.
+He pushed a long fly to Murray in right field, and John caught it and
+threw the ball home. Clarke and the ball arrived almost simultaneously.
+There was a slide, a jumble of players, and a small cloud of dust blew
+away from the home plate.
+
+"Ye're out!" bawled Mr. Brennan, the umpire, jerking his thumb over his
+shoulder with a conclusiveness that forbade argument. Clarke jumped up and
+stretched his hands four feet apart, for he recognizes no conclusiveness
+when "one is called against him."
+
+"Safe! that much!" he shouted in Brennan's ear, showing him the four-foot
+margin with his hands.
+
+There was a roar from the diamond horse-shoe that, if it could have been
+canned and put on a phonograph, would have made any one his fortune
+because it could have been turned on to accompany moving pictures of lions
+and other wild beasts to make them realistic.
+
+"Say," said Clarke to Brennan, "I know a pickpocket who looks honest
+compared to you, and I'd rather trust my watch to a second-story worker."
+
+Brennan was dusting off the plate and paid no attention to him. But Clarke
+continued to snap and bark at the umpire as he brushed himself off,
+referring with feeling to Mr. Brennan's immediate family, and weaving into
+his talk a sketch of the umpire's ancestors, for Clarke is a great master
+of the English language as fed to umpires.
+
+"Mr. Clarke," said Brennan, turning at last, "you were out. Now beat it to
+the bench before you beat it to the clubhouse."
+
+Clarke went grumbling and all the afternoon was after Brennan for the
+decision, his wrath increasing because the Pirates lost the game finally,
+although they would not have won it had they been given that decision. And
+the crowd was roaring at Brennan, too, throughout the remainder of the
+contest, asking him pointed questions about his habits and what his
+regular business was.
+
+It takes a man with nerve to make a decision like that--one that could be
+called either way because it was so close--and to make it as he sees it,
+which happened in this particular case to be against the home team.
+
+Many times have I, in the excitement of the moment, protested against the
+decision of an umpire, but fundamentally I know that the umpires are
+honest and are doing their best, as all ball-players are. The umpires make
+mistakes and the players make errors. Many arbiters have told me that when
+they are working they seldom know what inning it is or how many are out,
+and sometimes, in their efforts to concentrate their minds on their
+decisions, they say they even forget what clubs are playing and which is
+the home team.
+
+The future of the game depends on the umpire, for his honesty must not be
+questioned. If there is a breath of suspicion against a man, he is
+immediately let go, because constant repetition of such a charge would
+result in baseball going the way of horse racing and some other sports. No
+scandal can creep in where the umpire is concerned, for the very
+popularity of baseball depends on its honesty.
+
+"The only good umpire is a dead umpire," McGraw has declared many times
+when he has been disgruntled over some decision.
+
+"I think they're all dead ones in this League," replied Devore one day,
+"considering the decisions that they are handing me down there at second
+base. Why, I had that bag by three feet and he called me out."
+
+Many baseball fans look upon an umpire as a sort of necessary evil to the
+luxury of baseball, like the odor that follows an automobile.
+
+"Kill him! He hasn't got any friends!" is an expression shouted from the
+stands time and again during a game.
+
+But I know differently. I have seen umpires with friends. It is true that
+most ball-players regard umpires as their natural enemies, as a boy does a
+school teacher. But "Bill" Klem has friends because I have seen him with
+them, and besides he has a constant companion, which is a calabash pipe.
+And "Billy" Evans of the American League has lots of friends. And most all
+of the umpires have some one who will speak to them when they are off the
+field.
+
+These men in blue travel by themselves, live at obscure hotels apart from
+those at which the teams stop, and slip into the ball parks unobtrusively
+just before game time. They never make friends with ball-players off the
+field for fear that there might be a hint of scandal. Seldom do they take
+the same train with a club unless it cannot be avoided. "Hank" O'Day, the
+veteran of the National League staff, and Brennan took the same train out
+of Chicago with the Giants in the fall of 1911 because we stopped in
+Pittsburg for one game, and they had to be there to umpire. It was the
+only available means of transportation. But they stayed by themselves in
+another Pullman until some one told them "Charley" Faust, the official
+jinx-killer of the Giants, was doing his stunt. Then they both came back
+into the Giants' car and for the first time in my life I saw "Hank" O'Day
+laugh. His face acted as if it wasn't accustomed to the exercise and broke
+all in funny new wrinkles, like a glove when you put it on for the first
+time.
+
+There are several types of umpires, and ball-players are always studying
+the species to find out the best way to treat each man to get the most out
+of him. There are autocrats and stubborn ones and good fellows and
+weak-kneed ones, almost as many kinds as there are human beings. The
+autocrat of the umpire world is "Silk" O'Loughlin, now appearing with a
+rival show.
+
+"There are no close plays," says "Silk." "A man is always out or safe, or
+it is a ball or a strike, and the umpire, if he is a good man and knows
+his business, is always right. For instance, I am always right."
+
+He refuses to let the players discuss a decision with him, maintaining
+that there is never any room for argument. If a man makes any talk with
+him, it is quick to the shower bath. "Silk" has a voice of which he is
+proud and declares that he shares the honors with Caruso and that it is
+only his profession as an umpire that keeps him off the grand-opera
+circuit. I have heard a lot of American League ball-players say at various
+times that they wished he was on the grand-opera circuit or some more
+calorific circuit, but they were mostly prejudiced at those moments by
+some sentiments which "Silk" had just voiced in an official capacity.
+
+As is well known in baseball, "Silk" is the inventor of "Strike Tuh!" and
+the creased trousers for umpires. I have heard American League players
+declare that they are afraid to slide when "Silk" is close down over a
+play for fear they will bump up against his trousers and cut themselves.
+He is one of the kind of umpires who can go through a game on the hottest
+summer day, running about the bases, and still keep his collar unwilted.
+At the end he will look as if he were dressed for an afternoon tea.
+
+Always he wears on his right hand, which is his salary or decision wing, a
+large diamond that sparkles in the sunlight every time he calls a man
+out. Many American League players assert that he would rather call a man
+out than safe, so that he can shimmer his "cracked ice," but again they
+are usually influenced by circumstances. Such is "Silk," well named.
+
+Corresponding to him in the National League is "Billy" Klem. He always
+wears a Norfolk jacket because he thinks it more stylish, and perhaps it
+is, and he refuses to don a wind pad. Ever notice him working behind the
+bat? But I am going to let you in on a secret. That chest is not all his
+own. Beneath his jacket he carries his armor, a protector, and under his
+trousers' legs are shin guards. He insists that all players call him "Mr."
+He says that he thinks maybe soon his name will be in the social register.
+
+"Larry" Doyle thought that he had received the raw end of a decision at
+second base one day. He ran down to first, where Klem had retreated after
+he passed his judgment.
+
+"Say, 'Bill,'" exploded "Larry," "that man didn't touch the bag--didn't
+come within six feet of it."
+
+"Say, Doyle," replied Klem, "when you talk to me call me 'Mr. Klem.'"
+
+"But, Mr. Klem--" amended "Larry."
+
+Klem hurriedly drew a line with his foot as Doyle approached him
+menacingly.
+
+"But if you come over that line, you're out of the game, Mr. Doyle," he
+threatened.
+
+"All right," answered "Larry," letting his pugilistic attitude evaporate
+before the abruptness of Klem as the mist does before the classic noonday
+sun, "but, Mr. Klem, I only wanted to ask you if that clock in centre
+field is right by your watch, because I know everything about you is
+right."
+
+"Larry" went back, grinning and considering that he had put one over on
+Klem--Mr. Klem.
+
+For a long time "Johnny" Evers of the Chicago club declared that Klem owed
+him $5 on a bet he had lost to the second baseman and had neglected to
+pay. Now John, when he was right, could make almost any umpirical goat
+leap from crag to crag and do somersaults en route. He kept pestering Klem
+about that measly $5 bet, not in an obtrusive way, you understand, but by
+such delicate methods as holding up five fingers when Klem glanced down on
+the coaching lines where he was stationed, or by writing a large "5" in
+the dirt at the home plate with the butt of his bat as he came up when
+Klem was umpiring on balls and strikes, or by counting slowly and casually
+up to five and stopping with an abruptness that could not be misconstrued.
+
+One day John let his temper get away from him and bawled Klem out in his
+most approved fashion.
+
+"Here's your five, Mr. Evers," said Klem, handing him a five dollar bill,
+"and now you are fined $25."
+
+"And it was worth it," answered Evers, "to bawl you out."
+
+Next comes the O'Day type, and there is only one of them, "Hank." He is
+the stubborn kind--or perhaps _was_ the stubborn kind, would be better, as
+he is now a manager. He is bull-headed. If a manager gets after him for a
+decision, he is likely to go up in the air and, not meaning to do it, call
+close ones against the club that has made the kick, for it must be
+remembered that umpires are only "poor weak mortals after all." O'Day has
+to be handled with shock absorbers. McGraw tries to do it, but shock
+absorbers do not fit him well, and the first thing that usually occurs is
+a row.
+
+"Let me do the kicking, boys," McGraw always warns his players before a
+contest that O'Day is going to umpire. He does not want to see any of his
+men put out of the game.
+
+"Bill" Dahlen always got on O'Day's nerves by calling him "Henry." For
+some reason, O'Day does not like the name, and "Bill" Dahlen discovered
+long ago the most irritating inflection to give it so that it would rasp
+on O'Day's ears. He does not mind "Hank" and is not a "Mister" umpire. But
+every time Dahlen would call O'Day "Henry" it was the cold shower and the
+civilian's clothes for his.
+
+Dahlen was playing in St. Louis many years ago when the race track was
+right opposite the ball park. "Bill" had a preference in one of the later
+races one day and was anxious to get across the street and make a little
+bet. He had obtained a leave of absence on two preceding days by calling
+O'Day "Henry" and had lost money on the horses he had selected as fleet of
+foot. But this last time he had a "sure thing" and was banking on some
+positive information which had been slipped to him by a friend of the
+friend of the man who owned the winner, and "Bill" wanted to be there.
+Along about the fifth inning, "Bill" figured that it was time for him to
+get a start, so he walked up to O'Day and said:
+
+"Henry, do you know who won the first race?"
+
+"No, and you won't either, Mr. Dahlen," answered "Hank." "You are fined
+$25, and you stay here and play the game out."
+
+Some one had tipped "Hank" off. And the saddest part of the story is that
+"Bill's" horse walked home, and he could not get a bet down on him.
+
+"First time it ever failed to work," groaned "Bill" in the hotel that
+night, "and I said 'Henry' in my meanest way, too."
+
+Most clubs try to keep an umpire from feeling hostile toward the team
+because, even if he means to see a play right, he is likely to call a
+close one against his enemies, not intending to be dishonest. It would
+simply mean that you would not get any close ones from him, and the close
+ones count. Some umpires can be reasoned with, and a good fair protest
+will often make a man think perhaps he has called it wrong, and he will
+give you the edge on the next decision. A player must understand an umpire
+to know how to approach him to the best advantage. O'Day cannot be
+reasoned with. It is as dangerous to argue with him as it is to try to
+ascertain how much gasoline is in the tank of an automobile by sticking
+down the lighted end of a cigar or a cigarette.
+
+Emslie will listen to a reasonable argument. He is one of the finest
+umpires that ever broke into the League, I think. He is a good fellow. Far
+be it from me to be disloyal to my manager, for I think that he is the
+greatest that ever won a pennant, but Emslie put one over on McGraw in
+1911 when it was being said that Emslie was getting so old he could not
+see a play.
+
+"I'll bet," said McGraw to him one day after he had called one against the
+Giants, "that I can put a baseball and an orange on second base, and you
+can't tell the difference standing at the home plate, Bob."
+
+Emslie made no reply right then, but when the eye test for umpires was
+established by Mr. Lynch, the president of the League, "Bob" passed it at
+the head of the list and then turned around and went up to Chatham in
+Ontario, Canada, and made a high score with the rifle in a shooting match
+up there. After he had done that, he was umpiring at the Polo Grounds one
+day.
+
+"Want to take me on for a shooting go, John?" he asked McGraw as he passed
+him.
+
+"No, Bob, you're all right. I give it to you," answered McGraw, who had
+long forgotten his slur on Emslie's eyesight.
+
+Emslie is the sort of umpire who rules by the bond of good fellowship
+rather than by the voice of authority. "Old Bob" has one "groove" and it
+is a personal matter about which he is very sensitive. He is under cover.
+It is no secret, or I would not give way on him. But that luxuriant growth
+of hair, apparent, comes off at night like his collar and necktie. It used
+to be quite the fad in the League to "josh" "Bob" about his wig, but that
+pastime has sort of died out now because he has proven himself to be such
+a good fellow.
+
+I had to laugh to myself, and not boisterously, in the season of 1911 when
+Mr. Lynch appointed "Jack" Doyle, formerly a first baseman and a
+hot-headed player, an umpire and scheduled him to work with Emslie. I
+remembered the time several seasons ago when Doyle took offence at one of
+"Bob's" decisions and wrestled him all over the infield trying to get his
+wig off and show him up before the crowd. And then Emslie and he worked
+together like Damon and Pythias. This business makes strange bed-fellows.
+
+Emslie was umpiring in New York one day in the season of 1909, when the
+Giants were playing St. Louis. A wild pitch hit Emslie over the heart and
+he wilted down, unconscious. The players gathered around him, and
+Bresnahan, who was catching for St. Louis at the time, started to help
+"Bob." Suddenly the old umpire came to and began to fight off his
+first-aid-to-the-injured corps. No one could understand his attitude as he
+struggled to his feet and strolled away by himself, staggering a little
+and apparently dizzy. At last he came back and gamely finished the
+business of the day. I never knew why he fought with the men who were
+trying to help him until several weeks later, when we were playing in
+Pittsburg. As I came out from under the stand on my way to the bench,
+Emslie happened to be making his entrance at the same time.
+
+"Say, Matty," he asked me, "that time in New York did my wig come off? Did
+Bresnahan take my wig off?"
+
+"No, Bob," I replied, "he was only trying to help you."
+
+"I thought maybe he took it off while I was down and out and showed me up
+before the crowd," he apologized.
+
+"Listen, Bob," I said. "I don't believe there is a player in either League
+who would do that, and, if any youngster tried it now, he would probably
+be licked."
+
+"I'm glad to hear you say that, Matty," answered the old man, as he picked
+up his wind pad and prepared to go to work. And he called more bad ones on
+me that day than he ever had in his life before, but I never mentioned the
+wig to him.
+
+Most umpires declare they have off days just like players, when they know
+that they are making mistakes and cannot help it. If a pitcher of Mordecai
+Brown's kind, who depends largely on his control for his effectiveness,
+happens to run up against an umpire with a bad day, he might just as well
+go back to the bench. Brown is a great man to work the corners of the
+plate, and if the umpire is missing strikes, he is forced to lay the ball
+over and then the batters whang it out. Johnstone had an off day in
+Chicago in 1911, when Brown was working.
+
+"What's the use of my tryin' to pitch, Jim," said Brown, throwing down his
+glove and walking to the bench disgusted, "if you don't know a strike when
+you see one?"
+
+Sometimes an umpire who has been good will go into a long slump when he
+cannot call things right and knows it. Men like that get as discouraged as
+a pitcher who goes bad. There used to be one in the National League who
+was a pretty fair umpire when he started and seemed to be getting along
+fine until he hit one of those slumps. Then he began calling everything
+wrong and knew it. At last he quit, and the next time I saw him was in
+Philadelphia in the 1911 world's series. He was a policeman.
+
+"Hello, Matty," he shouted at me as we were going into Shibe Park for the
+first game there. "I can call you by your first name now," and he waved
+his hand real friendly. The last conversation I had with that fellow,
+unless my recollection fails me entirely, was anything but friendly.
+
+Umpires have told me that sometimes they see a play one way and call it
+another, and, as soon as the decision is announced, they realize that
+they have called it wrong. This malady has put more than one umpire out. A
+man on the National League staff has informed me since, that he called a
+hit fair that was palpably two feet foul in one of the most important
+games ever played in baseball, when he saw the ball strike on foul ground.
+
+"I couldn't help saying 'Fair ball,'" declared this man, and he is one of
+the best in the National League. "Luckily," he added, "the team against
+which the decision went won the game."
+
+Many players assert that arbiters hold a personal grudge against certain
+men who have put up too strenuous kicks, and for that reason the wise ones
+are careful how they talk to umpires of this sort. Fred Tenney has said
+for a long time that Mr. Klem gives him a shade the worst of it on all
+close ones because he had a run in with that umpire one day when they came
+to blows. Tenney is a great man to pick out the good ones when at the bat,
+and Fred says that if he is up with a three and two count on him now, Klem
+is likely to call the next one a strike if it is close, not because he is
+dishonest, but because he has a certain personal prejudice which he
+cannot overcome. And the funny part about it is that Tenney does not hold
+this up against Klem.
+
+Humorous incidents are always occurring in connection with umpires. We
+were playing in Boston one day a few years ago, and the score was 3 to 0
+against the Giants in the ninth inning. Becker knocked a home run with two
+men on the bases, and it tied the count. With men on first and third bases
+and one out in the last half of the ninth, a Boston batter tapped one to
+Merkle which I thought he trapped, but Johnstone, the umpire, said he
+caught it on the fly. It was simplicity itself to double the runner up off
+first base who also thought Merkle had trapped the ball and had started
+for second. That retired the side, and we won the game in the twelfth
+inning, whereas Boston would have taken it in the ninth if Johnstone had
+said the ball was trapped instead of caught on the fly.
+
+It was a very hot day, and those extra three innings in the box knocked me
+out. I was sick for a week with stomach trouble afterwards and could not
+pitch in Chicago, where we made our next stop. That was a case of where a
+decision in my favor "made me sick."
+
+"Tim" Hurst, the old American League umpire, was one of the most
+picturesque judges that ever spun an indicator. He was the sort who would
+take a player at his word and fight him blow for blow. "Tim" was umpiring
+in Baltimore in the old days when there was a runner on first base.
+
+"The man started to steal," says "Tim." He was telling the story only the
+other day in McGraw's billiard room in New York, and it is better every
+time he does it. "As he left the bag he spiked the first baseman and that
+player attempted to trip him. The second baseman blocked the runner and,
+in sliding into the bag, the latter tried to spike 'Hugh' Jennings, who
+was playing shortstop and covering, while Jennings sat on him to knock the
+wind out. The batter hit Robinson, who was catching, on the hands with his
+bat so that he couldn't throw, and 'Robbie' trod on my toes with his
+spikes and shoved his glove into my face so that I couldn't see to give
+the decision. It was one of the hardest that I have ever been called upon
+to make."
+
+"What did you do?" I asked him.
+
+"I punched 'Robbie' in the ribs, called it a foul and sent the runner
+back," replied "Tim."
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+The Game that Cost a Pennant
+
+     _The Championship of the National League was Decided in 1908 in One
+     Game between the Giants and Cubs--Few Fans Know that it Was Mr. Brush
+     who Induced the Disgruntled New York Players to Meet Chicago--This is
+     the "Inside" Story of the Famous Game, Including "Fred" Merkle's Part
+     in the Series of Events which Led up to it._
+
+
+The New York Giants and the Chicago Cubs played a game at the Polo Grounds
+on October 8, 1908, which decided the championship of the National League
+in one afternoon, which was responsible for the deaths of two spectators,
+who fell from the elevated railroad structure overlooking the grounds,
+which made Fred Merkle famous for not touching second, which caused
+lifelong friends to become bitter enemies, and which, altogether, was the
+most dramatic and important contest in the history of baseball. It stands
+out from every-day events like the battle of Waterloo and the
+assassination of President Lincoln. It was a baseball tragedy from a New
+York point of view. The Cubs won by the score of 4 to 2.
+
+Behind this game is some "inside" history that has never been written. Few
+persons, outside of the members of the New York club, know that it was
+only after a great deal of consultation the game was finally played, only
+after the urging of John T. Brush, the president of the club. The Giants
+were risking, in one afternoon, their chances of winning the pennant and
+the world's series--the concentration of their hopes of a season--because
+the Cubs claimed the right on a technicality to play this one game for the
+championship. Many members of the New York club felt that it would be
+fighting for what they had already won, as did their supporters. This made
+bad feeling between the teams and between the spectators, until the whole
+dramatic situation leading up to the famous game culminated in the climax
+of that afternoon. The nerves of the players were rasped raw with the
+strain, and the town wore a fringe of nervous prostration. It all burst
+forth in the game.
+
+Among other things, Frank Chance, the manager of the Cubs, had a cartilage
+in his neck broken when some rooter hit him with a handy pop bottle,
+several spectators hurt one another when they switched from conversational
+to fistic arguments, large portions of the fence at the Polo Grounds were
+broken down by patrons who insisted on gaining entrance, and most of the
+police of New York were present to keep order. They had their clubs
+unlimbered, too, acting more as if on strike duty than restraining the
+spectators at a pleasure park. Last of all, that night, after we had lost
+the game, the report filtered through New York that Fred Merkle, then a
+youngster and around whom the whole situation revolved, had committed
+suicide. Of course it was not true, for Merkle is one of the gamest
+ball-players that ever lived.
+
+My part in the game was small. I started to pitch and I didn't finish. The
+Cubs beat me because I never had less on the ball in my life. What I can't
+understand to this day is why it took them so long to hit me. Frequently
+it has been said that "Cy" Seymour started the Cubs on their victorious
+way and lost the game, because he misjudged a long hit jostled to centre
+field by "Joe" Tinker at the beginning of the third inning, in which
+chapter they made four runs. The hit went for three bases.
+
+Seymour, playing centre field, had a bad background against which to judge
+fly balls that afternoon, facing the shadows of the towering stand, with
+the uncertain horizon formed by persons perched on the roof. A baseball
+writer has said that, when Tinker came to the bat in that fatal inning, I
+turned in the box and motioned Seymour back, and instead of obeying
+instructions he crept a few steps closer to the infield. I don't recall
+giving any advice to "Cy," as he knew the Chicago batters as well as I did
+and how to play for them.
+
+Tinker, with his long bat, swung on a ball intended to be a low curve over
+the outside corner of the plate, but it failed to break well. He pushed
+out a high fly to centre field, and I turned with the ball to see Seymour
+take a couple of steps toward the diamond, evidently thinking it would
+drop somewhere behind second base. He appeared to be uncertain in his
+judgment of the hit until he suddenly turned and started to run back. That
+must have been when the ball cleared the roof of the stand and was visible
+above the sky line. He ran wildly. Once he turned, and then ran on again,
+at last sticking up his hands and having the ball fall just beyond them.
+He chased it and picked it up, but Tinker had reached third base by that
+time. If he had let the ball roll into the crowd in centre field, the Cub
+could have made only two bases on the hit, according to the ground rules.
+That was a mistake, but it made little difference in the end.
+
+All the players, both the Cubs and the Giants, were under a terrific
+strain that day, and Seymour, in his anxiety to be sure to catch the ball,
+misjudged it. Did you ever stand out in the field at a ball park with
+thirty thousand crazy, shouting fans looking at you and watch a ball climb
+and climb into the air and have to make up your mind exactly where it is
+going to land and then have to be there, when it arrived, to greet it,
+realizing all the time that if you are not there you are going to be
+everlastingly roasted? It is no cure for nervous diseases, that
+situation. Probably forty-nine times out of fifty Seymour would have
+caught the fly.
+
+"I misjudged that ball," said "Cy" to me in the clubhouse after the game.
+"I'll take the blame for it."
+
+He accepted all the abuse the newspapers handed him without a murmur and I
+don't think myself that it was more than an incident in the game. I'll try
+to show later in this story where the real "break" came.
+
+Just one mistake, made by "Fred" Merkle, resulted in this play-off game.
+Several newspaper men have called September 23, 1908, "Merkle Day,"
+because it was on that day he ran to the clubhouse from first base instead
+of by way of second, when "Al" Bridwell whacked out the hit that
+apparently won the game from the Cubs. Any other player on the team would
+have undoubtedly done the same thing under the circumstances, as the
+custom had been in vogue all around the circuit during the season. It was
+simply Fred Merkle's misfortune to have been on first base at the critical
+moment. The situation which gave rise to the incident is well known to
+every follower of baseball. Merkle, as a pinch hitter, had singled with
+two out in the ninth inning and the score tied, sending McCormick from
+first base to third. "Al" Bridwell came up to the bat and smashed a single
+to centre field. McCormick crossed the plate, and that, according to the
+customs of the League, ended the game, so Merkle dug for the clubhouse.
+Evers and Tinker ran through the crowd which had flocked on the field and
+got the ball, touching second and claiming that Merkle had been forced out
+there.
+
+Most of the spectators did not understand the play, as Merkle was under
+the shower bath when the alleged put-out was made, but they started after
+"Hank" O'Day, the umpire, to be on the safe side. He made a speedy
+departure under the grand-stand and the crowd got the put-out unassisted.
+Finally, while somewhere near Coogan's Bluff, he called Merkle out and the
+score a tie. When the boys heard this in the clubhouse, they laughed, for
+it didn't seem like a situation to be taken seriously. But it turned out
+to be one of those things that the farther it goes the more serious it
+becomes.
+
+"Connie" Mack, the manager of the Athletics, says:
+
+"There is no luck in Big League baseball. In a schedule of one hundred and
+fifty-four games, the lucky and unlucky plays break about even, except in
+the matter of injuries."
+
+But Mack's theory does not include a schedule of one hundred and
+fifty-five games, with the result depending on the one hundred and
+fifty-fifth. Chicago had a lot of injured athletes early in the season of
+1908, and the Giants had shot out ahead in the race in grand style. In the
+meantime the Cubs' cripples began to recuperate, and that lamentable event
+on September 23 seemed to be the turning-point in the Giants' fortunes.
+
+Almost within a week afterwards, Bresnahan had an attack of sciatic
+rheumatism and "Mike" Donlin was limping about the outfield, leading a
+great case of "Charley horse." Tenney was bandaged from his waist down and
+should have been wearing crutches instead of playing first base on a Big
+League club. Doyle was badly spiked and in the hospital. McGraw's daily
+greeting to his athletes when he came to the park was:
+
+"How are the cripples? Any more to add to the list of identified dead
+to-day?"
+
+Merkle moped. He lost flesh, and time after time begged McGraw to send him
+to a minor league or to turn him loose altogether.
+
+"It wasn't your fault," was the regular response of the manager who makes
+it a habit to stand by his men.
+
+We played on with the cripples, many double-headers costing the pitchers
+extra effort, and McGraw not daring to take a chance on losing a game if
+there were any opportunity to win it. He could not rest any of his men.
+Merkle lost weight and seldom spoke to the other players as the Cubs crept
+up on us day after day and more men were hurt. He felt that he was
+responsible for this change in the luck of the club. None of the players
+felt this way toward him, and many tried to cheer him up, but he was
+inconsolable. The team went over to Philadelphia, and Coveleski, the
+pitcher we later drove out of the League, beat us three times, winning the
+last game by the scantiest of margins. The result of that series left us
+three to play with Boston to tie the Cubs if they won from Pittsburg the
+next day, Sunday. If the Pirates had taken that Sunday game, it would
+have given them the pennant. We returned to New York on Saturday night
+very much downhearted.
+
+"Lose me. I'm the jinx," Merkle begged McGraw that night.
+
+"You stick," replied the manager.
+
+While we had been losing, the Cubs had been coming fast. It seemed as if
+they could not drop a game. At last Cincinnati beat them one, which was
+the only thing that made the famous season tie possible. There is an
+interesting anecdote connected with that Cincinnati contest which goes to
+prove the honesty of baseball. Two of the closest friends in the game are
+"Hans" Lobert, then with the Reds, and Overall, the former Chicago
+pitcher. It looked as if Chicago had the important game won up to the
+ninth inning when Lobert came to the bat with two men out and two on the
+bases. Here he had a chance to overcome the lead of one run which the Cubs
+had gained, and win the contest for the home club, but he would beat his
+best friend and maybe put the Cubs out of the running for the pennant.
+
+Lobert had two balls and two strikes when he smashed the next pitch to
+center field, scoring both the base runners. The hit came near beating the
+Cubs out of the championship. It would have if we had taken one of those
+close games against Philadelphia. Lobert was broken-hearted over his hit,
+for he wanted the Cubs to win. On his way to the clubhouse, he walked with
+Overall, the two striding side by side like a couple of mourners.
+
+"I'm sorry, 'Orvie,'" said Lobert. "I would not have made that hit for my
+year's salary if I could have helped it."
+
+"That's all right, 'Hans,'" returned Overall. "It's all part of the
+game."
+
+Next came the famous game in Chicago on Sunday between the Cubs and the
+Pittsburg Pirates, when a victory for the latter club would have meant the
+pennant and the big game would never have been played. Ten thousand
+persons crowded into the Polo Grounds that Sunday afternoon and watched a
+little electric score board which showed the plays as made in Chicago. For
+the first time in my life I heard a New York crowd cheering the Cubs with
+great fervor, for on their victory hung our only chances of ultimate
+success. The same man who was shouting himself hoarse for the Cubs that
+afternoon was for taking a vote on the desirability of poisoning the whole
+Chicago team on the following Thursday. Even the New York players were
+rooting for the Cubs.
+
+The Chicago team at last won the game when Clarke was called out at third
+base on a close play, late in the contest. With the decision, the Pirates'
+last chance went glimmering. The Giants now had three games to win from
+Boston on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, to make the deciding game on
+Thursday necessary. We won those, and the stage was cleared for the big
+number.
+
+The National Commission gave the New York club the option of playing three
+games out of five for the championship or risking it all on one contest.
+As more than half of the club was tottering on the brink of the hospital,
+it was decided that all hope should be hung on one game. By this time,
+Merkle had lost twenty pounds, and his eyes were hollow and his cheeks
+sunken. The newspapers showed him no mercy, and the fans never failed to
+criticise and hiss him when he appeared on the field. He stuck to it and
+showed up in the ball park every day, putting on his uniform and
+practising. It was a game thing to do. A lot of men, under the same fire,
+would have quit cold. McGraw was with him all the way.
+
+But it was not until after considerable discussion that it was decided to
+play that game. All the men felt disgruntled because they believed they
+would be playing for something they had already won. Even McGraw was so
+wrought up, he said in the clubhouse the night before the game:
+
+"I don't care whether you fellows play this game or not. You can take a
+vote."
+
+A vote was taken, and the players were not unanimous, some protesting it
+ought to be put up to the League directors so that, if they wanted to rob
+the team of a pennant, they would have to take the blame. Others insisted
+it would look like quitting, and it was finally decided to appoint a
+committee to call upon Mr. Brush, the president of the club, who was ill
+in bed in the Lambs club at the time. Devlin, Bresnahan, Donlin, Tenney,
+and I were on that committee.
+
+"Mr. Brush," I said to my employer, having been appointed the spokesman,
+"McGraw has left it up to us to decide whether we shall meet the Chicago
+team for the championship of the National League to-morrow. A lot of the
+boys do not believe we ought to be forced to play over again for something
+we have already won, so the players have appointed this committee of five
+to consult with you and get your opinion on the subject. What we decide
+goes with them."
+
+Mr. Brush looked surprised. I was nervous, more so than when I am in the
+box with three on the bases and "Joe" Tinker at the bat. Bresnahan fumbled
+with his hat, and Devlin coughed. Tenney leaned more heavily on his cane,
+and Donlin blew his nose. We five big athletes were embarrassed in the
+presence of this sick man. Suddenly it struck us all at the same time that
+the game would have to be played to keep ourselves square with our own
+ideas of courage. Even if the Cubs had claimed it on a technicality, even
+if we had really won the pennant once, that game had to be played now. We
+all saw that, and it was this thin, ill man in bed who made us see it even
+before he had said a word. It was the expression on his face. It seemed to
+say, "And I had confidence in you, boys, to do the right thing."
+
+"I'm going to leave it to you," he answered "You boys can play the game
+or put it up to the directors of the League to decide as you want. But I
+shouldn't think you would stop now after making all this fight."
+
+The committee called an executive session, and we all thought of the crowd
+of fans looking forward to the game and of what the newspapers would say
+if we refused to play it and of Mr. Brush lying there, the man who wanted
+us to play, and it was rapidly and unanimously decided to imitate "Steve"
+Brodie and take a chance.
+
+"We'll play," I said to Mr. Brush.
+
+"I'm glad," he answered. "And, say, boys," he added, as we started to file
+out, "I want to tell you something. Win or lose, I'm going to give the
+players a bonus of $10,000."
+
+That night was a wild one in New York. The air crackled with excitement
+and baseball. I went home, but couldn't sleep for I live near the Polo
+Grounds, and the crowd began to gather there early in the evening of the
+day before the game to be ready for the opening of the gates the next
+morning. They tooted horns all night, and were never still. When I
+reported at the ball park, the gates had been closed by order of the
+National Commission, but the streets for blocks around the Polo Grounds
+were jammed with persons fighting to get to the entrances.
+
+The players in the clubhouse had little to say to one another, but, after
+the bandages were adjusted, McGraw called his men around him and said:
+
+"Chance will probably pitch Pfiester or Brown. If Pfiester works there is
+no use trying to steal. He won't give you any lead. The right-handed
+batters ought to wait him out and the left-handers hit him when he gets in
+a hole. Matty is going to pitch for us."
+
+Pfiester is a left-hand pitcher who watches the bases closely.
+
+Merkle had reported at the clubhouse as usual and had put on his uniform.
+He hung on the edge of the group as McGraw spoke, and then we all went to
+the field. It was hard for us to play that game with the crowd which was
+there, but harder for the Cubs. In one place, the fence was broken down,
+and some employees were playing a stream of water from a fire hose on the
+cavity to keep the crowd back. Many preferred a ducking to missing the
+game and ran through the stream to the lines around the field. A string
+of fans recklessly straddled the roof of the old grand-stand.
+
+Every once in a while some group would break through the restraining ropes
+and scurry across the diamond to what appeared to be a better point of
+vantage. This would let a throng loose which hurried one way and another
+and mixed in with the players. More police had to be summoned. As I
+watched that half-wild multitude before the contest, I could think of
+three or four things I would rather do than umpire the game.
+
+I had rested my arm four days, not having pitched in the Boston series,
+and I felt that it should be in pretty good condition. Before that
+respite, I had been in nine out of fifteen games. But as I started to warm
+up, the ball refused to break. I couldn't get anything on it.
+
+"What's the matter, Rog?" I asked Bresnahan. "They won't break for me."
+
+"It'll come as you start to work," he replied, although I could see that
+he, too, was worried.
+
+John M. Ward, the old ball-player and now one of the owners of the Boston
+National League club, has told me since that, after working almost every
+day as I had been doing, it does a pitcher's arm no good to lay off for
+three or four days. Only a week or ten days will accomplish any results.
+It would have been better for me to continue to work as often as I had
+been doing, for the short rest only seemed to deaden my arm.
+
+The crowd that day was inflammable. The players caught this incendiary
+spirit. McGinnity, batting out to our infield in practice, insisted on
+driving Chance away from the plate before the Cubs' leader thought his
+team had had its full share of the batting rehearsal. "Joe" shoved him a
+little, and in a minute fists were flying, although Chance and McGinnity
+are very good friends off the field.
+
+Fights immediately started all around in the stands. I remember seeing two
+men roll from the top to the bottom of the right-field bleachers, over the
+heads of the rest of the spectators. And they were yanked to their feet
+and run out of the park by the police.
+
+"Too bad," I said to Bresnahan, nodding my head toward the departing
+belligerents, "they couldn't have waited until they saw the game, anyway.
+I'll bet they stood outside the park all night to get in, only to be run
+out before it started."
+
+I forgot the crowd, forgot the fights, and didn't hear the howling after
+the game started. I knew only one thing, and that was my curved ball
+wouldn't break for me. It surprised me that the Cubs didn't hit it far,
+right away, but two of them fanned in the first inning and Herzog threw
+out Evers. Then came our first time at bat. Pfiester was plainly nervous
+and hit Tenney. Herzog walked and Bresnahan fanned out, Herzog being
+doubled up at second because he tried to advance on a short passed ball.
+"Mike" Donlin whisked a double to right field and Tenney counted.
+
+For the first time in almost a month, Merkle smiled. He was drawn up in
+the corner of the bench, pulling away from the rest of us as if he had
+some contagious disease and was quarantined. For a minute it looked as if
+we had them going. Chance yanked Pfiester out of the box with him
+protesting that he had been robbed on the decisions on balls and strikes.
+Brown was brought into the game and fanned Devlin. That ended the inning.
+
+We never had a chance against Brown. His curve was breaking sharply, and
+his control was microscopic. We went back to the field in the second with
+that one run lead. Chance made the first hit of the game off me in the
+second, but I caught him sleeping at first base, according to Klem's
+decision. There was a kick, and Hofman, joining in the chorus of protests,
+was sent to the clubhouse.
+
+Tinker started the third with that memorable triple which gave the Cubs
+their chance. I couldn't make my curve break. I didn't have anything on
+the ball.
+
+"Rog," I said to Bresnahan, "I haven't got anything to-day."
+
+"Keep at it, Matty," he replied. "We'll get them all right."
+
+I looked in at the bench, and McGraw signalled me to go on pitching. Kling
+singled and scored Tinker. Brown sacrificed, sending Kling to second, and
+Sheckard flied out to Seymour, Kling being held on second base. I lost
+Evers, because I was afraid to put the ball over the plate for him, and he
+walked. Two were out now, and we had yet a chance to win the game as the
+score was only tied. But Schulte doubled, and Kling scored, leaving men
+on second and third bases. Still we had a Mongolian's chance with them
+only one run ahead of us. Frank Chance, with his under jaw set like the
+fender on a trolley car, caught a curved ball over the inside corner of
+the plate and pushed it to right field for two bases. That was the most
+remarkable batting performance I have ever witnessed since I have been in
+the Big Leagues. A right-handed hitter naturally slaps a ball over the
+outside edge of the plate to right field, but Chance pushed this one, on
+the inside, with the handle of his bat, just over Tenney's hands and on
+into the crowd. The hit scored Evers and Schulte and dissolved the game
+right there. It was the "break." Steinfeldt fanned.
+
+None of the players spoke to one another as they went to the bench. Even
+McGraw was silent. We knew it was gone. Merkle was drawn up behind the
+water cooler. Once he said:
+
+"It was my fault, boys."
+
+No one answered him. Inning after inning, our batters were mowed down by
+the great pitching of Brown, who was never better. His control of his
+curved ball was marvellous, and he had all his speed. As the innings
+dragged by, the spectators lost heart, and the cowbells ceased to jingle,
+and the cheering lost its resonant ring. It was now a surly growl.
+
+Then the seventh! We had our one glimmer of sunshine. Devlin started with
+a single to centre, and McCormick shoved a drive to right field. Recalling
+that Bridwell was more or less of a pinch hitter, Brown passed him
+purposely and Doyle was sent to the bat in my place. As he hobbled to the
+plate on his weak foot, said McGraw:
+
+"Hit one, Larry."
+
+The crowd broke into cheers again and was stamping its feet. The bases
+were full, and no one was out. Then Doyle popped up a weak foul behind the
+catcher. His batting eye was dim and rusty through long disuse. Kling went
+back for it, and some one threw a pop bottle which narrowly missed him,
+and another scaled a cushion. But Kling kept on and got what he went
+after, which was the ball. He has a habit of doing that. Tenney flied to
+Schulte, counting Devlin on the catch, and Tinker threw out Herzog. The
+game was gone. Never again did we have a chance.
+
+It was a glum lot of players in the clubhouse. Merkle came up to McGraw
+and said:
+
+"Mac, I've lost you one pennant. Fire me before I can do any more harm."
+
+"Fire you?" replied McGraw. "We ran the wrong way of the track to-day.
+That's all. Next year is another season, and do you think I'm going to let
+you go after the gameness you've shown through all this abuse? Why you're
+the kind of a guy I've been lookin' for many years. I could use a carload
+like you. Forget this season and come around next spring. The newspapers
+will have forgotten it all then. Good-by, boys." And he slipped out of the
+clubhouse.
+
+"He's a regular guy," said Merkle.
+
+Merkle has lived down that failure to touch second and proved himself to
+be one of the gamest players that ever stood in a diamond. Many times
+since has he vindicated himself. He is a great first baseman now, and
+McGraw and he are close friends. That is the "inside" story of the most
+important game ever played in baseball and Merkle's connection with it.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+When the Teams Are in Spring Training
+
+     _The Hardships of the Preliminary Practice in Limbering up Muscles
+     and Reducing Weight for the Big Campaign--How a Ball Club is Whipped
+     into Playing Shape--Trips to the South Not the Picnics they Seem to
+     Be--The Battle of the Bushers to Stay in the Big Show--Making a
+     Pitcher--Some Fun on the Side, including the Adventure of the Turkish
+     Bath._
+
+
+Spring training! The words probably remind the reader of the sunny South
+and light exercise and good food and rubs and other luxuries, but the
+reader perhaps has never been with a Big League ball club when it is
+getting ready to go into a six months' campaign.
+
+All I can ever remember after a training trip is taking off and putting on
+a uniform, and running around the ball park under the inspiration of John
+McGraw, and he is some inspirer.
+
+The heavier a man gets through the winter, the harder the routine work is
+for him, and a few years ago I almost broke down and cried out of sympathy
+for Otis Crandall, who arrived in camp very corpulent.
+
+"What have you been doing this winter, Otie?" McGraw asked him after
+shaking hands in greeting, "appearing with a show as the stout lady?
+You'll have to take a lot of that off."
+
+"Taking it off" meant running several miles every day so bundled up that
+the Indiana agriculturist looked like the pictures published of "Old Doc"
+Cook which showed him discovering the north pole. Ever since, Crandall's
+spring training, like charity, has begun at home, and he takes exercise
+night and morning throughout the winter, so that when he comes into camp
+his weight will be somewhere near normal. In 1911 he had the best year of
+his career. He is the type of man who cannot afford to carry too much
+weight. He is stronger when he is slimmer.
+
+In contrast to him is George Wiltse, who maps out a training course with
+the idea of adding several pounds, as he is better with all the real
+weight he can put on. By that I do not mean any fat.
+
+George came whirling and spinning and waltzing and turkey-trotting and
+pirouetting across the field at Marlin Springs, Texas, the Giants' spring
+training headquarters, one day in the spring of 1911, developing steps
+that would have ruled him off any cotillion floor in New York in the days
+of the ban on the grizzly bear and kindred dances. Suddenly he dove down
+with his left hand and reached as far as he could.
+
+"What's that one, George?" I yelled as he passed me.
+
+"Getting ready to cover first base on a slow hit, Matty," he replied, and
+was off on another series of hand springs that made him look more like a
+contortionist rehearsing for an act which he was going to take out for the
+"big time" than a ball-player getting ready for the season.
+
+But perhaps some close followers of baseball statistics will recall a game
+that Wiltse took from the Cubs in 1911 by a wonderful one-hand reaching
+catch of a low throw to first base. Two Chicago runners were on the bags
+at the time and the loss of that throw would have meant that they both
+scored. Wiltse caught the ball, and it made the third out, and the Giants
+won the game. Thousands of fans applauded the catch, but the play was not
+the result of the exigencies of the moment. It was the outcome of
+forethought used months before.
+
+Spectators at ball games who wonder at the marvellous fielding of Wiltse
+should watch him getting ready during the spring season at Marlin. He is a
+tireless worker, and when he is not pitching he is doing hand springs and
+other acrobatic acts to limber up all his muscles. It is torture then, but
+it pays in the end.
+
+When I was a young fellow and read about the Big League clubs going South,
+I used to think what a grand life that must be. Riding in Pullmans, some
+pleasant exercise which did not entail the responsibility of a ball game,
+and plenty of food, with a little social recreation, were all parts of my
+dream. A young ball-player looks on his first spring training trip as a
+stage-struck young woman regards the theatre. She cannot wait for her
+first rehearsal, and she thinks only of the lobster suppers and the
+applause and the lights and the life, but nowhere in her dream is there a
+place for the raucous voice of the stage manager and the long jumps of
+"one night stands" with the loss of sleep and the poor meals and the cold
+dressing rooms. As actors begin to dread the drudgery of rehearsing, so do
+baseball men detest the drill of the spring training. The only thing that
+I can think of right away which is more tiresome and less interesting is
+signal practice with a college football team.
+
+About the time that the sap starts up in the trees and the young man's
+fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love and baseball, the big trek starts.
+Five hundred ball-players, attached more or less firmly to sixteen major
+league clubs, spread themselves out over the southern part of the United
+States, from Florida to California, and begin to prepare for the campaign
+that is to furnish the answer to that annual question, "Which is the best
+baseball club in the world?"
+
+In the case of the Giants, McGraw, with a flock of youngsters, has already
+arrived when the older men begin to drift into camp. The youngsters, who
+have come from the bushes and realize that this is their one big chance to
+make good, to be a success or a failure in their chosen profession--in
+short, to become a Big Leaguer or go back to the bushes for good--have
+already been working for ten days and are in fair shape. They stare at
+the regulars as the veterans straggle in by twos and threes, and McGraw
+has a brief greeting for each. He could use a rubber stamp.
+
+"How are you, Matty? What kind of shape are you in? Let's see you in a
+uniform at nine o'clock to-morrow morning."
+
+When I first start South, for the spring trip, after shivering through a
+New York winter, I arouse myself to some enthusiasm over the prospect, but
+all this has evaporated after listening to that terse speech from McGraw,
+for I know what it means. Nothing looms on the horizon but the hardest
+five weeks' grind in the world.
+
+The next day the practice begins, and for the first time in five months, a
+uniform is donned. I usually start my work by limbering up slowly, and on
+the first day I do not pitch at all. With several other players, I help to
+form a large circle and the time is spent in throwing the ball at
+impossible and unreachable points in the anatomy. The man next to you
+shoots one away up over your head and the next one at your feet and off to
+the side while he is looking at the third man from you. This is great for
+limbering up, but the loosening is torture. After about fifteen minutes
+of that, the winter-logged player goes over on the bench and drops down
+exhausted. But does he stay there? Not if McGraw sees him, and he is one
+of the busiest watchers I have ever met.
+
+"Here, Matty," he will shout, "lead this squad three times around the park
+and be careful not to cut the corners."
+
+By the time that little formality is finished, a man's tongue is hanging
+out and he goes to get a drink of water. The spring training is just one
+darned drink after another and still the player is always thirsty.
+
+After three hours of practice, McGraw may say:
+
+"All right, Matty. Go back to the hotel and get a bath and a rub and cut
+it out for to-day."
+
+Or he may remark:
+
+"You're looking heavy this year. Better take another little workout this
+afternoon."
+
+And so ends the first day. That night I flex the muscles in my salary wing
+and wonder to myself if it is going to be _very_ sore. I get the answer
+next day. And what always makes me maddest is that the fans up North
+imagine that we are having some kind of a picnic in Marlin Springs,
+Texas. My idea of no setting for a pleasure party is Marlin Springs,
+Texas.
+
+
+[Illustration: Photo by L. Van Oeyen, Cleveland, Ohio
+
+Close Play at the Plate
+
+This picture illustrates how easily the base runner, with his deceptive
+slide, can get away from the catcher, who has the ball waiting for him. It
+is always a hard decision for the umpire. Shown in the picture are, left
+to right, Conroy of Washington, Umpire Evans, and Catcher Land of
+Cleveland.]
+
+
+The morning of the second day is always a pleasant occasion. The muscles
+which have remained idle so long begin to rebel at the unaccustomed
+exercise, and the players are as pleasant as a flock of full-grown grizzly
+bears. I would not be a waiter for a ball club on a spring tour if they
+offered me a contract with a salary as large as J. P. Morgan's income.
+
+Each year the winter kinks seem to have settled into the muscles more
+permanently and are harder to iron out. Of course, there comes a last time
+for each one of us to go South, and every season I think, on the morning
+of the second day, when I try to work my muscles, that this one is my
+last.
+
+The bushers lend variety to the life in a spring camp. Many of them try
+hard to "horn in" with the men who have made good as Big Leaguers. When a
+young player really seems to want to know something, any of the older men
+will gladly help him, but the trouble with most of them is that they think
+they are wonders when they arrive.
+
+"How do you hold a curve?" a young fellow asked me last spring.
+
+I showed him.
+
+"Do you think Hans Wagner is as good as Ty Cobb?" he asked me next.
+
+"Listen!" I answered. "Did you come down here to learn to play ball or
+with the idea that you are attending some sort of a conversational
+soiree?"
+
+Many recruits think that, if they can get friendly with the veterans, they
+will be retained on account of their social standing, and I cannot "go"
+young ball-players who attempt to become the bootblacks for the old ones.
+
+I have seen many a youngster ruin himself, even for playing in the minors,
+through his too vigorous efforts to make good under the large tent. He
+will come into camp, and the first day out put everything he has on the
+ball to show the manager "he's got something." The Giants had a young
+pitcher with them in 1911, named Nagle, who tried to pick up the pace, on
+the first day in camp, at which he had left off on the closing day of the
+previous year. He started to shoot the ball over to the batters with big,
+sharp breaking curves on it. He had not been South three days before he
+developed a sore arm that required a sling to help him carry it around,
+and he never was able to twirl again before he was shunted back into the
+lesser leagues.
+
+But hope springs eternal in the breast of the bush leaguer in the spring,
+and many a young fellow, when he gets his send-off from the little, old
+home town, with the local band playing at the station, knows that the next
+time the populace of that place hears of him, it will be through seeing
+his name in the headlines of the New York papers. And then along about the
+middle of April, he comes sneaking back into the old burg, crestfallen and
+disappointed. There are a lot of humor and some pathos in a spring
+training trip. Many a busher I have seen go back who has tried hard to
+make good and just could not, and I have felt sorry for him. It is just
+like a man in any other business getting a chance at a better job than the
+one he is holding and not being big enough to fit it. It is the one time
+that opportunity has knocked, and most of the bush leaguers do not know
+the combination to open the door, and, as has been pointed out,
+opportunity was never charged with picking locks. Many are called in the
+spring, but few get past. Most of them are sincere young fellows, too,
+trying to make good, and I have seen them work until their tongues were
+hanging out and the perspiration was starting all over them, only to hear
+McGraw say:
+
+"I'm sorry, but you will have to go back again. I've let you out to
+Kankakee."
+
+"Steve Evans", who now plays right field on the St. Louis club, was South
+with the Giants one season and worked hard to stick. But McGraw had a lot
+of young out-fielders, and some minor league magnate from Montreal came
+into camp one day who liked "Steve's" action. McGraw started for the
+outfield where Evans was chasing flies and tried to get to "Steve," but
+every time the manager approached him with the minor league man, Evans
+would rush for a ball on another corner of the field, and he became
+suddenly hard of hearing. Finally McGraw abandoned the chase and let
+another out-fielder go to Montreal, retaining Evans.
+
+"Say, 'Steve,'" said "Mac," that night, "why didn't you come, when I
+called you out on the field there this afternoon?"
+
+"Because I could hear the rattle of the tin can you wanted to tie to me,
+all over the lot," replied Evans. And eventually, by that subtle dodging,
+he landed in the Big League under Bresnahan and has made good out there.
+
+I believe that a pitcher by profession has the hardest time of any of the
+specialists who go into a spring camp. His work is of a more routine
+nature than that which attaches to any of the other branches of the
+baseball art. It is nothing but a steady grind.
+
+The pitcher goes out each morning and gets a catcher with a big mitt and a
+loud voice and, with a couple of his fellow artists, starts to warm up
+with this slave-driver. The right sort of a catcher for spring rehearsing
+is never satisfied with anything you do. I never try to throw a curve for
+ten days at least after I get South, for a misplaced curve early in the
+season may give a man a sore arm for the greater part of the summer, and
+Big League clubs are not paying pitchers for wearing crippled whips.
+
+After warming up for an hour or so, three or four pitchers throw slow ones
+to a batter and try to get the ball on the half bounce and compete as to
+the number of fumbles. This is great for limbering up.
+
+Then comes the only real enjoyment of the day. It is quick in passing,
+like a piece of great scenery viewed out of the window of a railroad coach
+going sixty miles an hour. Each afternoon the regulars play the Yannigans
+(the spring name of the second team) a game of six innings, and each
+pitcher has a chance to work about one inning. The batters are away off
+form and are missing the old round-house curve by two feet that they would
+hit out of the lot in mid-season. This makes you think for a few minutes
+that you are a good pitcher. But there is even a drawback to this brief
+bit of enjoyment, for the diamond at Marlin is skinned--that is, made of
+dirt, although it is billed as a grass infield, and the ball gets "wingy."
+Little pieces of the cover are torn loose by contact with the rough dirt,
+and it is not at all like the hard, smooth, grass-stained ball that is
+prevalent around the circuit in mid-season. Grass seed has been planted on
+this infield, but so far, like a lot of bushers, it has failed to make
+good its promises.
+
+After that game comes the inevitable run around the park which has been a
+headliner in spring training ever since the institution was discovered. A
+story is told of "Cap" Anson and his famous old White Stockings.
+According to the reports I have heard, training with the "Cap" when he was
+right was no bed of roses. After hours of practice, he would lead the men
+in long runs, and the better he felt, the longer the runs. One hot day, so
+the story goes, Anson was toiling around the park, with his usual
+determination, at the head of a string of steaming, sweating players, when
+"Bill" Dahlen, a clever man at finding an opening, discovered a loose
+board in the fence on the back stretch, pulled it off, and dived through
+the hole. On the next lap two more tired athletes followed him, and at
+last the whole squad was on the other side of the fence, watching their
+leader run on tirelessly. But "Cap" must have missed the "plunk, plunk" of
+the footsteps behind him, for he looked around and saw that his players
+were gone. He kept grimly on, alone, until he had finished, and then he
+pushed his red face through the hole in the fence and saw his men.
+
+"Your turn now, boys," he said, and while he sat in the grand-stand as the
+sole spectator, he made that crowd of unfortunate athletes run around the
+track twice as many times as he himself had done.
+
+"Guess I won't have to nail up that hole in the fence, boys," "Cap"
+remarked when it was all over.
+
+Speaking of the influence of catchers on pitchers during the training
+trip, there is the well-known case of Wilbert Robinson, the old catcher,
+and "Rube" Marquard, the great left-handed pitcher of the Giants. "Robbie"
+devoted himself almost entirely in the spring of 1911 to the training of
+the then erratic "Rube," and he handed back to McGraw at the end of the
+rehearsal the man who turned out to be the premier pitcher of his League,
+according to the official figures, and figures are not in the habit of
+lying.
+
+"Robbie" used to take Marquard off into some corner every day and talk to
+him for hours. Draw up close, for I am going to tell you the secret of how
+Marquard became a great pitcher and that, too, at just about the time the
+papers were mentioning him as the "$11,000 lemon," and imploring McGraw to
+let him go to some club in exchange for a good capable bat boy.
+
+"Now 'Rube,'" would be "Robbie's" first line in the daily lecture, "you've
+got to start on the first ball to get the batter. Always have something
+on him and never let him have anything on you. This is the prescription
+for a great pitcher."
+
+One of the worst habits of Marquard's early days was to get a couple of
+strikes on a batter and then let up until he got himself "into a hole" and
+could not put the ball over. Robinson by his coaching gave him the
+confidence he lacked.
+
+"'Rube,' you've got a lot of stuff to-day," "Robbie" would advise, "but
+don't try to get it all on the ball. Mix it with a little control, and it
+will make a great blend. Now, this guy is a high ball hitter. Let's see
+you keep it low for him. He waits, so you will have to get it over."
+
+And out there in the hot Texas sun, with much advice and lots of patience,
+Wilbert Robinson was manufacturing a great pitcher out of the raw
+material. One of Marquard's worst faults, when he first broke into the
+League, was that he did not know the batters and their grooves, and these
+weaknesses Robinson drilled into his head--not that a drill was required
+to insert the information. Robinson was the coacher, umpire, catcher and
+batter rolled into one, and as a result look at the "Rube."
+
+When Marquard began to wabble a little toward the end of 1911 and to show
+some of his old shyness while the club was on its last trip West, Robinson
+hurried on to Chicago and worked with him for two days. The "Rube" had
+lost the first game of the series to the Cubs, but he turned around after
+Robinson joined us and beat them to death in the last contest.
+
+Pitchers, old and young, are always trying for new curves in the spring
+practice, and out of the South, wafted over the wires by the fertile
+imaginations of the flotilla of correspondents, drift tales each spring of
+the "fish" ball and the new "hook" jump and the "stop" ball and many more
+eccentric curves which usually boil down to modifications of the old ones.
+I worked for two weeks once on a new, slow, spit ball that would wabble,
+but the trouble was that I could never tell just when or where it was
+going to wabble, and so at last I had to abandon it because I could not
+control it.
+
+After sending out fake stories of new and wonderful curves for several
+years, at last the correspondents got a new one when the spit ball was
+first discovered by Stricklett, a Brooklyn pitcher, several seasons ago.
+One Chicago correspondent sent back to his paper a glowing tale of the
+wonderful new curve called the "spit ball," which was obtained by the use
+of saliva, only to get a wire from his office which read:
+
+"It's all right to 'fake' about new curves, but when it comes to being
+vulgar about it, that's going too far. Either drop that spit ball or mail
+us your resignation."
+
+The paper refused to print the story and a real new curve was born without
+its notice. As a matter of fact, Bowerman, the old Giant catcher, was
+throwing the spit ball for two or three years before it was discovered to
+be a pitching asset. He used to wet his fingers when catching, and as he
+threw to second base the ball would take all sorts of eccentric breaks
+which fooled the baseman, and none could explain why it did it until
+Stricklett came through with the spit ball.
+
+Many good pitchers, who feel their arms begin to weaken, work on certain
+freak motions or forms of delivery to make themselves more effective or
+draw out their baseball life in the Big Leagues for a year or two. A story
+is told of "Matty" Kilroy, a left-hander, who lived for two years through
+the development of what he called the "Bazzazaz" balk, and it had the
+same effect on his pitching as administering oxygen often has on a patient
+who is almost dead.
+
+"My old soup bone," says Kilroy, "was so weak that I couldn't break a pane
+of glass at fifty feet. So one winter I spent some time every day out in
+the back yard getting that balk motion down. I had a pretty fair balk
+motion when my arm was good, but I saw that it had to be better, so I put
+one stone in the yard for a home plate and another up against the fence
+for first base. Then I practised looking at the home plate stone and
+throwing at first base with a snap of the wrist and without moving my
+feet. It was stare steady at the batter, then the arm up to about my ear,
+and zip, with a twist of the wrist at first base, and you've got him!
+
+"I got so I could throw 'em harder to the bag with that wrist wriggle than
+I could to the batter, and I had them stickin' closer to the base for two
+years than a sixteen-year-old fellow does to his gal when they've just
+decided they would do for each other."
+
+As a rule McGraw takes charge of the batters and general team work at
+spring practice, and he is one of the busiest little persons in seven
+counties, for he says a lot depends on the start a club gets in a league
+race. He always wants the first jump because it is lots easier falling
+back than catching up.
+
+After a week or so of practice, the team is divided up into two squads,
+and one goes to San Antonio and the other to Houston each Saturday and
+Sunday to play games. One of the older men takes charge of the younger
+players, and there is a lot of rivalry between the two teams to see which
+one will make the better record, I remember one year I was handling the
+youngsters, and we went to Houston to play the team there and just managed
+to nose out a victory. McGraw thought that for the next Saturday he had
+better strengthen the Yannigans up a bit, so he sent Roger Bresnahan along
+to play third base instead of Henderson, the young fellow we had the week
+before. Playing third base could not exactly have been called a habit with
+"Rog" at that time. He was still pretty fat, and bending over quick after
+grounders was not his regular line. He booted two or three and finally
+managed to lose the game for us. We sent McGraw the following telegram
+that night:
+
+"John McGraw, manager of the Giants, San Antonio, Texas:
+
+"Will trade Bresnahan for Henderson. Rush answer."
+
+McGraw does not like to have any of his clubs beaten by the minor
+leaguers, because the bushers are inclined to imitate pouter pigeons right
+away after beating the Big Leaguers.
+
+The social side of a training trip consists of kicking about the grub,
+singing songs at night, and listening to the same old stories that creep
+out of the bushes on crutches year after year. Last spring the food got so
+bad that some of the newspaper men fixed up a fake story they said they
+were going to send to New York, displayed it to the proprietor, and he
+came through with beefsteak for three nights in succession, thus
+establishing a record and proving the power of the press. The trouble with
+the diet schedule on a spring trip is that almost invariably those hotels
+on the bush-league circuits serve dinner in the middle of the day, just
+when a ball-player does not feel like eating anything much. Then at night
+they have a pick-up supper when one's stomach feels as if it thought a
+fellow's throat had been cut.
+
+The Giants had an umpire with them in the spring of 1911, named Hansell,
+who enlivened the long, weary, training season some. Like a lot of the
+recruits who thought that they were great ball-players, this Hansell
+firmly believed he was a great umpire. He used to try to put players who
+did not agree with his decisions out of the game and, of course, they
+would not go.
+
+"Why don't you have them arrested if they won't leave?" McGraw asked him
+one day. "I would."
+
+So the next afternoon Hansell had a couple of the local constables out at
+the grounds and tried to have Devore pinched for kicking on a decision.
+"Josh" got sore and framed it up to have a camera man at the park the next
+day to take a moving picture of a mob scene, Hansell, the umpire, to be
+the hero and mobbed. Hansell fell for it until he saw all the boys picking
+up real clods and digging the dirt out of their spikes, and then he made a
+run for it and never came back. That is how we lost a great umpire.
+
+"You boys made it look too realistic for him," declared McGraw.
+
+Hansell had a notion that he was a runner and offered to bet Robinson,
+who is rather corpulent now, that he could beat him running across the
+field. Robinson took him, and walked home ahead of the umpire in the race.
+
+"I don't see where I get off on this deal," complained McGraw when it was
+over. "I framed up this race for you two fellows, and then Hansell comes
+to me and borrows the ten to pay 'Robbie.'"
+
+Somebody fixed up a Turkish bath in the hotel one day by stuffing up the
+cracks in one of the bathrooms and turning the hot water into the tub and
+the steam into the radiator full blast.
+
+Several towels were piled on the radiator and the players sat upon this
+swathed in blankets to take off weight. They entered the impromptu Turkish
+bath, wearing only the well-known smile. McGraw still maintains that it
+was "Bugs" Raymond who pulled out the towels when it came the manager's
+turn to sit on the radiator, and, if he could have proved his case,
+Raymond would not have needed a doctor. It would have been time for the
+undertaker.
+
+Finally comes the long wending of the way up North. "Bugs" Raymond always
+depends on his friends for his refreshments, and as he had few friends in
+Marlin in 1911, he got few drinks. But when we got to Dallas cocktails
+were served with the dinner and all the ball-players left them untouched,
+McGraw enforcing the old rule that lips that touch "licker" shall never
+moisten a spit ball for him. "Bugs" was missed after supper and some one
+found him out in the kitchen licking up all the discarded Martinis. That
+was the occasion of his first fine of the season, and after that, as
+"Bugs" himself admitted, "life for him was just one fine after another."
+
+At last, after the long junket through the South, on which all managers
+are Simon Legrees, is ended, comes a welcome day, when the new uniforms
+are donned and the band plays and "them woids" which constitute the
+sweetest music to the ears of a ball-player, roll off the tongue of the
+umpire:
+
+"The batteries for to-day are Rucker and Bergen for Brooklyn, Marquard and
+Meyers for New York. Play ball!"
+
+The season is on.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+Jinxes and What They Mean to a Ball-Player
+
+     _A Load of Empty Barrels, Hired by John McGraw, once Pulled the
+     Giants out of a Losing Streak--The Child of Superstition Appears to
+     the Ball-Player in Many Forms--Various Ways in which the Influence of
+     the Jinx can be Overcome--The True Story of "Charley" Faust--The
+     Necktie that Helped Win a Pennant._
+
+
+A friend of mine, who took a different fork in the road when we left
+college from the one that I have followed, was walking down Broadway in
+New York with me one morning after I had joined the Giants, and we passed
+a cross-eyed man. I grabbed off my hat and spat in it. It was a new hat,
+too. "What's the matter with you, Matty?" he asked, surprised.
+
+"Spit in your hat quick and kill that jinx," I answered, not thinking for
+the minute, and he followed my example.
+
+I forgot to mention, when I said he took another fork in the road, that he
+had become a pitcher, too, but of a different kind. He had turned out to
+be sort of a conversational pitcher, for he was a minister, and, as luck
+would have it, on the morning we met that cross-eyed man he was wearing a
+silk hat. I was shocked, pained, and mortified when I saw what I had made
+him do. But he was the right sort, and wanted to go through with the thing
+according to the standards of the professional man with whom he happened
+to be at the time.
+
+"What's the idea?" he asked as he replaced his hat.
+
+"Worst jinx in the world to see a cross-eyed man," I replied. "But I hope
+I didn't hurt your silk hat," I quickly apologized.
+
+"Not at all. But how about these ball-players who masticate the weed? Do
+they kill jinxes, too?" he wanted to know. And I had to admit that they
+were the main exterminators of the jinx.
+
+"Then," he went on, "I'm glad that the percentage of wearers of cross eyes
+is small."
+
+I have just looked into one of my favorite works for that word "jinx," and
+found it not. My search was in Webster's dictionary. But any ball-player
+can give a definition of it with his hands tied behind him--that is, any
+one except "Arlie" Latham, and, with his hands bound, he is deaf and dumb.
+A jinx is something which brings bad luck to a ball-player, and the
+members of the profession have built up a series of lucky and unlucky
+omens that should be catalogued. And besides the common or garden variety
+of jinxes, many stars have a series of private or pet and trained ones
+that are more malignant in their forms than those which come out in the
+open.
+
+A jinx is the child of superstition, and ball-players are among the most
+superstitious persons in the world, notwithstanding all this conversation
+lately about educated men breaking into the game and paying no attention
+whatever to the good and bad omens. College men are coming into both the
+leagues, more of them each year, and they are doing their share to make
+the game better and the class of men higher, but they fall the hardest for
+the jinxes. And I don't know as it is anything to be ashamed of at that.
+
+A really true, on-the-level, honest-to-jiminy jinx can do all sorts of
+mean things to a professional ball-player. I have seen it make a bad
+pitcher out of a good one, and a blind batter out of a three-hundred
+hitter, and I have seen it make a ball club, composed of educated men,
+carry a Kansas farmer, with two or three screws rattling loose in his
+dome, around the circuit because he came as a prophet and said that he was
+accompanied by Miss Fickle Fortune. And that is almost a jinx record.
+
+Jinx and Miss Fickle Fortune never go around together. And ball-players
+are always trying to kill this jinx, for, once he joins the club, all hope
+is gone. He dies hard, and many a good hat has been ruined in an effort to
+destroy him, as I have said before, because the wearer happened to be
+chewing tobacco when the jinx dropped around. But what's a new hat against
+a losing streak or a batting slump?
+
+Luck is a combination of confidence and getting the breaks. Ball-players
+get no breaks without confidence in themselves, and lucky omens inspire
+this confidence. On the other hand, unlucky signs take it away. The lucky
+man is the one who hits the nail on the head and not his fingers, and the
+ability to swat the nail on its receptive end is a combination of
+self-confidence and an aptitude for hammering. Good ball-playing is the
+combination of self-confidence and the ability to play.
+
+The next is "Red" Ames, although designated as "Leon" by his family when a
+very small boy before he began to play ball. (He is still called "Leon" in
+the winter.) Ames is of Warren, Ohio, and the Giants, and he is said to
+hold the Marathon record for being the most unlucky pitcher that ever
+lived, and I agree with the sayers. For several seasons, Ames couldn't
+seem to win a ball game, no matter how well he pitched. In 1909, "Red"
+twirled a game on the opening day of the season against Brooklyn that was
+the work of a master. For nine innings he held his opponents hitless, only
+to have them win in the thirteenth. Time and again Ames has pitched
+brilliantly, to be finally beaten by a small score, because one of the men
+behind him made an error at a critical moment, or because the team could
+not give him any runs by which to win. No wonder the newspapers began to
+speak of Ames as the "hoodoo" pitcher and the man "who couldn't win."
+
+There was a cross-eyed fellow who lived between Ames and the Polo Grounds,
+and "Red" used to make a detour of several blocks en route to the park to
+be sure to miss him in case he should be out walking. But one day in 1911,
+when it was his turn to pitch, he bumped into that cross-eyed man and, in
+spite of the fact that he did his duty by his hat and got three or four
+small boys to help him out, he failed to last two innings. When it came
+time to go West on the final trip of the 1911 season, Ames was badly
+discouraged.
+
+"I don't see any use in taking me along, Mac," he said to McGraw a few
+days before we left. "The club can't win with me pitching if the other
+guys don't even get a foul."
+
+The first stop was in Boston, and on the day we arrived it rained. In the
+mail that day, addressed to Leon Ames, came a necktie and a four-leaf
+clover from a prominent actress, wishing Ames good luck. The directions
+were inside the envelope. The four-leaf clover, if the charm were to work,
+must be worn on both the uniform and street clothes, and the necktie was
+to be worn with the street clothes and concealed in the uniform, if that
+necktie could be concealed anywhere. It would have done for a headlight
+and made Joseph's coat of many colors look like a mourning garment.
+
+"Might as well wish good luck to a guy on the way to the morgue," murmured
+Ames as he surveyed the layout, but he manfully put on the necktie, taking
+his first dose of the prescription, as directed, at once, and he tucked
+the four-leaf clover away carefully in his wallet.
+
+"You've got your work cut out for you, old boy," he remarked to the charm
+as he put it away, "but I'd wear you if you were a horseshoe."
+
+The first day that Ames pitched in Boston he won, and won in a stroll.
+
+"The necktie," he explained that night at dinner, and pointed to the
+three-sheet, colored-supplement affair he was wearing around his collar,
+"I don't change her until I lose."
+
+_And he didn't lose a game on that trip._ Once he almost did, when he was
+taken out in the sixth inning, and a batter put in for him, but the Giants
+finally pulled out the victory and he got the credit for it. He swept
+through the West unbeatable, letting down Pittsburg with two or three
+hits, cleaning up in St. Louis, and finally breaking our losing streak in
+Chicago after two games had gone against us. And all the time he wore that
+spectrum around his collar for a necktie. As it frayed with the wear and
+tear, more colors began to show, although I didn't think it possible. If
+he had had occasion to put on his evening clothes, I believe that tie
+would have gone with it.
+
+For my part, I would almost rather have lost a game and changed the
+necktie, since it gave one the feeling all the time that he was carrying
+it around with him because he had had the wrong end of an election bet, or
+something of the sort. But not Ames! He was a game guy. He stuck with the
+necktie, and it stuck with him, and the combination kept right on winning
+ball games. Maybe he didn't mind it because he could not see it himself,
+unless he looked in a mirror, but it was rough on the rest of the team,
+except that we needed the games the necktie won, to take the pennant.
+
+Columns were printed in the newspapers about that necktie, and it became
+the most famous scarf in the world. Ames used to sleep with it under his
+pillow alongside of his bank roll, and he didn't lose another game until
+the very end of the season, when he dropped one against Brooklyn.
+
+"I don't hardly lay that up against the tie," he said afterwards. "You
+see, Mac put all those youngsters into it, and I didn't get any support."
+
+Analyzing is a distasteful pastime to me, but let's see what it was that
+made Ames win. Was it the necktie? Perhaps not. But some sliver of
+confidence, which resulted from that first game when he was dressed up in
+the scarf and the four-leaf clover, got stuck in his mind. And after that
+the rest was easy.
+
+Frank Chance, the manager of the Cubs, has a funny superstition which is
+of the personal sort. Most ball-players have a natural prejudice against
+the number "13" in any form, but particularly when attached to a Pullman
+berth. But Chance always insists, whenever possible, that he have "lower
+13." He says that if he can just crawl in under that number he is sure of
+a good night's rest, a safe journey, and a victory the next day. He has
+been in two or three minor railroad accidents, and he declares that all
+these occurred when he was sleeping on some other shelf besides "lower
+13." He can usually satisfy his hobby, too, for most travellers steer
+clear of the berth.
+
+McGraw believes a stateroom brings him good luck, or at least he always
+insists on having one when he can get it.
+
+"Chance can have 'lower 13,'" says "Mac," "but give me a stateroom for
+luck."
+
+Most ball-players nowadays treat the superstitions of the game as jokes,
+probably because they are a little ashamed to acknowledge their
+weaknesses, but away down underneath they observe the proprieties of the
+ritual. Why, even I won't warm up with the third baseman while I am
+waiting for the catcher to get on his mask and the rest of his
+paraphernalia. Once, when I first broke in with the Giants, I warmed up
+with the third baseman between innings and in the next round they hit me
+hard and knocked me out of the box. Since then I have had an uncommon
+prejudice against the practice, and I hate to hear a man even mention it.
+Devlin knows of my weakness and never suggests it when he is playing the
+bag, but occasionally a new performer will drill into the box score at
+third base and yell:
+
+"Come on, Matty! Warm up here while you're waiting."
+
+It gets me. I'll pitch to the first baseman or a substitute catcher to
+keep warm, but I would rather freeze to death than heat up with the third
+baseman. That is one of my pet jinxes.
+
+And speaking of Arthur Devlin, he has a few hand-raised jinxes of his own,
+too. For instance, he never likes to hear a player hum a tune on the
+bench, because he thinks it will keep him from getting a base hit. He
+nearly beat a youngster to death one day when he kept on humming after
+Devlin had told him to stop.
+
+"Cut that out, Caruso," yelled Arthur, as the recruit started his melody.
+"You are killing base hits."
+
+The busher continued with his air until Devlin tried another form of
+persuasion.
+
+Arthur also has a favorite seat on the bench which he believes is luckier
+than the rest, and he insists on sitting in just that one place.
+
+But the worst blow Devlin ever had was when some young lady admirer of his
+in his palmy days, who unfortunately wore her eyes crossed, insisted on
+sitting behind third base for each game, so as to be near him. Arthur
+noticed her one day and, after that, it was all off. He hit the worst
+slump of his career. For a while no one could understand it, but at last
+he confessed to McGraw.
+
+"Mac," he said one night in the club-house, "it's that jinx. Have you
+noticed her? She sits behind the bag every day, and she has got me going.
+She has sure slid the casters under me. I wish we could bar her out, or
+poison her, or shoot her, or chloroform her, or kill her in some nice,
+mild way because, if it isn't done, this League is going to lose a
+ball-player. How can you expect a guy to play with that overlooking him
+every afternoon?"
+
+McGraw took Devlin out of the game for a time after that, and the
+newspapers printed several yards about the cross-eyed jinx who had ruined
+the Giants' third baseman.
+
+With the infield weakened by the loss of Devlin, the club began to lose
+with great regularity. But one day the jinxess was missing and she never
+came back. She must have read in the newspapers what she was doing to
+Devlin, her hero, and quit the national pastime or moved to another part
+of the stand. With this weight off his shoulders, Arthur went back into
+the game and played like mad.
+
+"If she'd stuck much longer," declared McGraw, joyous in his rejuvenated
+third baseman, "I would have had her eyes operated on and straightened.
+This club couldn't afford to keep on losing ball games because you are
+such a Romeo, Arthur, that even the cross-eyed ones fall for you."
+
+Ball-players are very superstitious about the bats. Did you ever notice
+how the clubs are all laid out in a neat, even row before the bench and
+are scrupulously kept that way by the bat boy? If one of the sticks by any
+chance gets crossed, all the players will shout:
+
+"Uncross the bats! Uncross the bats!"
+
+It's as bad as discovering a three-alarm fire in an excelsior factory.
+Don't believe it? Then listen to what happened to the Giants once because
+a careless bat boy neglected his duty. The team was playing in Cincinnati
+in the season of 1906 when one of the bats got crossed through the
+carelessness of the boy. What was the result? "Mike" Donlin, the star
+slugger of the team, slid into third base and came up with a broken
+ankle.
+
+Ever since that time we have carried our own boy with us, because a club
+with championship aspirations cannot afford to take a chance with those
+foreign artists handling the bats. They are likely to throw you down at
+any time.
+
+The Athletics have a funny superstition which is private or confined to
+their team as far as I know. When luck seems to be breaking against them
+in a game, they will take the bats and throw them wildly into the air and
+let them lie around in front of their bench, topsy-turvy. They call this
+changing the luck, but any other club would consider that it was the worst
+kind of a jinx. It is the same theory that card-players have about
+shuffling the deck vigorously to bring a different run of fortune. Then,
+if the luck changes, the Athletics throw the bats around some more to keep
+it. This act nearly cost them one of their best ball-players in the third
+game of the 1911 world's series.
+
+The Philadelphia players had tossed their bats to break their run of luck,
+for the score was 1 to 0 against them, when Baker came up in the ninth
+inning. He cracked his now famous home run into the right-field bleachers,
+and the men on the bench hurled the bats wildly into the air. In jumping
+up and reaching for a bat to throw, Jack Barry, the shortstop, hit his
+head on the concrete roof of the structure and was stunned for a minute.
+He said that little black specks were floating in front of his eyes, but
+he gamely insisted on playing the contest out. "Connie" Mack was so
+worried over his condition that he sent Ira Thomas out on the field to
+inquire if he were all right, and this interrupted the game in the ninth
+inning. A lot of the spectators thought that Thomas was out there, bearing
+some secret message from "Connie" Mack. None knew that he was ascertaining
+the health of a player who had almost killed himself while killing a jinx.
+
+The Athletics, for two seasons, have carried with them on all their trips
+a combination bat boy and mascot who is a hunchback, and he outjinxed our
+champion jinx killer, Charley Faust, in the 1911 world's series. A
+hunchback is regarded by ball-players as the best luck in the world. If a
+man can just touch that hump on the way to the plate, he is sure to get a
+hit, and any observant spectator will notice the Athletics' hitters
+rubbing the hunchback boy before leaving the bench. So attached to this
+boy have the players become that they voted him half a share of the prize
+money last year after the world's series. Lots of ball-players would tell
+you that he deserved it because he has won two world's pennants for them.
+
+Another great piece of luck is for a ball-player to rub a colored kid's
+head. I've walked along the street with ball-players and seen them stop a
+young negro and take off his hat and run their hands through his kinky
+hair. Then I've seen the same ball-player go out and get two or three hits
+that afternoon and play the game of his life. Again, it is the confidence
+inspired, coupled with the ability.
+
+Another old superstition among ball-players is that a load of empty
+barrels means base hits. If an athlete can just pass a flock of them on
+the way to the park, he is sure to step right along stride for stride with
+the three-hundred hitters that afternoon.
+
+McGraw once broke up a batting slump of the Giants with a load of empty
+barrels. That is why I maintain he is the greatest manager of them all. He
+takes advantage of the little things, even the superstitions of his men,
+and turns them to his account. He played this trick in one of the first
+years that he managed the New York club. The batting of all the players
+had slumped at the same time. None could hit, and the club was losing game
+after game as a result, because the easiest pitchers were making the best
+batters look foolish. One day Bowerman came into the clubhouse with a
+smile on his face for the first time in a week.
+
+"Saw a big load of empty barrels this afternoon, boys," he announced, "and
+just watch me pickle the pill out there to-day."
+
+Right at that point McGraw got an idea, as he frequently does. Bowerman
+went out that afternoon and made four hits out of a possible five. The
+next day three or four more of the players came into the park, carrying
+smiles and the announcement that fortunately they, too, had met a load of
+empty barrels. They, then, all went out and regained their old batting
+strides, and we won that afternoon for the first time in a week. More saw
+a load of barrels the next day and started to bat. At last all the members
+of the team had met the barrels, and men with averages of .119 were
+threatening to chisel into the three-hundred set. With remarkable
+regularity the players were meeting loads of empty barrels on their way to
+the park, and, with remarkable regularity and a great deal of expedition,
+the pitchers of opposing clubs were being driven to the shower bath.
+
+"Say," asked "Billy" Gilbert, the old second baseman, of "Bill" Lauder,
+formerly the protector of the third corner, one day, "is one of that team
+of horses sorrel and the other white?"
+
+"Sure," answered "Bill."
+
+"Sure," echoed McGraw. "I hired that load of empty barrels by the week to
+drive around and meet you fellows on the way to the park, and you don't
+think I can afford to have them change horses every day, do you?"
+
+Everybody had a good laugh and kept on swatting. McGraw asked for waivers
+on the load of empty barrels soon afterwards, but his scheme had stopped a
+batting slump and put the club's hitters on their feet again. He plays to
+the little personal qualities and superstitions in the men to get the most
+out of them. And just seeing those barrels gave them the idea that they
+were bound to get the base hits, and they got them. Once more, the old
+confidence, hitched up with ability.
+
+What manager would have carried a Kansas farmer around the circuit with
+him besides McGraw? I refer to Charles Victor Faust of Marion, Kansas, the
+most famous jinx killer of them all. Faust first met the Giants in St.
+Louis on the next to the last trip the club made West in the season of
+1911, when he wandered into the Planter's Hotel one day, asked for McGraw
+and announced that a fortune teller of Marion had informed him he would be
+a great pitcher and that for $5 he could have a full reading. This
+pitching announcement piqued Charles, and he reached down into his jeans,
+dug out his last five, and passed it over. The fortune teller informed
+Faust that all he had to do to get into the headlines of the newspapers
+and to be a great pitcher was to join the New York Giants. He joined, and,
+after he once joined, it would have taken the McNamaras in their best form
+to separate him from the said Giants.
+
+"Charley" came out to the ball park and amused himself warming up.
+Incidentally, the Giants did not lose a game while he was in the
+neighborhood. The night the club left for Chicago on that trip, he was
+down at the Union Station ready to go along.
+
+"Did you get your contract and transportation?" asked McGraw, as the lanky
+Kansan appeared.
+
+"No," answered "Charley."
+
+"Pshaw," replied McGraw. "I left it for you with the clerk at the hotel.
+The train leaves in two minutes," he continued, glancing at his watch. "If
+you can run the way you say you can, you can make it and be back in time
+to catch it."
+
+It was the last we saw of "Charley" Faust for a time--galloping up the
+platform in his angular way with that contract and transportation in
+sight.
+
+"I'm almost sorry we left him," remarked McGraw as "Charley" disappeared
+in the crowd. We played on around the circuit with indifferent luck and
+got back to New York with the pennant no more than a possibility, and
+rather a remote one at that. The first day we were in New York "Charley"
+Faust entered the clubhouse with several inches of dust and mud caked on
+him, for he had come all the way either by side-door special or blind
+baggage.
+
+"I'm here, all right," he announced quietly, and started to climb into a
+uniform.
+
+"I see you are," answered McGraw.
+
+"Charley" stuck around for two or three days, and we won. Then McGraw
+decided he would have to be dropped and ordered the man on the door of the
+clubhouse to bar this Kansas kid out. Faust broke down and cried that day,
+and we lost. After that he became a member of the club, and we won game
+after game until some busy newspaper man obtained a vaudeville engagement
+for him at a salary of $100 a week. We lost three games the week he was
+absent from the grounds, and Faust saw at once he was not doing the right
+thing by the club, so, with a wave of his hand that would have gone with
+J. P. Morgan's income, he passed up some lucrative vaudeville contracts,
+much to the disgust of the newspaper man, who was cutting the remuneration
+with him, and settled down to business. The club did not lose a game after
+that, and it was decided to take Faust West with us on the last and famous
+trip in 1911. Daily he had been bothering McGraw and Mr. Brush for his
+contract, for he wanted to pitch. The club paid him some money from time
+to time to meet his personal expenses.
+
+The Sunday night the club left for Boston, a vaudeville agent was at the
+Grand Central Station with a contract offering Faust $100 a week for five
+weeks, which "Charley" refused in order to stick with the club. It was the
+greatest trip away from home in the history of baseball. Starting with the
+pennant almost out of reach, the Giants won eighteen and lost four games.
+One contest that we dropped in St. Louis was when some of the newspaper
+correspondents on the trip kidnapped Faust and sat him on the St. Louis
+bench.
+
+Another day in St. Louis the game had gone eleven innings, and the
+Cardinals needed one run to win. They had several incipient scores on the
+bases and "Rube" Marquard, in the box, was apparently going up in the air.
+Only one was out. Faust was warming up far in the suburbs when, under
+orders from McGraw, I ran out and sent him to the bench, for that was the
+place from which his charm seemed to be the most potent. "Charley" came
+loping to the bench as fast as his long legs would transport him and St.
+Louis didn't score and we won the game. It was as nice a piece of pinch
+mascoting as I ever saw.
+
+The first two games that "Charley" really lost were in Chicago. And all
+through the trip, he reiterated his weird prophecies that "the Giants
+with Manager McGraw were goin' ta win." The players believed in him, and
+none would have let him go if it had been necessary to support him out of
+their own pockets. And we did win.
+
+"Charley," with his monologue and great good humor, kept the players in
+high spirits throughout the journey, and the feeling prevailed that we
+couldn't lose with him along. He was advertised all over the circuit, and
+spectators were going to the ball park to see Faust and Wagner. "Charley"
+admitted that he could fan out Hans because he had learned how to pitch
+out there in Kansas by correspondence school and had read of "Hans's"
+weakness in a book. His one "groove" was massages and manicures. He would
+go into the barber shop with any member of the team who happened to be
+getting shaved and take a massage and manicure for the purposes of
+sociability, as a man takes a drink. He easily was the record holder for
+the manicure Marathon, hanging up the figures of five in one day in St.
+Louis. He also liked pie for breakfast, dinner and supper, and a small
+half before retiring.
+
+But, alas! "Charley" lost in the world's series. He couldn't make good.
+And a jinx killer never comes back. He is gone. And his expansive smile
+and bump-the-bumps slide are gone with him. That is, McGraw hopes he is
+gone. But he was a wonder while he had it. And he did a great deal toward
+giving the players confidence. With him on the bench, they thought they
+couldn't lose, and they couldn't. It has long been a superstition among
+ball-players that when a "bug" joins a club, it will win a championship,
+and the Giants believed it when "Charley" Faust arrived. Did "Charley"
+Faust win the championship for the Giants?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another time-honored superstition among ball-players is that no one must
+say to a pitcher as he goes to the box for the eighth inning:
+
+"Come on, now. Only six more men."
+
+Or for the ninth:
+
+"Pitch hard, now. Only three left."
+
+Ames says that he lost a game in St. Louis once because McGraw forgot
+himself and urged him to pitch hard because only three remained to be put
+out. Those three batters raised the mischief with Ames's prospects; he was
+knocked out of the box in that last inning, and we lost the game. That
+was before the days of the wonder necktie.
+
+Ames won the third game played in Chicago on the last trip West. Coming
+into the ninth inning, he had the Cubs beaten, when McGraw began:
+
+"Come on, 'Red,' only----"
+
+"Nix, Mac," cut in Ames, "for the love of Mike, be reasonable."
+
+And then he won the game. But the chances are that if McGraw had got that
+"only three more" out, he would have lost, because it would have been
+working on his strained nerves.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+Base Runners and How They Help a Pitcher to Win
+
+     _The Secret of Successful Base Running is Getting the Start--A Club
+     Composed of Good Base Runners Is Likely to do More to Help a Pitcher
+     Win Games than a Batting Order of Hard Hitters--Stealing Second Is an
+     Art in Taking Chances--The Giants Stole their Way to a Pennant, but
+     "Connie" Mack Stopped the Grand Larceny when it Came to a World's
+     Championship._
+
+
+Many times have the crowds at the Polo Grounds seen a man get on first
+base in a close game, and, with the pitcher's motion, start to steal
+second, only to have the catcher throw him out. The spectators groan and
+criticise the manager.
+
+"Why didn't he wait for the hitters to bat him around?" is the cry.
+
+Then, again, a man starts for the base, times his get-away just right, and
+slides into the bag in a cloud of dust while the umpire spreads out his
+hands indicating that he is safe. The crowd cheers and proclaims McGraw a
+great manager and the stealer a great base runner. Maybe the next batter
+comes along with a hit, and the runner scores. It wins the game, and
+mention is made in the newspapers the next morning of the fast base
+running of the club. A man has covered ninety feet of ground while the
+ball is travelling from the pitcher to the catcher and back to the fielder
+who is guarding second base. It is the most important ninety feet in
+baseball. From second base just one hit scores the runner. Stealing
+second, one of the most picturesque plays of the game, is the gentle art
+of taking a chance.
+
+In 1911, the Giants stole more bases than any other Big League club has
+had to its credit since the Pirates established the record in 1903.
+Devore, Snodgrass, Murray, Merkle and Doyle, once they got on the bases
+were like loose mercury. They couldn't be caught. And McGraw stole his way
+to a pennant with this quintet of runners, not alone because of the number
+of bases they pilfered, but because of the edge it gave the Giants on the
+rest of the clubs, with the men with base-stealing reputations on the
+team. I should say that holding these runners up on the bases and worrying
+about what they were going to do reduced the efficiency of opposing
+pitchers one-third.
+
+It wasn't the speed of the men that accounted for the record. A sprinter
+may get into the Big League and never steal a base. But it was the McGraw
+system combined with their natural ability.
+
+"Get the start," reiterates McGraw. "Half of base stealing is leaving the
+bag at the right time. Know when you have a good lead and then never stop
+until you have hit the dirt."
+
+It is up to the pitcher as much as the catcher to stop base stealing, for
+once a club begins running wild on another, the bats might as well be
+packed up and the game conceded. Pitchers make a study of the individual
+runners and their styles of getting starts. In my mind, I know just how
+much of a lead every base runner in the National League can take on me
+with impunity.
+
+"Bob" Bescher of the Cincinnati club was the leading, bright, particular
+base-stealing star of the National League in the season of 1911, and the
+secret of his success was in his start. He tries to get as big a lead as
+possible with each pitch, and then, when he intends to leave, edges a
+couple of feet farther than usual, catching the pitcher unawares. With the
+two extra feet, Bescher is bound to get to second base at the same time as
+the ball, and no catcher in the world can stop him. Therefore, it is up to
+the pitcher to keep him from getting this start--the two more feet he
+seeks. I know that Bescher can take ten feet from the bag when I am
+pitching and get back safely. But, I am equally sure that, if he makes his
+lead twelve feet and I notice it, I can probably catch him. As a good
+ribbon salesman constantly has in his mind's eye the answer to the
+question, "How far is a yard?" so I know at a glance exactly how far
+Bescher can lead and get back safely, when he is on first base. If I
+glance over and see him twelve feet away from the bag and about to start,
+I turn and throw and catch him flat-footed. The crowd laughs at him and
+says:
+
+"Bescher asleep at the switch again!"
+
+The real truth is that Bescher was not asleep, but trying to get that old
+jump which would have meant the stolen base. Again, he takes the twelve
+feet, and I don't perceive it. He gets started with my arm and goes into
+the bag ahead of the ball.
+
+"Great base runner," comments the fickle crowd.
+
+Bescher has only accomplished what he was trying to do before, but he has
+gotten away with it this time. Being a great ball-player is the gentle art
+of getting away with it.
+
+Spectators often wonder why a pitcher wearies them with throwing over to
+the first base many times, when it is plain to see that he has no chance
+of catching his quarry. "Bill" Dahlen used to be one of the best men in
+the game for getting back in some way when on base, employing a straddle
+slide and just hooking the bag with his toe, leaving "a shoe-string to
+touch." The result was that he was always handing the pitcher the laugh as
+he brushed himself off, for none can say Dahlen was not an immaculate
+ball-player.
+
+But the pitchers found out that they could tire Dahlen out by repeatedly
+throwing over to the bag, and that, after five throws, which required
+five dashes and slides back to the base, he was all in and could not steal
+because he didn't have the physical strength left. Thus, as soon as Dahlen
+got on, a pitcher began throwing over until he had him tired out, and then
+he pitched to the batter. So "Bill" crossed them by living on the bag
+until he thought he saw his opportunity to get the jump, and then he would
+try to steal.
+
+Few good base runners watch the ball after they have once left the bag.
+They look at the baseman to see how he is playing and make the slide
+accordingly. If Devore sees Huggins of St. Louis behind the base, he
+slides in front and pulls his body away from the bag, so that he leaves
+the smallest possible area to touch. If he observes the baseman cutting
+inside to block him off, he goes behind and hooks it with just one toe,
+again presenting the minimum touching surface. If the ball is hit while
+the runner is en route, he takes one quick glance at the coacher on the
+third base line and can tell by his motions whether to turn back or to
+continue.
+
+McGraw devotes half his time and energy in the spring to teaching his men
+base running and the art of sliding, which, when highly cultivated, means
+being there with one toe and somewhere else with the rest of the body. But
+most of all he impresses on the athletes the necessity of getting the
+start before making the attempt to steal. As long as I live I shall
+believe that if Snodgrass had known he had the jump in the third game of
+the world's series in 1911, when he really had it, and if he had taken
+advantage of it, we would have won the game and possibly the championship.
+It was in the contest that Baker balanced by banging the home run into the
+right field bleachers in the ninth inning, when I was pitching. That tied
+the score, 1 to 1.
+
+For nine innings I had been pitching myself out, putting everything that I
+had on every ball, because the team gave me no lead to rest on. When Baker
+pushed that ball into the bleachers with only two more men to get out to
+win the game, I was all in. But I managed to live through the tenth with
+very little on the ball, and we came to the bat. Snodgrass got a base on
+balls and journeyed to second on a sacrifice. He was taking a big lead off
+the middle base with the pitcher's motion, and running back before the
+catcher got the ball, because a quick throw would have caught him. It was
+bad baseball, but he was nervous with the intense strain and over-eager to
+score.
+
+Then came the time when he took a longer lead than any other, and Lapp,
+the Athletics' catcher, seeing him, was sure he was going to steal, and in
+his hurry to get the ball away and save the game, let it past him.
+Snodgrass had the jump, and probably would have made the base had he kept
+on going, but he had no orders to steal and had turned and taken a step or
+two back toward second when he saw Lapp lose the ball. Again he turned and
+retraced his steps, and I never saw a man turn so slowly, simply because I
+realized how important a turn that was going to be. Next I looked at Lapp
+and saw him picking up the ball, which had rolled only about three feet
+behind him. He snapped it to third and had Snodgrass by several feet.
+Snodgrass realized this as he plunged down the base line, but he could not
+stop and permit himself to be tagged and he could not go back, so he made
+that historic slide which was heard almost around the world, cut off
+several yards of Frank Baker's trousers, and more important than the
+damage to the uniform, lost us the game.
+
+Snodgrass had the jump in his first start, and if he had kept right on
+going he would have made the bag without the aid of the passed ball, in my
+opinion. But he did not know that he had this advantage and was on his way
+back, when it looked for a minute as if the Athletics' catcher had made a
+mistake. This really turned out to be the "break" in the game, for it was
+on that passed ball that Snodgrass was put out. He would probably have
+scored the run which would have won the game had he lived either on second
+or third base, for a hit followed.
+
+After losing the contest after watching the opportunity thrown away, some
+fan called me on the telephone that night, when I was feeling in anything
+but a conversational mood, and asked me:
+
+"Was that passed ball this afternoon part of the Athletics' inside game?
+Did Lapp do it on purpose?"
+
+In passing I want to put in a word for Snodgrass, not because he is a
+team-mate of mine, but on account of the criticism which he received for
+spiking Baker, and which was not deserved. And in that word I do not want
+to detract from Baker's reputation a scintilla, if I could, for he is a
+great ball-player. But I want to say that if John Murray had ever been
+called upon to slide into that bag with Baker playing it as he did, Baker
+would probably have been found cut in halves, and only Murray's own style
+of coasting would have been responsible for it. If Fred Clarke of
+Pittsburg had been the man coming in, Baker would probably have been
+neatly cut into thirds, one third with each foot.
+
+Clarke is known as one of the most wicked sliders in the National League.
+He jumps into the air and spreads his feet apart, showing his spikes as he
+comes in. The Giants were playing in Pittsburg several years ago, before I
+was married, and there was a friend of mine at the ball park with whom I
+was particularly eager to make a hit. The game was close, as are all
+contests which lend themselves readily to an anecdote, and Clarke got as
+far as third base in the eighth inning, with the score tied and two out.
+Warner, the Giants' catcher, let one get past him and I ran in to cover
+the plate. Clarke came digging for home and, as I turned to touch him, he
+slid and cut my trousers off, never touching my legs. It was small
+consolation to me that my stems were still whole and that the umpire had
+called Clarke out and that the game was yet saved. My love for my art is
+keen, but it stops at a certain point, and that point is where I have to
+send a hurry call for a barrel and the team's tailor. The players made a
+sort of group around me while I did my Lady Godiva act from the plate to
+the bench.
+
+Murray has the ideal slide for a base gatherer, but one which commands the
+respect of all the guardians of the sacks in the National League. When
+about eight feet from the bag, he jumps into the air, giving the fielder a
+vision of two sets of nicely honed spikes aimed for the base. As Murray
+hits the bag, he comes up on his feet and is in a position to start for
+the next station in case of any fumble or slip. He is a great man to use
+this slide to advantage against young players, who are inclined to be
+timid when they see those spikes. It's all part of the game as it is
+played in the large leagues.
+
+The Boston team was trying out a young player two years ago. Murray
+remarked to McGraw before the game:
+
+"The first time I get on, I bet I can make that fellow fumble and pick up
+an extra base."
+
+"Theatre tickets for the crowd on Saturday night?" inquired McGraw.
+
+"You've said it," answered Murray.
+
+Along about the second or third inning John walked, and started for second
+on the first ball pitched. The busher came in to cover the base, and
+Murray leaped clear of the ground and yelled:
+
+"Look out!"
+
+The newcomer evidently thought that Murray had lost control of his legs,
+got one look at those spikes, and bent all his energies toward dodging
+them, paying no attention whatever to the ball, which continued its
+unmolested journey to centre field. The new man proved to be one of the
+best little dodgers I ever saw. John was in a perfect position to start
+and went along to third at his leisure.
+
+"Didn't I call the turn?" Murray yelled at McGraw as he came to the bench.
+
+"What show do you want to see?" asked McGraw.
+
+But on an old campaigner this show of spikes has no effect whatever. The
+capable basemen in the League know how to cover the bag so as to get the
+runner out and still give him room to come in without hurting any one. In
+spite of an impression that prevails to the contrary, ball-players never
+spike a man on purpose. At present, I don't believe there is a runner in
+the National League who would cut down another man if he had the
+opportunity. If one man does spike another accidentally, he is heartily
+sorry, and often such an event affects his own playing and his base
+running ability.
+
+The feet-first slide is now more in vogue in the Big Leagues than the old
+head-first coast, and I attribute this to two causes. One is that the show
+of the spikes is a sort of assurance the base runner is going to have room
+to come into the bag, and the second is that the great amount of armor
+which a catcher wears in these latter days makes some such formidable
+slide necessary when coming into the plate.
+
+If a base runner hits a catcher squarely with his shin guards on, he is
+likely to be badly injured, and he must be sure that the catcher is going
+to give him a clear path. Some catchers block off the plate so that a man
+has got to shoot his spikes at them to get through, and I'm not saying
+that it's bad catching, because that is the way to keep a man from
+scoring. Make him go around if possible.
+
+But the game has changed in the last few years as far as intentional
+spiking goes. Many a time, when I first started with the Giants, I heard a
+base runner shout at a fielder:
+
+"Get out of the way there or I'll cut you in two!"
+
+And he would not have hesitated to do it, either. That was part of the
+game. But nowadays, if a player got the reputation of cutting men down and
+putting star players out of the game intentionally, he would soon be
+driven out of the League, probably on a stretcher.
+
+When John Hummel of the Brooklyn club spiked Doyle in 1908, and greatly
+lessened the Giants' chances of winning the pennant, which the club
+ultimately lost, he came around to our clubhouse after the game and
+inquired for Larry. When he found how badly Doyle was cut, he was as
+broken up as any member of our team.
+
+"If I'd known I was goin' to cut you, Larry, I wouldn't have slid," he
+said.
+
+"That's all right," answered Doyle. "I guess I was blockin' you."
+
+Ball-players don't say much in a situation of that kind. But each one who
+witnessed the incident knew that when Doyle doubled down, spiked, most of
+our chances of the pennant went down with him, for it broke up the infield
+of the team at a most important moment. It takes some time for a new part
+to work into a clock so that it keeps perfect time again, no matter how
+delicate is the workmanship of the new part. So the best infielder takes
+time to fit into the infield of a Big League club and have it hit on all
+four cylinders again.
+
+Fred Merkle is one of the few ball-players who still prefers the
+head-first slide, and he sticks to it only on certain occasions. He is the
+best man to steal third base playing ball to-day. He declares that, when
+he is going into the bag, he can see better by shooting his head first and
+that he can swing his body away from the base and just hook it with one
+finger nail, leaving just that to touch. And he keeps his nails clipped
+short in the season, so that there is very little exposed to which the
+ball can be applied. If he sees that the third baseman is playing inside
+the bag, he goes behind it and hooks it with his finger, and if the man is
+playing back, he cuts through in front, pulling his body away from the
+play. But the common or garden variety of player will take the hook slide,
+feet first, because he can catch the bag with one leg, and the feet aren't
+as tender a portion of the anatomy to be roughly touched as the head and
+shoulders.
+
+A club of base runners will do more to help a pitcher win than a batting
+order of hard hitters, I believe. Speed is the great thing in the baseball
+of to-day. By speed I do not mean that good men must be sprinters alone.
+They must be fast starters, fast runners and fast thinkers. Remember that
+last one--fast thinkers.
+
+Harry McCormick, formerly the left-fielder on the Giants, when he joined
+the club before his legs began to go bad, was a sprinter, one of the
+fastest men who ever broke into the League. Before he took up baseball as
+a profession, he had been a runner in college. But McCormick was never a
+brilliant base stealer because he could not get the start.
+
+When a man is pitching for a club of base runners he knows that every
+time a player with a stealing reputation gets on and there is an outside
+chance of his scoring, the run is going to be hung up. The tallies give a
+pitcher confidence to proceed. Then, when the club has the reputation of
+possessing a great bunch of base runners, the other pitcher is worried all
+the time and has to devote about half his energies to watching the bases.
+This makes him easier to hit.
+
+But put a hard hitter who is a slow base runner on the club, and he does
+little good. There used to be a man on the Giants, named "Charley"
+Hickman, who played third base and then the outfield. He was one of the
+best natural hitters who ever wormed his way into baseball, but when he
+got on, the bases were blocked. He could not run, and it took a hit to
+advance him a base. Get a fast man on behind him and, because the rules of
+the game do not permit one runner to pass another, it was like having a
+freight train preceding the Twentieth Century Limited on a single track
+road. Hickman was not so slow when he first started, but after a while his
+legs went bad and his weight increased, so that he was built like a box
+car, to carry out the railroad figure.
+
+Hickman finally dropped back into the minor leagues and continued to bat
+three hundred, but he had to lose the ball to make the journey clear
+around the bases on one wallop. Once he hit the old flag pole in centre
+field at the Polo Grounds on the fly, and just did nose the ball out at
+the plate. It was a record hit for distance. At last, while still
+maintaining the three-hundred pace, Hickman was dropped by the Toledo club
+of the American Association.
+
+"Why did you let Charley Hickman go?" I asked the manager one day.
+
+"Because he was tyin' up traffic on the bases," he replied.
+
+Merkle is not a particularly fast runner, but he is a great base stealer
+because he has acquired the knack of "getting away." He never tries to
+steal until he has his start. He is also a good arriver, as I have pointed
+out. It was like getting a steamroller in motion to start Hickman.
+
+Clever ball-players and managers are always trying to evolve new
+base-running tactics that will puzzle the other team, but "there ain't no
+new stuff." It is a case of digging up the old ones. Pitchers are also
+earnest in their endeavors to discover improved ways to stop base
+running. Merkle and I worked out a play during the spring training season
+in 1911 which caught perhaps a dozen men off first base before the other
+teams began to watch for the trick. And it was not original with me. I got
+the idea from "Patsy" Flaherty, a Boston pitcher who has his salary wing
+fastened to his left side.
+
+Flaherty would pitch over to first base quickly, and the fielder would
+shoot the ball back. Then Flaherty would pop one through to the batter,
+often catching him off his guard, and sneaking a strike over besides
+leaving the runner flat on the ground in the position in which he had been
+when he slid back to the bag. If the batter hit the ball, the runner was
+in no attitude to get a start, and, on an infield tap, it was easy to make
+a double play.
+
+The next time that the man got on base, Flaherty would shoot the ball over
+to first as before, and the runner would be up on his feet and away from
+the bag, expecting him to throw it to the plate. But as the first baseman
+whipped it back quickly Flaherty returned the ball and the runner was
+caught flat footed and made to look foolish. Ball-players do certainly
+hate to appear ridiculous, and the laugh from the crowd upsets a Big
+Leaguer more than anything else, even a call from McGraw, because the
+crowd cannot hear that and does not know the man is looking foolish.
+
+It was almost impossible to steal bases on "Patsy" Flaherty because he
+had the men hugging the bag all the time, and if he had had other
+essentials of a pitcher, he would have been a great one. He even lived in
+the Big League for some time with this quick throw as his only asset. I
+adopted the Flaherty movement, but it is harder for a right-hander to use,
+as he is not in such a good position to whip the ball to the bag. Merkle
+and I rehearsed it in spring practice. As soon as a man got on first base,
+I popped the ball over to Merkle, and without even making a stab at the
+runner, he shot it to me. Then back again, just as the runner had let go
+of the bag and was getting up. The theoretical result: He was caught
+flat-footed. Sometimes it worked. Then they began to play for me.
+
+Another play on which the changes have often been rung is the double steal
+with men on first and third bases. That is McGraw's favorite situation in
+a crisis.
+
+"Somebody's got to look foolish on the play," says "Mac," "and I don't
+want to furnish any laughs."
+
+The old way to work it was to have the man on first start for second, as
+if he were going to make a straight steal. Then as soon as the catcher
+drew his arm back to throw, the runner on third started home. No Big
+League club can have a look into the pennant set without trying to
+interrupt the journey of that man going to second in a tight place,
+because if no play is made for him and a hit follows, it nets the club two
+runs instead of one.
+
+Most teams try to stop this play by having the shortstop or second baseman
+come in and take a short throw, and if the man on third breaks for home,
+the receiver of the ball whips it back. If both throws are perfect, the
+runner is caught at the plate.
+
+But the catchers found that certain clubs were making this play in routine
+fashion, the runner on first starting with the pitch, and the one on third
+making his break just as soon as the catcher drew back his arm. Then the
+backstops began making a bluff throw to second and whipping the ball to
+third, often getting the runner by several feet, as he had already
+definitely started for the plate.
+
+"Tommy" Leach of the Pittsburg club was probably caught oftener on this
+bluff throw than any other man in baseball. For some time he had been
+making the play against clubs which used the short throw, and starting as
+the catcher drew back his arm, as that was the only chance he had to
+score. One day in the season of 1908, when the Pirates were playing
+against the Giants, Clarke was on first and Leach on third, with one run
+required to balance the game. McGraw knew the double steal was to be
+expected, as two were out. Bresnahan was aware of this, too.
+
+McGinnity was pitching, and with his motion, Clarke got his start.
+Bresnahan drew back his arm as if to throw to second, and true to form,
+Leach was on his way to the plate. But Bresnahan had not let go of the
+ball, and he shot it to Devlin, Leach being run down in the base line and
+the Pittsburg club eventually losing the game.
+
+Again and again Leach fell for this bluff throw, until the news spread
+around the circuit that once a catcher drew back his arm with a man on
+first base and "Tommy" Leach on third, there would be no holding him on
+the bag. He was caught time and again--indeed as frequently as the play
+came up. It was his "groove." He could not be stopped from making his
+break. At last Clarke had to order him to abandon the play until he could
+cure himself of this self-starting habit.
+
+"What you want to do on that play is cross 'em," is McGraw's theory, and
+he proceeded to develop the delayed steal with this intent.
+
+Put the men back on first and third bases. Thank you. The pitcher has the
+ball. The runner on first intentionally takes too large a lead. The
+pitcher throws over, and he moves a few steps toward second. Then a few
+more. All that time the man on third is edging off an inch, two inches, a
+foot. The first baseman turns to throw to second to stop that man. The
+runner on third plunges for the plate, and usually gets there. It's a hard
+one to stop, but that's its purpose.
+
+Then, again, it can be worked after the catcher gets the ball. The runner
+starts from first slowly and the catcher hesitates, not knowing whether to
+throw to first or second. Since the runner did not start with the pitch,
+theoretically no one has come in to take a short throw, and the play
+cannot be made back to the plate if the ball is thrown to second. This
+form of the play is usually successful. Miller Huggins is one of the
+hardest second basemen in the League to work it against successfully. With
+men on first and third, he always comes in for the short throw on the
+chance, and covers himself up.
+
+After we had stolen our way to a pennant in the National League in the
+season of 1911, and after our five leading base runners had been "mugged"
+by the police in St. Louis so that the catchers would know them, many fans
+expected to see us steal a world's championship, and we half expected it
+ourselves.
+
+But so did "Connie" Mack, and there lies the answer. He knew our strong
+point, and his players had discussed and rehearsed ways and means to break
+up our game. Mack had been watching the Giants for weeks previous to the
+series and had had his spies taking notes.
+
+"We've got to stop them running bases," he told his men before the first
+game, I have learned since. And they did. Guess the St. Louis police must
+have sent Thomas and Lapp copies of those pictures.
+
+Mack's pitchers cut their motions down to nothing with men on the bases,
+microscopic motions, and they watched the runners like hawks. Thomas had
+been practising to get the men. The first time that Devore made a break to
+steal, he was caught several feet from the bag.
+
+"And you call yourself fast!" commented Collins as he threw the ball back
+to the pitcher and jogged to his job. "You remind me of a cop on a fixed
+post," he flung over his shoulder.
+
+Pitchers have a great deal to do with the defensive efficiency of the
+club. If they do not hold the runners up, the best catcher in the world
+cannot stop them at their destination. That is the reason why so many
+high-class catchers have been developed by the Chicago Cubs. The team has
+always had a good pitching staff, and men like Overall, Brown and Reulbach
+force the runners to stick to the oases of safety.
+
+The Giants stole their way to a pennant in 1911, and it wasn't on account
+of the speedy material, but because McGraw had spent days teaching his men
+to slide and emphasizing the necessity of getting the jump. Then he picked
+the stages of the game when the attempts to steal were to be made. But
+McGraw, with his all-star cast of thieves, was stopped in the world's
+series by one Cornelius McGillicuddy.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+Notable Instances Where the "Inside" Game Has Failed
+
+     _The "Inside" Game is of Little Avail when a Batter Knocks a Home Run
+     with the Bases Full--Many Times the Strategies of Managers have
+     Failed because Opposing Clubs "Doctored" their Grounds--"Rube"
+     Waddell Once Cost the Athletics a Game by Failing to Show up after
+     the Pitcher's Box had been Fixed for Him--But, although the "Inside"
+     Game Sometimes Fails, no Manager Wants a Player who will Steal Second
+     with the Bases Full._
+
+
+There is an old story about an altercation which took place during a
+wedding ceremony in the backwoods of the Virginia mountains. The
+discussion started over the propriety of the best man holding the ring,
+and by the time that it had been finally settled the bride gazed around on
+a dead bridegroom, a dead father, and a dead best man, not to mention
+three or four very dead ushers and a clergyman.
+
+"Them new fangled self-cockin' automatic guns has sure raised hell with my
+prospects," she sighed.
+
+That's the way I felt when John Franklin Baker popped that home run into
+the right-field stand in the ninth inning of the third game of the 1911
+world's series with one man already out. For eight and one-third innings
+the Giants had played "inside" ball, and I had carefully nursed along
+every batter who came to the plate, studying his weakness and pitching at
+it. It looked as if we were going to win the game, and then zing! And also
+zowie! The ball went into the stand on a line and I looked around at my
+fielders who had had the game almost within their grasp a minute before.
+Instantly, I realized that I had been pitching myself out, expecting the
+end to come in nine innings. My arm felt like so much lead hanging to my
+side after that hit. I wanted to go and get some crape and hang it on my
+salary whip. Then that old story about the wedding popped into my head,
+and I said to myself:
+
+"He has sure raised hell with your prospects."
+
+"Sam" Strang, the official pinch hitter of the Giants a few seasons ago,
+was one of the best in the business. McGraw sent him to the bat in the
+ninth inning of a game the Giants were playing in Brooklyn. We were two
+runs behind and two were already out, with one runner on the bases, and he
+was only as far as second. "Doc" Scanlon was pitching for Brooklyn, and,
+evidently intimidated by Sam's pinch-hitting reputation or something,
+suddenly became wild and gave the Giant batter three balls. With the count
+three and nothing, McGraw shouted from the bench:
+
+"Wait it out, Sam!"
+
+But Sam did not hear him, and he took a nice masculine, virile, full-armed
+swing at the ball and fouled it out of the reach of all the local
+guardians of the soil.
+
+"Are you deaf?" barked McGraw. "Wait it out, I tell you."
+
+As a matter of fact, Strang was a little deaf and did not hear the shouted
+instructions the second time. But "Doc" Scanlon was sensitive as to
+hearing and, feeling sure Strang would obey the orders of McGraw, thought
+he would be taking no chances in putting the next ball over the centre of
+the plate. It came up the "groove," and Strang admired it as it
+approached. Then he took his swing, and the next place the ball touched
+was in the Italian district just over the right field fence. The hit tied
+the score.
+
+McGraw met Strang at the plate, and instead of greeting him with shouts of
+approbation, exclaimed:
+
+"I ought to fine you $25, and would, except for those two runs and the few
+points' difference the game will make in the percentage. Come on now,
+boys. Let's win this one." And we did in the eleventh inning.
+
+That was a case of the "inside" game failing. Any Big League pitcher with
+brains would have laid the ball over after hearing McGraw shout earnest
+and direct orders at the batter to "wait it out." Scanlon was playing the
+game and Strang was not, but it broke for Sam. It was the first time in
+his life that he ever hit the ball over the right field fence in Brooklyn,
+and he has never done it since. If he had not been lucky in connecting
+with that ball and lifting it where it did the most good, his pay envelope
+would have been lighter by $25 at the end of the month, and he would have
+obtained an accurate idea of McGraw's opinion of his intellectuality.
+
+In the clubhouse after the victory, McGraw said:
+
+"Honest, Sam, why did you swing at that ball after I had told you not to?"
+
+"I didn't hear you," replied Strang.
+
+"Well, it's lucky you hit it where they weren't," answered McGraw,
+"because if any fielder had connected with the ball, there would have been
+a rough greeting waiting for you on the bench. And as a tip, Sam, direct
+from me: You got away with it once, but don't try it again. It was bad
+baseball."
+
+"But that straight one looked awful good to me coming up the 'groove,'"
+argued Sam.
+
+"Don't fall for all the good lookers, Sam," suggested McGraw, the
+philosopher.
+
+Strang is now abroad having his voice cultivated and he intends to enter
+the grand-opera field as soon as he can finish the spring training in
+Paris and get his throat into shape for the big league music circuit. But
+I will give any orchestra leader who faces Sam a tip. If he doesn't want
+him to come in strong where the music is marked "rest," don't put one in
+the "groove," because Strang just naturally can't help swinging at it. He
+is a poor waiter.
+
+The Boston club lost eighteen straight games in the season of 1910, and as
+the team was leaving the Polo Grounds after having dropped four in a row,
+making the eighteen, I said to Tenney:
+
+"How does it seem, Fred, to be on a club that has lost eighteen straight?"
+
+"It's what General Sherman said war is," replied Tenney, who seldom
+swears. "But for all-around entertainment I would like to see John McGraw
+on a team which had dropped fifteen or sixteen in a row."
+
+As if Tenney had put the curse on us, the Giants hit a losing streak the
+next day that totalled six games straight. Everything that we tried broke
+against us. McGraw would attempt the double steal, and both throws would
+be accurate, and the runner caught at the plate. A hit and a run sign
+would be given, and the batter would run up against a pitch-out.
+
+McGraw was slowly going crazy. All his pet "inside" tricks were worthless.
+He, the king of baseball clairvoyants, could not guess right. It began to
+look to me as if Tenney would get his entertainment. After the sixth one
+had gone against us and McGraw had not spoken a friendly word to any one
+for a week, he called the players around him in the clubhouse.
+
+"I ought to let you all out and get a gang of high-school boys in here to
+defend the civic honor of this great and growing city whose municipal
+pride rests on your shoulders," he said. "But I'm not going to do it.
+Hereafter we will cut out all 'inside' stuff and play straight baseball.
+Every man will go up there and hit the ball just as you see it done on the
+lots."
+
+Into this oration was mixed a judicious amount of sulphur. The Cubs had
+just taken the first three of a four-game series from us without any
+trouble at all. The next day we went out and resorted to the wallop,
+plain, untrimmed slugging tactics, and beat Chicago 17 to 1. Later we
+returned to the hand-raised, cultivated hot-house form of baseball, but
+for a week we played the old-fashioned game with a great deal of success.
+It changed our luck.
+
+Another method which has upset the "inside" game of many visiting teams
+is "doping" the grounds.
+
+The first time in my baseball career that I ever encountered this was in
+Brooklyn when Hanlon was the manager. Every time he thought I was going to
+pitch there, he would have the diamond doctored for me in the morning. The
+ground-keeper sank the pitcher's box down so that it was below the level
+of all the bases instead of slightly elevated as it should be.
+
+Hanlon knew that I used a lot of speed when I first broke into the League,
+getting some of it from my elevation on the diamond. He had a team of fast
+men who depended largely on a bunting game and their speed in getting to
+first base to win. With me fielding bunts out of the hollow, they had a
+better chance of making their goal. Then pitching from the lower level
+would naturally result in the batters getting low balls, because I would
+be more apt to misjudge the elevation of the plate. Low ones were made to
+bunt. Finally, Hanlon always put into the box to work against me a little
+pitcher who was not affected as much as I by the topographical changes.
+
+"Why," I said to George Davis, the Giants' manager, the first time I
+pitched out of the cellar which in Brooklyn was regarded as the pitcher's
+box, "I'm throwing from a hollow instead of off a mound."
+
+"Sure," replied Davis. "They 'doped' the grounds for you. But never mind.
+When we are entertaining, the box at the Polo Grounds will be built up the
+days you are going to pitch against Brooklyn, and you can burn them over
+and at their heads if you like."
+
+The thing that worried the Athletics most before the last world's series
+was the reputation of the Giants as base stealers. When we went to
+Philadelphia for the first game, I was surprised at the heavy condition of
+the base lines.
+
+"Did it rain here last night?" I inquired from a native.
+
+"No," he answered.
+
+Then I knew that the lines had been wet down to slow up our fast runners
+and make it harder for them to steal. As things developed, this precaution
+was unnecessary, but it was an effort to break up what was known to be our
+strongest "inside" play.
+
+Baseball men maintain that the acme of doctoring grounds was the work of
+the old Baltimore Orioles. The team was composed of fast men who were
+brilliant bunters and hard base runners. The soil of the infield was mixed
+with a form of clay which, when wet and then rolled, was almost as hard as
+concrete. The ground outside the first and third base lines was built up
+slightly to keep well placed bunts from rolling foul, while toward first
+base there was a distinct down grade to aid the runner in reaching that
+station with all possible expedition. Toward second there was a gentle
+slope, and it was down hill to third. But coming home from third was
+up-hill work. A player had to be a mountain climber to make it. This all
+benefited fast men like Keeler, McGraw, Kelley and Jennings whose most
+dangerous form of attack was the bunt.
+
+The Orioles did not stop at doctoring the infield. The grass in the
+outfield was permitted to grow long and was unkempt. Centre and left
+fields were kept level, but in right field there was a sharp down grade to
+aid the fast Keeler. He had made an exhaustive study of all the possible
+angles at which the ball might bound and had certain paths that he
+followed, but which were not marked out by sign posts for visiting
+right-fielders. He was sure death on hits to his territory, while usually
+wallops got past visiting right-fielders. And so great was the grade that
+"Wee Willie" was barely visible from the batter's box. A hitting team
+coming to Baltimore would be forced to fall into the bunting game or be
+entirely outclassed. And the Orioles did not furnish their guests with
+topographical maps of the grounds either.
+
+The habit of doctoring grounds is not so much in vogue now as it once was.
+For a long time it was considered fair to arrange the home field to the
+best advantage of the team which owned it, for otherwise what was the use
+in being home? It was on the same principle that a general builds his
+breastworks to best suit the fighting style of his army, for they are his
+breastworks.
+
+But lately among the profession, sentiment and baseball legislation have
+prevailed against the doctoring of grounds, and it is done very little.
+Occasionally a pitching box is raised or lowered to meet the requirements
+of a certain man, but they are not altered every day to fit the pitcher,
+as they once were. Such tactics often hopelessly upset the plan of battle
+of the visiting club unless this exactly coincided with the habits of the
+home team. Many strategic plans have been wasted on carefully arranged
+grounds, and many "inside" plays have gone by the boards when the field
+was fixed so that a bunt was bound to roll foul if the ball followed the
+laws of gravitation, as it usually does, because the visiting team was
+known to have the bunting habit.
+
+A good story of doctored grounds gone wrong is told of the Philadelphia
+Athletics. The eccentric "Rube" Waddell had bundles of speed in his early
+days, and from a slightly elevated pitcher's box the batter could scarcely
+identify "Rube's" delivery from that of a cannon. He was scheduled to
+pitch one day and showed around at morning practice looking unusually fit
+for George.
+
+"How are you feeling to-day, George?" asked "Connie" Mack, his boss.
+
+"Never better," replied the light-hearted "Rube."
+
+"Well, you work this afternoon."
+
+"All right," answered Waddell.
+
+Then the ground-keeper got busy and built the pitcher's box up about two
+feet, so that Waddell would have a splendid opportunity to cut loose all
+his speed. At that time he happened to be the only tall man on the
+pitching staff of the Philadelphia club, and, as a rule, the box was kept
+very low. The scheme would probably have worked out as planned, if it had
+not been that Waddell, in the course of his noon-day wanderings, met
+several friends in whose society he became so deeply absorbed that he
+neglected to report at the ball park at all. He also forgot to send word,
+and here was the pitcher's box standing up out of the infield like one of
+the peaks of the Alps.
+
+As the players gathered, and Waddell failed to show up, the manager
+nervously looked at his watch. At last he sent out scouts to the "Rube's"
+known haunts, but no trace of the temperamental artist could be found. The
+visitors were already on the field, and it was too late to lower the box.
+A short pitcher had to work in the game from this peak of progress, while
+the opposing team installed a skyscraper on the mound. The Philadelphia
+club was badly beaten and Waddell heavily fined for his carelessness in
+disrupting the "inside" play of his team.
+
+An old and favorite trick used to be to soap the soil around the pitcher's
+box, so that when a man was searching for some place to dry his
+perspiring hands and grabbed up this soaped earth, it made his palm
+slippery and he was unable to control the ball.
+
+Of course, the home talent knew where the good ground lay and used it or
+else carried some unadulterated earth in their trousers' pockets, as a
+sort of private stock. But our old friend "Bugs" Raymond hit on a scheme
+to spoil this idea and make the trick useless. Arthur always perspired
+profusely when he pitched, and several managers, perceiving this, had made
+it a habit to soap the dirt liberally whenever it was his turn to work.
+While he was pitching for St. Louis, he went into the box against the
+Pirates one day in Pittsburg. His hands were naturally slippery, and
+several times he had complained that he could not dry them in the dirt,
+especially in Pittsburg soil.
+
+As Raymond worked in the game in question, he was noticed, particularly by
+the Pittsburg batters and spectators, to get better as he went along.
+Frequently, his hand slipped into his back pocket, and then his control
+was wonderful. Sometimes, he would reach down and apparently pick up a
+handful of earth, but it did no damage. After the game, he walked over to
+Fred Clarke, and reached into his back pocket. His face broke into a grin.
+
+"Ever see any of that stuff, Fred?" he asked innocently, showing the
+Pittsburg manager a handful of a dark brown substance. "That's rosin. It's
+great--lots better than soaped ground. Wish you'd keep a supply out there
+in the box for me when I'm going to work instead of that slippery stuff
+you've got out there now. Will you, as a favor to me?"
+
+Thereafter, all the pitchers got to carrying rosin or pumice stone in
+their pockets, for the story quickly went round the circuit, and it is
+useless to soap the soil in the box any more. There are many tricks by
+which the grounds or ball are "fixed," but for nearly all an antidote has
+been discovered, and these questionable forms of the "inside" game have
+failed so often that they have largely been abandoned.
+
+One Big League manager used always to give his men licorice or some other
+dark and adhesive and juicy substance to chew on a dingy day. The purpose
+was to dirty the ball so that it was harder for the batters to see when
+the pitcher used his fast one. As soon as a new ball was thrown into the
+game, it was quickly passed around among the fielders, and instead of
+being the lily-white thing that left the umpire's hands, when it finally
+got to the pitcher's box it was a very pronounced brunette. But some
+eagle-eyed arbiter detected this, and kept pouring new balls into the game
+when the non-licorice chewers were at the bat, while he saved the
+discolored ones for the consumption of the masticators. It was another
+trick that failed.
+
+Frequently, backgrounds are tampered with if the home club is notably weak
+at the bat. The best background for a batter is a dull, solid green. Many
+clubs have painted backgrounds in several contrasting, broken colors so
+that the sunlight, shining on them, blinds the batter. The Chicago White
+Sox are said to have done this, and for many years the figures showed that
+the batting of both the Chicago players and the visitors at their park was
+very light. The White Sox's hitting was weak anywhere, so that the poor
+background was an advantage to them.
+
+Injuries have often upset the "inside" play of a club. Usually a team's
+style revolves around one or two men, and the taking of them out of the
+game destroys the whole machine. The substitute does not think as quickly;
+neither does he see and grasp the opportunities as readily. This was true
+of the Cubs last season. Chance and Evers used to be the "inside" game of
+the team. Evers was out of the game most of the summer and Chance was
+struck in the head with a pitched ball and had to quit. The playing of the
+Chicago team fell down greatly as a result.
+
+Chance is the sort of athlete who is likely to get injured. When he was a
+catcher he was always banged up because he never got out of the way of
+anything. He is that kind of player. If he has to choose between accepting
+a pair of spikes in a vital part of his anatomy and getting a put-out, or
+dodging the spikes and losing the put-out, he always takes the put-out and
+usually the spikes. He never dodges away from a ball when at bat that may
+possibly break over the plate and cost him a strike. That is why he was
+hit in the head. He lingered too long to ascertain whether the ball was
+going to curve and found out that it was not, which put him out of the
+game, the Cubs practically out of the pennant race, and broke up their
+"inside" play.
+
+Roger Bresnahan is the same kind of a man. He thinks quickly, and is a
+brilliant player, but he never dodges anything. He is often hurt as a
+result. Once, when he was with the Giants, he was hit in the face with a
+pitched ball, and McGraw worried while he was laid up, for fear that it
+would make him bat shy. After he came back, he was just as friendly with
+the plate as ever. The injury of men like Chance and Bresnahan, whose
+services are of such vital importance to the "inside" play of a team,
+destroys the effectiveness of the club.
+
+Once, in 1908, when we were fighting the Cubs for the pennant at every
+step, McGraw planned a bunting game against Overall, who is big and not
+very fast in covering the little rollers. Bresnahan and O'Day had been
+having a serial argument through two games, and Roger, whose nerves were
+worn to a frazzle, like those of the rest of us at that time, thought
+"Hank" had been shading his judgment slightly toward the Cubs. In another
+story I have pointed out that O'Day, the umpire, was stubborn and that
+nothing could be gained by continually picking on him. When the batteries
+were announced for that game, McGraw said as the team went to the field:
+
+"We can beat this guy Overall by bunting."
+
+Bresnahan went out to put on his chest protector and shin guards. O'Day
+happened to be adjusting his makeup near him. Roger could not resist the
+temptation.
+
+"Why don't you put on a Chicago uniform, 'Hank', instead of those duds?"
+he asked. "Is it true, if the Cubs win the pennant, they've promised to
+elect you alderman in Chicago?"
+
+"Get out of the game and off the field," said O'Day.
+
+Bresnahan had to obey the injunction and Needham, the only other available
+catcher, went behind the mat. "Tom" Needham never beat out a bunt in his
+life, and he destroyed all McGraw's plans because, with him in the game
+instead of Bresnahan, the style had to be switched. We lost. Bresnahan, a
+fast man and a good bunter batted third and would have been valuable in
+the attack best adapted to beat Overall. But his sudden demise and the
+enforced substitution of the plodding Needham ruined the whole plan of
+campaign. Therefore, frequently umpires upset a team's "inside" game.
+
+One of McGraw's schemes back-fired on him when Luderus, the hard-hitting
+Philadelphia first baseman, broke into the League. Some one had tipped
+"Mac" off, and tipped him wrong, that this youngster could be disconcerted
+in a pinch by the catcher discussing signs and what-not with him, thus
+distracting his attention.
+
+"Chief," said McGraw before the game, "if this Luderus gets up in a tight
+place, slip him a little talk."
+
+The situation came, and Meyers obeyed instructions. The game was in
+Philadelphia, and three men were on the bases with two out. Ames was
+pitching.
+
+"What are you bringing the bat up with you for?" asked the "Chief" as
+Luderus arranged himself at the plate.
+
+No answer.
+
+Then Meyers gave Ames his sign. Next he fixed his fingers in a fake signal
+and addressed the young batter.
+
+"The best hitters steal signs," said the "Chief." "Just look down in my
+glove and see the signals."
+
+But Luderus was not caught and kept his eyes glued on Ames. He hit the
+next ball over the right field wall and won the game. As he crossed the
+plate, he said to the "Chief":
+
+"It's too easy. I don't need your signs. They pulled that one on me in the
+bushes long ago."
+
+"After this, when that fellow bats," said McGraw to Meyers later, "do as
+exact an imitation of the sphinx as you know how. The tip was no good."
+
+The trick of talking to the hitter is an old one. The idea is for the
+catcher to give a wrong sign, for his benefit, after having flashed the
+right one, induce the batter, usually a youngster, to look down at it, and
+then have the pitcher shoot one over the plate while he is staring in the
+glove.
+
+"Steve" Evans, the St. Louis right-fielder, tells a story of a fan who sat
+in the same box at the Cardinals' park every day and devoted most of his
+time to roasting him (S. Evans). His favorite expressions in connection
+with Evans were "bone dead," "wooden head," and so on. He loudly claimed
+that "Steve" had no knowledge of the game and spoiled every play that
+Bresnahan tried to put through. One day, when the Giants were playing in
+St. Louis, some one knocked up a high foul which landed in this orator's
+box. He saw it coming, tried to dodge, used poor judgment, and, realizing
+that the ball was going to strike him, snatched his hat off, and took it
+full on an immodestly bald head. "Steve" Evans was waiting to go to the
+bat. He shifted his chew to his other cheek and exclaimed in a voice that
+could not have been heard more than two miles away:
+
+"That's the 'gink' who has been calling me a 'bone head.'"
+
+"Steve" got a great laugh from the crowd, but right there the St. Louis
+club lost a patron, for the bald-headed one has never been seen at the
+grounds since, according to Evans, and his obituary has not been printed
+yet, either.
+
+"Al" Bridwell, formerly the Giants' shortstop, was one of the cleverest
+men at the "inside" game that ever broke into the Big Leagues, and it was
+this that made him valuable. Then suddenly his legs went bad, and he
+slowed up. It was his speed and his ability to bunt and his tireless
+waiting at the plate to make all toilers in the box pitch that had made
+him a great player. He seldom swung at a bad ball. As soon as he slowed
+up, McGraw knew he would have to go if the Giants were to win the pennant.
+He deeply regretted letting the gritty, little shortstop, whose legs had
+grown stiff in his service, leave the club, but sentiment never won any
+pennants.
+
+"Al," he said to Bridwell, "I'm going to let you go to Boston. Your legs
+will be all right eventually, but I've got to have a fast man now while
+you are getting back your old speed."
+
+"That's all right, 'Mac,'" replied Bridwell. "It's all part of the game."
+
+He did not rave and swear that he had been double-crossed, as many players
+do under the same circumstances. I never heard Bridwell swear, and I never
+found any one else who did. He had been playing for weeks, when every time
+he moved it pained him, because he thought he might have a share of the
+money that winning a pennant would mean. It was a staggering blow to him,
+this sending him from a pennant possibility to a hopeless tail-ender, but
+he took it gamely.
+
+"I guess I was 'gumming' the inside stuff," he said.
+
+And he did get some of the prize money. The boys voted him a share.
+
+It will be seen that the "inside" game sometimes fails. Many a time I have
+passed a catcher or good batter to take a chance on a pitcher, and then
+have had him make a hit just when hits were not at all welcome. I walked a
+catcher once and had the pitcher shove the ball over first base for a
+single, when he closed his eyes and dodged back in an effort to get his
+head out of the line he thought it was pursuing before it curved. In
+ducking, he got his bat in front of the ball, a result he had never
+obtained with his eyes open.
+
+Once I started to pass "Hans" Wagner in a pinch to take a chance on the
+next batter, and was a little careless in throwing the ball too close to
+the plate. He reached out and slapped it for a single. Again the "inside"
+game had failed.
+
+Speaking pretty generally, most managers prefer to use this "inside" game,
+though, and there are few vacancies in the Big Leagues right now for the
+man who is liable to steal second with the bases full.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
+
+Punctuation has been corrected without note.
+
+The following misprints have been corrected:
+  "Crounds" corrected to "Grounds" (page 65)
+  "temperameut" corrected to "temperament" (page 69)
+  "penant" corrected to "pennant" (page 205)
+  "te ephone" corrected to "telephone" (page 263)
+  "innnings" corrected to "innings" (page 282)
+
+Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in hyphenation
+have been retained from the original.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Pitching in a Pinch, by Christy Mathewson
+
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+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Pitching in a Pinch, by Christy Mathewson.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+
+    p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+
+    body {margin-left: 12%; margin-right: 12%;}
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+    .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right; font-style: normal;}
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+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pitching in a Pinch, by Christy Mathewson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Pitching in a Pinch
+       or, Baseball from the Inside
+
+Author: Christy Mathewson
+
+Commentator: John N. Wheeler
+
+Release Date: July 30, 2010 [EBook #33291]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PITCHING IN A PINCH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i002.jpg" alt="" /><br /><img src="images/i002sig.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="center"><small>Copyright by L. Van Oeyen, Cleveland, Ohio</small></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="border"><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h1>PITCHING<br />IN A PINCH</h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>OR<br />BASEBALL FROM THE INSIDE</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>BY</h4>
+<h3>CHRISTY MATHEWSON</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY<br />JOHN N. WHEELER</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><strong>ILLUSTRATED</strong></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i003.jpg" alt="" /></div><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP<br />PUBLISHERS<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>NEW YORK</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p></div>
+<p class="center"><small>Made in the United States of America</small></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1912<br /><small>BY</small><br />CHRISTOPHER MATHEWSON<br />
+<br />
+This edition is issued under arrangement with the publishers<br />
+<span class="smcap">G. P. Putnam&#8217;s Sons, New York and London</span><br /><br />
+The Knickerbocker Press, New York</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p>
+<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Introducing</span> a reader to Christy Mathewson seems like a superfluous piece
+of writing and a waste of white paper. Schoolboys of the last ten years
+have been acquainted with the exact figures which have made up Matty&#8217;s
+pitching record before they had ever heard of George Washington, because
+George didn&#8217;t play in the same League.</p>
+
+<p>Perfectly good rational and normal citizens once deserted a reception to
+the Governor of the State because Christy Mathewson was going to pitch
+against the Chicago club. If the committee on arrangements wanted to make
+the hour of the reception earlier, all right, but no one could be expected
+to miss seeing Matty in the box against Chance and his Cubs for the sake
+of greeting the Governor.</p>
+
+<p>Besides being a national hero, Matty is one of the closest students of
+baseball that ever came into the Big League. By players, he has long been
+recognized as the greatest pitcher the game has produced. He has been
+pitching in the Big<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span> Leagues for eleven years and winning games right
+along.</p>
+
+<p>His great pitching practically won the world&#8217;s championship for the Giants
+from the Philadelphia Athletics in 1905, and, six years later, he was
+responsible for one of the two victories turned in by New York pitchers in
+a world&#8217;s series again with the Athletics.</p>
+
+<p>At certain periods in his baseball career, he has pitched almost every day
+after the rest of the staff had fallen down. When the Giants were making
+their determined fight for the championship in 1908, the season that the
+race was finally decided by a single game with the Cubs, he worked in nine
+out of the last fifteen games in an effort to save his club from defeat.
+And he won most of them. That has always been the beauty of his
+pitching&mdash;his ability to win.</p>
+
+<p>Matty was born in Factoryville, Pa., thirty-one years ago, and, after
+going to Bucknell College, he began to play ball with the Norfolk club of
+the Virginia League, but was soon bought by the New York Giants, where he
+has remained ever since and is likely to stay for some time to come, if he
+can continue to make himself as welcome as he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span> has been so far. He was
+only nineteen when he joined the club and was a headliner from the start.
+Always he has been a student and something of a writer, having done
+newspaper work from time to time during the big series. He has made a
+careful study of the Big League batters. He has kept a sort of baseball
+diary of his career, and, frequently, I have heard him relate unwritten
+chapters of baseball history filled with the thrilling incidents of his
+personal experience.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why don&#8217;t you write a real book of the Big Leaguers?&#8221; I asked him one
+day.</p>
+
+<p>And he has done it. In this book he is telling the reader of the game as
+it is played in the Big Leagues. As a college man, he is able to put his
+impressions of the Big Leagues on paper graphically. It&#8217;s as good as his
+pitching and some exciting things have happened in the Big Leagues,
+stories that never found their way into the newspapers. Matty has told
+them. This is a true tale of Big Leaguers, their habits and their methods
+of playing the game, written by one of them.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">John N. Wheeler.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">New York</span>,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">March, 1912.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="contents">
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td><span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span></td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#I">I</a>&mdash;</td><td><span class="smcap">The Most Dangerous Batters I have Met</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#II">II</a>&mdash;</td><td>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Take Him Out!</span>&#8221;</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#III">III</a>&mdash;</td><td><span class="smcap">Pitching in a Pinch</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#IV">IV</a>&mdash;</td><td><span class="smcap">Big League Pitchers and their Peculiarities</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#V">V</a>&mdash;</td><td><span class="smcap">Playing the Game from the Bench</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#VI">VI</a>&mdash;</td><td><span class="smcap">Coaching&mdash;Good and Bad</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#VII">VII</a>&mdash;</td><td><span class="smcap">Honest and Dishonest Sign Stealing</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#VIII">VIII</a>&mdash;</td><td><span class="smcap">Umpires and Close Decisions</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#IX">IX</a>&mdash;</td><td><span class="smcap">The Game that Cost a Pennant</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_183">183</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#X">X</a>&mdash;</td><td><span class="smcap">When the Teams Are in Spring Training</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_206">206</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span><a href="#XI">XI</a>&mdash;</td><td><span class="smcap">Jinxes and what they Mean to a Ball-Player</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_230">230</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XII">XII</a>&mdash;</td><td><span class="smcap">Base Runners and how they Help a Pitcher to Win</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_255">255</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XIII">XIII</a>&mdash;</td><td><span class="smcap">Notable Instances where the &#8220;Inside&#8221; Game has Failed</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_281">281</a></td></tr></table>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<h2>Pitching in a Pinch</h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2>
+<h3>The Most Dangerous Batters I Have Met</h3>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><i>How &#8220;Joe&#8221; Tinker Changed Overnight from a Weakling at the Plate to
+the Worst Batter I Had to Face&mdash;&#8220;Fred&#8221; Clarke of Pittsburg cannot be
+Fooled by a Change of Pace, and &#8220;Hans&#8221; Wagner&#8217;s Only &#8220;Groove&#8221; Is a
+Base on Balls&mdash;&#8220;Inside&#8221; Information on All the Great Batters.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">I have</span> often been asked to which batters I have found it hardest to pitch.</p>
+
+<p>It is the general impression among baseball fans that Joseph Faversham
+Tinker, the short-stop of the Chicago Cubs, is the worst man that I have
+to face in the National League. Few realize that during his first two
+years in the big show Joe Tinker looked like a cripple at the plate when I
+was pitching. His &#8220;groove&#8221; was a slow curve over the outside corner, and I
+fed him slow curves over that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> very outside corner with great regularity.
+Then suddenly, overnight, he became from my point of view the most
+dangerous batter in the League.</p>
+
+<p>Tinker is a clever ball-player, and one day I struck him out three times
+in succession with low curves over the outside corner. Instead of getting
+disgusted with himself, he began to think and reason. He knew that I was
+feeding him that low curve over the outside corner, and he started to look
+for an antidote. He had always taken a short, choppy swing at the ball.
+When he went to the clubhouse after the game in which he struck out three
+times, he was very quiet, so I have been told. He was just putting on his
+last sock when he clapped his hand to his leg and exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Got what?&#8221; asked Johnny Evers, who happened to be sitting next to Tinker.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Got the way to hit Matty, who had me looking as if I came from the home
+for the blind out there to-day,&#8221; answered Joe.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I should say he did,&#8221; replied Evers. &#8220;But if you&#8217;ve found a way to hit
+him, why, I&#8217;m from away out in Missouri near the Ozark Mountains.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>&#8220;Wait till he pitches again,&#8221; said Tinker by way of conclusion, as he took
+his diamond ring from the trainer and left the clubhouse.</p>
+
+<p>It was a four-game series in Chicago, and I had struck Tinker out three
+times in the first contest. McGraw decided that I should pitch the last
+game as well. Two men were on the bases and two were out when Tinker came
+to the bat for the first time in this battle, and the outfielders moved in
+closer for him, as he had always been what is known as a &#8220;chop&#8221; hitter. I
+immediately noticed something different about his style as he set himself
+at the plate, and then it struck me that he was standing back in the box
+and had a long bat. Before this he had always choked his bat short and
+stood up close. Now I observed that he had his stick way down by the
+handle.</p>
+
+<p>Bresnahan was catching, and he signalled for the regular prescription for
+Tinker. With a lot of confidence I handed him that old low curve. He
+evidently expected it, for he stepped almost across the plate, and, with
+that long bat, drove the ball to right field for two bases over the head
+of George Browne, who was playing close up to the infield, scoring both
+runs and eventually winning the game.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got your number now, Matty!&#8221; he shouted at me as he drew up at
+second base.</p>
+
+<p>I admit that he has had it quite frequently since he switched his batting
+style. Now the outfielders move back when Tinker comes to the plate, for,
+if he connects, he hits &#8220;&#8217;em far&#8221; with that long bat. Ever since the day
+he adopted the &#8220;pole&#8221; he has been a thorn in my side and has broken up
+many a game. That old low curve is his favorite now, and he reaches for it
+with the same cordiality as is displayed by an actor in reaching for his
+pay envelope. The only thing to do is to keep them close and try to
+outguess him, but Tinker is a hard man to beat at the game of wits.</p>
+
+<p>Many a heady hitter in the Big League could give the signs to the opposing
+pitcher, for he realizes what his weakness is and knows that a twirler is
+going to pitch at it. But, try as hard as he will, he cannot often cover
+up his &#8220;groove,&#8221; as Tinker did, and so he continues to be easy for the
+twirler who can put the ball where he wants it.</p>
+
+<p>Fred Clarke, of Pittsburg, has always been a hard man for me to fool on
+account of his batting form. A hitter of his type cannot be deceived by a
+change of pace, because he stands up close to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> the plate, chokes his bat
+short, and swings left-handed. When a pitcher cannot deceive a man with a
+change of pace, he has to depend on curves. Let me digress briefly to
+explain why a change of pace will not make the ball miss Clarke&#8217;s bat. He
+is naturally a left-field hitter, and likes the ball on the outside corner
+of the plate. That means he swings at the ball late and makes most of his
+drives to left field.</p>
+
+<p>How is a batter fooled by a change of pace? A pitcher gives him a speedy
+one and then piles a slow one right on top of it with the same motion. The
+batter naturally thinks it is another fast ball and swings too soon&mdash;that
+is, before the ball gets to him. But when a man like Clarke is at the bat
+and a pitcher tries to work a change of pace, what is the result? He
+naturally swings late and so hits a fast ball to left field. Then as the
+slow one comes up to the plate, he strikes at it, granted he is deceived
+by it, timing his swing as he would at a fast ball. If it had been a fast
+ball, as he thought, he would have hit it to left field, being naturally a
+late swinger. But on a slow one he swings clear around and pulls it to
+right field twice as hard as he would have hit it to left field because<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>
+he has obtained that much more drive in the longer swing. Therefore, it is
+a rule in the profession that no left-handed batter who hits late can be
+deceived by a change of pace.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rube&#8221; Ellis, a left-handed hitter of the St. Louis Club, entered the
+League and heard complimentary stories about my pitching. Ellis came up to
+bat the first day that I pitched against him wondering if he would get
+even a foul. He was new to me and I was looking for his &#8220;groove.&#8221; I gave
+him one over the outside corner, and he jabbed it to left field. The next
+time, I thought to work the change of pace, and, swinging late, he hauled
+the ball around to right field, and it nearly tore Fred Tenny&#8217;s head off
+en route over first base. Five hits out of five times at bat he made off
+me that day, and, when he went to the clubhouse, he remarked to his team
+mates in this wise:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So that is the guy who has been burning up this League, huh? We&#8217;ve got
+better &#8217;n him in the coast circuit. He&#8217;s just got the Indian sign on you.
+That&#8217;s all.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I did a little thinking about Ellis&#8217;s hitting. He used a long bat and held
+it down near the end and &#8220;poled &#8217;em.&#8221; He was naturally a left-field
+hitter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> and, therefore, swung late at the ball. I concluded that fast ones
+inside would do for Mr. Ellis, and the next time we met he got just those.
+He has been getting them ever since and now, when he makes a hit off me,
+he holds a celebration.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hans&#8221; Wagner, of Pittsburg, has always been a hard man for me, but in
+that I have had nothing on a lot of other pitchers. He takes a long bat,
+stands well back from the plate, and steps into the ball, poling it. He is
+what is known in baseball as a free swinger, and there are not many free
+swingers these days. This is what ailed the Giants&#8217; batting during the
+world&#8217;s series in 1911. They all attempted to become free swingers
+overnight and were trying to knock the ball out of the lot, instead of
+chopping it.</p>
+
+<p>In the history of baseball there have not been more than fifteen or twenty
+free swingers altogether, and they are the real natural hitters of the
+game, the men with eyes nice enough and accurate enough to take a long
+wallop at the ball. &#8220;Dan&#8221; Brouthers was one, and so was &#8220;Cap&#8221; Anson.
+Sherwood Magee and &#8220;Hans&#8221; Wagner are contemporary free swingers. Men of
+this type wield a heavy bat as if it were a toothpick and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> step back and
+forth in the box, hitting the ball on any end of the plate. Sometimes it
+is almost impossible to pass a man of this sort purposely, for a little
+carelessness in getting the ball too close to the plate may result in his
+stepping up and hitting it a mile. Pitchers have been searching for
+Wagner&#8217;s &#8220;groove&#8221; for years, and, if any one of them has located it, he
+has his discovery copyrighted, for I never heard of it.</p>
+
+<p>Only one pitcher, that I can recall, always had it on Wagner, and that man
+was Arthur Raymond, sometimes called &#8220;Bugs.&#8221; He seemed to upset the German
+by his careless manner in the box and by his &#8220;kidding&#8221; tactics. I have
+seen him make Wagner go after bad balls, a thing that &#8220;Hans&#8221; seldom can be
+induced to do by other twirlers.</p>
+
+<p>I remember well the first time I pitched against Wagner. Jack Warner was
+catching, and I, young and new in the League, had spent a lot of time with
+him, learning the weaknesses of the batters and being coached as to how to
+treat them. Wagner loomed up at the bat in a pinch, and I could not
+remember what Warner had said about his flaw. I walked out of the box to
+confer with the catcher.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s his &#8216;groove,&#8217; Jack?&#8221; I asked him.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>&#8220;A base on balls,&#8221; replied Warner, without cracking a smile.</p>
+
+<p>That&#8217;s always been Wagner&#8217;s &#8220;groove.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There used to be a player on the Boston team named Claude Ritchey who &#8220;had
+it on me&#8221; for some reason or other. He was a left-handed hitter and
+naturally drove the ball to left field, so that I could not fool him with
+a change of pace. He was always able to outguess me in a pinch and seemed
+to know by intuition what was coming.</p>
+
+<p>There has been for a long time an ardent follower of the Giants named Mrs.
+Wilson, who raves wildly at a game, and is broken-hearted when the team
+loses. The Giants were playing in Boston one day, and needed the game very
+badly. It was back in 1905, at the time the club could cinch the pennant
+by winning one contest, and the flag-assuring game is the hardest one to
+win. Two men got on the bases in the ninth inning with the score tied and
+no one out. The crowd was stamping its feet and hooting madly, trying to
+rattle me. I heard Mrs. Wilson shrill loudly above the noise:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Stick with them, Matty!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Ritchey came up to the bat, and I passed him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> purposely, trying to get him
+to strike at a bad ball. I wouldn&#8217;t take a chance on letting him hit at a
+good one. Mrs. Wilson thought I was losing my control, and unable to stand
+it any longer she got up and walked out of the grounds. Then I fanned the
+next two batters, and the last man hit a roller to Devlin and was thrown
+out at first base. I was told afterwards that Mrs. Wilson stood outside
+the ground, waiting to hear the crowd cheer, which would have told her it
+was all over.</p>
+
+<p>She lingered at the gate until the fourteenth inning, fearing to return
+because she expected to see us routed. At last she heard a groan from the
+home crowd when we won in the fourteenth. Still she would not believe that
+I had weathered the storm and won the game that gave the Giants a pennant,
+but waited to be assured by some of the spectators leaving the grounds
+before she came around to congratulate us.</p>
+
+<p>All batters who are good waiters, and will not hit at bad balls, are hard
+to deceive, because it means a twirler has to lay the ball over, and then
+the hitter always has the better chance. A pitcher will try to get a man
+to hit at a bad ball before he will put it near the plate.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>Many persons have asked me why I do not use my &#8220;fade-away&#8221; oftener when it
+is so effective, and the only answer is that every time I throw the
+&#8220;fade-away&#8221; it takes so much out of my arm. It is a very hard ball to
+deliver. Pitching it ten or twelve times in a game kills my arm, so I save
+it for the pinches.</p>
+
+<p>Many fans do not know what this ball really is. It is a slow curve pitched
+with the motion of a fast ball. But most curve balls break away from a
+right-handed batter a little. The fade-away breaks toward him.</p>
+
+<p>Baker, of the Athletics, is one of the most dangerous hitters I have ever
+faced, and we were not warned to look out for him before the 1911 world&#8217;s
+series, either. Certain friends of the Giants gave us some &#8220;inside&#8221;
+information on the Athletics&#8217; hitters. Among others, the Cubs supplied us
+with good tips, but no one spread the Baker alarm. I was told to watch out
+for Collins as a dangerous man, one who was likely to break up a game any
+time with a long drive.</p>
+
+<p>I consider Baker one of the hardest, cleanest hitters I have ever faced,
+and he drives the ball on a line to any field. The fielders cannot play
+for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> him. He did not show up well in the first game of the world&#8217;s series
+because the Athletics thought they were getting our signs, and we crossed
+Baker with two men on the bases in the third inning. He lost a chance to
+be a hero right there.</p>
+
+<p>The roughest deal that I got from Baker in the 1911 series was in the
+third game, which was the second in New York. We had made one run and the
+ninth inning rolled around with the Giants still leading, 1 to 0. The
+first man at the bat grounded out and then Baker came up. I realized by
+this time that he was a hard proposition, but figured that he could not
+hit a low curve over the outside corner, as he is naturally a right-field
+hitter. I got one ball and one strike on him and then delivered a ball
+that was aimed to be a low curve over the outside corner. Baker refused to
+swing at it, and Brennan, the umpire, called it a ball.</p>
+
+<p>I thought that it caught the outside corner of the plate, and that Brennan
+missed the strike. It put me in the hole with the count two balls and one
+strike, and I had to lay the next one over very near the middle to keep
+the count from being three and one. I pitched a curve ball that was meant
+for the outside corner, but cut the plate better<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> than I intended. Baker
+stepped up into it and smashed it into the grand-stand in right field for
+a home run, and there is the history of that famous wallop. This tied the
+score.</p>
+
+<p>A pitcher has two types of batters to face. One is the man who is always
+thinking and guessing and waiting, trying to get the pitcher in the hole.
+Evers, of the Cubs, is that sort. They tell me that &#8220;Ty&#8221; Cobb of Detroit
+is the most highly developed of this type of hitter. I have never seen him
+play. Then the other kind is the natural slugger, who does not wait for
+anything, and who could not outguess a pitcher if he did. The brainy man
+is the harder for a pitcher to face because he is a constant source of
+worry.</p>
+
+<p>There are two ways of fooling a batter. One is literally to &#8220;mix &#8217;em up,&#8221;
+and the other is to keep feeding him the same sort of a ball, but to
+induce him to think that something else is coming. When a brainy man is at
+the bat, he is always trying to figure out what to expect. If he knows,
+then his chances of getting a hit are greatly increased. For instance, if
+a batter has two balls and two strikes on him, he naturally concludes that
+the pitcher will throw him a curve ball, and prepares for it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> Big League
+ball-players recognize only two kinds of pitched balls&mdash;the curve and the
+straight one.</p>
+
+<p>When a catcher in the Big League signals for a curved ball, he means a
+drop, and, after handling a certain pitcher for a time, he gets to know
+just how much the ball is going to curve. That is why the one catcher
+receives for the same pitcher so regularly, because they get to work
+together harmoniously. &#8220;Chief&#8221; Meyers, the big Indian catcher on the
+Giants, understands my style so well that in some games he hardly has to
+give a sign. But, oddly enough, he could never catch Raymond because he
+did not like to handle the spit ball, a hard delivery to receive, and
+Raymond and he could not get along together as a battery. They would cross
+each other. But Arthur Wilson caught Raymond almost perfectly. This
+explains the loss of effectiveness of many pitchers when a certain catcher
+is laid up or out of the game.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Cy&#8221; Seymour, formerly the outfielder of the Giants, was one of the
+hardest batters I ever had to pitch against when he was with the
+Cincinnati club and going at the top of his stride. He liked a curved
+ball, and could hit it hard and far, and was always waiting for it. He was
+very clever at <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>out-guessing a pitcher and being able to conclude what was
+coming. For a long time whenever I pitched against him I had &#8220;mixed &#8217;em
+up&#8221; literally, handing him first a fast ball and then a slow curve and so
+on, trying to fool him in this way. But one day we were playing in
+Cincinnati, and I decided to keep delivering the same kind of a ball, that
+old fast one around his neck, and to try to induce him to believe that a
+curve was coming. I pitched him nothing but fast ones that day, and he was
+always waiting for a curve. The result was that I had him in the hole all
+the time, and I struck him out three times. He has never gotten over it.
+Only recently I saw Seymour, and he said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Matty, you are the only man that ever struck me out three times in the
+same game.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He soon guessed, however, that I was not really mixing them up, and then I
+had to switch my style again for him.</p>
+
+<p>Some pitchers talk to batters a great deal, hoping to get their minds off
+the game in this way, and thus be able to sneak strikes over. But I find
+that talking to a batter disconcerts me almost as much as it does him, and
+I seldom do it. Repartee is not my line anyway.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>Bender talked to the Giant players all through that first game in the 1911
+world&#8217;s series, the one in which he wore the smile, probably because he
+was a pitcher old in the game and several of the younger men on the New
+York team acted as if they were nervous. Snodgrass and the Indian kept up
+a running fire of small talk every time that the Giants&#8217; centre-fielder
+came to the plate.</p>
+
+<p>Snodgrass got hit by pitched balls twice, and this seemed to worry Bender.
+When the New York centre-fielder came to the bat in the eighth inning, the
+Indian showed his even teeth in the chronic grin and greeted Snodgrass in
+this way:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Look out, Freddie, you don&#8217;t get hit this time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then Bender wound up and with all his speed drove the ball straight at
+Snodgrass&#8217;s head, and Bender had more speed in that first game than I ever
+saw him use before. Snodgrass dodged, and the ball drove into Thomas&#8217;s
+glove. This pitching the first ball at the head of a batter is an old
+trick of pitchers when they think a player intends to get hit purposely or
+that he is crowding the plate.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If you can&#8217;t push &#8217;em over better than that,&#8221;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> retorted Snodgrass, &#8220;I
+won&#8217;t need to get hit. Let&#8217;s see your fast one now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Try this one,&#8221; suggested Bender, as he pitched another fast one that cut
+the heart of the plate. Snodgrass swung and hit nothing but the air. The
+old atmosphere was very much mauled by bats in that game anyway.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You missed that one a mile, Freddie,&#8221; chuckled the Indian, with his grin.</p>
+
+<p>Snodgrass eventually struck out and then Bender broke into a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You ain&#8217;t a batter, Freddie,&#8221; exclaimed the Indian, as he walked to the
+bench. &#8220;You&#8217;re a backstop. You can never get anywhere without being hit.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>If a pitcher is going to talk to a batter, he must size up his man. An
+irritable, nervous young player often will fall for the conversation, but
+most seasoned hitters will not answer back. The Athletics, other than
+Bender, will not talk in a game. We tried to get after them in the first
+contest in 1911, and we could not get a rise out of one of them, except
+when Snodgrass spiked Baker, and I want to say right here that this much
+discussed incident was accidental. Baker was blocking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> Snodgrass out, and
+the New York player had a perfect right to the base line.</p>
+
+<p>Sherwood Magee of the Philadelphia National League team is one of the
+hardest batters that I ever have had to face, because he has a great eye,
+and is of the type of free swingers who take a mad wallop at the ball, and
+are always liable to break up a game with a long drive. Just once I talked
+to him when he was at the bat, more because we were both worked up than
+for any other reason, and he came out second best. It was while the Giants
+were playing at American League Park in 1911 after the old Polo Grounds
+had burned. Welchonce, who was the centre-fielder for the Phillies at the
+time, hit a slow one down the first base line, and I ran over to field the
+ball. I picked it up as the runner arrived and had no time to straighten
+up to dodge him. So I struck out my shoulder and he ran into it. There was
+no other way to make the play, but I guess it looked bad from the stand,
+because Welchonce fell down.</p>
+
+<p>Magee came up to bat next, threw his hat on the ground, and started to
+call me names. He is bad when irritated&mdash;and tolerably easy to irritate,
+as shown by the way in which he knocked down<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> Finnegan, the umpire, last
+season because their ideas on a strike differed slightly. I replied on
+that occasion, but remembered to keep the ball away from the centre of the
+plate. That is about all I did do, but he was more wrought up than I and
+hit only a slow grounder to the infield. He was out by several feet. He
+took a wild slide at the bag, however, feet first, in what looked like an
+attempt to spike Merkle. We talked some more after that, but it has all
+been forgotten now.</p>
+
+<p>To be a successful pitcher in the Big League, a man must have the head and
+the arm. When I first joined the Giants, I had what is known as the &#8220;old
+round-house curve,&#8221; which is no more than a big, slow outdrop. I had been
+fooling them in the minor leagues with it, and I was somewhat chagrined
+when George Davis, then the manager of the club, came to me and told me to
+forget the curve, as it would be of no use. It was then that I began to
+develop my drop ball.</p>
+
+<p>A pitcher must watch all the time for any little unconscious motion before
+he delivers the ball. If a base runner can guess just when he is going to
+pitch, he can get a much better start. Drucke used to have a little motion
+with his foot just <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>before he pitched, of which he himself was entirely
+unconscious, but the other clubs got on to it and stole bases on him
+wildly. McGraw has since broken him of it.</p>
+
+<p>The Athletics say that I make a motion peculiar to the fade-away. Some
+spit-ball pitchers announce when they are going to throw a moist one by
+looking at the ball as they dampen it. At other times, when they &#8220;stall,&#8221;
+they do not look at the ball. The Big League batter is watching for all
+these little things and, if a pitcher is not careful, he will find a lot
+of men who are hard to pitch to. There are plenty anyway, and, as a man
+grows older, this number increases season by season.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2>
+<h3>&#8220;Take Him Out&#8221;</h3>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><i>Many a Pitcher&#8217;s Heart has been Broken by the Cry from the Stands,
+&#8220;Take Him Out&#8221;&mdash;Russell Ford of the New York Yankees was Once Beaten
+by a Few Foolish Words Whispered into the Batter&#8217;s Ear at a Critical
+Moment&mdash;Why &#8220;Rube&#8221; Marquard Failed for Two Years to be a Big
+Leaguer&mdash;The Art of Breaking a Pitcher into Fast Company.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">A pitcher</span> is in a tight game, and the batter makes a hit. Another follows
+and some fan back in the stand cries in stentorian tones:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Take him out!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It is the dirge of baseball which has broken the hearts of pitchers ever
+since the game began and will continue to do so as long as it lives.
+Another fan takes up the shout, and another, and another, until it is a
+chorus.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Take him out! Take him out! Take him out!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>The pitcher has to grin, but that constant cry is wearing on nerves strung
+to the breaking point. The crowd is against him, and the next batter hits,
+and a run scores. The manager stops the game, beckons to the pitcher from
+the bench, and he has to walk away from the box, facing the crowd&mdash;not the
+team&mdash;which has beaten him. It is the psychology of baseball.</p>
+
+<p>Some foolish words once whispered into the ear of a batter by a clever
+manager in the crisis of one of the closest games ever played in baseball
+turned the tide and unbalanced a pitcher who had been working like a
+perfectly adjusted machine through seven terrific innings. That is also
+the &#8220;psychology of pitching.&#8221; The man wasn&#8217;t beaten because he weakened,
+because he lost his grip, because of any physical deficiency, but because
+some foolish words&mdash;words that meant nothing, had nothing to do with the
+game&mdash;had upset his mental attitude.</p>
+
+<p>The game was the first one played between the Giants and the Yankees in
+the post-season series of 1910, the batter was Bridwell, the manager was
+John McGraw, and the pitcher, Russell Ford of the Yankees. The cast of
+characters having<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> been named, the story may now enter the block.</p>
+
+<p>Spectators who recall the game will remember that the two clubs had been
+battling through the early innings with neither team able to gain an
+advantage, and the Giants came to bat for the eighth inning with the score
+a tie. Ford was pitching perfectly with all the art of a master craftsman.
+Each team had made one run. I was the first man up and started the eighth
+inning with a single because Ford slackened up a little against me,
+thinking that I was not dangerous. Devore beat out an infield hit, and
+Doyle bunted and was safe, filling the bases. Then Ford went to work. He
+struck out Snodgrass, and Hemphill caught Murray&#8217;s fly far too near the
+infield to permit me to try to score. It looked as if Ford were going to
+get out of the hole when &#8220;Al&#8221; Bridwell, the former Giant shortstop, came
+to the bat. Ford threw him two bad balls, and then McGraw ran out from the
+bench, and, with an autocratic finger, held up the game while he whispered
+into Bridwell&#8217;s ear.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Al&#8221; nodded knowingly, and the whole thing was a pantomime, a wordless
+play, that made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> <i>Sumurun</i> look like a bush-league production. Bridwell
+stepped back into the batter&#8217;s box, and McGraw returned to the bench. On
+the next pitch, &#8220;Al&#8221; was hit in the leg and went to first base, forcing
+the run that broke the tie across the plate. That run also broke Ford&#8217;s
+heart. And here is what McGraw whispered into the attentive ear of
+Bridwell:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How many quail did you say you shot when you were hunting last fall, Al?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>John McGraw, the psychologist, baseball general and manager, had heard
+opportunity knock. With his fingers on the pulse of the game, he had felt
+the tenseness of the situation, and realized, all in the flash of an eye,
+that Ford was wabbling and that anything would push him over. He stopped
+the game and whispered into Bridwell&#8217;s ear while Ford was feeling more and
+more the intensity of the crisis. He had an opportunity to observe the
+three men on the bases. He wondered what McGraw was whispering, what trick
+was to be expected. Was he telling the batter to get hit? Yes, he must be.
+Then he did just that&mdash;hit the batter, and lost the game.</p>
+
+<p>Why can certain pitchers always beat certain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> clubs and why do they look
+like bush leaguers against others? To be concrete, why can Brooklyn fight
+Chicago so hard and look foolish playing against the Giants? Why can the
+Yankees take game after game from Detroit and be easy picking for the
+Cleveland club in most of their games? Why does Boston beat Marquard when
+he can make the hard Philadelphia hitters look like blind men with bats in
+their hands? Why could I beat Cincinnati game after game for two years
+when the club was filled with hard hitters? It is the psychology of
+baseball, the mental attitudes of the players, some intangible thing that
+works on the mind. Managers are learning to use this subtle, indescribable
+element which is such a factor.</p>
+
+<p>The great question which confronts every Big League manager is how to
+break a valuable young pitcher into the game. &#8220;Rube&#8221; Marquard came to the
+Giants in the fall of 1908 out of the American Association heralded as a
+world-beater, with a reputation that shimmered and shone. The newspapers
+were crowded with stories of the man for whom McGraw had paid $11,000, who
+had been standing them on their heads in the West, who had curves that
+couldn&#8217;t be touched, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> was a bargain at the unheard-of price paid for
+him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rube&#8221; Marquard came to the Giants in a burst of glory and publicity when
+the club was fighting for the pennant. McGraw was up against it for
+pitchers at that time, and one win, turned in by a young pitcher, might
+have resulted in the Giants winning the pennant as the season ended.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t you think Marquard would win? Can&#8217;t you put him in?&#8221; Mr. Brush, the
+owner of the club, asked McGraw one day when he was discussing the
+pitching situation with the manager.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; answered McGraw. &#8220;If he wins his first time out in the Big
+Leagues, he will be a world-beater, and, if he loses, it may cost us a
+good pitcher.&#8221; But Mr. Brush was insistent. Here a big price had been paid
+for a pitcher with a record, and pitchers were what the club needed. The
+newspapers declared that the fans should get a look at this &#8220;$11,000
+beauty&#8221; in action. A double header was scheduled to be played with the
+Cincinnati club in the month of September, in 1908, and the pitching staff
+was gone. McGraw glanced over his collection of crippled and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> worked-out
+twirlers. Then he saw &#8220;Rube&#8221; Marquard, big and fresh.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Go in and pitch,&#8221; he ordered after Marquard had warmed up.</p>
+
+<p>McGraw always does things that way, makes up his mind about the most
+important matters in a minute and then stands by his judgment. Marquard
+went into the box, but he didn&#8217;t pitch much. He has told me about it
+since.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When I saw that crowd, Matty,&#8221; he said, &#8220;I didn&#8217;t know where I was. It
+looked so big to me, and they were all wondering what I was going to do,
+and all thinking that McGraw had paid $11,000 for me, and now they were to
+find out whether he had gotten stuck, whether he had picked up a gold
+brick with the plating on it very thin. I was wondering, myself, whether I
+would make good.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>What Marquard did that day is a matter of record, public property, like
+marriage and death notices. Kane, the little rightfielder on the
+Cincinnati club, was the first man up, and, although he was one of the
+smallest targets in the league, Marquard hit him. He promptly stole
+second, which worried &#8220;Rube&#8221; some more. Up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> came Lobert, the man who broke
+Marquard&#8217;s heart.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now we&#8217;ll see,&#8221; said Lobert to &#8220;Rube,&#8221; as he advanced to the plate,
+&#8220;whether you&#8217;re a busher.&#8221; Then Lobert, the tantalizing Teuton with the
+bow-legs, whacked out a triple to the far outfield and stopped at third
+with a mocking smile on his face which would have gotten the late Job&#8217;s
+goat.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re identified,&#8221; said &#8220;Hans&#8221;; &#8220;you&#8217;re a busher.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Some fan shouted the fatal &#8220;Take him out.&#8221; Marquard was gone. Bescher
+followed with another triple, and, after that, the official scorer got
+writer&#8217;s cramp trying to keep track of the hits and runs. The number of
+hits, I don&#8217;t think, ever was computed with any great amount of
+exactitude. Marquard was taken out of the box in the fifth inning, and he
+was two years recovering from the shock of that beating. McGraw had put
+him into the game against his better judgment, and he paid for it dearly.</p>
+
+<p>Marquard had to be nursed along on the bench finishing games, starting
+only against easy clubs, and learning the ropes of the Big Leagues before
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>he was able to be a winning pitcher. McGraw was a long time realizing
+on his investment. All Marquard needed was a victory, a decisive win, over
+a strong club.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i041.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="center"><small>Photo by L. Van Oeyen, Cleveland, Ohio</small></p>
+<p class="center"><strong>Ty Cobb and Hans Wagner</strong></p>
+<p class="note">&#8220;An American and National League star of the first magnitude. Fans of the
+rival leagues never tire of discussing the relative merits of these two
+great players. Both are always willing to take a chance, and seem to do
+their best work when pressed hardest.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The Giants played a disastrous series with the Philadelphia club early in
+July, 1911, and lost four games straight. All the pitchers were shot to
+pieces, and the Quakers seemed to be unbeatable. McGraw was at a loss for
+a man to use in the fifth game. The weather was steaming hot, and the
+players were dragged out, while the pitching staff had lost all its
+starch. As McGraw&#8217;s eye scanned his bedraggled talent, Marquard, reading
+his thoughts, walked up to him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Give me a chance,&#8221; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Go in,&#8221; answered McGraw, again making up his mind on the spur of the
+moment. Marquard went into the game and made the Philadelphia batters,
+whose averages had been growing corpulent on the pitching of the rest of
+the staff, look foolish. There on that sweltering July afternoon, when
+everything steamed in the blistering heat, a pitcher was being born again.
+Marquard had found himself, and, for the rest of the season, he was
+strongest against the Philadelphia team,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> for it had been that club which
+restored his confidence.</p>
+
+<p>There is a sequel to that old Lobert incident, too. In one of the last
+series in Philadelphia, toward the end of the season, Marquard and Lobert
+faced each other again. Said Marquard:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Remember the time, you bow-legged Dutchman, when you asked me whether I
+was a busher? Here is where I pay you back. This is the place where you
+get a bad showing up.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And he fanned Lobert&mdash;whiff! whiff! whiff!&mdash;like that. He became the
+greatest lefthander in the country, and would have been sooner, except for
+the enormous price paid for him and the widespread publicity he received,
+which caused him to be over-anxious to make good. It&#8217;s the psychology of
+the game.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You can&#8217;t hit what you don&#8217;t see,&#8221; says &#8220;Joe&#8221; Tinker of Marquard&#8217;s
+pitching. &#8220;When he throws his fast one, the only way you know it&#8217;s past
+you is because you hear the ball hit the catcher&#8217;s glove.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Fred Clarke, of the Pittsburg club, was up against the same proposition
+when he purchased &#8220;Marty&#8221; O&#8217;Toole for $22,500 in 1911. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> newspapers of
+the country were filled with figures and pictures of the real estate and
+automobiles that could be bought with the same amount of money, lined up
+alongside of pictures of O&#8217;Toole, as when the comparative strengths of the
+navies of the world are shown by placing different sizes of battleships in
+a row, or when the length of the <i>Lusitania</i> is emphasized by printing a
+picture of it balancing gracefully on its stern alongside the Singer
+Building.</p>
+
+<p>Clarke realized that he had all this publicity with which to contend, and
+that it would do his expensive new piece of pitching bric-&agrave;-brac no good.
+O&#8217;Toole, jerked out of a minor league where he had been pitching quietly,
+along with his name in ten or a dozen papers, was suddenly a national
+figure, measuring up in newspaper space with Roosevelt and Taft and J.
+Johnson.</p>
+
+<p>When O&#8217;Toole joined the Pirates near the end of the season, Clarke knew
+down in his heart the club had no chance of winning the pennant with
+Wagner hurt, although he still publicly declared he was in the race. He
+did not risk jumping O&#8217;Toole right into the game as soon as he reported
+and taking the chance of breaking his heart.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> Opposing players, if they
+are up in the pennant hunt, are hard on a pitcher of this sort and would
+lose no opportunity to mention the price paid for him and connect it
+pointedly with his showing, if that showing was a little wobbly. Charity
+begins at home, and stays there, in the Big Leagues. At least, I never saw
+any of it on the ball fields, especially if the club is in the race, and
+the only thing that stands between it and a victory is the ruining of a
+$22,500 pitcher of a rival.</p>
+
+<p>Clarke nursed O&#8217;Toole along on the bench for a couple of weeks until he
+got to be thoroughly acclimated, and then he started him in a game against
+Boston, the weakest club in the league, after he had sent for Kelly,
+O&#8217;Toole&#8217;s regular catcher, to inspire more confidence. O&#8217;Toole had an easy
+time of it at his Big League d&eacute;but, for the Boston players did not pick on
+him any to speak of, as they were not a very hard bunch of pickers. The
+Pittsburg team gave him a nice comfortable, cosy lead, and he was pitching
+along ahead of the game all the way. In the fifth or sixth inning Clarke
+slipped Gibson, the regular Pittsburg catcher, behind the bat, and O&#8217;Toole
+had won his first game in the Big League before he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> knew it. He then
+reasoned I have won here. I belong here. I can get along here. It isn&#8217;t
+much different from the crowd I came from, except for the name, and that&#8217;s
+nothing to get timid about if I can clean up as easily as I did to-day.</p>
+
+<p>Fred Clarke, also a psychologist and baseball manager, had worked a
+valuable pitcher into the League, and he had won his first game. If he had
+started him against some club like the Giants, for instance, where he
+would have had to face a big crowd and the conversation and spirit of
+players who were after a pennant and hot after it, he might have lost and
+his heart would have been broken. Successfully breaking into the game an
+expensive pitcher, who has cost a club a large price, is one of the
+hardest problems which confronts a manager. Now O&#8217;Toole is all right if he
+has the pitching goods. He has taken his initial plunge, and all he has to
+do is to make good next year. The psychology element is eliminated from
+now on.</p>
+
+<p>I have been told that Clarke was the most relieved man in seven counties
+when O&#8217;Toole came through with that victory in Boston.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I had in mind all the time,&#8221; said Fred, &#8220;what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> happened to McGraw when he
+was trying to introduce Marquard into the smart set, and I was afraid the
+same thing would happen to me. I had a lot of confidence in the nerve of
+that young fellow though, because he stood up well under fire the first
+day he got into Pittsburg. One of those lady reporters was down to the
+club offices to meet him the morning he got into town, and they always
+kind of have me, an old campaigner, stepping away from the plate. She
+pulled her pad and pencil on Marty first thing, before he had had a chance
+to knock the dirt out of his cleats, and said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Now tell me about yourself.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He stepped right into that one, instead of backing away.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;What do you want me to tell?&#8217; he asks her.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then I knew he was all right. He was there with the &#8216;come-back.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But the ideal way to break a star into the Big League is that which marked
+the entrance of Grover Cleveland Alexander, of the Philadelphia club. The
+Cincinnati club had had its eye on Alexander for some time, but &#8220;Tacks&#8221;
+Ashenbach, the scout, now dead, had advised against him, declaring that he
+would be no good against &#8220;regular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> batters.&#8221; Philadelphia got him at the
+waiver price and he was among the lot in the newspapers marked &#8220;Those who
+also joined.&#8221; He started out in 1911 and won two or three games before
+anyone paid any attention to him. Then he kept on winning until one
+manager was saying to another:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That guy, Alexander, is a hard one to beat.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He had won ten or a dozen games before it was fully realized that he was a
+star. Then he was so accustomed to the Big League he acted as if he had
+been living in it all his life, and there was no getting on his nerves.
+When he started, he had everything to gain and nothing to lose. If he
+didn&#8217;t last, the newspapers wouldn&#8217;t laugh at him, and the people wouldn&#8217;t
+say:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;$11,000, or $22,500, for a lemon.&#8221; That&#8217;s the dread of all ball players.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the psychology of introducing promising pitchers into the Big
+Leagues. The Alexander route is the ideal one, but it&#8217;s hard to get stars
+now without paying enormous prices for them. Philadelphia was lucky.</p>
+
+<p>There is another element which enters into all forms of athletics. Tennis
+players call it nervousness, and ball players, in the frankness of the
+game,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> call it a &#8220;yellow streak.&#8221; It is the inability to stand the gaff,
+the weakening in the pinches. It is something ingrained in a man that
+can&#8217;t be cured. It is the desire to quit when the situation is serious. It
+is different from stage fright, because a man may get over that, but a
+&#8220;yellow streak&#8221; is always with him. When a new player breaks into the
+League, he is put to the most severe test by the other men to see if he is
+&#8220;yellow.&#8221; If he is found wanting, he is hopeless in the Big League, for
+the news will spread, and he will receive no quarter. It is the cardinal
+sin in a ball player.</p>
+
+<p>For some time after &#8220;Hans&#8221; Wagner&#8217;s poor showing in the world&#8217;s series of
+1903, when the Pittsburg club was defeated for the World&#8217;s Championship by
+the Boston American League club, it was reported that he was &#8220;yellow.&#8221;
+This grieved the Dutchman deeply, for I don&#8217;t know a ball player in either
+league who would assay less quit to the ton than Wagner. He is always
+there and always fighting. Wagner felt the inference which his team mates
+drew very keenly. This was the real tragedy in Wagner&#8217;s career.
+Notwithstanding his stolid appearance, he is a sensitive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> player, and this
+hurt him more than anything else in his life ever has.</p>
+
+<p>When the Pittsburg club played Detroit in 1909 for the championship of the
+world, many, even of Wagner&#8217;s admirers, said, &#8220;The Dutchman will quit.&#8221; It
+was in this series he vindicated himself. His batting scored the majority
+of the Pittsburg runs, and his fielding was little short of wonderful. He
+was demonstrating his gameness. Many men would have quit under the
+reflection. They would have been unable to withstand the criticism, but
+not Wagner.</p>
+
+<p>Many persons implied that John Murray, the rightfielder on the Giants, was
+&#8220;yellow&#8221; at the conclusion of the 1911 world&#8217;s series because, after
+batting almost three hundred in the season, he did not get a hit in the
+six games. But there isn&#8217;t a man on the team gamer. He hasn&#8217;t any nerves.
+He&#8217;s one of the sort of ball players who says:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, now I&#8217;ve got my chew of tobacco in my mouth. Let her go.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There is an interesting bit of psychology connected with Wagner and the
+spit-ball. It comes as near being Wagner&#8217;s &#8220;groove&#8221; as any curve that has
+found its way into the Big Leagues. This<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> is explained by the fact that
+the first time Wagner ever faced &#8220;Bugs&#8221; Raymond he didn&#8217;t get a hit with
+Arthur using the spitter. Consequently the report went around the circuit
+that Wagner couldn&#8217;t hit the spit-ball. He disproved this theory against
+two or three spit-ball pitchers, but as long as Raymond remained in the
+League he had it on the hard-hitting Dutchman.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Here comes a &#8216;spitter,&#8217; Hans. Look out for it,&#8221; Raymond would warn
+Wagner, with a wide grin, and then he would pop up a wet one.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Guess I&#8217;ll repeat on that dose, Hans; you didn&#8217;t like that one.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And Wagner would get so worked up that he frequently struck out against
+&#8220;Bugs&#8221; when the rest of his club was hitting the eccentric pitcher hard.
+It was because he achieved the idea on the first day he couldn&#8217;t hit the
+spit-ball, and he wasn&#8217;t able to rid his mind of the impression. Many fans
+often wondered why Raymond had it on Wagner, the man whose only &#8220;groove&#8221;
+is a base on balls. &#8220;Bugs&#8221; had the edge after that first day when Wagner
+lost confidence in his ability to hit the spit-ball as served by Raymond.</p>
+
+<p>In direct contrast to this loss of confidence on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> Wagner&#8217;s part was the
+incident attendant upon Arthur Devlin&#8217;s d&eacute;but into the Big League. He had
+joined the club a youngster, in the season of 1904, and McGraw had not
+counted upon him to play third base, having planned to plant Bresnahan at
+that corner. But Bresnahan developed sciatic rheumatism early in the
+season, and Devlin was put on the bag in the emergency with a great deal
+of misgiving.</p>
+
+<p>The first day he was in the game he came up to the bat with the bases
+full. The Giants were playing Brooklyn at the Polo Grounds, and two men
+had already struck out, with the team two runs behind. Devlin came out
+from the bench.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Who is this youthful-looking party?&#8221; one fan asked another, as they
+scanned their score cards.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Devlin, some busher, taking Bresnahan&#8217;s place,&#8221; another answered.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, it&#8217;s all off now,&#8221; was the general verdict.</p>
+
+<p>The crowd settled back, and one could feel the lassitude in the
+atmosphere. But Devlin had his first chance to make good in a pinch. There
+was no weariness in his manner. Poole, the Brooklyn pitcher, showing less
+respect than he should have for the newcomer in baseball society, spilled
+one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> over too near the middle, and Arthur drove out a home run, winning
+the game. Those who had refused to place any confidence in him only a
+moment before, were on their feet cheering wildly now. And Devlin played
+third base for almost eight years after that, and none thought of
+Bresnahan and his rheumatism until he began catching again. Devlin, after
+that home run, was oozing confidence from every pore and burned up the
+League with his batting for three years. He got the old confidence from
+his start. The fans had expected nothing from him, and he had delivered.
+He had gained everything. He had made the most dramatic play in baseball
+on his first day, a home run with the bases full.</p>
+
+<p>When Fred Snodgrass first started playing as a regular with the Giants
+about the middle of the season of 1910, he hit any ball pitched him hard
+and had all the fans marvelling at his stick work. He believed that he
+could hit anything and, as long as he retained that belief, he could.</p>
+
+<p>But the Chalmers Automobile Company had offered a prize of one nice,
+mild-mannered motor car to the batter in either league who finished the
+season with the biggest average.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>Snodgrass was batting over four hundred at one time and was ahead of them
+all when suddenly the New York evening papers began to publish the daily
+averages of the leaders for the automobile, boosting Snodgrass. It
+suddenly struck Fred that he was a great batter and that to keep his place
+in that daily standing he would have to make a hit every time he went to
+the plate. These printed figures worried him. His batting fell off
+miserably until, in the post season series with the Yankees, he gave one
+of the worst exhibitions of any man on the team. The newspapers did it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They got me worrying about myself,&#8221; he told me once. &#8220;I began to think
+how close I was to the car and had a moving picture of myself driving it.
+That settled it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Many promising young players are broken in their first game in the Big
+League by the ragging which they are forced to undergo at the hands of
+veteran catchers. John Kling is a very bad man with youngsters, and
+sometimes he can get on the nerves of older players in close games when
+the nerves are strung tight. The purpose of a catcher in talking to a man
+in this way is to distract his attention from batting, and once this is
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>accomplished he is gone. A favorite trick of a catcher is to say to a new
+batter:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Look out for this fellow. He&#8217;s got a mean &#8216;bean&#8217; ball, and he hasn&#8217;t any
+influence over it. There&#8217;s a poor &#8216;boob&#8217; in the hospital now that stopped
+one with his head.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then the catcher signs for the pitcher to throw the next one at the young
+batter&#8217;s head. If he pulls away, an unpardonable sin in baseball, the dose
+is repeated.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yer almost had your foot in the water-pail over by the bench that time,&#8221;
+says the catcher.</p>
+
+<p>Bing! Up comes another &#8220;beaner.&#8221; Then, after the catcher has sized the new
+man up, he makes his report.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He won&#8217;t do. He&#8217;s yellow.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And the players keep mercilessly after this shortcoming, this ingrained
+fault which, unlike a mechanical error, cannot be corrected until the new
+player is driven out of the League. Perhaps the catcher says:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s game, that guy. No scare to him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>After that he is let alone. It&#8217;s the psychology of batting.</p>
+
+<p>Once, when I first broke into the League, Jack<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> Chesbro, then with
+Pittsburg, threw a fast one up, and it went behind my head, although I
+tried to dodge back. He had lots of speed in those days, too. It set me
+wondering what would have happened if the ball had hit me. The more I
+thought, the more it struck me that it would have greatly altered my face
+had it gotten into the course of the ball. Ever afterwards, he had it on
+me, and, for months, a fast one at the head had me backing away from the
+plate.</p>
+
+<p>In contrast to this experience of mine was the curing of &#8220;Josh&#8221; Devore,
+the leftfielder of the Giants, of being bat shy against left-handers.
+Devore has always been very weak at the bat with a southpaw in the box,
+dragging his right foot away from the plate. This was particularly the
+case against &#8220;Slim&#8221; Sallee, the tenuous southpaw of the St. Louis
+Nationals. Finally McGraw, exasperated after &#8220;Josh&#8221; had struck out twice
+in one day, said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That fellow hasn&#8217;t got speed enough to bend a pane of glass at the home
+plate throwing from the box, and you&#8217;re pullin&#8217; away as if he was shooting
+them out of a gun. It&#8217;s a crime to let him beat you. Go up there the next
+time and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> get hit, and see if he can hurt you. If you don&#8217;t get hit,
+you&#8217;re fined $10.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Devore, who is as fond of $10 as the next one, went to the bat and took
+one of Sallee&#8217;s slants in a place where it would do the least damage. He
+trotted to first base smiling.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;d I tell you?&#8221; asked McGraw, coaching. &#8220;Could he hurt you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Say,&#8221; replied &#8220;Josh,&#8221; &#8220;I&#8217;d hire out to let them pitch baseballs at me if
+none could throw harder than that guy.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Devore was cured of being bat shy when Sallee was pitching, right then and
+there, and he has improved greatly against all left-handers ever since, so
+much so that McGraw leaves him in the game now when a southpaw pitches,
+instead of placing Beals Becker in left field as he used to. All Devore
+needed was the confidence to stand up to the plate against them, to rid
+his mind of the idea that, if once he got hit, he would leave the field
+feet first. That slam in the slats which Sallee handed him supplied the
+confidence.</p>
+
+<p>When Devore was going to Philadelphia for the second game of the world&#8217;s
+series in the fall of 1911, the first one in the other town, he was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>introduced to &#8220;Ty&#8221; Cobb, the Detroit out-fielder, by some newspaper man
+on the train, and, as it was the first time Devore had ever met Cobb, he
+sat down with him and they talked all the way over.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gee,&#8221; said &#8220;Josh&#8221; to me, as we were getting off the train, &#8220;that fellow
+Cobb knows a lot about batting. He told me some things about the American
+League pitchers just now, and he didn&#8217;t know he was doing it. I never let
+on. But I just hope that fellow Plank works to-day, if they think that I
+am weak against left-handers. Say, Matty, I could write a book about that
+guy and his &#8216;grooves&#8217; now, after buzzing Cobb, and the funny thing is he
+didn&#8217;t know he was telling me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Plank pitched that day and fanned Devore four times out of a possible
+four. &#8220;Josh&#8221; didn&#8217;t even get a foul off him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Thought you knew all about that fellow,&#8221; I said to Devore after the game.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve learned since that Cobb and he are pretty thick,&#8221; replied &#8220;Josh,&#8221;
+&#8220;and I guess &#8216;Ty&#8217; was giving me a bad steer.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was evident that Cobb had been filling &#8220;Josh&#8221; up with misinformation
+that was working around in Devore&#8217;s mind when he went to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> plate to
+face Plank, and, instead of being open to impressions, these wrong
+opinions had already been planted and he was constantly trying to confirm
+them. Plank was crossing him all the time, and, being naturally weak
+against left-handers, this additional handicap made Devore look foolish.</p>
+
+<p>In the well-worn words of Mr. Dooley, it has been my experience &#8220;to trust
+your friends, but cut the cards.&#8221; By that, I mean one ball player will
+often come to another with a tip that he really thinks worth while, but
+that avails nothing in the end. A man has to be a pretty smart ball player
+to dispense accurate information about others, because the Big Leaguers
+know their own &#8220;grooves&#8221; and are naturally trying to cover them up. Then a
+batter may be weak against one pitcher on a certain kind of a ball, and
+may whale the same sort of delivery, with a different twist to it, out of
+the lot against another.</p>
+
+<p>That was the experience I had with &#8220;Ed&#8221; Delehanty, the famous slugger of
+the old Philadelphia National League team, who is now dead. During my
+first year in the League several well-meaning advisers came to me and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t give &#8216;Del&#8217; any high fast ones because,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> if you do, you will just
+wear your fielders out worse than a George M. Cohan show does the chorus.
+They will think they are in a Marathon race instead of a ball game.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Being young, I took this advice, and the first time I pitched against
+Delehanty, I fed him curved balls. He hit these so far the first two times
+he came to bat that one of the balls was never found, and everybody felt
+like shaking hands with Van Haltren, the old Giant outfielder, when he
+returned with the other, as if he had been away on a vacation some place.
+In fact, I had been warned against giving any of this Philadelphia team of
+sluggers high fast ones, and I had been delivering a diet of curves to all
+of them which they were sending to the limits of the park and further,
+with great regularity. At last, when Delehanty came to the bat for the
+third time in the game, Van Haltren walked into the box from the outfield
+and handed the ball to me, after he had just gone to the fence to get it.
+Elmer Flick had hit it there.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Matty,&#8221; he pleaded, &#8220;for the love of Mike, slip this fellow a base on
+balls and let me get my wind.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Instead I decided to switch my style, and I fed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> Delehanty high fast ones,
+the dangerous dose, and he struck out then and later. He wasn&#8217;t expecting
+them and was so surprised that he couldn&#8217;t hit the ball. Only two of the
+six balls at which he struck were good ones. I found out afterwards that
+the tradition about not delivering any high fast balls to the Philadelphia
+hitters was the outgrowth of the old buzzer tipping service, established
+in 1899, by which the batters were informed what to expect by Morgan
+Murphy, located in the clubhouse with a pair of field-glasses and his
+finger on a button which worked a buzzer under the third-base coaching
+box. The coacher tipped the batter off what was coming and the
+signal-stealing device had worked perfectly. The hitters had all waited
+for the high fast ones in those days, as they can be hit easier if a man
+knows that they are coming, and can also be hit farther.</p>
+
+<p>But, after the buzzer had been discovered and the delivery of pitchers
+could not be accurately forecast, this ability to hit high fast ones
+vanished, but not the tradition. The result was that this Philadelphia
+club was getting a steady diet of curves and hitting them hard, not
+expecting anything else. When I first pitched against <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>Delehanty, his
+reputation as a hitter gave him a big edge on me. Therefore I was willing
+to take any kind of advice calculated to help me, but eventually I had to
+find out for myself. If I had taken a chance on mixing them up the first
+time he faced me, I still doubt if he would have made those two long hits,
+but it was his reputation working in my mind and the idea that he ate up
+high fast balls that prevented me from taking the risk.</p>
+
+<p>Each pitcher has to find out for himself what a man is going to hit. It&#8217;s
+all right to take advice at first, but, if this does not prove to be the
+proper prescription, it&#8217;s up to him to experiment and not continue to feed
+him the sort of balls that he is hitting.</p>
+
+<p>Reputations count for a great deal in the Big Leagues. Cobb has a record
+as being a great base runner, and I believe that he steals ten bases a
+season on this reputation. The catcher knows he is on the bag, realizes
+that he is going to steal, fears him, hurries his throw, and, in his
+anxiety, it goes bad. Cobb is safe, whereas, if he had been an ordinary
+runner with no reputation, he would probably have been thrown out.
+Pitchers who have made names for themselves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> in the Big Leagues, have a
+much easier time winning as a consequence.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All he&#8217;s got to do is to throw his glove into the box to beat that club,&#8221;
+is an old expression in baseball, which means that the opposing batters
+fear the pitcher and that his reputation will carry him through if he has
+nothing whatever on the ball.</p>
+
+<p>Newspapers work on the mental attitude of Big League players. This has
+been most marked in Cincinnati, and I believe that the local newspapers
+have done as much as anything to keep a pennant away from that town. When
+the team went south for the spring practice, the newspapers printed
+glowing reports of the possibilities of the club winning the pennant, but,
+when the club started to fall down in the race, they would knock the men,
+and it would take the heart out of the players. Almost enough good players
+have been let go by the Cincinnati team to make a world&#8217;s championship
+club. There are Donlin, Seymour, Steinfeldt, Lobert and many more. Ball
+players inhale the accounts printed in the newspapers, and a correspondent
+with a grouch has ruined the prospects of many a good player and club. The
+New York newspapers, first by the great amount<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> of publicity given to his
+old record, and then by criticising him for not making a better showing,
+had a great deal to do with Marquard failing to make good the first two
+years he was in New York, as I have shown.</p>
+
+<p>A smart manager in the Big League is always working to keep his valuable
+stars in the right frame of mind. On the last western trip the Giants made
+in the season of 1911, when they won the pennant by taking eighteen games
+out of twenty-two games, McGraw refused to permit any of the men to play
+cards. He realized that often the stakes ran high and that the losers
+brooded over the money which they lost and were thinking of this rather
+than the game when on the ball field. It hurt their playing, so there were
+no cards. He also carried &#8220;Charley&#8221; Faust, the Kansas Jinx killer, along
+to keep the players amused and because it was thought that he was good
+luck. It helped their mental attitude.</p>
+
+<p>The treatment of a new player when he first arrives is different now from
+what it was in the old days. Once there was a time when the veteran looked
+upon the recruit with suspicion and the feeling that he had come to take
+his job and his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> bread and butter from him. If a young pitcher was put
+into the box, the old catcher would do all that he could to irritate him,
+and many times he would inform the batters of the other side what he was
+going to throw.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s tryin&#8217; to horn my friend Bill out of a job,&#8221; I have heard catchers charge against a youngster.</p>
+
+<p>This attitude drove many a star ball player back to the minors because he
+couldn&#8217;t make good under the adverse circumstances, but nothing of the
+sort exists now. Each veteran does all that he can to help the youngster,
+realizing that on the younger generation depends the success of the club,
+and that no one makes any money by being on a loser. Travelling with a
+tail-end ball club is the poorest pastime in the world. I would rather
+ride in the first coach of a funeral procession.</p>
+
+<p>The youngster is treated more courteously now when he first arrives. In
+the old days, the veterans of the club sized up the recruit and treated
+him like a stranger for days, which made him feel as if he were among
+enemies instead of friends, and, as a result, it was much harder for him
+to make good. Now all hands make him a companion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> from the start, unless
+he shows signs of being unusually fresh.</p>
+
+<p>There is a lot to baseball in the Big Leagues besides playing the game. No
+man can have a &#8220;yellow streak&#8221; and last. He must not pay much attention to
+his nerves or temperament. He must hide every flaw. It&#8217;s all part of the
+psychology of baseball. But the saddest words of all to a pitcher are
+three&mdash;&#8220;Take Him Out.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2>
+<h3>Pitching in a Pinch</h3>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><i>Many Pitchers Are Effective in a Big League Ball Game until that
+Heart-Breaking Moment Arrives Known as the &#8220;Pinch&#8221;&mdash;It Is then that
+the Man in the Box is Put to the Severest Test by the Coachers and
+the Players on the Bench&mdash;Victory or Defeat Hangs on his Work in that
+Inning&mdash;Famous &#8220;Pinches.&#8221;</i></p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">In</span> most Big League ball games, there comes an inning on which hangs
+victory or defeat. Certain intellectual fans call it the crisis; college
+professors, interested in the sport, have named it the psychological
+moment; Big League managers mention it as the &#8220;break,&#8221; and pitchers speak
+of the &#8220;pinch.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This is the time when each team is straining every nerve either to win or
+to prevent defeat. The players and spectators realize that the outcome of
+the inning is of vital importance. And<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> in most of these pinches, the real
+burden falls on the pitcher. It is at this moment that he is &#8220;putting all
+he has&#8221; on the ball, and simultaneously his opponents are doing everything
+they can to disconcert him.</p>
+
+<p>Managers wait for this break, and the shrewd league leader can often time
+it. Frequently a certain style of play is adopted to lead up to the pinch,
+then suddenly a slovenly mode of attack is changed, and the team comes on
+with a rush in an effort to break up the game. That is the real test of a
+pitcher. He must be able to live through these squalls.</p>
+
+<p>Two evenly matched clubs have been playing through six innings with
+neither team gaining any advantage. Let us say that they are the Giants
+and the Chicago Cubs. Suddenly the Chicago pitcher begins to weaken in the
+seventh. Spectators cannot perceive this, but McGraw, the Giants&#8217; manager,
+has detected some crack. All has been quiet on the bench up to this
+moment. Now the men begin to fling about sweaters and move around, one
+going to the water cooler to get a drink, another picking up a bat or two
+and flinging them in the air, while four or five prospective<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> hitters are
+lined up, swinging several sticks apiece, as if absolutely confident that
+each will get his turn at the plate.</p>
+
+<p>The two coachers on the side lines have become dancing dervishes, waving
+sweaters and arms wildly, and shouting various words of discouragement to
+the pitcher which are calculated to make his job as soft as a bed of
+concrete. He has pitched three balls to the batter, and McGraw vehemently
+protests to the umpire that the twirler is not keeping his foot on the
+slab. The game is delayed while this is discussed at the pitcher&#8217;s box and
+the umpire brushes off the rubber strip with a whisk broom.</p>
+
+<p>There is a kick against these tactics from the other bench, but the damage
+has been done. The pitcher passes the batter, forgets what he ought to
+throw to the next man, and cannot get the ball where he wants it. A base
+hit follows. Then he is gone. The following batter triples, and, before
+another pitcher can be warmed up, three or four runs are across the plate,
+and the game is won. That explains why so many wise managers keep a
+pitcher warming up when the man in the box is going strong.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>It is in the pinch that the pitcher shows whether or not he is a Big
+Leaguer. He must have something besides curves then. He needs a head, and
+he has to use it. It is the acid test. That is the reason so many men, who
+shine in the minor leagues, fail to make good in the majors. They cannot
+stand the fire.</p>
+
+<p>A young pitcher came to the Giants a few years ago. I won&#8217;t mention his
+name because he has been pitching good minor-league ball since. He was a
+wonder with the bases empty, but let a man or two get on the sacks, and he
+wouldn&#8217;t know whether he was in a pitcher&#8217;s box or learning aviation in
+the Wright school, and he acted a lot more like an aviator in the crisis.
+McGraw looked him over twice.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s got a spine like a charlotte russe,&#8221; declared &#8220;Mac,&#8221; after his
+second peek, and he passed him back to the bushes.</p>
+
+<p>Several other Big League managers, tempted by this man&#8217;s brilliant record
+in the minors, have tried him out since, but he has always gone back.
+McGraw&#8217;s judgment of the man was correct.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, Otis Crandall came to the New York club a few years ago
+a raw country boy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> from Indiana. I shall never forget how he looked the
+first spring I saw him in Texas. The club had a large number of recruits
+and was short of uniforms. He was among the last of the hopefuls to arrive
+and there was no suit for him, so, in a pair of regular trousers with his
+coat off, he began chasing flies in the outfield. His head hung down on
+his chest, and, when not playing, a cigarette drooped out of the corner of
+his mouth. But he turned out to be a very good fly chaser, and McGraw
+admired his persistency.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What are you?&#8221; McGraw asked him one day.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A pitcher,&#8221; replied Crandall. Two words constitute an oration for him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s see what you&#8217;ve got,&#8221; said McGraw.</p>
+
+<p>Crandall warmed up, and he didn&#8217;t have much of anything besides a sweeping
+outcurve and a good deal of speed. He looked less like a pitcher than any
+of the spring crop, but McGraw saw something in him and kept him. The
+result is he has turned out to be one of the most valuable men on the
+club, because he is there in a pinch. He couldn&#8217;t be disturbed if the
+McNamaras tied a bomb to him, with a time fuse on it set for &#8220;at once.&#8221; He
+is the sort of pitcher who is best when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> things look darkest. I&#8217;ve heard
+the crowd yelling, when he has been pitching on the enemy&#8217;s ground, so
+that a sixteen-inch gun couldn&#8217;t have been heard if it had gone off in the
+lot.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That crowd was making some noise,&#8221; I&#8217;ve said to Crandall after the
+inning.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Was it?&#8221; asked Otie. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t notice it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>One day in 1911, he started a game in Philadelphia and three men got on
+the bases with no one out, along about the fourth or fifth inning. He shut
+them out without a run. It was the first game he had started for a long
+while, his specialty having been to enter a contest, after some other
+pitcher had gotten into trouble, with two or three men on the bases and
+scarcely any one out. After he came to the bench with the threatening
+inning behind him, he said to me:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Matty, I didn&#8217;t feel at home out there to-day until a lot of people got
+on the bases. I&#8217;ll be all right now.&#8221; And he was. I believe that Crandall
+is the best pitcher in a pinch in the National League and one of the most
+valuable men to a team, for he can play any position and bats hard.
+Besides being a great pinch pitcher, he can also hit in a crush, and won
+many games for the Giants in 1911 that way.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>Very often spectators think that a pitcher has lost his grip in a pinch,
+when really he is playing inside baseball. A game with Chicago in Chicago
+back in 1908 (not the famous contest that cost the Giants a championship;
+I did not have any grip at all that day; but one earlier in the season)
+best illustrates the point I want to bring out. Mordecai Brown and I were
+having a pitchers&#8217; duel, and the Giants were in the lead by the score of 1
+to 0 when the team took the field for the ninth inning.</p>
+
+<p>It was one of those fragile games in which one run makes a lot of
+difference, the sort that has a fringe of nervous prostration for the
+spectators. Chance was up first in the ninth and he pushed a base hit to
+right field. Steinfeldt followed with a triple that brought Chance home
+and left the run which would win the game for the Cubs on third base. The
+crowd was shouting like mad, thinking I was done. I looked at the hitters,
+waiting to come up, and saw Hofman and Tinker swinging their bats in
+anticipation. Both are dangerous men, but the silver lining was my second
+look, which revealed to me Kling and Brown following Hofman and Tinker.</p>
+
+<p>Without a second&#8217;s hesitation, I decided to pass<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> both Hofman and Tinker,
+because the run on third base would win the game anyway if it scored, and
+with three men on the bags instead of one, there would be a remote chance
+for a triple play, besides making a force out at the plate possible.
+Remember that no one was out at this time. Kling and Brown had always been
+easy for me.</p>
+
+<p>When I got two balls on Hofman, trying to make him hit at a bad one, the
+throng stood up in the stand and tore splinters out of the floor with its
+feet. And then I passed Hofman. The spectators misunderstood my motive.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s done. He&#8217;s all in,&#8221; shouted one man in a voice which was one of the
+carrying, persistent, penetrating sort. The crowd took the cry up and
+stamped its feet and cheered wildly.</p>
+
+<p>Then I passed Tinker, a man, as I have said before, who has had a habit of
+making trouble for me. The crowd quieted down somewhat, perhaps because it
+was not possible for it to cheer any louder, but probably because the
+spectators thought that now it would be only a matter of how many the Cubs
+would win by. The bases were full, and no one was out.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>But that wildly cheering crowd had worked me up to greater effort, and I
+struck Kling out and then Brown followed him back to the bench for the
+same reason. Just one batter stood between me and a tied score now. He was
+John Evers, and the crowd having lost its chortle of victory, was begging
+him to make the hit which would bring just one run over the plate. They
+were surprised by my recuperation after having passed two men. Evers
+lifted a gentle fly to left field and the three men were left on the
+bases. The Giants eventually won that game in the eleventh inning by the
+score of 4 to 1.</p>
+
+<p>But that system doesn&#8217;t always work. Often I have passed a man to get a
+supposedly poor batter up and then had him bang out a base hit. My first
+successful year in the National League was 1901, although I joined the
+Giants in the middle of the season of 1900. The Boston club at that time
+had a pitcher named &#8220;Kid&#8221; Nichols who was a great twirler. The first two
+games I pitched against the Boston club were against this man, and I won
+the first in Boston and the second in New York, the latter by the score of
+2 to 1.</p>
+
+<p>Both teams then went west for a three weeks&#8217;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> trip, and when the Giants
+returned a series was scheduled with Boston at the Polo Grounds. There was
+a good deal of speculation as to whether I would again beat the veteran
+&#8220;Kid&#8221; Nichols, and the newspapers, discussing the promised pitching duel,
+stirred up considerable enthusiasm over it. Of course, I, the youngster,
+was eager to make it three straight over the veteran. Neither team had
+scored at the beginning of the eighth inning. Boston runners got on second
+and third bases with two out, and Fred Tenney, then playing first base on
+the Boston club, was up at the bat. He had been hitting me hard that day,
+and I decided to pass him and take a chance on &#8220;Dick&#8221; Cooley, the next
+man, and a weak batter. So Tenney got his base on balls, and the sacks
+were full.</p>
+
+<p>Two strikes were gathered on Cooley, one at which he swung and the other
+called, and I was beginning to congratulate myself on my excellent
+judgment, which was really counting my chickens while they were still in
+the incubator. I attempted to slip a fast one over on Cooley and got the
+ball a little too high. The result was that he stepped into it and made a
+three base hit which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> eventually won the game by the score of 3 to 0. That
+was once when passing a man to get a weak batter did not work.</p>
+
+<p>I have always been against a twirler pitching himself out, when there is
+no necessity for it, as so many youngsters do. They burn them through for
+eight innings and then, when the pinch comes, something is lacking. A
+pitcher must remember that there are eight other men in the game, drawing
+more or less salary to stop balls hit at them, and he must have confidence
+in them. Some pitchers will put all that they have on each ball. This is
+foolish for two reasons.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, it exhausts the man physically and, when the pinch
+comes, he has not the strength to last it out. But second and more
+important, it shows the batters everything that he has, which is
+senseless. A man should always hold something in reserve, a surprise to
+spring when things get tight. If a pitcher has displayed his whole
+assortment to the batters in the early part of the game and has used all
+his speed and his fastest breaking curve, then, when the crisis comes, he
+&#8220;hasn&#8217;t anything&#8221; to fall back on.</p>
+
+<p>Like all youngsters, I was eager to make a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> record during my first year in
+the Big League, and in one of the first games I pitched against Cincinnati
+I made the mistake of putting all that I had on every ball. We were
+playing at the Polo <ins class="correction" title="original: Crounds">Grounds</ins>, and the Giants had the visitors beaten 2 to
+0, going into the last inning. I had been popping them through, trying to
+strike out every hitter and had not held anything in reserve. The first
+man to the bat in the ninth got a single, the next a two bagger, and by
+the time they had stopped hitting me, the scorer had credited the
+Cincinnati club with four runs, and we lost the game, 4 to 2.</p>
+
+<p>I was very much down in the mouth over the defeat, after I had the game
+apparently won, and George Davis, then the manager of the Giants, noticed
+it in the clubhouse.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Never mind, Matty,&#8221; he said, &#8220;it was worth it. The game ought to teach
+you not to pitch your head off when you don&#8217;t need to.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It did. I have never forgotten that lesson. Many spectators wonder why a
+pitcher does not work as hard as he can all through the game, instead of
+just in the pinches. If he did, they argue, there would be no pinches. But
+there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> would be, and, if the pitcher did not conserve his energy, the
+pinches would usually go against him.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes bawling at a man in a pinch has the opposite effect from that
+desired. Clarke Griffith, recently of Cincinnati, has a reputation in the
+Big Leagues for being a bad man to upset a pitcher from the coacher&#8217;s box.
+Off the field he is one of the decentest fellows in the game, but, when
+talking to a pitcher, he is very irritating. I was working in a game
+against the Reds in Cincinnati one day, just after he had been made
+manager of the club, and Griffith spent the afternoon and a lot of breath
+trying to get me going. The Giants were ahead, 5 to 1, at the beginning of
+the seventh. In the Cincinnati half of that inning, &#8220;Mike&#8221; Mitchell
+tripled with the bases full and later tallied on an outfield fly which
+tied the score. The effect this had on Griffith was much the same as that
+of a lighted match on gasolene.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, you big blond,&#8221; he shouted at me, &#8220;we&#8217;ve got you at last.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I expected McGraw to take me out, as it looked in that inning as if I was
+not right, but he did not, and I pitched along up to the ninth with the
+score still tied and with Griffith, the carping critic, on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> the side
+lines. We failed to count in our half, but the first Cincinnati batter got
+on the bases, stole second, and went to third on a sacrifice. He was there
+with one out.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Here&#8217;s where we get you,&#8221; chortled Griffith. &#8220;This is the point at which
+you receive a terrible showing up.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I tried to get the next batter to hit at bad balls, and he refused, so
+that I lost him. I was afraid to lay the ball over the plate in this
+crisis, as a hit or an outfield fly meant the game. Hoblitzell and
+Mitchell, two of Griffith&#8217;s heaviest batters, were scheduled to arrive at
+the plate next.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You ought to be up, Mike,&#8221; yelled the Cincinnati manager at Mitchell, who
+was swinging a couple of sticks preparatory to his turn at the bat. &#8220;Too
+bad you won&#8217;t get a lick, old man, because Hobby&#8217;s going to break it up
+right here.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Something he said irritated me, but, instead of worrying me, it made me
+feel more like pitching. I seldom talk to a coacher, but I turned to
+Griffith and said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll bring Mike up, and we&#8217;ll see what he can do.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I deliberately passed Hoblitzell without even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> giving him a chance to hit
+at a single ball. It wasn&#8217;t to make a grand stand play I did this, but
+because it was baseball. One run would win the game anyway, and, with more
+men on the bases, there were more plays possible. Besides Hoblitzell is a
+nasty hitter, and I thought that I had a better chance of making Mitchell
+hit the ball on the ground, a desirable thing under the conditions.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, Mike,&#8221; urged Griffith, as Mitchell stepped up to the plate, &#8220;go as
+far as you like. Blot up the bases, old boy. This blond is gone.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>That sort of talk never bothers me. I had better luck with Mitchell than I
+had hoped. He struck out. The next batter was easy, and the Giants won the
+game in the tenth inning. According to the newspaper reports, I won
+twenty-one or twenty-two games before Cincinnati beat me again, so it can
+be seen that joshing in pinches is not effective against all pitchers. A
+manager must judge the temperament of his victim. But Griffith has never
+stopped trying to rag me. In 1911, when the Giants were west on their
+final trip, I was warming up in Cincinnati before a game, and he was
+batting out flies near me. He would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> talk to me between each ball he hit
+to the outfield.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Got anything to-day, Matty?&#8221; he asked. &#8220;Guess there ain&#8217;t many games left
+in you. You&#8217;re getting old.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>When I broke into the National League, the Brooklyn club had as bad a
+bunch of men to bother a pitcher as I ever faced. The team had won the
+championship in 1900, and naturally they were all pretty chesty. When I
+first began to play in 1901, this crowd&mdash;Kelly, Jennings, Keeler and
+Hanlon&mdash;got after me pretty strong. But I seemed to get pitching
+nourishment out of their line of conversation and won a lot of games. At
+last, so I have been told, Hanlon, who was the manager, said to his
+conversational ball players:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Lay off that Mathewson kid. Leave him alone. He likes the chatter you
+fellows spill out there.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They did not bother me after that, but this bunch spoiled many a promising
+young pitcher.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of sizing up the <ins class="correction" title="original: temperameut">temperament</ins> of batters and pitchers in a pinch,
+few persons realize that it was a little bit of carelessly placed
+conversation belonging to &#8220;Chief&#8221; Bender, the Indian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> pitcher on the
+Athletics, that did as much as anything to give the Giants the first game
+in the 1911 world&#8217;s series.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Josh&#8221; Devore, the left-fielder on the New York team, is an in-and-out
+batter, but he is a bulldog in a pinch and is more apt to make a hit in a
+tight place than when the bases are empty. And he is quite as likely to
+strike out. He is the type of ball player who cannot be rattled. With
+&#8220;Chief&#8221; Myers on second base, the score tied, and two out, Devore came to
+the bat in the seventh inning of the first game.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Look at little &#8216;Josh,&#8217;&#8221; said Bender, who had been talking to batters all
+through the game.</p>
+
+<p>Devore promptly got himself into the hole with two strikes and two balls
+on him, but a little drawback like that never worries &#8220;Josh.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m going to pitch you a curved ball over the outside corner,&#8221; shouted
+Bender as he wound up.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I know it, Chief,&#8221; replied &#8220;Josh,&#8221; and he set himself to receive just
+that sort of delivery.</p>
+
+<p>Up came the predicted curve over the outside corner. &#8220;Josh&#8221; hit it to left
+field for two bases, and brought home the winning run. Bender evidently
+thought that, by telling Devore what he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> was actually going to pitch, he
+would make him think he was going to cross him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I knew it would be a curve ball,&#8221; Devore told me after the game. &#8220;With
+two and two, he would be crazy to hand me anything else. When he made that
+crack, I guessed that he was trying to cross me by telling the truth.
+Before he spoke, I wasn&#8217;t sure which corner he was going to put it over,
+but he tipped me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Some batters might have been fooled by those tactics. It was taking a
+chance in a pinch, and Bender lost.</p>
+
+<p>Very few of the fans who saw this first game of the 1911 world&#8217;s series
+realize that the &#8220;break&#8221; in that contest came in the fifth inning. The
+score was tied, with runners on second and third bases with two out, when
+&#8220;Eddie&#8221; Collins, the fast second baseman of the Athletics, and a dangerous
+hitter, came to the bat. I realized that I was skating on thin ice and was
+putting everything I had on the ball. Collins hit a slow one down the
+first base line, about six feet inside the bag.</p>
+
+<p>With the hit, I ran over to cover the base, and Merkle made for the ball,
+but he had to get directly in my line of approach to field it. Collins,
+steaming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> down the base line, realized that, if he could get the decision
+at first on this hit, his team would probably win the game, as the two
+other runners could score easily. In a flash, I was aware of this, too.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll take it,&#8221; yelled Merkle, as he stopped to pick up the ball.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing Merkle and me in front of him, both heavy men, Collins knew that he
+could not get past us standing up. When still ten or twelve feet from the
+bag, he slid, hoping to take us unawares and thus avoid being touched. He
+could then scramble to the bag. As soon as he jumped, I realized what he
+hoped to do, and, fearing that Merkle would miss him, I grabbed the first
+baseman and hurled him at Collins. It was an old-fashioned, football
+shove, Merkle landing on Collins and touching him out. A great many of the
+spectators believed that I had interfered with Merkle on the play. As a
+matter of fact, I thought that it was the crisis of the game and knew
+that, if Collins was not put out, we would probably lose. That football
+shove was a brand new play to me in baseball, invented on the spur of the
+second, but it worked.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>In minor leagues, there are fewer games in which a &#8220;break&#8221; comes. It does
+not develop in all Big League contests by any means. Sometimes one team
+starts to win in the first inning and simply runs away from the other club
+all the way. But in all close games the pinch shows up.</p>
+
+<p>It happens in many contests in the major leagues because of the almost
+perfect baseball played. Depending on his fielders, a manager can play for
+this &#8220;break.&#8221; And when the pinch comes, it is a case of the batter&#8217;s nerve
+against the pitcher&#8217;s.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2>
+<h3>Big League Pitchers and Their Peculiarities.</h3>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><i>Nearly Every Pitcher in the Big Leagues Has Some Temperamental or
+Mechanical Flaw which he is Constantly Trying to Hide, and which
+Opposing Batters are always Endeavoring to Uncover&mdash;The Giants Drove
+Coveleski, the Man who Beat them out of a Pennant, Back to the Minor
+Leagues by Taunting him on One Sore Point&mdash;Weaknesses of Other
+Stars.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Like</span> great artists in other fields of endeavor, many Big League pitchers
+are temperamental. &#8220;Bugs&#8221; Raymond, &#8220;Rube&#8221; Waddell, &#8220;Slim&#8221; Sallee, and
+&#8220;Wild Bill&#8221; Donovan are ready examples of the temperamental type. The
+first three are the sort of men of whom the manager is never sure. He does
+not know, when they come into the ball park, whether or not they are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> in
+condition to work. They always carry with them a delightful atmosphere of
+uncertainty.</p>
+
+<p>In contrast to this eccentric group, there are those with certain
+mechanical defects in their pitching of which opposing clubs take
+advantage. Last comes the irritable, nervous box artist who must have
+things just so, even down to the temperature, before he can work
+satisfactorily.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;As delicate as prima donnas,&#8221; says John McGraw of this variety.</p>
+
+<p>He speaks of the man who loses his love for his art when his shirt is too
+tight or a toe is sore. This style, perhaps, is the most difficult for a
+manager to handle, unless it is the uncertain, eccentric sort.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as a new pitcher breaks into the Big Leagues, seven clubs are
+studying him with microscopic care to discover some flaw in his physical
+style or a temperamental weakness on which his opponents can play.
+Naturally, if the man has such a &#8220;groove,&#8221; his team mates are endeavoring
+to hide it, but it soon leaks out and becomes general gossip around the
+circuit. Then the seven clubs start aiming at this flaw, and oftentimes
+the result is that a promising young pitcher, because he has some one
+definite weakness,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> goes back to the minors. A crack in the temperament is
+the worst. Mechanical defects can usually be remedied when discovered.</p>
+
+<p>Few baseball fans know that the Giants drove a man back to the minor
+leagues who once pitched them out of a pennant. The club was tipped off to
+a certain, unfortunate circumstance in the twirler&#8217;s early life which left
+a lasting impression on his mind. The players never let him forget this
+when he was in a game, and it was like constantly hitting him on a boil.</p>
+
+<p>Coveleski won three games for the Philadelphia National League club from
+the Giants back in 1908, when one of these contests would have meant a
+pennant to the New York club and possibly a world&#8217;s championship. That was
+the season the fight was decided in a single game with the Chicago Cubs
+after the regular schedule had been played out. Coveleski was hailed as a
+wonder for his performance.</p>
+
+<p>Just after the season closed, &#8220;Tacks&#8221; Ashenbach, the scout for the
+Cincinnati club, now dead, and formerly a manager in the league where
+Coveleski got his start, came to McGraw and laughed behind his hand.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>&#8220;Mac,&#8221; he said, &#8220;I&#8217;m surprised you let that big Pole beat you out of a
+championship. I can give you the prescription to use every time that he
+starts working. All you have to do is to imitate a snare drum.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What are you trying to do&mdash;kid me?&#8221; asked McGraw, for he was still
+tolerably irritable over the outcome of the season.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Try it,&#8221; was Ashenbach&#8217;s laconic reply.</p>
+
+<p>The result was that the first game Coveleski started against the Giants
+the next season, there was a chorus of &#8220;rat-a-tat-tats&#8221; from the bench,
+with each of the coachers doing a &#8220;rat-a-tat-tat&#8221; solo, for we decided,
+after due consideration, this was the way to imitate a snare drum. We
+would have tried to imitate a calliope if we had thought that it would
+have done any good against this pitcher.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll hire a fife and drum corps if the tip is worth anything,&#8221; declared
+McGraw.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!&#8221; came the chorus as Coveleski wound up to
+pitch the first ball. It went wide of the plate.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!&#8221; it was repeated all through the inning.
+When Coveleski walked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> to the Philadelphia bench at the end of the first
+round, after the Giants had made three runs off him, he looked over at us
+and shouted:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You think you&#8217;re smart, don&#8217;t you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!&#8221; was the only reply. But now we knew we had
+him. When a pitcher starts to talk back, it is a cinch that he is
+irritated. So the deadly chorus was kept up in volleys, until the umpire
+stopped us, and then it had to be in a broken fire, but always there was
+the &#8220;Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!&#8221; When Coveleski looked at McGraw
+coaching on third base, the manager made as if to beat a snare drum, and
+as he glanced at Latham stationed at first, &#8220;Arlie&#8221; would reply with the
+&#8220;rat-a-tat-tat.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The team on the bench sounded like a fife and drum corps without the
+fifes, and Coveleski got no peace. In the fourth inning, after the game
+had been hopelessly lost by the Philadelphia club, Coveleski was taken
+out. We did not understand the reason for it, but we all knew that we had
+found Coveleski&#8217;s &#8220;groove&#8221; with that &#8220;rat-a-tat-tat&#8221; chorus. The man who
+had beaten the New York club out of a pennant never won another game
+against the Giants.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>&#8220;Say,&#8221; said McGraw to &#8220;Tacks&#8221; Ashenbach the next time the club was in
+Cincinnati, &#8220;there are two things I want to ask you. First, why does that
+&#8216;rat-a-tat-tat&#8217; thing get under Coveleski&#8217;s skin so badly, and, second,
+why didn&#8217;t you mention it to us when he was beating the club out of a
+championship last fall?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Never thought of it,&#8221; asserted Ashenbach. &#8220;Just chanced to be telling
+stories one day last winter about the old times in the Tri-State, when
+that weakness of Coveleski&#8217;s happened to pop into my mind. Thought maybe
+he was cured.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Cured!&#8221; echoed McGraw. &#8220;Only way he could be cured of that is to poison
+him. But tip me. Why is it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, this is the way I heard it,&#8221; answered Ashenbach. &#8220;When he was a
+coal miner back in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, he got stuck on some Jane who
+was very fond of music. Everybody who was any one played in the Silver
+Cornet Band down in Melodeon Hall on Thursday nights. The girl told
+Coveleski that she couldn&#8217;t see him with an X-ray unless he broke into the
+band.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;But I can&#8217;t play any instrument,&#8217; said the Pole.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>&#8220;&#8216;Well, get busy and learn, and don&#8217;t show around here until you have,&#8217;
+answered the girl.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now Coveleski had no talent for music, so he picked out the snare drum as
+his victim and started practising regularly, getting some instruction from
+the local bandmaster. After he had driven all the neighbors pretty nearly
+crazy, the bandmaster said he would give him a show at the big annual
+concert, when he tried to get all the pieces in his outfit that he could.
+Things went all right until it was time for Coveleski to come along with a
+little bit on the snare drum, and then he was nowhere in the neighborhood.
+He didn&#8217;t even swing at it. But later, when the leader waved for a solo
+from the fiddle, Coveleski mistook it for his hit-and-run sign and came in
+so strong on the snare drum that no one could identify the fiddle in the
+mixup.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The result was that the leader asked for waivers on old Coveleski very
+promptly, and the girl was not long in following suit. That snare drum
+incident has been the sore point in his makeup ever since.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I wish I&#8217;d known it last fall about the first of September,&#8221; declared
+McGraw.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>But the real snapper came later when the Cincinnati club was whipsawed on
+the information. In a trade with Philadelphia, Griffith got Coveleski for
+Cincinnati along with several other players. Each game he started against
+us he got the old &#8220;rat-a-tat-tat.&#8221; Griffith protested to the umpires, but
+it is impossible to stop a thing of that sort even though the judges of
+play did try.</p>
+
+<p>The Pole did not finish another game against the Giants until his last in
+the Big League. One day we were hitting him near and far, and the
+&#8220;rat-a-tat-tat&#8221; chorus was only interrupted by the rattle of the bats
+against the ball, when he looked in at the bench to see if Griffith wanted
+to take him out, for it was about his usual leaving time.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Stay in there and get it,&#8221; shouted back Griff.</p>
+
+<p>Coveleski did. He absorbed nineteen hits and seventeen runs at the hands
+of the Giants, this man who had taken a championship of the National
+League away from us.</p>
+
+<p>That night Griffith asked for waivers on him, and he left the Big Leagues
+for good. He was a good twirler, except for that one flaw, which cost him
+his place in the big show. There is little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> mercy among professional ball
+players when a game is at stake, especially if the man has taken a
+championship away from a team by insisting upon working out of his turn,
+so he can win games that will benefit his club not a scintilla.</p>
+
+<p>Mordecai Brown, the great pitcher of the Chicago Cubs and the man who did
+more than any other one player to bring four National League pennants and
+two world&#8217;s championships to that club, has a physical deformity which has
+turned out to be an advantage. Many years ago, Brown lost most of the
+first finger of his right hand in an argument with a feed cutter, said
+finger being amputated at the second joint; while his third finger is
+shorter than it should be, because a hot grounder carried part of it away
+one day. In some strange way, Brown has achieved wonders with this
+crippled hand. It is on account of the missing finger that he is called
+&#8220;Three Fingered&#8221; Brown, and he is better known by that appellation than by
+his real name.</p>
+
+<p>Brown beat the Giants a hard game one day in 1911, pitching against me. He
+had a big curve, lots of speed, and absolute control. The Giants<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> could
+not touch him. Next day McGraw was out warming up with Arthur Wilson, the
+young catcher on the club.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Wonder if he gets any new curve with that short first finger?&#8221; said
+McGraw, and thereupon crooked his own initial digit and began trying to
+throw the ball in different ways off it to see what the result would be.
+Finally he decided:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, I guess he doesn&#8217;t get anything extra with the abbreviated finger,
+but that&#8217;s lucky for you fellows, because, if I thought he did, I&#8217;d have a
+surgeon out here to-morrow operating on the first fingers of each of you
+pitchers.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Brown is my idea of the almost perfect pitcher He is always ready to work.
+It is customary for most managers in the Big Leagues to say to a man on
+the day he is slated to pitch:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, how do you feel to-day? Want to work?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then if the twirler is not right, he has a chance to say so. But Brown
+always replies:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, I&#8217;m ready.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He likes to pitch and is in chronic condition. It will usually be found at
+the end of a season that he has taken part in more games than any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> other
+pitcher in the country. He held the Chicago pitching staff together in
+1911.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Three Fingered&#8221; Brown is a finished pitcher in all departments of the
+game. Besides being a great worker, he is a wonderful fielder and sure
+death on bunts. He spends weeks in the spring preparing himself to field
+short hits in the infield, and it is fatal to try to bunt against him. He
+has perfected and used successfully for three years a play invented by
+&#8220;Joe&#8221; McGinnity, the former Giant pitcher. This play is with men on first
+and second bases and no one out or one out. The batter tries to sacrifice,
+but instead of fielding the ball to first base, which would advance the
+two base runners as intended, Brown makes the play to third and thus
+forces out the man nearest the plate. This is usually successful unless
+the bunt is laid down perfectly along the first base line, so that the
+ball cannot be thrown to third base.</p>
+
+<p>The Cubs have always claimed it was this play which broke the Detroit
+club&#8217;s heart in the world&#8217;s series in 1908, and turned the tide so that
+the Cubs took the championship. The American League team was leading in
+the first game, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> runners were on first and second bases, &#8220;Ty&#8221; Cobb
+being on the middle sack. It was evident that the batter would try to
+sacrifice. Brown walked over to Steinfeldt, playing third base, pulling
+out a chew of tobacco as he went.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No matter what this guy does or where he hits it, stick to your bag,&#8221;
+ordered Brown.</p>
+
+<p>Then he put the chew of tobacco in his mouth, a sign which augurs ill for
+his opponents, and pitched a low one to the batter, a perfect ball to
+bunt. He followed the pitch through and was on top of the plate as the
+batter laid it down. The ball rolled slowly down the third base line until
+Brown pounced on it. He whirled and drove the ball at Steinfeldt, getting
+Cobb by a foot. That play carried Detroit off its feet, as a sudden
+reversal often will a ball club, when things are apparently breaking for
+it. Cobb, the Tigers&#8217; speed flash, had been caught at third base on an
+attempted sacrifice, an unheard of play, and, from that point on, the
+American Leaguers wilted, according to the stories of Chance and his men.</p>
+
+<p>It is Brown&#8217;s perfect control that has permitted catchers like Kling and
+Archer to make such great records as throwers. This pitcher can afford<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> to
+waste a ball&mdash;that is, pitch out so the batter cannot hit it, but putting
+the catcher in a perfect position to throw&mdash;and then he knows he can get
+the next one over. A catcher&#8217;s efficiency as a thrower depends largely on
+the pitcher&#8217;s ability to have good enough control of the ball to be able
+to pitch out when it is necessary. Brown helps a catcher by the way in
+which he watches the bases, not permitting the runners to take any lead on
+him. All around, I think that he is one of the most finished pitchers of
+the game.</p>
+
+<p>Russell Ford, of the New York American League club, has a hard pitching
+motion because he seems to throw a spit ball with a jerk. He cannot pitch
+more than one good game in four or five days. McGraw had detected this
+weakness from watching the Highlanders play before the post-season series
+in 1910, and took advantage of it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If Ford pitches to-day,&#8221; said McGraw to his team in the clubhouse before
+the first game, &#8220;wait everything out to the last minute. Make him pitch
+every ball you can.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>McGraw knew that the strain on Ford&#8217;s arm would get him along toward the
+end of the game. In the eighth inning the score was tied when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> Devore came
+to the bat. No crack in Ford was perceptible to the rest of us, but McGraw
+must have detected some slight sign of weakening. He stopped &#8220;Josh&#8221; on the
+way to the plate and ordered:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now go ahead and get him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>By the time the inning was over, the Giants had made four runs, and
+eventually won the game by the score of 5 to 1. McGraw just played for
+this flaw in Ford&#8217;s pitching, and hung his whole plan of battle on the
+chance of it showing.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Old Cy&#8221; Young has the absolutely perfect pitching motion. When he jumped
+from the National League to the Boston American League club some years
+ago, during the war times, many National League players thought that he
+was through.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What,&#8221; said Fred Clarke, the manager of the Pittsburg club, &#8220;you American
+Leaguers letting that old boy make good in your set? Why, he was done when
+he jumped the National. He&#8217;d lost his speed.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But you ought to see his curve ball,&#8221; answered &#8220;Bill&#8221; Dineen, then
+pitching for the Boston Americans.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>&#8220;Curve ball,&#8221; echoed Clarke. &#8220;He never had any curve that it didn&#8217;t take a
+microscope to find. He depended on his speed.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, he&#8217;s got one now,&#8221; replied Dineen.</p>
+
+<p>Clarke had a chance to look at the curve ball later, for, with Dineen,
+Young did a lot toward winning the world&#8217;s championship for Boston from
+Pittsburg in 1903. The old pitcher was wise enough to realize, when he
+began to lose his speed, that he would have to develop a curve ball or go
+back to the minors, and he set to work and produced a peach. He is still
+pitching&mdash;for the National League now&mdash;and he will win a lot of games yet.
+When he came back in 1911, the American Leaguers said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What, going to let that old man in your show again? He&#8217;s done.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Maybe he will yet figure in another world&#8217;s championship. One never can
+tell. Anyway, he has taken a couple of falls out of Pittsburg just for
+good luck since he came back to the National League.</p>
+
+<p>Some pitchers depend largely on their motions to fool batters. &#8220;Motion
+pitchers&#8221; they might be called. Such an elaborate wind-up is developed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>
+that it is hard for a hitter to tell when and from where the ball is
+coming. &#8220;Slim&#8221; Sallee of the St. Louis Nationals hasn&#8217;t any curve to
+mention and he lacks speed, but he wins a lot of ball games on his motion.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a crime,&#8221; says McGraw, &#8220;to let a fellow like that beat you. Why, he
+has so little on the ball that it looks like one of those Salome dancers
+when it comes up to the plate, and actually makes me blush.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But Sallee will take a long wind-up and shoot one off his shoe tops and
+another from his shoulder while he is facing second base. He has good
+control, has catalogued the weaknesses of the batters, and can work the
+corners. With this capital, he was winning ball games for the Cardinals in
+1911 until he fell off the water wagon. He is different from Raymond in
+that respect. When he is on the vehicle, he is on it, and, when he is off,
+he is distinctly a pedestrian.</p>
+
+<p>The way the Giants try to beat Sallee is to get men on the bases, because
+then he has to cut down his motion or they will run wild on him. As soon
+as a runner gets on the bag with Sallee pitching, he tries to steal to
+make &#8220;Slim&#8221; reduce that long<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> winding motion which is his greatest asset.
+But Sallee won several games from the Giants last season because we could
+not get enough men on the bases to beat him. He only gave us four or five
+hits per contest.</p>
+
+<p>For a long time, &#8220;Josh&#8221; Devore, the Giants&#8217; left-fielder, was &#8220;plate shy&#8221;
+with left-handers&mdash;that is, he stepped away&mdash;and all the pitchers in the
+League soon learned of this and started shooting the first ball, a fast
+one, at his head to increase his natural timidity. Sallee, in particular,
+had him scared.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Stand up there,&#8221; said McGraw to &#8220;Josh&#8221; one day when Sallee was pitching,
+&#8220;and let him hit you. He hasn&#8217;t speed enough to hurt you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Josh&#8221; did, got hit, and found out that what McGraw said was true. It
+cured him of being afraid of Sallee.</p>
+
+<p>As getting men on the bases decreases Sallee&#8217;s effectiveness, even if he
+is a left-hander, so it increases the efficiency of &#8220;Lefty&#8221; Leifield of
+Pittsburg. The Giants never regard Sallee as a left-hander with men on the
+bases. Most southpaws can keep a runner close to the bag because they are
+facing first base when in a position to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> pitch, but Sallee cannot. On the
+other hand, Leifield uses almost exactly the same motion to throw to first
+base as to pitch to the batter. These two are so nearly alike that he can
+change his mind after he starts and throw to the other place.</p>
+
+<p>He keeps men hugging the bag, and it is next to impossible to steal bases
+on him. If he gets his arm so far forward in pitching to the batter that
+he cannot throw to the base, he can see a man start and pitch out so the
+catcher has a fine chance to get the runner at second. If the signal is
+for a curved ball, he can make it a high curve, and the catcher is in
+position to throw. Leifield has been working this combination pitch either
+to first base or the plate for years, and the motion for each is so
+similar that even the umpires cannot detect it and never call a balk on
+him.</p>
+
+<p>A busher broke into the League with the Giants one fall and was batting
+against Pittsburg. There was a man on first base and Leifield started to
+pitch to the plate, saw by a quick glance that the runner was taking too
+large a lead, and threw to first. The youngster swung at the ball and
+started to run it out. Every one laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What were you trying to do?&#8221; asked McGraw.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>&#8220;I hit the ball,&#8221; protested the bush leaguer. That is how perfect
+Leifield&#8217;s motion is with men on the bases. But most of his effectiveness
+resides in that crafty motion.</p>
+
+<p>Many New York fans will remember &#8220;Dummy&#8221; Taylor, the deaf and dumb pitcher
+of the Giants. He won ball games for the last two years he was with the
+club on his peculiar, whirling motion, but as soon as men got on the bases
+and he had to cut it down, McGraw would take him out. That swing and his
+irresistible good nature are still winning games in the International
+League, which used to be the Eastern.</p>
+
+<p>So if a pitcher expects to be a successful Big Leaguer, he must guard
+against eccentricities of temperament and mechanical motion. As I have
+said, Drucke of the Giants for a long time had a little movement with his
+foot which indicated to the runner when he was going to pitch, and they
+stole bases wildly on him. But McGraw soon discovered that something was
+wrong and corrected it. The armor of a Big Leaguer must be impenetrable,
+for there are seven clubs always looking for flaws in the manufacture, and
+&#8220;every little movement has a meaning of its own.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2>
+<h3>Playing the Game from the Bench</h3>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><i>Behind Every Big League Ball Game there Is a Master Mind which
+Directs the Moves of the Players&mdash;How McGraw Won Two Pennants for the
+Giants from the &#8220;Bench&#8221; and Lost One by Giving the Players Too Much
+Liberty&mdash;The Methods of &#8220;Connie&#8221; Mack and Other Great Leaders</i></p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> bench! To many fans who see a hundred Big League ball games each
+season, this is a long, hooded structure from which the next batter
+emerges and where the players sit while their club is at bat. It is also
+the resort of the substitutes, manager, mascot and water cooler.</p>
+
+<p>But to the ball player it is the headquarters. It is the place from which
+the orders come, and it is here that the battle is planned and from here
+the moves are executed. The manager sits here<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> and pulls the wires, and
+his players obey him as if they were manikins.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The batteries for to-day&#8217;s game,&#8221; says the umpire, &#8220;will be Sallee and
+Bresnahan for St. Louis; Wiltse and Meyers for New York.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Bunt,&#8221; says McGraw as his players scatter to take their positions on the
+field. He repeats the order when they come to the bat for the first
+inning, because he knows that Sallee has two weaknesses, one being that he
+cannot field bunts and the other that a great deal of activity in the box
+tires him out so that he weakens. A bunting game hits at both these flaws.
+As soon as Bresnahan observes the plan of battle, he arranges his players
+to meet the attack; draws in his third baseman, shifts the shortstop more
+down the line toward third base, and is on the alert himself to gather in
+slow rollers just in front of the plate. The idea is to give Sallee the
+minimum opportunity to get at the ball and reduce his fielding
+responsibilities to nothing or less. There is one thing about Sallee&#8217;s
+style known to every Big League manager. He is not half as effective with
+men on the bases, for he depends largely on his deceptive motion to fool
+the batters, and when he has to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> cut this down because runners are on the
+bases, his pitching ability evaporates.</p>
+
+<p>After the old Polo Grounds had been burned down in the spring of 1911, we
+were playing St. Louis at American League Park one Saturday afternoon, and
+the final returns of the game were about 19 to 5 in our favor, as near as
+I can remember. We made thirteen runs in the first inning. Many spectators
+went away from the park talking about a slaughter and a runaway score and
+so on. That game was won in the very first inning when Sallee went into
+the box to pitch, and McGraw had murmured that mystic word &#8220;Bunt!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The first batters bunted, bunted, bunted in monotonous succession. Sallee
+not yet in very good physical condition because it was early in the
+season, was stood upon his head by this form of attack. Bresnahan redraped
+his infield to try to stop this onslaught, and then McGraw switched.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hit it,&#8221; he directed the next batter.</p>
+
+<p>A line drive whistled past Mowrey&#8217;s ears, the man who plays third base on
+the Cardinals. He was coming in to get a bunt. Another followed. The break
+had come. Bresnahan removed Sallee<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> and put another pitcher into the box,
+but once a ball club starts to hit the ball, it is like a skidding
+automobile. It can&#8217;t be stopped. The Giants kept on and piled up a
+ridiculous and laughable score, which McGraw had made possible in the
+first inning by directing his men to bunt.</p>
+
+<p>The Giants won the championship of the National League in 1904 and the New
+York fans gave the team credit for the victory. It was a club of young
+players, and McGraw realized this fact when he started his campaign. Every
+play that season was made from the bench, made by John McGraw through his
+agents, his manikins, who moved according to the wires which he pulled.
+And by the end of the summer his hands were badly calloused from pulling
+wires, but the Giants had the pennant.</p>
+
+<p>When the batter was at the plate in a critical stage, he would stall and
+look to the &#8220;bench&#8221; for orders to discover whether to hit the ball out or
+lay it down, whether to try the hit and run, or wait for the base runner
+to attempt to steal. By stalling, I mean that he would tie his shoe or fix
+his belt, or find any little excuse to delay the game so that he could get
+a flash at the &#8220;bench&#8221;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> for orders. A shoe lace has played an important
+role in many a Big League battle, as I will try to show later on in this
+story. If it ever became the custom to wear button shoes, the game would
+have to be revised.</p>
+
+<p>As the batter looked toward the bench, McGraw might reach for his
+handkerchief to blow his nose, and the batter knew it was up to him to hit
+the ball out. Some days in that season of 1904 I saw McGraw blow his nose
+during a game until it was red and sore on the end, and then another day,
+when he had a cold in his head, he had to do without his handkerchief
+because he wanted to play a bunting game. Until his cold got better, he
+had to switch to another system of signs.</p>
+
+<p>During that season, each coacher would keep his eye on the bench for
+orders. Around McGraw revolved the game of the Giants. He was the game.
+And most of that summer he spent upon the bench, because from there he
+could get the best look at the diamond, and his observations were not
+confined to one place or to one base runner. He was able to discover
+whether an out-fielder was playing too close for a batter, or too<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> far
+out, and rearrange the men. He could perhaps catch a sign from the
+opposing catcher and pass it along to the batter. And he won the pennant
+from the bench. He was seldom seen on the coaching lines that year.</p>
+
+<p>Many fans wonder why, when the Giants get behind in a game, McGraw takes
+to the bench, after having been out on the coaching lines inning after
+inning while the club was holding its own or winning. Time and again I
+have heard him criticised for this by spectators and even by players on
+other clubs.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;McGraw is &#8216;yellow,&#8217;&#8221; players have said to me. &#8220;Just as soon as his club
+gets behind, he runs for cover.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The crime of being &#8220;yellow&#8221; is the worst in the Big Leagues. It means that
+a man is afraid, that he lacks the nerve to face the music. But McGraw and
+&#8220;yellow&#8221; are as far apart as the poles, or Alpha and Omega, or Fifth
+Avenue and the Bowery, or any two widely separated and distant things. I
+have seen McGraw go on to ball fields where he is as welcome as a man with
+the black smallpox and face the crowd alone that, in the heat of its
+excitement, would like to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> tear him apart. I have seen him take all sorts
+of personal chances. He doesn&#8217;t know what fear is, and in his bright
+lexicon of baseball there is no such word as &#8220;fear.&#8221; His success is partly
+due to his indomitable courage.</p>
+
+<p>There is a real reason for his going to the bench when the team gets
+behind. It is because this increases the club&#8217;s chances of winning. From
+the bench he can see the whole field, can note where his fielders are
+playing, can get a peek at the other bench, and perhaps pick up a tip as
+to what to expect. He can watch his own pitcher, or observe whether the
+opposing twirler drops his throwing arm as if weary. He is at the helm
+when &#8220;on the bench,&#8221; and, noting any flaw in the opposition, he is in a
+position to take advantage of it at a moment&#8217;s notice, or, catching some
+sign of faltering among his own men, he is immediately there to strengthen
+the weakness. Many a game he has pulled out of the fire by going back to
+the bench and watching. So the idea obtained by many spectators that he is
+quitting is the wrong one. He is only fighting harder.</p>
+
+<p>The Giants were playing Pittsburg one day in the season of 1909, and
+Clarke and McGraw<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> had been having a great guessing match. It was one of
+those give-and-take games with plenty of batting, with one club forging
+ahead and then the other. Clarke had saved the game for Pittsburg in the
+sixth inning by a shoe-string. Leifield had been pitching up to this
+point, and he wasn&#8217;t there or even in the neighborhood. But still the
+Pirates were leading by two runs, having previously knocked Ames out of
+the box. Doyle and McCormick made hits with no one out in our half of the
+sixth.</p>
+
+<p>It looked like the &#8220;break,&#8221; and McGraw was urging his players on to even
+up the score, when Clarke suddenly took off his sun glasses in left field
+and stooped down to tie his shoe. When he removes his sun-glasses that is
+a sign for a pitcher to warm up in a hurry, and &#8220;Babe&#8221; Adams sprinted to
+the outfield with a catcher and began to heat up. Clarke took all of five
+minutes to tie that shoe, McGraw violently protesting against the delay in
+the meantime. Fred Clarke has been known to wear out a pair of shoe laces
+in one game tying and untying them. After the shoe was fixed up, he jogged
+slowly to the bench and took Leifield out of the box.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> In the interim,
+Adams had had an opportunity to warm up, and Clarke raised his arm and
+ordered him into the box. He fanned the next two men, and the last batter
+hit an easy roller to Wagner. We were still two runs to the bad after that
+promising start in the sixth, and Clarke, for the time being, had saved
+the game by a shoe string.</p>
+
+<p>McGraw, who had been on the coaching lines up to this point, retired to
+the bench after that, and I heard one of those wise spectators, sitting
+just behind our coop, who could tell Mr. Rockefeller how to run his
+business but who spends his life working as a clerk at $18 a week, remark
+to a friend:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s all off now. McGraw has laid down.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Watching the game through eyes half shut and drawn to a focus, McGraw
+waited. In the seventh inning Clarke came to bat with two men on the
+bases. A hit would have won the game beyond any doubt. In a flash McGraw
+was on his feet and ran out to Meyers, catching. He stopped the game, and,
+with a wave of his arm, drew Harry McCormick, playing left field, in close
+to third base. The game went on, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> Wiltse twisted a slow curve over the
+outside corner of the plate to Clarke, a left-handed hitter. He timed his
+swing and sent a low hit singing over third base. McCormick dashed in and
+caught the ball off his shoe tops. That made three outs. McGraw had saved
+our chances of victory right there, for had McCormick been playing where
+he originally intended before McGraw stopped the contest, the ball would
+have landed in unguarded territory and two runs would have been scored.</p>
+
+<p>But McGraw had yet the game to win. As his team came to the bat for the
+seventh, he said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This fellow Adams is a youngster and liable to be nervous and wild.
+Wait.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The batters waited with the patience of Job. Each man let the first two
+balls pass him and made Adams pitch himself to the limit to every batter.
+It got on Adams&#8217;s nerves. In the ninth he passed a couple of men, and a
+hit tied the score. Clarke left him in the box, for he was short of
+pitchers. On the game went to ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, innings. The
+score was still tied and Wiltse was pitching like a machine. McGraw was on
+the bench, leaving the coaching to his lieutenants.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> The club was still
+waiting for the youngster to weaken. At last, in the thirteenth, after one
+man had been put out, the eye of McGraw saw Adams drop his pitching arm to
+his side as if tired. It was only a minute motion. None of the spectators
+saw it, none of the players.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now hit it, boys,&#8221; came the order from the &#8220;bench.&#8221; The style was
+switched, and the game won when three hits were rattled out. McGraw alone
+observed that sign of weakening and took advantage of it at the opportune
+time. He won the game from the bench. That is what makes him a great
+manager, observing the little things. Anyone can see the big ones. If he
+had been on the coaching lines, he would not have had as good an
+opportunity to study the young pitcher, for he would have had to devote
+his attention to the base runners. He might have missed this sign of
+wilting.</p>
+
+<p>McGraw is always studying a pitcher, particularly a new one in the League.
+The St. Louis club had a young pitcher last fall, named Laudermilk, who
+was being tried out. He had a brother on the team. In his first game
+against the Giants, played in St. Louis, he held us to a few scattered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>
+hits and gave us a terrific battle, only losing the game because one of
+his fielders made a costly error behind him. The papers of St. Louis
+boosted him as another &#8220;Rube&#8221; Waddell. He was left-handed. McGraw laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All I want,&#8221; he said, &#8220;is another crack at that Buttermilk after what I
+learned about him this afternoon. He can&#8217;t control his curve, and all you
+fellows have got to do is wait for his fast one. He gave you that fight
+to-day because he had you all swinging at bad curve balls.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Laudermilk made another appearance against the Giants later, and he made
+his disappearance in that game in the fourth inning, when only one was out
+to be exact, after we had scored five runs off him by waiting for his fast
+one, according to McGraw&#8217;s orders.</p>
+
+<p>After winning the pennant in 1904 by sitting on the bench, keeping away
+from the coaching lines, and making every play himself, McGraw decided
+that his men were older and knew the game and that he would give them more
+rein in 1905. He appeared oftener on the coaching lines and attended more
+to the base runners than to the game as a whole. But in the crises he was
+the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> man who decided what was to be done. The club won the pennant that
+year and the world&#8217;s championship. The players got very chesty immediately
+thereafter, and the buttons on their vests had to be shifted back to make
+room for the new measure. They knew the game and had won two pennants,
+besides a championship of the world.</p>
+
+<p>So in the season of 1906 McGraw started with a team of veterans, and it
+was predicted that he would repeat. But these men, who knew the game, were
+making decisions for themselves because McGraw was giving them more
+liberty. The runners went wild on the bases and tried things at the wrong
+stages. They lost game after game. At last, after a particularly
+disastrous defeat one day, McGraw called his men together in the clubhouse
+and addressed them in this wise:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Because you fellows have won two championships and beaten the Athletics
+is no reason for you all to believe that you are fit to write a book on
+how to play baseball. You are just running wild on the bases. You might as
+well not have a manager. Now don&#8217;t any one try to pull anything without
+orders. We will begin all over again.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But it is hard to teach old ball-players new tricks,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> and several fines
+had to be imposed before the orders were obeyed. The club did not win the
+championship that year.</p>
+
+<p>When McGraw won the pennant in 1911, he did it with a club of youngsters,
+many of them playing through their first whole season as regulars in the
+company. There were Snodgrass and Devore and Fletcher and Marquard. Every
+time a batter went to the plate, he had definite orders from the &#8220;bench&#8221;
+as to what he was to attempt&mdash;whether to take two, or lay the ball down,
+or swing, or work the hit and run. Each time that a man shot out from
+first base like a catapulted figure and slid into second, he had been
+ordered by McGraw to try to steal. If players protested against his
+judgment, his invariable answer was:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do what I tell you, and I&#8217;ll take the blame for mistakes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>One of McGraw&#8217;s laments is, &#8220;I wish I could be in three places at once.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I never heard him say it with such a ring to the words as after Snodgrass
+was touched out in the third game of the 1911 world&#8217;s series, in the tenth
+inning, when his life might have meant victory<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> in that game anyway. I
+have frequently referred to the incident in these stories, so most of my
+readers are familiar with the situation. Snodgrass was put out trying to
+get to third base on a short passed ball, after he had started back for
+second to recover some of the ground he had taken in too long a lead
+before the ball got to Lapp. McGraw&#8217;s face took on an expression of agony
+as if he were watching his dearest friend die.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If I could only have been there!&#8221; he said. &#8220;I wish I could be in three
+places at once.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He meant the bench, the first base coaching line, and the third base line.
+At this particular time he was giving the batters orders from the bench.
+It was one of those incidents which come up in a ball game and have to be
+decided in the drawing of a breath, so that a manager cannot give orders
+unless he is right on the spot.</p>
+
+<p>It is my opinion that it is a big advantage to a team to have the manager
+on the bench rather than in the game. Frank Chance of the Chicago Cubs is
+a great leader, but I think he would be a greater one if he could find one
+of his mechanical ability to play first base, and he could sit on the
+bench as the director general. He is occupied<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> with the duties of his
+position and often little things get by him. I believe that we beat the
+Cubs in two games in 1909 because Chance was playing first base instead of
+directing the game from the bench.</p>
+
+<p>In the first contest Ames was pitching and Schlei catching. Now, Schlei
+was no three hundred hitter, but he was a good man in a pinch and looked
+like Wagner when compared to Ames as a swatter. Schlei came up to the bat
+with men on second and third bases, two out, and a chance to win or put us
+ahead if he could make a hit. The first time it happened, McGraw unfolded
+his arms and relaxed, which is a sign that he is conceding something for
+the time being.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No use,&#8221; he said. &#8220;All those runners are going to waste. We&#8217;ll have to
+make another try in the next inning. They will surely pass Schlei to take
+a chance on Ames.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then Overall, who was pitching, whistled a strike over the plate and
+McGraw&#8217;s body tightened and the old lines around the mouth appeared. Here
+was a chance yet.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re going to let him hit,&#8221; he cried joyfully.</p>
+
+<p>Schlei made a base hit on the next pitch and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> scored both men. Almost the
+same thing happened later on in the season with men on second and third
+bases, and Raymond, another featherweight hitter, pitching. It struck me
+as being an oversight on the part of Chance on both occasions, probably
+because he was so busy with his own position and watching the players on
+the field that he didn&#8217;t notice the pitcher was the next batter. He let
+Schlei hit each time, which probably cost him two games.</p>
+
+<p>The Giants were playing St. Louis at the Polo Grounds in 1910, and I was
+pitching against Harmon. I held the Cardinals to one hit up to the ninth
+inning, and we had the game won by the score of 1 to 0, when their first
+batter in the ninth walked. Then, after two had been put out, another
+scratched a hit. It looked as if we still had the game won, since only one
+man was left to be put out and the runners were on first and second bases.
+Mowrey, the red-headed third baseman, came to the bat.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Murray&#8217;s playing too near centre field for this fellow,&#8221; remarked McGraw
+to some of the players on the bench.</p>
+
+<p>Hardly had he said it when Mowrey shoved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> a long fly to right field, which
+soared away toward the stand. Murray started to run with the ball. For a
+minute it looked as if he were going to get there, and then it just tipped
+his outstretched hands as it fell to the ground. It amounted to a
+three-base hit and won the game for the Cardinals by the score of 2 to 1.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I knew it,&#8221; said McGraw, one of whose many r&ocirc;les is as a prophet of evil.
+&#8220;Didn&#8217;t I call the turn? I ought to have gone out there and stopped the
+game and moved Murray over. I blame myself for that hit.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>That was a game in which the St. Louis batters made three hits and won it.
+It isn&#8217;t the number of hits, so much as when they come, that wins ball
+games.</p>
+
+<p>Frequently, McGraw will stop a game&mdash;bring it to a dead standstill&mdash;by
+walking out from the bench as the pitcher is about to wind up.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Stop it a minute, Meyers,&#8221; he will shout. &#8220;Pull Snodgrass in a little bit
+for this fellow.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The man interested in statistics would be surprised at how many times
+little moves of this sort have saved games. But for the McGraw system to
+be effective, he must have working for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> him a set of players who are
+taking the old look around for orders all the time. He has a way of
+inducing the men to keep their heads up which has worked very well. If a
+player has been slow or has not taken all the distance McGraw believes is
+possible on a hit, he often finds $10 less in his pay envelope at the end
+of the month. And the conversation on the bench at times, when men have
+made errors of omission, would not fit into any Sunday-school room.</p>
+
+<p>During a game for the most part, McGraw is silent, concentrating his
+attention on the game, and the players talk in low tones, as if in church,
+discussing the progress of the contest. But let a player make a bad break,
+and McGraw delivers a talk to him that would have to be written on
+asbestos paper.</p>
+
+<p>Arthur Wilson was coaching at third base in one of the games in a series
+played in Philadelphia the first part of September, 1911. There were
+barely enough pitchers to go around at the time, and McGraw was very
+careful to take advantage of every little point, so that nothing would be
+wasted. He feels that if a game is lost because the other side is better,
+there is some excuse,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> but if it goes because some one&#8217;s head should be
+used for furniture instead of thinking baseball, it is like losing money
+that might have been spent. Fletcher was on second base when Meyers came
+to bat. The Indian pushed the ball to right field along the line. Fletcher
+came steaming around third base and could have rolled home safely, but
+Wilson, misjudging the hit, rushed out, tackled him, and threw him back on
+the bag. Even the plodding Meyers reached second on the hit and McGraw was
+boiling. He promptly sent a coacher out to relieve Wilson, and his oratory
+to the young catcher would have made a Billingsgate fishwife sore. We
+eventually won the game, but at this time there was only a difference of
+something like one, and it would have been a big relief to have seen that
+run which Wilson interrupted across the plate.</p>
+
+<p>McGraw is always on Devore&#8217;s hip because he often feels that this
+brilliant young player does not get as much out of his natural ability as
+he might. He is frequently listless, and, often, after a good hit, he will
+feel satisfied with himself and fan out a couple of times. So McGraw does
+all that he can to discourage this self-satisfaction. &#8220;Josh&#8221; is a great
+man in a pinch, for he hangs on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> like a bulldog, and instead of getting
+nervous, works the harder. If the reader will consult past history, he
+will note that it was a pinch hit by Devore which won the first
+world-series game, and one of his wallops, combined with a timely bingle
+by Crandall, was largely instrumental in bringing the second victory to
+the Giants. McGraw has made Devore the ball-player that he is by skilful
+handling.</p>
+
+<p>The Giants were having a nip and tuck game with the Cubs in the early part
+of last summer, when Devore came to the bat in one of those pinches and
+shot a three bagger over third base which won the game. As he slid into
+third and picked himself up, feeling like more or less of a hero because
+the crowd was announcing this fact to him by prolonged cheers, McGraw
+said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gee, you&#8217;re a lucky guy. I wish I had your luck. You were shot full of
+horseshoes to get that one. When I saw you shut your eyes, I never thought
+you would hit it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This was like pricking a bubble, and &#8220;Josh&#8217;s&#8221; chest returned to its normal
+measure.</p>
+
+<p>Marquard is another man whom McGraw constantly subjects to a
+conversational massage.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> Devore and Marquard room together on the road,
+and they got to talking about their suite at the hotel during a close game
+in Philadelphia one day. It annoys McGraw to hear his men discussing
+off-stage subjects during a critical contest, because it not only
+distracts their attention, but his and that of the other players.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ain&#8217;t that room of ours a dandy, Rube?&#8221; asked Devore.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Best in the lot,&#8221; replied Marquard.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s got five windows and swell furniture,&#8221; said Devore.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Solid mahogany,&#8221; said McGraw, who apparently had been paying no attention
+to the conversation. &#8220;That is, judging by some of the plays I have seen
+you two pull. Now can the conversation.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Devore went down into Cuba with the Giants, carrying quite a bank roll
+from the world&#8217;s series, and the idea that he was on a picnic. He started
+a personally conducted tour of Havana on his first night there and we lost
+the game the next day, &#8220;Josh&#8221; overlooking several swell opportunities to
+make hits in pinches. In fact he didn&#8217;t even get a foul.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>&#8220;You are fined $25,&#8221; said McGraw to him after the game.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You can&#8217;t fine me,&#8221; said Devore. &#8220;I&#8217;m not under contract.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then you take the next boat home,&#8221; replied the manager. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t come
+down here to let a lot of coffee-colored Cubans show me up. You&#8217;ve got to
+either play ball or go home.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Devore made four hits the next day.</p>
+
+<p>In giving his signs from the bench to the players, McGraw depends on a
+gesture or catch word. When &#8220;Dummy&#8221; Taylor, the deaf and dumb twirler, was
+with the club, all the players learned the deaf and dumb language. This
+medium was used for signing for a time, until smart ball players, like
+Evers and Leach, took up the study of it and became so proficient they
+could converse fluently on their fingers. But they were also great
+&#8220;listeners,&#8221; and we didn&#8217;t discover for some time that this was how they
+were getting our signs. Thereafter we only used the language for social
+purposes.</p>
+
+<p>Evers and McGraw got into a conversation one day in the deaf and dumb
+language at long range and &#8220;Johnny&#8221; Evers threw a finger out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> of joint
+replying to McGraw in a brilliant flash of repartee.</p>
+
+<p>Every successful manager is a distinct type. Each plays the game from the
+bench. &#8220;Connie&#8221; Mack gives his men more liberty than most. Chance rules
+for the most part with an iron hand. Bresnahan is ever spurring his men
+on. Chance changes his seat on the bench, and there is a double steal.
+&#8220;Connie&#8221; Mack uncrosses his legs, and the hit and run is tried.</p>
+
+<p>Most managers transmit their signs by movements or words. Jennings is
+supposed to have hidden in his jumble of jibes some catch words.</p>
+
+<p>The manager on the bench must know just when to change pitchers. He has to
+decide the exact time to send in a substitute hitter, when to install
+another base runner. All these decisions must be made in the &#8220;batting&#8221; of
+an eye. It takes quick and accurate judgment, and the successful manager
+must be right usually. That&#8217;s playing the game from the bench.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2>
+<h3>Coaching Good and Bad</h3>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><i>Coaching is Divided into Three Parts: Offensive, Defensive, and the
+Use of Crowds to Rattle Players&mdash;Why McGraw Developed Scientific
+Coaching&mdash;The Important R&ocirc;le a Coacher Plays in the Crisis of a Big
+League Ball Game when, on his Orders, Hangs Victory or Defeat.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Critical</span> moments occur in every close ball game, when coaching may win or
+lose it. &#8220;That wasn&#8217;t the stage for you to try to score,&#8221; yelled John
+McGraw, the manager of the Giants, at &#8220;Josh&#8221; Devore, as the New York
+left-fielder attempted to count from second base on a short hit to left
+field, with no one out and the team one run behind in a game with the
+Pirates one day in 1911, when every contest might mean the winning or
+losing of the pennant.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;First time in my life I was ever thrown<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> out trying to score from second
+on a base hit to the outfield,&#8221; answered Devore, &#8220;and besides the coacher
+sent me in.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t care,&#8221; replied McGraw, &#8220;that was a two out play.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, one of the younger players on the team was coaching
+at third base at the time and made an error of judgment in sending Devore
+home, of which an older head would not have been guilty. And the Pirates
+beat us by just that one run the coacher sacrificed. The next batter came
+through with an outfield fly which would have scored Devore from third
+base easily.</p>
+
+<p>Probably no more wily general ever crouched on the coaching line at third
+base than John McGraw. His judgment in holding runners or urging them on
+to score is almost uncanny. Governed by no set rules himself, he has
+formulated a list of regulations for his players which might be called the
+&#8220;McGraw Coaching Curriculum.&#8221; He has favorite expressions, such as &#8220;there
+are stages&#8221; and &#8220;that was a two out play,&#8221; which mean certain chances are
+to be taken by a coacher at one point in a contest, while to attempt such
+a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> play under other circumstances would be nothing short of foolhardy.</p>
+
+<p>With the development of baseball, coaching has advanced until it is now an
+exact science. For many years the two men who stood at first and third
+bases were stationed there merely to bullyrag and abuse the pitchers,
+often using language that was a disgrace to a ball field. When they were
+not busy with this part of their art, they handed helpful hints to the
+runners as to where the ball was and whether the second baseman was
+concealing it under his shirt (a favorite trick of the old days), while
+the pitcher pretended to prepare to deliver it. But as rules were made
+which strictly forbade the use of indecent language to a pitcher, and as
+the old school of clowns passed, coaching developed into a science, and
+the sentries stationed at first and third bases found themselves occupying
+important jobs.</p>
+
+<p>For some time McGraw frowned down upon scientific coaching, until its
+value was forcibly brought home to him one day by an incident that
+occurred at the Polo Grounds, and since then he has developed it until his
+knowledge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> of advising base runners is the pinnacle of scientific
+coaching.</p>
+
+<p>A few years ago, the Giants were having a nip and tuck struggle one day,
+when Harry McCormick, then the left-fielder, came to the plate and knocked
+the ball to the old centre-field ropes. He sped around the bases, and when
+he reached third, it looked as if he could roll home ahead of the ball.
+&#8220;Cy&#8221; Seymour was coaching and surprised everybody by rushing out and
+tackling McCormick, throwing him down and trying to force him back to
+third base. But big McCormick got the best of the struggle, scrambled to
+his feet, and finally scored after overcoming the obstacle that Seymour
+made. That run won the game.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What was the matter with you, Cy?&#8221; asked McGraw as Seymour came to the
+bench after he had almost lost the game by his poor coaching.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The sun got in my eyes, and I couldn&#8217;t see the ball,&#8221; replied Seymour.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;d better wear smoked glasses the next time you go out to coach,&#8221;
+replied the manager. The batter was hitting the ball due east, and the
+game was being played in the afternoon, so Seymour<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> had no alibi. From the
+moment &#8220;Cy&#8221; made that mistake, McGraw realized the value of scientific
+coaching, which means making the most of every hit in a game.</p>
+
+<p>I have always held that a good actor with a knowledge of baseball would
+make a good coacher, because it is the acting that impresses a base
+runner, not the talking. More often than not, the conversation of a
+coacher, be it ever so brilliant, is not audible above the screeching of
+the crowd at critical moments. And I believe that McGraw is a great actor,
+at least of the baseball school.</p>
+
+<p>The cheering of the immense crowds which attend ball games, if it can be
+organized, is a potent factor in winning or losing them. McGraw gets the
+most out of a throng by his clever acting. Did any patron of the Polo
+Grounds ever see him turn to the stands or make any pretence that he was
+paying attention to the spectators? Does he ever play to the gallery? Yet
+it is admitted that he can do more with a crowd, make it more malleable,
+than any other man in baseball to-day.</p>
+
+<p>The attitude of the spectators makes a lot of difference to a ball club. A
+lackadaisical, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>half-interested crowd often results in the team playing
+slovenly ball, while a lively throng can inject ginger into the men and
+put the whole club on its toes. McGraw is skilled in getting the most out
+of the spectators without letting them know that he is doing it.</p>
+
+<p>Did you ever watch the little manager crouching, immovable, at third base
+with a mitt on his hand, when the New York club goes to bat in the seventh
+inning two runs behind? The first hitter gets a base on balls. McGraw
+leaps into the air, kicks his heels together, claps his mitt, shouts at
+the umpire, runs in and pats the next batter on the back, and says
+something to the pitcher. The crowd gets it cue, wakes up and leaps into
+the air, kicking its heels together. The whole atmosphere inside the park
+is changed in a minute, and the air is bristling with enthusiasm. The
+other coacher, at first base, is waving his hands and running up and down
+the line, while the men on the bench have apparently gained new hope. They
+are moving about restlessly, and the next two hitters are swinging their
+bats in anticipation with a vigor which augurs ill for the pitcher. The
+game has found Ponce de Leon&#8217;s fountain of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> youth, and the little, silent
+actor on the third base coaching line is the cause of the change.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Nick&#8221; Altrock, the old pitcher on the Chicago White Sox, was one of the
+most skilful men at handling a crowd that the game has ever developed. As
+a pitcher, Altrock was largely instrumental in bringing a world&#8217;s
+championship to the American League team in 1906, and, as a coacher, after
+his Big League pitching days were nearly done, he won many a game by his
+work on the lines in pinches. Baseball has produced several comedians,
+some with questionable ratings as humorists. There is &#8220;Germany&#8221; Schaefer
+of the Washington team, and there were &#8220;Rube&#8221; Waddell, &#8220;Bugs&#8221; Raymond and
+others, but &#8220;Nick&#8221; Altrock could give the best that the game has brought
+out in the way of comic-supplement players a terrible battle for the
+honors.</p>
+
+<p>At the old south side park in Chicago, I have seen him go to the lines
+with a catcher&#8217;s mitt and a first-baseman&#8217;s glove on his hands and lead
+the untrained mob as skilfully as one of those pompadoured young men with
+a megaphone does the undergraduates at a college football game.</p>
+
+<p>My experience as a pitcher has been that it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> is not the steady, unbroken
+flood of howling and yelling, with the incessant pounding of feet, that
+gets on the nerves of a ball-player, but the broken, rhythmical waves of
+sound or the constant reiteration of one expression. A man gets accustomed
+to the steady cheering. It becomes a part of the game and his
+surroundings, as much as the stands and the crowd itself are, and he does
+not know that it is there. Let the coacher be clever enough to induce a
+crowd to repeat over and over just one sentence such as &#8220;Get a hit,&#8221; &#8220;Get
+a hit,&#8221; and it wears on the steadiest nerves. Nick Altrock had his
+baseball chorus trained so that, by a certain motion of the arm, he could
+get the crowd to do this at the right moment.</p>
+
+<p>But the science of latter-day coaching means much more than using the
+crowd. All coaching, like all Gaul and four or five other things, is
+divided into three parts, defensive coaching, offensive coaching and the
+use of the crowd. Offensive coaching means the handling of base runners,
+and requires quick and accurate judgment. The defensive sort is the advice
+that one player on the field gives another as to where to throw the ball,
+who shall take a hit, and how the base runner<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> is coming into the bag.
+There is a sub-division of defensive coaching which might be called the
+illegitimate brand. It is giving &#8220;phoney&#8221; advice to a base runner by the
+fielders of the other side that may lead him, in the excitement of the
+moment, to make a foolish play. This style has developed largely in the
+Big Leagues in the last three or four years.</p>
+
+<p>Offensive coaching, in my opinion, is the most important. For a man to be
+a good coacher he must be trained for the work. The best coachers are the
+seasoned players, the veterans of the game. A man must know the throwing
+ability of each outfielder on the opposing club, he must be familiar with
+the speed of the base runner whom he is handling, and he must be so
+closely acquainted with the game as a whole that he knows the stages at
+which to try a certain play and the circumstances under which the same
+attempt would be foolish. Above all things, he must be a quick thinker.</p>
+
+<p>Watch McGraw on the coaching lines some day. As he crouches, he picks up a
+pebble and throws it out of his way, and two base runners start a double
+steal. &#8220;Hughie&#8221; Jennings emits<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> his famous &#8220;Ee-Yaah!&#8221; and the third
+baseman creeps in, expecting Cobb to bunt with a man on first base and no
+one out. The hitter pushes the ball on a line past the third baseman. The
+next time Jennings shrieks his famous war-cry, it has a different
+intonation, and the batter bunts.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Bill&#8221; Dahlen of the Brooklyn club shouts, &#8220;Watch his foot,&#8221; and the base
+runner starts while the batter smashes the ball on a hit and run play.
+Again the pitcher hears that &#8220;Watch his foot.&#8221; He &#8220;wastes one,&#8221; so that
+the batter will not get a chance at the ball and turns to first base. He
+is surprised to find the runner anchored there. Nothing has happened. So
+it will be seen that the offensive coacher controls the situation and
+directs the plays, usually taking his orders from the manager, if the boss
+himself is not on the lines.</p>
+
+<p>In 1911 the Giants led the National League by a good margin in stealing
+bases, and to this speed many critics attributed the fact that the
+championship was won by the club. I can safely say that every base which
+was pilfered by a New York runner was stolen by the direct order of
+McGraw, except in the few games from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> which he was absent. Then his
+lieutenants followed his system as closely as any one can pursue the
+involved and intricate style that he alone understands. If it was the base
+running of the Giants that won the pennant for the club, then it was the
+coaching of McGraw, employing the speed of his men and his opportunities,
+which brought the championship to New York.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing that every manager teaches his players now is to obey
+absolutely the orders of the coacher, and then he selects able men to give
+the advice. The brain of McGraw is behind each game the Giants play, and
+he plans every move, most of the hitters going to the plate with definite
+instructions from him as to what to try to do. In order to make this
+system efficient, absolute discipline must be assured. If a player has
+other ideas than McGraw as to what should be done, &#8220;Mac&#8217;s&#8221; invariable
+answer to him is:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You do what I tell you, and I&#8217;ll take the responsibility if we lose.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>For two months at the end of 1911, McGraw would not let either &#8220;Josh&#8221;
+Devore or John Murray swing at a first ball pitched to them. Murray did
+this one day, after he had been ordered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> not to, and he was promptly fined
+$10 and sat down on the bench, while Becker played right field. Many fans
+doubtless recall the substitution of Becker, but could not understand the
+move.</p>
+
+<p>Murray and Devore are what are known in baseball as &#8220;first-ball hitters.&#8221;
+That is, they invariably hit at the first one delivered. They watch a
+pitcher wind up and swing their bats involuntarily, as a man blinks his
+eyes when he sees a blow started. It is probably due to slight
+nervousness. The result was that the news of this weakness spread rapidly
+around the circuit by the underground routes of baseball, and every
+pitcher in the League was handing Devore and Murray a bad ball on the
+first one. Of course, each would miss it or else make a dinky little hit.
+They were always &#8220;in the hole,&#8221; which means that the pitcher had the
+advantage in the count. McGraw became exasperated after Devore had fanned
+out three times one day by getting bad starts, hitting at the first ball.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;After this,&#8221; said McGraw to both Murray and Devore in the clubhouse, &#8220;if
+either of you moves his bat off his shoulder at a first ball, even if it
+cuts the plate, you will be fined $10 and sat down.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>Murray forgot the next day, saw the pitcher wind up, and swung his bat at
+the first one. He spent the rest of the month on the bench. But Devore&#8217;s
+hitting improved at once because all the pitchers, expecting him to swing
+at the first one, were surprised to find him &#8220;taking it&#8221; and, as it was
+usually bad, he had the pitcher constantly &#8220;in the hole,&#8221; instead of being
+at a disadvantage himself. For this reason he was able to guess more
+accurately what the pitcher was going to throw, and his hitting
+consequently improved. So did Murray&#8217;s after he had served his term on the
+bench. The right-fielder hit well up to the world&#8217;s series and then he
+just struck a slump that any player is liable to encounter. But so
+dependent is McGraw&#8217;s system on absolute discipline for its success that
+he dispensed with the services of a good player for a month to preserve
+his style.</p>
+
+<p>In contrast, &#8220;Connie&#8221; Mack, the manager of the Athletics, and by many
+declared to be the greatest leader in the country (although each private,
+of course, is true to his own general), lets his players use their own
+judgment largely. He seldom gives a batter a direct order unless the pinch
+is very stringent.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>The most difficult position to fill as a coacher is at third base, the
+critical corner. There a man&#8217;s judgment must be lightning fast and always
+accurate. He encourages runners with his voice, but his orders are given
+primarily with his hands, because often the noise made by the crowd drowns
+out the shouted instructions. Last, he must be prepared to handle all
+sorts of base running.</p>
+
+<p>On nearly every ball club, there are some players who are known in the
+frank parlance of the profession as &#8220;hog wild runners.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The expression means that these players are bitten by a sort of &#8220;bug&#8221;
+which causes them to lose their heads when once they get on the bases.
+They cannot be stopped, oftentimes fighting with a coacher to go on to the
+next base, when it is easy to see that if the attempt is made, the runner
+is doomed.</p>
+
+<p>New York fans have often seen McGraw dash out into the line at third base,
+tackle Murray, and throw him back on the bag. He is a &#8220;hog wild&#8221; runner,
+and with him on the bases, the duties of a coacher become more arduous. He
+will insist on scoring if he is not stopped or does not drop dead.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>Some youngster was coaching on third base in a game with Boston in the
+summer of 1911 and the Giants had a comfortable lead of several runs.
+Murray was on second when the batter hit clearly and sharply to left
+field. Murray started, and, with his usual intensity of purpose, rounded
+third base at top speed, bound to score. The ball was already on the way
+home when Murray, about ten feet from the bag, tripped and fell. He
+scrambled safely back to the cushion on all fours. There was nothing else
+to do.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This is his third year with me,&#8221; laughed McGraw on the bench, &#8220;and that&#8217;s
+the first time he has ever failed to try to score from second base on a
+hit unless he was tackled.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>All ball clubs have certain &#8220;must&#8221; motions which are as strictly observed
+as danger signals on a railroad. A coacher&#8217;s hand upraised will stop a
+base runner as abruptly as the uplifted white glove of a traffic policeman
+halts a row of automobiles. A wave of the arm will start a runner going at
+top speed again.</p>
+
+<p>Many times a quick-witted ball-player wins a game for his club by his snap
+judgment. Again McGraw is the master of that. He took a game<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> from the
+Cubs in 1911, because, always alert for flaws in the opposition, he
+noticed the centre-fielder drop his arm after getting set to throw the
+ball home. Devore was on second base, and one run was needed to win the
+game. Doyle hit sharply to centre field, and Devore, coming from second,
+started to slow up as he rounded third. Hofman, the Chicago
+centre-fielder, perceiving this slackening of pace, dropped his arm.
+McGraw noticed this, and, with a wave of his arm, notified Devore to go
+home. With two strides he was at top speed again, and Hofman, taken by
+surprise, threw badly.</p>
+
+<p>The run scored which won the game.</p>
+
+<p>The pastime of bullyragging the pitcher by the coachers has lost its
+popularity recently. The wily coacher must first judge the temperament of
+a pitcher before he dares to undertake to get on his nerves. Clarke
+Griffith, formerly the manager of Cincinnati, has a reputation for being
+able to ruin young pitchers just attempting to establish themselves in the
+Big League. Time and again he has forced youngsters back to the minors by
+his constant cry of &#8220;Watch his foot&#8221; or &#8220;He&#8217;s going to waste this one.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i147.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="center"><small>Photo by L. Van Oeyen, Cleveland, Ohio</small></p>
+<p class="note">Baker out at the plate trying to stretch a triple into a home run. This
+picture shows Catcher Easterly of Cleveland waiting with the ball to touch
+Baker. The home-run hero of the Athletics is shown in the picture starting
+the fall-away slide in an effort to get away from Easterly. Harry Davis is
+approaching the plate, and Jack Sheridan is awaiting the outcome at the plate.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>The rules are very strict now about talking to pitchers, but, if a
+complaint is made, Griffith declares that he was warning the batter that
+it was to be a pitchout, which is perfectly legitimate. The rules permit
+the coacher to talk to the batter and the base runners.</p>
+
+<p>Griffith caught a Tartar in Grover Cleveland Alexander, the sensational
+pitcher of the Philadelphia club. It was at his first appearance in
+Cincinnati that the young fellow got into the hole with several men on the
+bases, and &#8220;Mike&#8221; Mitchell coming up to the bat.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now here is where we get a look at the &#8216;yellow,&#8217;&#8221; yelled Griffith at
+Alexander.</p>
+
+<p>The young pitcher walked over toward third base.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m going to make that big boob up at the bat there show such a &#8216;yellow
+streak&#8217; that you won&#8217;t be able to see any white,&#8221; declared Alexander, and
+then he struck Mitchell out. Griffith had tried the wrong tactics.</p>
+
+<p>A story is told of Fred Clarke and &#8220;Rube&#8221; Waddell, the eccentric twirler.
+Waddell was once one of the best pitchers in the business when he could
+concentrate his attention on his work, but his mind wandered easily.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>&#8220;Now pay no attention to Clarke,&#8221; warned his manager before the game.</p>
+
+<p>Clarke tried everything from cajolery to abuse on Waddell with no effect,
+because the eccentric &#8220;Rube&#8221; had been tipped to fight shy of the Pittsburg
+manager. Suddenly Clarke became friendly and walked with Waddell between
+innings, chatting on trivial matters. At last he said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why don&#8217;t you come out on my ranch in Kansas and hunt after the season,
+George? I&#8217;ve got a dog out there you might train.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What kind of a dog?&#8221; asked Waddell at once interested.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Just a pup,&#8221; replied Clarke, &#8220;and you can have him if he takes a fancy to
+you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They all do,&#8221; replied Waddell. &#8220;He&#8217;s as good as mine.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The next inning the big left-hander was still thinking of that dog, and
+the Pirates made five runs.</p>
+
+<p>In many instances defensive coaching is as important as the offensive
+brand, which simply indorses the old axiom that any chain is only as
+strong as its weakest link or any ball club is only as efficient as its
+most deficient department.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> When Roger Bresnahan was on the Giants, he was
+one of those aggressive players who are always coaching the other fielders
+and holding a team together, a type so much desired by a manager. If a
+slow roller was hit between the pitcher&#8217;s box and third base, I could
+always hear &#8220;Rog&#8221; yelling, &#8220;You take it, Matty,&#8221; or, &#8220;Artie, Artie,&#8221;
+meaning Devlin, the third baseman. He was in a position to see which man
+would be better able to make the play, and he gave this helpful advice.
+His coaching saved many a game for the Giants in the old days. &#8220;Al&#8221;
+Bridwell, the former shortstop, was of the same type, and, if you have
+ever attended a ball game at the Polo Grounds, you have doubtless heard
+him in his shrill, piercing voice, shouting:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got it! I&#8217;ve got it!&#8221; or, &#8220;You take it!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This style of coaching saves ball-players from accidents, and accidents
+have lost many a pennant. I have always held that it was a lack of the
+proper coaching that sent &#8220;Cy&#8221; Seymour, formerly the Giant centre-fielder,
+out of the Big Leagues and back to the minors. Both Murray and he
+attempted to catch the same fly in the season of 1909 and came into
+collision. Seymour went<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> down on the field, but later got up and played
+the game out. However, he hurt his leg so badly that it never regained its
+strength.</p>
+
+<p>Then there is that other style of defensive coaching which is the shouting
+of misleading advice by the fielders to the base runners. Collins and
+Barry, the second baseman and shortstop on the Athletics, worked a clever
+trick in one of the games of the 1911 world&#8217;s series which illustrates my
+point. The play is as old as the one in which the second baseman hides the
+ball under his shirt so as to catch a man asleep off first base, but often
+the old ones are the more effective.</p>
+
+<p>Doyle was on first base in one of the contests played in Philadelphia, and
+the batter lifted a short foul fly to Baker, playing third base. The crowd
+roared and the coacher&#8217;s voice was drowned by the volume of sound. &#8220;Eddie&#8221;
+Collins ran to cover second base, and Barry scrabbled his hand along the
+dirt as if preparing to field a ground ball.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Throw it here! Throw it here!&#8221; yelled Collins, and Doyle, thinking that
+they were trying for a force play, increased his efforts to reach second.
+Baker caught the fly, and Larry was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> doubled up at first base so far that
+he looked foolish. Yet it really was not his fault. The safest thing for a
+base runner to do under those circumstances is to get one glimpse of the
+coacher&#8217;s motions and then he can tell whether to go back or to go on.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Johnnie&#8221; Kling, the old catcher of the Chicago Cubs, used to work a
+clever piece of defensive coaching with John Evers, the second baseman.
+This was tried on young players and usually was successful. The victim was
+picked out before the game, and the play depended upon him arriving at
+second base. Once there the schemers worked it as follows:</p>
+
+<p>When the &#8220;busher&#8221; was found taking a large lead, Evers would dash to the
+bag and Kling would make a bluff to throw the ball, but hold it. The
+runner naturally scampered for the base. Then, seeing that Kling had not
+thrown, he would start to walk away from it again.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If the Jew had thrown that time, he would have had you,&#8221; Evers would
+carelessly hurl over his shoulder at the intended victim. The man usually
+turned for a fatal second to reply. Tinker, who was playing shortstop,
+rushed in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> from behind, Kling whipped the ball to the bag, and the man,
+caught off his guard, was tagged out. The play was really made before the
+game, when the victim was selected.</p>
+
+<p>It was this same Evers-Kling combination that turned the tide in the first
+inning of the most famous game ever played in baseball, the extra one
+between the Giants and the Cubs in the season of 1908. The Chicago club
+was nervous in the first inning. Tenney was hit by a pitched ball, and
+Herzog walked. It looked as if Pfeister, the Chicago pitcher, was losing
+his grip. Bresnahan struck out, and Kling, always alert, dropped the third
+strike, but conveniently at his feet. Thinking that here was an
+opportunity the crowd roared. Evers, playing deep, almost behind Herzog,
+shouted, &#8220;Go on!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Herzog took the bait in the excitement of the moment and ran&mdash;and was
+nipped many yards from first base.</p>
+
+<p>There are many tricks to the coacher&#8217;s trade, both offensive and
+defensive, and it is the quickest-witted man who is the best coacher. The
+sentry at first yells as the pitcher winds up, &#8220;There he goes!&#8221; imitating
+the first baseman as nearly as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> possible, in the hope that the twirler
+will waste one by pitching out and thus give the batter an advantage. The
+coacher on third base will shout at the runner on a short hit to the
+outfield, &#8220;Take your turn!&#8221; in the dim hope that the fielder, seeing the
+man rounding third, will throw the ball home, and the hitter can thus make
+an extra base. And the job of coaching is no sinecure. McGraw has told me
+after directing a hard game that he is as tired as if he had played.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2>
+<h3>Honest and Dishonest Sign Stealing</h3>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><i>Everything Fair in Baseball except the Dishonest Stealing of
+Signals&mdash;The National Game More a Contest of the Wits than Most
+Onlookers Imagine.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">When</span> the Philadelphia Athletics unexpectedly defeated the Chicago Cubs in
+the world&#8217;s series of 1910, the National League players cried that their
+signals had been stolen by the American League team, and that, because
+Connie Mack&#8217;s batters knew what to expect, they had won the championship.</p>
+
+<p>But were the owners or any member of the Philadelphia club arrested
+charged with grand larceny in stealing the baseball championship of the
+world? No. Was there any murmur against the methods of Connie Mack&#8217;s men?
+No, again. By a strange kink in the ethics of baseball John Kling, the
+Chicago catcher,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> was blamed by the other players on the defeated team for
+the signs being stolen. They charged that he had been careless in covering
+his signals and that the enemy&#8217;s coachers, particularly Topsy Hartsell, a
+clever man at it, had seen them from the lines. This was really the cause
+of Kling leaving the Cubs and going to Boston in 1911.</p>
+
+<p>After the games were over and the series was lost, many of the players,
+and especially the pitchers, would hardly speak to Kling, the man who had
+as much as any one else to do with the Cubs winning four championships,
+and the man who by his great throwing had made the reputations of a lot of
+their pitchers. But the players were sore because they had lost the series
+and lost the extra money which many of them had counted as their own
+before the games started, and they looked around for some one to blame and
+found Kling. One of the pitchers complained after he had lost a game:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Can&#8217;t expect a guy to win with his catcher giving the signs so the
+coachers can read &#8217;em and tip the batters.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And you can&#8217;t expect a catcher to win a game<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> for you if you haven&#8217;t got
+anything on the ball,&#8221; replied Kling, for he is quick tempered and cannot
+stand reflections on his ability. But the pitcher&#8217;s chance remark had
+given the other players an excuse for fixing the blame, and it was put on
+Kling.</p>
+
+<p>I honestly do not believe that Kling was in any way responsible for the
+rout of the proud Cubs. The Chicago pitchers were away off form in the
+series and could not control the ball, thus getting themselves &#8220;into the
+hole&#8221; all the time. Shrewd Connie Mack soon realized this and ordered his
+batters to wait everything out, to make the twirlers throw every ball
+possible. The result was that, with the pitcher continually in the hole,
+the batters were guessing what was coming and frequently guessing right,
+as any smart hitter could under the circumstances. This made it look as if
+the Athletics were getting the Cubs&#8217; signals.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, I changed signs every three innings, Matty,&#8221; Kling told me
+afterwards in discussing the charge. &#8220;Some of the boys said that I gave
+the old bended-knee sign for a curve ball. Well, did you ever find
+anything to improve on the old ones? That&#8217;s why they are old.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>But the Cubs still point the finger of scorn at Kling, for it hurts to
+lose. I know it, I have lost myself. Even though the Athletics are charged
+with stealing the signs whether they did or not, it is no smirch on the
+character of the club, for they stole honestly&mdash;which sounds like a
+paradox.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You have such jolly funny morals in this bally country,&#8221; declared an
+Englishman I once met. &#8220;You steal and rob in baseball and yet you call it
+fair. Now in cricket we give our opponents every advantage, don&#8217;t cher
+know, and after the game we are all jolly good fellows at tea together.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This brings us down to the ethics of signal stealing. Each game has its
+own recognized standards of fairness. For instance, no tricks are
+tolerated in tennis, yet the baseball manager who can devise some scheme
+by which he disconcerts his opponents is considered a great leader. I was
+about to say that all is fair in love, war, and baseball, but will modify
+that too comprehensive statement by saying all is fair in love, war, and
+baseball except stealing signals dishonestly, which listens like another
+paradox. Therefore, I shall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> divide the subject of signal stealing into
+half portions, the honest and the dishonest halves, and, since we are
+dealing in paradoxes, take up the latter first.</p>
+
+<p>Dishonest signal stealing might be defined as obtaining information by
+artificial aids. The honest methods are those requiring cleverness of eye,
+mind, and hand without outside assistance. One of the most flagrant and
+for a time successful pieces of signal stealing occurred in Philadelphia
+several years ago.</p>
+
+<p>Opposing players can usually tell when the batsman is getting the signs,
+because he steps up and sets himself for a curve with so much confidence.
+During the season of 1899 the report went around the circuit that the
+Philadelphia club was stealing signals, because the batters were popping
+them all on the nose, but no one was able to discover the transmitter. The
+coachers were closely watched and it was evident that these sentinels were
+not getting the signs.</p>
+
+<p>It was while the Washington club, then in the National League, was playing
+Philadelphia that there came a rainy morning which made the field very
+wet, and for a long time it was doubtful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> whether a game could be played
+in the afternoon, but the Washington club insisted on it and overruled the
+protests of the Phillies. Arlie Latham, now the coacher on the Giants&#8217;,
+was playing third base for the Senators at the time. He has told me often
+since how he discovered the device by which the signs were being stolen.
+He repeated the story to me recently when I asked him for the facts to use
+in this book.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There was a big puddle in the third base coaching box that day,&#8221; said
+Latham. &#8220;And it was in the third inning that I noticed Cupid Childs, the
+Philadelphia second baseman, coaching. He stood with one foot in the
+puddle and never budged it, although the water came up to his shoe-laces.
+He usually jumped around when on the lines, and this stillness surprised
+me.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Better go get your rubbers if you are goin&#8217; to keep that trilby there,&#8217;
+I said to him. &#8216;Charley horse and the rheumatism have no terrors for you.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But he kept his foot planted in the puddle just the same, and first thing
+the batter cracked out a base hit.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;So that&#8217;s where you&#8217;re gettin&#8217; the signs?&#8217; I said to him, not guessing
+that it really was.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> Then he started to jump around and we got the next
+two batters out right quick, there being a big slump in the Philadelphia
+hitting as soon as he took his foot out of that puddle.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When the Washington club went to bat I hiked out to the third base line
+and started to coach, putting my foot into the puddle as near the place
+where Childs had had his as I could.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Here&#8217;s where we get a few signs,&#8217; I yelled, &#8216;and I ain&#8217;t afraid of
+Charley horse, either.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I looked over at the Philadelphia bench, and there were all the extra
+players sitting with their caps pulled down over their eyes, so that I
+couldn&#8217;t see their faces. The fielders all looked the other way. Then I
+knew I was on a warm scent.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When the Washington players started back for the field I told Tommy
+Corcoran that I thought they must be getting the signs from the third base
+coaching box, although I hadn&#8217;t been able to feel anything there. He went
+over and started pawing around in the dirt and water with his spikes and
+fingers. Pretty soon he dug up a square chunk of wood with a buzzer on the
+under side of it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;That ought to help their hitting a little,&#8217;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> he remarked as he kept on
+pulling. Up came a wire, and when he started to pull on it he found that
+it was buried about an inch under the soil and ran across the outfield. He
+kept right on coiling it up and following it, like a hound on a scent, the
+Philadelphia players being very busy all this time and nervous like a
+busher at his d&eacute;but into Big League society. One of the substitutes
+started to run for the clubhouse, but I stopped him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Tommy was galloping by this time across the outfield and all the time
+pulling up this wire. It led straight to the clubhouse, and there sitting
+where he could get a good view of the catcher&#8217;s signs with a pair of
+field-glasses was Morgan Murphy. The wire led right to him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;What cher doin&#8217;?&#8217; asked Tommy.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Watchin&#8217; the game,&#8217; replied Murphy.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Couldn&#8217;t you see it easier from the bench than lookin&#8217; through those
+peepers from here? And why are you connected up with this machine?&#8217;
+inquired Tommy, showin&#8217; him the chunk of wood with the buzzer attached.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;I guess you&#8217;ve got the goods,&#8217; Murphy answered with a laugh, and all the
+newspapers laughed at it then, too. But the batting averages<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> of the
+Philadelphia players took an awful slump after that.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Why didn&#8217;t they tip me?&#8217; asked Murphy as he put aside his field-glasses
+and went to the bench and watched the rest of the game from there. And we
+later won that contest, our first victory of the series, which was no
+discredit to us, since it was like gamblin&#8217; against loaded dice,&#8221;
+concluded &#8220;Arlie.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The newspapers may have laughed at the incident in those days, but since
+that time the National Commission has intimated that if there was ever a
+recurrence of such tactics, the club caught using them would be subjected
+to a heavy fine and possibly expulsion from the League. So much have
+baseball standards improved.</p>
+
+<p>The incident is a great illustration of the unfair method of obtaining
+signs. Since then, there have come from time to time reports of teams
+taking signals by mechanical devices. The Athletics once declared that the
+American League team in New York had a man stationed behind the fence in
+centre field with a pair of glasses and that he shifted a line in the
+score board slightly, so as to tip off the batters, but this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> charge was
+never confirmed. It was said a short time ago that the Athletics
+themselves had a spy located in a house outside their grounds and that he
+tipped the batters by raising and lowering an awning a trifle. When the
+Giants went to Philadelphia in 1911 for the first game of the world&#8217;s
+series in the enemy&#8217;s camp, I kept watching the windows of the houses just
+outside of the park for suspicious movements, but could discover none.
+Once in Pittsburg I thought that the Pirates were getting the Giants&#8217;
+signals and I kept my eyes glued to the score board in centre field,
+throughout one whole series, to see if any of the figures moved or changed
+positions, as that seemed to be the only place from which a batter could
+be tipped. But I never discovered anything wrong.</p>
+
+<p>There are many fair ways to steal the signs of the enemy, so many that the
+smart ball-player is always kept on the alert by them. Baseball geniuses,
+some almost magicians, are constantly looking for new schemes to find out
+what the catcher is telling the pitcher, what the batter is tipping the
+base runner to, or what the coacher&#8217;s instructions are. The Athletics have
+a great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> reputation as being a club able to get the other team&#8217;s signs if
+they are obtainable. This is their record all around the American League
+circuit.</p>
+
+<p>Personally I do not believe that Connie Mack&#8217;s players steal as much
+information as they get the credit for, but the reputation itself, if they
+never get a sign, is valuable. If a prizefighter is supposed to have a
+haymaking punch in his left hand, the other fellow is going to be
+constantly looking out for that left. If the players on a club have great
+reputations as signal stealers, their opponents are going to be on their
+guard all the time, which gives the team with the reputation just that
+much advantage. If a pitcher has a reputation, he has the percentage on
+the batter. Therefore, this gossip about the signal-stealing ability of
+the Athletics has added to their natural strength.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Bill,&#8221; I said to Dahlen, the Brooklyn manager, one day toward the end of
+the season of 1911, when the Giants were playing their schedule out after
+the pennant was sure, &#8220;see if you can get the Chief&#8217;s signs.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Dahlen coached on first base and then went to third, always looking for
+Meyers&#8217;s signals. Pretty soon he came to me.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>&#8220;I can see them a little bit, Matty,&#8221; he reported.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Chief,&#8221; I said to Meyers that night as I buttonholed him in the
+clubhouse, &#8220;you&#8217;ve got to be careful to cover up your signs in the Big
+Series. The Athletics have a reputation of being pretty slick at getting
+them. And to make sure we will arrange a set of signs that I can give if
+we think they are &#8216;hep&#8217; to yours.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>So right there Meyers and I fixed up a code of signals that I could give
+to him, the Chief always to use some himself which would be &#8220;phoney&#8221; of
+course, and might have the desirable effect of &#8220;crossing them.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In the first championship game at the Polo Grounds, Topsy Hartsell was out
+on the coaching lines looking for signals, and the Chief started giving
+the real ones until Davis stepped into a curve ball and cracked it to left
+field for a single, scoring the only run made by the Athletics. Right here
+Meyers stopped, and I began transmitting the private information, although
+the Chief continued to pass out signals that meant nothing. The Athletics
+were getting the Indian&#8217;s and could not understand why the answers seemed
+invariably to be wrong, for a couple of them struck out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> swinging at bad
+balls, and one batter narrowly avoided being hit by a fast one when
+apparently he had been tipped off to a curve and was set ready to swing at
+it. They did not discover that I was behind the signals, although to make
+this method successful the catcher must be a clever man. If he makes it
+too obvious that his signals are &#8220;phoney&#8221; and are meant to be seen, then
+the other club will look around for the source of the real ones. Meyers
+carefully concealed his misleading wig-wags beneath his chest protector,
+under his glove and behind his knee, as any good catcher does his real
+signs, so they would not look at my head.</p>
+
+<p>Many persons argue: if a man sees the signs, what good does it do him if
+he does not know what they mean? It is easy for a smart ball-player to
+deduce the answers, because there are only three real signs passed between
+a pitcher and catcher, the sign for the fast one, for the curve ball and
+for the pitchout. If a coacher sees a catcher open his hand behind his
+glove and then watches the pitcher throw a fast one, he is likely to guess
+that the open palm says &#8220;Fast one.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>After a coacher has stolen the desired <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>information, he must be clever to
+pass it along to the batter without the other club being aware that he is
+doing it. He may straighten up to tell the batter a curve ball is coming,
+and bend over to forecast a fast one, and turn his back as a neutral
+signal, meaning that he does not know what is coming. If a coacher is
+smart enough to pass the meanings to the batter without the other team
+getting on, he may go through the entire season as a transmitter of
+information. To steal signs fairly requires quickness of mind, eye and
+action. Few players can do it successfully. Perhaps that is why it is
+considered fair.</p>
+
+<p>If a team is going to make a success of signal stealing it must get every
+sign that is given, for an occasional crumb of information picked up at
+random is worse than none at all. First, it is dangerous. A batter, tipped
+off that a curved ball is coming, steps up to the plate and is surprised
+to meet a fast one, which often he has not time to dodge. Many a good
+ball-player has been injured in this way, and an accident to a star has
+cost more than one pennant.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Joe&#8221; Kelley, formerly manager of the Reds, was coaching in Cincinnati one
+day several years<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> ago, and &#8220;Eagle Eye Jake&#8221; Beckley, the old first
+baseman and a chronic three hundred hitter, was at the bat. I had been
+feeding him low drops and Kelley, on the third base line, thought he was
+getting the signals that Jack Warner, the Giant catcher in a former cast
+of characters, was giving. I saw Kelley apparently pass some information
+to Beckley, and the latter stepped almost across the plate ready for a
+curve. He encountered a high, fast one, close in, and he encountered it
+with that part of him between his neck and hat band. &#8220;Eagle Eye&#8221; was
+unconscious for two days after that and in the hospital several weeks.
+When he got back into the game he said to me one day:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why didn&#8217;t you throw me that curve, Matty, that &#8216;Joe&#8217; tipped me to?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Were you tipped off?&#8221; I asked. &#8220;Then it was &#8216;Joe&#8217;s&#8217; error, not mine.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Say,&#8221; he answered, &#8220;if I ever take another sign from a coacher I hope the
+ball kills me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It probably will,&#8221; I replied. &#8220;That one nearly did.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It is one of the risks of signal stealing. Beckley had received the wrong
+information and I felt<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> no qualms at hitting him, for it was not a wild
+pitch but a misinterpreted signal which had put him out of the game. His
+manager, not I, was to blame. For this reason many nervous players refuse
+to accept any information from a coacher, even if the coacher thinks he
+knows what is going to be pitched, because they do not dare take the risk
+of getting hit by a fast one, against which they have little protection if
+set for a curve. On this account few National League clubs attempt to
+steal signs as a part of the regular team work, but many individuals make
+a practice of it for their own benefit and for the benefit of the batter,
+if he is not of the timid type.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as a runner gets on second base he is in an excellent position to
+see the hands of the catcher, and it is then that the man behind the bat
+is doing all that he can cover up. Jack Warner, the old Giant, used
+sometimes to give his signals with his mouth in this emergency, because
+they were visible from the pitcher&#8217;s box, but not from second base. The
+thieves were looking at his hands for them. In the National League, Leach,
+Clarke, Wagner, Bresnahan, Evers, Tinker and a few more of the sort are
+dangerous to have on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> second. Wagner will get on the middle sack and watch
+the catcher until he thinks that he has discovered the pitchout sign,
+which means a ball is to be wasted in the hope that a base runner can be
+caught. Wagner takes a big lead, and the catcher, tempted, gives the
+&#8220;office&#8221; to waste one, thinking to nail &#8220;Hans&#8221; off second. The Dutchman
+sees it, and instead of running back to second dashes for third. He starts
+as the catcher lets go of the ball to throw to second and can usually make
+the extra base.</p>
+
+<p>Many coachers, who do not attempt to get the signs for fast and curved
+balls, study the catcher to get his pitchout sign, because once this is
+recognized it gives the team at the bat a great advantage. If a coacher
+sees the catcher give the pitchout signal he can stop the runner from
+trying to steal and the pitcher has wasted a ball and is &#8220;in the hole.&#8221;
+Then if his control is uncertain the result is likely to be disastrous.</p>
+
+<p>Several players in the National League are always trying to get the
+batter&#8217;s signs. Bresnahan, the manager and catcher of the St. Louis club,
+devotes half his time and energy to looking for the wireless code employed
+by batter and base<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> runner. If he can discover the hit and run sign, then
+he is able to order a pitchout and catch the man who has started to run in
+response to it several feet at second base. He is a genius at getting this
+information.</p>
+
+<p>Once late in 1911, when the New York club was in St. Louis on the last
+trip West, I came up to the bat with Fletcher on first base. I rubbed the
+end of my stick with my hand and Roger exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, that&#8217;s your old hit and run, Matty! What are you trying to do, kid me?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I forgot you knew it, Rog,&#8221; I answered, &#8220;but it goes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He thought I was attempting to cross him and did not order a pitchout. The
+sign had been given intentionally. I hit the ball and had the laugh on
+him. If a catcher can get a pitchout on a hit and run sign he upsets the
+other team greatly. Take a fast man on first base and the batter signs him
+that he is going to hit the next ball. The runner gets his start and the
+ball comes up so wide that the batter could not half reach it with a
+ten-foot bat. The runner is caught easily at second base and it makes him
+look foolish. That is why so many catchers devote time to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> looking for
+this signal. It is a great fruit bearer.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the extra players on the bench are always on the alert for the hit
+and run sign. This is a typical situation:</p>
+
+<p>The Giants were playing the Pittsburg club one day in 1911. Byrne was on
+first base. Fred Clarke was at bat and Byrne started for second while
+Clarke hit the ball to right field, Byrne reaching third base on the play.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What did he do?&#8221; asked Ames.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Did you get it, Matty?&#8221; inquired Wiltse.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; I answered. &#8220;Did you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think he tapped his bat on the plate,&#8221; replied Wiltse. The next time
+Clarke came up we were all looking to see if he tapped his bat on the
+plate. Byrne was again on first base. The Pirates&#8217; manager fixed his cap,
+he stepped back out of the box and knocked the dirt out of his cleats, and
+he did two or three other natural things before the pitch, but nothing
+happened. Then he tapped his bat on the plate.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Make him put them over, Chief,&#8221; yelled Wiltse which, translated, meant,
+&#8220;Order a pitch-out, Chief. He just gave Byrne the hit and run sign.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>Meyers signed for a pitchout, and Byrne was caught ten feet from second.
+Wiltse on the bench had really nailed the base runner. As soon as a sign
+is discovered it is communicated to the other players, and they are always
+watching for it, but try to conceal the fact that they recognize it,
+because, as soon as a batter discovers that his messages are being read,
+he changes his code.</p>
+
+<p>From these few facts about signals and sign stealing some idea of the
+battle of wits that is going on between two ball clubs in a game may be
+obtained. That is why so few men without brains last in the Big Leagues
+nowadays. A young fellow broke in with the Giants a few years ago and was
+very anxious to make good. He was playing shortstop.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Watch for the catcher&#8217;s signs and then shift,&#8221; McGraw told him one day.
+It is well known in baseball that a right-handed hitter will naturally
+push a curve over the outside corner of the plate toward right field and
+over the inside he will pull it around toward third base. But this
+youngster was overanxious and would shift before the pitcher started to
+deliver the ball. Some smart player on another club noticed this and
+tipped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> the batters off to watch the youngster for the signs. When he
+shifted toward second base the batter set himself for a ball over the
+outside corner. For a long time McGraw could not understand how the other
+teams were getting the Giants&#8217; signs, especially as it was on our home
+grounds. At last he saw the new infielder shift one day and the batter
+prepare for an inside ball.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Say,&#8221; he said to the player, rushing on the field after he had stopped
+the pitcher, &#8220;do you know you are telegraphing the signs to the batters by
+moving around before the pitcher throws the ball?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bill Dahlen, formerly a shortstop on the Giants, used to shift, but he was
+clever enough to wait until the pitcher had started his motion, when it
+was too late for the batter to look at him.</p>
+
+<p>Ball-players are always looking to steal some sign so that they may
+&#8220;cross&#8221; the enemy. In the language of the Big Leagues it is &#8220;signs,&#8221; never
+&#8220;signals.&#8221; And in conclusion I reiterate my former sentiments that all is
+fair in love, war and baseball except stealing signs dishonestly.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2>
+<h3>Umpires and Close Decisions</h3>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><i>Ball-players and Umpires are Regarded by the Fans as Natural
+Enemies, and the Fans Are about Right&mdash;Types of Arbiters and how the
+Players Treat them&mdash;&#8220;Silk&#8221; O&#8217;Loughlin, &#8220;Hank&#8221; O&#8217;Day, &#8220;Tim&#8221; Hurst,
+&#8220;Bob&#8221;&#8221; Emslie, and Others, and Close Ones they have Called&mdash;Also Some
+Narrow Escapes which have Followed.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">When</span> the Giants were swinging through the West in 1911 on the final trip,
+the club played three games in Pittsburg, with the pennant at that time
+only a possibility more or less remote. The Pirates still had a chance,
+and they were fighting hard for every game, especially as they were
+playing on their home grounds.</p>
+
+<p>The first contest of the series was on Saturday afternoon before a crowd
+that packed the gigantic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> stands which surrounded Forbes Field. The throng
+wanted to see the Pirates win because they were the Pirates, and the
+Giants beaten because they were the Giants, and were sticking their heads
+up above the other clubs in the race. I always think of the horse show
+when I play in Pittsburg, for they have the diamond horse-shoe of boxes
+there, you know. No; I&#8217;m wrong&mdash;it&#8217;s at the Metropolitan Opera House they
+have the diamond horse-shoe. Any way, the diamond horse-shoe of boxes was
+doing business at Forbes Field that Saturday afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>This story is going to be about umpires, but the reader who has never seen
+the Forbes Field folks must get the atmosphere before I let the yarn into
+the block. Once, on a bright, sunny day there, I muffed fly after fly
+because the glint of Sol&#8217;s rays on the diamonds blinded me. Always now I
+wear smoked glasses. &#8220;Josh&#8221; Devore is so afraid that he will lose social
+caste when he goes to Pittsburg that he gets his finger-nails manicured
+before he will appear on the field. And the lady who treated him one day
+polished them to such an ultimate glossiness that the sun flashed on them,
+and he dropped two flies in left field.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>&#8220;Look here, Josh,&#8221; warned McGraw after the game, &#8220;I hire you to play ball
+and not to lead cotillions. Get some pumice stone and rub it on your
+finger-nails and cut out those John Drew manicures after this.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This crowd is worse after umpires than the residents of the bleachers. The
+game on that Saturday worked out into a pitchers&#8217; battle between Marty
+O&#8217;Toole, the expensive exponent of the spit ball, and &#8220;Rube&#8221; Marquard, the
+great left-hander. Half of &#8220;Who&#8217;s Who in Pittsburg&#8221; had already split
+white gloves applauding when, along about the fourth or fifth inning, Fred
+Clarke got as far as third base with one out. The score was nothing for
+either side as yet, and of such a delicate nature was the contest that one
+run was likely to decide it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hans&#8221; Wagner, the peerless, and the pride of Pittsburg, was at the bat.
+He pushed a long fly to Murray in right field, and John caught it and
+threw the ball home. Clarke and the ball arrived almost simultaneously.
+There was a slide, a jumble of players, and a small cloud of dust blew
+away from the home plate.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ye&#8217;re out!&#8221; bawled Mr. Brennan, the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>umpire, jerking his thumb over his
+shoulder with a conclusiveness that forbade argument. Clarke jumped up and
+stretched his hands four feet apart, for he recognizes no conclusiveness
+when &#8220;one is called against him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Safe! that much!&#8221; he shouted in Brennan&#8217;s ear, showing him the four-foot
+margin with his hands.</p>
+
+<p>There was a roar from the diamond horse-shoe that, if it could have been
+canned and put on a phonograph, would have made any one his fortune
+because it could have been turned on to accompany moving pictures of lions
+and other wild beasts to make them realistic.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Say,&#8221; said Clarke to Brennan, &#8220;I know a pickpocket who looks honest
+compared to you, and I&#8217;d rather trust my watch to a second-story worker.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Brennan was dusting off the plate and paid no attention to him. But Clarke
+continued to snap and bark at the umpire as he brushed himself off,
+referring with feeling to Mr. Brennan&#8217;s immediate family, and weaving into
+his talk a sketch of the umpire&#8217;s ancestors, for Clarke is a great master
+of the English language as fed to umpires.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>&#8220;Mr. Clarke,&#8221; said Brennan, turning at last, &#8220;you were out. Now beat it to
+the bench before you beat it to the clubhouse.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Clarke went grumbling and all the afternoon was after Brennan for the
+decision, his wrath increasing because the Pirates lost the game finally,
+although they would not have won it had they been given that decision. And
+the crowd was roaring at Brennan, too, throughout the remainder of the
+contest, asking him pointed questions about his habits and what his
+regular business was.</p>
+
+<p>It takes a man with nerve to make a decision like that&mdash;one that could be
+called either way because it was so close&mdash;and to make it as he sees it,
+which happened in this particular case to be against the home team.</p>
+
+<p>Many times have I, in the excitement of the moment, protested against the
+decision of an umpire, but fundamentally I know that the umpires are
+honest and are doing their best, as all ball-players are. The umpires make
+mistakes and the players make errors. Many arbiters have told me that when
+they are working they seldom know what inning it is or how many are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> out,
+and sometimes, in their efforts to concentrate their minds on their
+decisions, they say they even forget what clubs are playing and which is
+the home team.</p>
+
+<p>The future of the game depends on the umpire, for his honesty must not be
+questioned. If there is a breath of suspicion against a man, he is
+immediately let go, because constant repetition of such a charge would
+result in baseball going the way of horse racing and some other sports. No
+scandal can creep in where the umpire is concerned, for the very
+popularity of baseball depends on its honesty.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The only good umpire is a dead umpire,&#8221; McGraw has declared many times
+when he has been disgruntled over some decision.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think they&#8217;re all dead ones in this League,&#8221; replied Devore one day,
+&#8220;considering the decisions that they are handing me down there at second
+base. Why, I had that bag by three feet and he called me out.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Many baseball fans look upon an umpire as a sort of necessary evil to the
+luxury of baseball, like the odor that follows an automobile.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Kill him! He hasn&#8217;t got any friends!&#8221; is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> an expression shouted from the
+stands time and again during a game.</p>
+
+<p>But I know differently. I have seen umpires with friends. It is true that
+most ball-players regard umpires as their natural enemies, as a boy does a
+school teacher. But &#8220;Bill&#8221; Klem has friends because I have seen him with
+them, and besides he has a constant companion, which is a calabash pipe.
+And &#8220;Billy&#8221; Evans of the American League has lots of friends. And most all
+of the umpires have some one who will speak to them when they are off the
+field.</p>
+
+<p>These men in blue travel by themselves, live at obscure hotels apart from
+those at which the teams stop, and slip into the ball parks unobtrusively
+just before game time. They never make friends with ball-players off the
+field for fear that there might be a hint of scandal. Seldom do they take
+the same train with a club unless it cannot be avoided. &#8220;Hank&#8221; O&#8217;Day, the
+veteran of the National League staff, and Brennan took the same train out
+of Chicago with the Giants in the fall of 1911 because we stopped in
+Pittsburg for one game, and they had to be there to umpire. It was the
+only available means of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> transportation. But they stayed by themselves in
+another Pullman until some one told them &#8220;Charley&#8221; Faust, the official
+jinx-killer of the Giants, was doing his stunt. Then they both came back
+into the Giants&#8217; car and for the first time in my life I saw &#8220;Hank&#8221; O&#8217;Day
+laugh. His face acted as if it wasn&#8217;t accustomed to the exercise and broke
+all in funny new wrinkles, like a glove when you put it on for the first
+time.</p>
+
+<p>There are several types of umpires, and ball-players are always studying
+the species to find out the best way to treat each man to get the most out
+of him. There are autocrats and stubborn ones and good fellows and
+weak-kneed ones, almost as many kinds as there are human beings. The
+autocrat of the umpire world is &#8220;Silk&#8221; O&#8217;Loughlin, now appearing with a
+rival show.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There are no close plays,&#8221; says &#8220;Silk.&#8221; &#8220;A man is always out or safe, or
+it is a ball or a strike, and the umpire, if he is a good man and knows
+his business, is always right. For instance, I am always right.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He refuses to let the players discuss a decision with him, maintaining
+that there is never any room for argument. If a man makes any talk with
+him,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> it is quick to the shower bath. &#8220;Silk&#8221; has a voice of which he is
+proud and declares that he shares the honors with Caruso and that it is
+only his profession as an umpire that keeps him off the grand-opera
+circuit. I have heard a lot of American League ball-players say at various
+times that they wished he was on the grand-opera circuit or some more
+calorific circuit, but they were mostly prejudiced at those moments by
+some sentiments which &#8220;Silk&#8221; had just voiced in an official capacity.</p>
+
+<p>As is well known in baseball, &#8220;Silk&#8221; is the inventor of &#8220;Strike Tuh!&#8221; and
+the creased trousers for umpires. I have heard American League players
+declare that they are afraid to slide when &#8220;Silk&#8221; is close down over a
+play for fear they will bump up against his trousers and cut themselves.
+He is one of the kind of umpires who can go through a game on the hottest
+summer day, running about the bases, and still keep his collar unwilted.
+At the end he will look as if he were dressed for an afternoon tea.</p>
+
+<p>Always he wears on his right hand, which is his salary or decision wing, a
+large diamond that sparkles in the sunlight every time he calls a man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>
+out. Many American League players assert that he would rather call a man
+out than safe, so that he can shimmer his &#8220;cracked ice,&#8221; but again they
+are usually influenced by circumstances. Such is &#8220;Silk,&#8221; well named.</p>
+
+<p>Corresponding to him in the National League is &#8220;Billy&#8221; Klem. He always
+wears a Norfolk jacket because he thinks it more stylish, and perhaps it
+is, and he refuses to don a wind pad. Ever notice him working behind the
+bat? But I am going to let you in on a secret. That chest is not all his
+own. Beneath his jacket he carries his armor, a protector, and under his
+trousers&#8217; legs are shin guards. He insists that all players call him &#8220;Mr.&#8221;
+He says that he thinks maybe soon his name will be in the social register.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Larry&#8221; Doyle thought that he had received the raw end of a decision at
+second base one day. He ran down to first, where Klem had retreated after
+he passed his judgment.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Say, &#8216;Bill,&#8217;&#8221; exploded &#8220;Larry,&#8221; &#8220;that man didn&#8217;t touch the bag&mdash;didn&#8217;t
+come within six feet of it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Say, Doyle,&#8221; replied Klem, &#8220;when you talk to me call me &#8216;Mr. Klem.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>&#8220;But, Mr. Klem&mdash;&#8221; amended &#8220;Larry.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Klem hurriedly drew a line with his foot as Doyle approached him
+menacingly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But if you come over that line, you&#8217;re out of the game, Mr. Doyle,&#8221; he
+threatened.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All right,&#8221; answered &#8220;Larry,&#8221; letting his pugilistic attitude evaporate
+before the abruptness of Klem as the mist does before the classic noonday
+sun, &#8220;but, Mr. Klem, I only wanted to ask you if that clock in centre
+field is right by your watch, because I know everything about you is
+right.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Larry&#8221; went back, grinning and considering that he had put one over on
+Klem&mdash;Mr. Klem.</p>
+
+<p>For a long time &#8220;Johnny&#8221; Evers of the Chicago club declared that Klem owed
+him $5 on a bet he had lost to the second baseman and had neglected to
+pay. Now John, when he was right, could make almost any umpirical goat
+leap from crag to crag and do somersaults en route. He kept pestering Klem
+about that measly $5 bet, not in an obtrusive way, you understand, but by
+such delicate methods as holding up five fingers when Klem glanced down on
+the coaching lines where he was stationed, or by writing a large &#8220;5&#8221;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> in
+the dirt at the home plate with the butt of his bat as he came up when
+Klem was umpiring on balls and strikes, or by counting slowly and casually
+up to five and stopping with an abruptness that could not be misconstrued.</p>
+
+<p>One day John let his temper get away from him and bawled Klem out in his
+most approved fashion.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Here&#8217;s your five, Mr. Evers,&#8221; said Klem, handing him a five dollar bill,
+&#8220;and now you are fined $25.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And it was worth it,&#8221; answered Evers, &#8220;to bawl you out.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Next comes the O&#8217;Day type, and there is only one of them, &#8220;Hank.&#8221; He is
+the stubborn kind&mdash;or perhaps <i>was</i> the stubborn kind, would be better, as
+he is now a manager. He is bull-headed. If a manager gets after him for a
+decision, he is likely to go up in the air and, not meaning to do it, call
+close ones against the club that has made the kick, for it must be
+remembered that umpires are only &#8220;poor weak mortals after all.&#8221; O&#8217;Day has
+to be handled with shock absorbers. McGraw tries to do it, but shock
+absorbers do not fit him well, and the first thing that usually occurs is
+a row.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>&#8220;Let me do the kicking, boys,&#8221; McGraw always warns his players before a
+contest that O&#8217;Day is going to umpire. He does not want to see any of his
+men put out of the game.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Bill&#8221; Dahlen always got on O&#8217;Day&#8217;s nerves by calling him &#8220;Henry.&#8221; For
+some reason, O&#8217;Day does not like the name, and &#8220;Bill&#8221; Dahlen discovered
+long ago the most irritating inflection to give it so that it would rasp
+on O&#8217;Day&#8217;s ears. He does not mind &#8220;Hank&#8221; and is not a &#8220;Mister&#8221; umpire. But
+every time Dahlen would call O&#8217;Day &#8220;Henry&#8221; it was the cold shower and the
+civilian&#8217;s clothes for his.</p>
+
+<p>Dahlen was playing in St. Louis many years ago when the race track was
+right opposite the ball park. &#8220;Bill&#8221; had a preference in one of the later
+races one day and was anxious to get across the street and make a little
+bet. He had obtained a leave of absence on two preceding days by calling
+O&#8217;Day &#8220;Henry&#8221; and had lost money on the horses he had selected as fleet of
+foot. But this last time he had a &#8220;sure thing&#8221; and was banking on some
+positive information which had been slipped to him by a friend of the
+friend of the man who owned the winner, and &#8220;Bill&#8221;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> wanted to be there.
+Along about the fifth inning, &#8220;Bill&#8221; figured that it was time for him to
+get a start, so he walked up to O&#8217;Day and said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Henry, do you know who won the first race?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, and you won&#8217;t either, Mr. Dahlen,&#8221; answered &#8220;Hank.&#8221; &#8220;You are fined
+$25, and you stay here and play the game out.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Some one had tipped &#8220;Hank&#8221; off. And the saddest part of the story is that
+&#8221;Bill&#8217;s&#8220; horse walked home, and he could not get a bet down on him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8221;First time it ever failed to work,&#8220; groaned &#8221;Bill&#8220; in the hotel that
+night, &#8221;and I said &#8216;Henry&#8217; in my meanest way, too.&#8220;</p>
+
+<p>Most clubs try to keep an umpire from feeling hostile toward the team
+because, even if he means to see a play right, he is likely to call a
+close one against his enemies, not intending to be dishonest. It would
+simply mean that you would not get any close ones from him, and the close
+ones count. Some umpires can be reasoned with, and a good fair protest
+will often make a man think perhaps he has called it wrong, and he will
+give you the edge on the next decision. A player must understand an umpire
+to know how to approach him to the best advantage. O&#8217;Day cannot be
+reasoned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> with. It is as dangerous to argue with him as it is to try to
+ascertain how much gasoline is in the tank of an automobile by sticking
+down the lighted end of a cigar or a cigarette.</p>
+
+<p>Emslie will listen to a reasonable argument. He is one of the finest
+umpires that ever broke into the League, I think. He is a good fellow. Far
+be it from me to be disloyal to my manager, for I think that he is the
+greatest that ever won a pennant, but Emslie put one over on McGraw in
+1911 when it was being said that Emslie was getting so old he could not
+see a play.</p>
+
+<p>&#8221;I&#8217;ll bet,&#8220; said McGraw to him one day after he had called one against the
+Giants, &#8221;that I can put a baseball and an orange on second base, and you
+can&#8217;t tell the difference standing at the home plate, Bob.&#8220;</p>
+
+<p>Emslie made no reply right then, but when the eye test for umpires was
+established by Mr. Lynch, the president of the League, &#8221;Bob&#8220; passed it at
+the head of the list and then turned around and went up to Chatham in
+Ontario, Canada, and made a high score with the rifle in a shooting match
+up there. After he had done that, he was umpiring at the Polo Grounds one
+day.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>&#8220;Want to take me on for a shooting go, John?&#8221; he asked McGraw as he passed
+him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, Bob, you&#8217;re all right. I give it to you,&#8221; answered McGraw, who had
+long forgotten his slur on Emslie&#8217;s eyesight.</p>
+
+<p>Emslie is the sort of umpire who rules by the bond of good fellowship
+rather than by the voice of authority. &#8220;Old Bob&#8221; has one &#8220;groove&#8221; and it
+is a personal matter about which he is very sensitive. He is under cover.
+It is no secret, or I would not give way on him. But that luxuriant growth
+of hair, apparent, comes off at night like his collar and necktie. It used
+to be quite the fad in the League to &#8220;josh&#8221; &#8220;Bob&#8221; about his wig, but that
+pastime has sort of died out now because he has proven himself to be such
+a good fellow.</p>
+
+<p>I had to laugh to myself, and not boisterously, in the season of 1911 when
+Mr. Lynch appointed &#8220;Jack&#8221; Doyle, formerly a first baseman and a
+hot-headed player, an umpire and scheduled him to work with Emslie. I
+remembered the time several seasons ago when Doyle took offence at one of
+&#8220;Bob&#8217;s&#8221; decisions and wrestled him all over the infield trying to get his
+wig off and show<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> him up before the crowd. And then Emslie and he worked
+together like Damon and Pythias. This business makes strange bed-fellows.</p>
+
+<p>Emslie was umpiring in New York one day in the season of 1909, when the
+Giants were playing St. Louis. A wild pitch hit Emslie over the heart and
+he wilted down, unconscious. The players gathered around him, and
+Bresnahan, who was catching for St. Louis at the time, started to help
+&#8220;Bob.&#8221; Suddenly the old umpire came to and began to fight off his
+first-aid-to-the-injured corps. No one could understand his attitude as he
+struggled to his feet and strolled away by himself, staggering a little
+and apparently dizzy. At last he came back and gamely finished the
+business of the day. I never knew why he fought with the men who were
+trying to help him until several weeks later, when we were playing in
+Pittsburg. As I came out from under the stand on my way to the bench,
+Emslie happened to be making his entrance at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Say, Matty,&#8221; he asked me, &#8220;that time in New York did my wig come off? Did
+Bresnahan take my wig off?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>&#8220;No, Bob,&#8221; I replied, &#8220;he was only trying to help you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I thought maybe he took it off while I was down and out and showed me up
+before the crowd,&#8221; he apologized.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Listen, Bob,&#8221; I said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t believe there is a player in either League
+who would do that, and, if any youngster tried it now, he would probably
+be licked.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m glad to hear you say that, Matty,&#8221; answered the old man, as he picked
+up his wind pad and prepared to go to work. And he called more bad ones on
+me that day than he ever had in his life before, but I never mentioned the
+wig to him.</p>
+
+<p>Most umpires declare they have off days just like players, when they know
+that they are making mistakes and cannot help it. If a pitcher of Mordecai
+Brown&#8217;s kind, who depends largely on his control for his effectiveness,
+happens to run up against an umpire with a bad day, he might just as well
+go back to the bench. Brown is a great man to work the corners of the
+plate, and if the umpire is missing strikes, he is forced to lay the ball
+over and then the batters whang it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> out. Johnstone had an off day in
+Chicago in 1911, when Brown was working.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s the use of my tryin&#8217; to pitch, Jim,&#8221; said Brown, throwing down his
+glove and walking to the bench disgusted, &#8220;if you don&#8217;t know a strike when
+you see one?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes an umpire who has been good will go into a long slump when he
+cannot call things right and knows it. Men like that get as discouraged as
+a pitcher who goes bad. There used to be one in the National League who
+was a pretty fair umpire when he started and seemed to be getting along
+fine until he hit one of those slumps. Then he began calling everything
+wrong and knew it. At last he quit, and the next time I saw him was in
+Philadelphia in the 1911 world&#8217;s series. He was a policeman.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hello, Matty,&#8221; he shouted at me as we were going into Shibe Park for the
+first game there. &#8220;I can call you by your first name now,&#8221; and he waved
+his hand real friendly. The last conversation I had with that fellow,
+unless my recollection fails me entirely, was anything but friendly.</p>
+
+<p>Umpires have told me that sometimes they see a play one way and call it
+another, and, as soon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> as the decision is announced, they realize that
+they have called it wrong. This malady has put more than one umpire out. A
+man on the National League staff has informed me since, that he called a
+hit fair that was palpably two feet foul in one of the most important
+games ever played in baseball, when he saw the ball strike on foul ground.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I couldn&#8217;t help saying &#8216;Fair ball,&#8217;&#8221; declared this man, and he is one of
+the best in the National League. &#8220;Luckily,&#8221; he added, &#8220;the team against
+which the decision went won the game.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Many players assert that arbiters hold a personal grudge against certain
+men who have put up too strenuous kicks, and for that reason the wise ones
+are careful how they talk to umpires of this sort. Fred Tenney has said
+for a long time that Mr. Klem gives him a shade the worst of it on all
+close ones because he had a run in with that umpire one day when they came
+to blows. Tenney is a great man to pick out the good ones when at the bat,
+and Fred says that if he is up with a three and two count on him now, Klem
+is likely to call the next one a strike if it is close, not because he is
+dishonest, but because he has a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> certain personal prejudice which he
+cannot overcome. And the funny part about it is that Tenney does not hold
+this up against Klem.</p>
+
+<p>Humorous incidents are always occurring in connection with umpires. We
+were playing in Boston one day a few years ago, and the score was 3 to 0
+against the Giants in the ninth inning. Becker knocked a home run with two
+men on the bases, and it tied the count. With men on first and third bases
+and one out in the last half of the ninth, a Boston batter tapped one to
+Merkle which I thought he trapped, but Johnstone, the umpire, said he
+caught it on the fly. It was simplicity itself to double the runner up off
+first base who also thought Merkle had trapped the ball and had started
+for second. That retired the side, and we won the game in the twelfth
+inning, whereas Boston would have taken it in the ninth if Johnstone had
+said the ball was trapped instead of caught on the fly.</p>
+
+<p>It was a very hot day, and those extra three innings in the box knocked me
+out. I was sick for a week with stomach trouble afterwards and could not
+pitch in Chicago, where we made our next stop. That was a case of where a
+decision in my favor &#8220;made me sick.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>&#8220;Tim&#8221; Hurst, the old American League umpire, was one of the most
+picturesque judges that ever spun an indicator. He was the sort who would
+take a player at his word and fight him blow for blow. &#8220;Tim&#8221; was umpiring
+in Baltimore in the old days when there was a runner on first base.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The man started to steal,&#8221; says &#8220;Tim.&#8221; He was telling the story only the
+other day in McGraw&#8217;s billiard room in New York, and it is better every
+time he does it. &#8220;As he left the bag he spiked the first baseman and that
+player attempted to trip him. The second baseman blocked the runner and,
+in sliding into the bag, the latter tried to spike &#8216;Hugh&#8217; Jennings, who
+was playing shortstop and covering, while Jennings sat on him to knock the
+wind out. The batter hit Robinson, who was catching, on the hands with his
+bat so that he couldn&#8217;t throw, and &#8216;Robbie&#8217; trod on my toes with his
+spikes and shoved his glove into my face so that I couldn&#8217;t see to give
+the decision. It was one of the hardest that I have ever been called upon
+to make.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What did you do?&#8221; I asked him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I punched &#8216;Robbie&#8217; in the ribs, called it a foul and sent the runner
+back,&#8221; replied &#8220;Tim.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2>
+<h3>The Game that Cost a Pennant</h3>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><i>The Championship of the National League was Decided in 1908 in One
+Game between the Giants and Cubs&mdash;Few Fans Know that it Was Mr. Brush
+who Induced the Disgruntled New York Players to Meet Chicago&mdash;This is
+the &#8220;Inside&#8221; Story of the Famous Game, Including &#8220;Fred&#8221; Merkle&#8217;s Part
+in the Series of Events which Led up to it.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> New York Giants and the Chicago Cubs played a game at the Polo Grounds
+on October 8, 1908, which decided the championship of the National League
+in one afternoon, which was responsible for the deaths of two spectators,
+who fell from the elevated railroad structure overlooking the grounds,
+which made Fred Merkle famous for not touching second, which caused
+lifelong friends to become bitter enemies,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> and which, altogether, was the
+most dramatic and important contest in the history of baseball. It stands
+out from every-day events like the battle of Waterloo and the
+assassination of President Lincoln. It was a baseball tragedy from a New
+York point of view. The Cubs won by the score of 4 to 2.</p>
+
+<p>Behind this game is some &#8220;inside&#8221; history that has never been written. Few
+persons, outside of the members of the New York club, know that it was
+only after a great deal of consultation the game was finally played, only
+after the urging of John T. Brush, the president of the club. The Giants
+were risking, in one afternoon, their chances of winning the pennant and
+the world&#8217;s series&mdash;the concentration of their hopes of a season&mdash;because
+the Cubs claimed the right on a technicality to play this one game for the
+championship. Many members of the New York club felt that it would be
+fighting for what they had already won, as did their supporters. This made
+bad feeling between the teams and between the spectators, until the whole
+dramatic situation leading up to the famous game culminated in the climax
+of that afternoon. The nerves of the players<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> were rasped raw with the
+strain, and the town wore a fringe of nervous prostration. It all burst
+forth in the game.</p>
+
+<p>Among other things, Frank Chance, the manager of the Cubs, had a cartilage
+in his neck broken when some rooter hit him with a handy pop bottle,
+several spectators hurt one another when they switched from conversational
+to fistic arguments, large portions of the fence at the Polo Grounds were
+broken down by patrons who insisted on gaining entrance, and most of the
+police of New York were present to keep order. They had their clubs
+unlimbered, too, acting more as if on strike duty than restraining the
+spectators at a pleasure park. Last of all, that night, after we had lost
+the game, the report filtered through New York that Fred Merkle, then a
+youngster and around whom the whole situation revolved, had committed
+suicide. Of course it was not true, for Merkle is one of the gamest
+ball-players that ever lived.</p>
+
+<p>My part in the game was small. I started to pitch and I didn&#8217;t finish. The
+Cubs beat me because I never had less on the ball in my life. What I can&#8217;t
+understand to this day is why it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> took them so long to hit me. Frequently
+it has been said that &#8220;Cy&#8221; Seymour started the Cubs on their victorious
+way and lost the game, because he misjudged a long hit jostled to centre
+field by &#8220;Joe&#8221; Tinker at the beginning of the third inning, in which
+chapter they made four runs. The hit went for three bases.</p>
+
+<p>Seymour, playing centre field, had a bad background against which to judge
+fly balls that afternoon, facing the shadows of the towering stand, with
+the uncertain horizon formed by persons perched on the roof. A baseball
+writer has said that, when Tinker came to the bat in that fatal inning, I
+turned in the box and motioned Seymour back, and instead of obeying
+instructions he crept a few steps closer to the infield. I don&#8217;t recall
+giving any advice to &#8220;Cy,&#8221; as he knew the Chicago batters as well as I did
+and how to play for them.</p>
+
+<p>Tinker, with his long bat, swung on a ball intended to be a low curve over
+the outside corner of the plate, but it failed to break well. He pushed
+out a high fly to centre field, and I turned with the ball to see Seymour
+take a couple of steps toward the diamond, evidently thinking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> it would
+drop somewhere behind second base. He appeared to be uncertain in his
+judgment of the hit until he suddenly turned and started to run back. That
+must have been when the ball cleared the roof of the stand and was visible
+above the sky line. He ran wildly. Once he turned, and then ran on again,
+at last sticking up his hands and having the ball fall just beyond them.
+He chased it and picked it up, but Tinker had reached third base by that
+time. If he had let the ball roll into the crowd in centre field, the Cub
+could have made only two bases on the hit, according to the ground rules.
+That was a mistake, but it made little difference in the end.</p>
+
+<p>All the players, both the Cubs and the Giants, were under a terrific
+strain that day, and Seymour, in his anxiety to be sure to catch the ball,
+misjudged it. Did you ever stand out in the field at a ball park with
+thirty thousand crazy, shouting fans looking at you and watch a ball climb
+and climb into the air and have to make up your mind exactly where it is
+going to land and then have to be there, when it arrived, to greet it,
+realizing all the time that if you are not there you are going to be
+everlastingly roasted? It is no cure for <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>nervous diseases, that
+situation. Probably forty-nine times out of fifty Seymour would have
+caught the fly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I misjudged that ball,&#8221; said &#8220;Cy&#8221; to me in the clubhouse after the game.
+&#8220;I&#8217;ll take the blame for it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He accepted all the abuse the newspapers handed him without a murmur and I
+don&#8217;t think myself that it was more than an incident in the game. I&#8217;ll try
+to show later in this story where the real &#8220;break&#8221; came.</p>
+
+<p>Just one mistake, made by &#8220;Fred&#8221; Merkle, resulted in this play-off game.
+Several newspaper men have called September 23, 1908, &#8220;Merkle Day,&#8221;
+because it was on that day he ran to the clubhouse from first base instead
+of by way of second, when &#8220;Al&#8221; Bridwell whacked out the hit that
+apparently won the game from the Cubs. Any other player on the team would
+have undoubtedly done the same thing under the circumstances, as the
+custom had been in vogue all around the circuit during the season. It was
+simply Fred Merkle&#8217;s misfortune to have been on first base at the critical
+moment. The situation which gave rise to the incident is well known to
+every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> follower of baseball. Merkle, as a pinch hitter, had singled with
+two out in the ninth inning and the score tied, sending McCormick from
+first base to third. &#8220;Al&#8221; Bridwell came up to the bat and smashed a single
+to centre field. McCormick crossed the plate, and that, according to the
+customs of the League, ended the game, so Merkle dug for the clubhouse.
+Evers and Tinker ran through the crowd which had flocked on the field and
+got the ball, touching second and claiming that Merkle had been forced out
+there.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the spectators did not understand the play, as Merkle was under
+the shower bath when the alleged put-out was made, but they started after
+&#8220;Hank&#8221; O&#8217;Day, the umpire, to be on the safe side. He made a speedy
+departure under the grand-stand and the crowd got the put-out unassisted.
+Finally, while somewhere near Coogan&#8217;s Bluff, he called Merkle out and the
+score a tie. When the boys heard this in the clubhouse, they laughed, for
+it didn&#8217;t seem like a situation to be taken seriously. But it turned out
+to be one of those things that the farther it goes the more serious it
+becomes.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>&#8220;Connie&#8221; Mack, the manager of the Athletics, says:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There is no luck in Big League baseball. In a schedule of one hundred and
+fifty-four games, the lucky and unlucky plays break about even, except in
+the matter of injuries.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But Mack&#8217;s theory does not include a schedule of one hundred and
+fifty-five games, with the result depending on the one hundred and
+fifty-fifth. Chicago had a lot of injured athletes early in the season of
+1908, and the Giants had shot out ahead in the race in grand style. In the
+meantime the Cubs&#8217; cripples began to recuperate, and that lamentable event
+on September 23 seemed to be the turning-point in the Giants&#8217; fortunes.</p>
+
+<p>Almost within a week afterwards, Bresnahan had an attack of sciatic
+rheumatism and &#8220;Mike&#8221; Donlin was limping about the outfield, leading a
+great case of &#8220;Charley horse.&#8221; Tenney was bandaged from his waist down and
+should have been wearing crutches instead of playing first base on a Big
+League club. Doyle was badly spiked and in the hospital. McGraw&#8217;s daily
+greeting to his athletes when he came to the park was:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>&#8220;How are the cripples? Any more to add to the list of identified dead
+to-day?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Merkle moped. He lost flesh, and time after time begged McGraw to send him
+to a minor league or to turn him loose altogether.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It wasn&#8217;t your fault,&#8221; was the regular response of the manager who makes
+it a habit to stand by his men.</p>
+
+<p>We played on with the cripples, many double-headers costing the pitchers
+extra effort, and McGraw not daring to take a chance on losing a game if
+there were any opportunity to win it. He could not rest any of his men.
+Merkle lost weight and seldom spoke to the other players as the Cubs crept
+up on us day after day and more men were hurt. He felt that he was
+responsible for this change in the luck of the club. None of the players
+felt this way toward him, and many tried to cheer him up, but he was
+inconsolable. The team went over to Philadelphia, and Coveleski, the
+pitcher we later drove out of the League, beat us three times, winning the
+last game by the scantiest of margins. The result of that series left us
+three to play with Boston to tie the Cubs if they won from Pittsburg the
+next day, Sunday. If the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> Pirates had taken that Sunday game, it would
+have given them the pennant. We returned to New York on Saturday night
+very much downhearted.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Lose me. I&#8217;m the jinx,&#8221; Merkle begged McGraw that night.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You stick,&#8221; replied the manager.</p>
+
+<p>While we had been losing, the Cubs had been coming fast. It seemed as if
+they could not drop a game. At last Cincinnati beat them one, which was
+the only thing that made the famous season tie possible. There is an
+interesting anecdote connected with that Cincinnati contest which goes to
+prove the honesty of baseball. Two of the closest friends in the game are
+&#8220;Hans&#8221; Lobert, then with the Reds, and Overall, the former Chicago
+pitcher. It looked as if Chicago had the important game won up to the
+ninth inning when Lobert came to the bat with two men out and two on the
+bases. Here he had a chance to overcome the lead of one run which the Cubs
+had gained, and win the contest for the home club, but he would beat his
+best friend and maybe put the Cubs out of the running for the pennant.</p>
+
+<p>Lobert had two balls and two strikes when he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> smashed the next pitch to
+center field, scoring both the base runners. The hit came near beating the
+Cubs out of the championship. It would have if we had taken one of those
+close games against Philadelphia. Lobert was broken-hearted over his hit,
+for he wanted the Cubs to win. On his way to the clubhouse, he walked with
+Overall, the two striding side by side like a couple of mourners.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m sorry, &#8216;Orvie,&#8217;&#8221; said Lobert. &#8220;I would not have made that hit for my
+year&#8217;s salary if I could have helped it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s all right, &#8216;Hans,&#8217;&#8221; returned Overall. &#8220;It&#8217;s all part of the
+game.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Next came the famous game in Chicago on Sunday between the Cubs and the
+Pittsburg Pirates, when a victory for the latter club would have meant the
+pennant and the big game would never have been played. Ten thousand
+persons crowded into the Polo Grounds that Sunday afternoon and watched a
+little electric score board which showed the plays as made in Chicago. For
+the first time in my life I heard a New York crowd cheering the Cubs with
+great fervor, for on their victory hung our only chances of ultimate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>
+success. The same man who was shouting himself hoarse for the Cubs that
+afternoon was for taking a vote on the desirability of poisoning the whole
+Chicago team on the following Thursday. Even the New York players were
+rooting for the Cubs.</p>
+
+<p>The Chicago team at last won the game when Clarke was called out at third
+base on a close play, late in the contest. With the decision, the Pirates&#8217;
+last chance went glimmering. The Giants now had three games to win from
+Boston on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, to make the deciding game on
+Thursday necessary. We won those, and the stage was cleared for the big
+number.</p>
+
+<p>The National Commission gave the New York club the option of playing three
+games out of five for the championship or risking it all on one contest.
+As more than half of the club was tottering on the brink of the hospital,
+it was decided that all hope should be hung on one game. By this time,
+Merkle had lost twenty pounds, and his eyes were hollow and his cheeks
+sunken. The newspapers showed him no mercy, and the fans never failed to
+criticise and hiss him when he appeared on the field. He stuck to it and
+showed up in the ball park every day, putting on his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> uniform and
+practising. It was a game thing to do. A lot of men, under the same fire,
+would have quit cold. McGraw was with him all the way.</p>
+
+<p>But it was not until after considerable discussion that it was decided to
+play that game. All the men felt disgruntled because they believed they
+would be playing for something they had already won. Even McGraw was so
+wrought up, he said in the clubhouse the night before the game:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t care whether you fellows play this game or not. You can take a
+vote.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A vote was taken, and the players were not unanimous, some protesting it
+ought to be put up to the League directors so that, if they wanted to rob
+the team of a pennant, they would have to take the blame. Others insisted
+it would look like quitting, and it was finally decided to appoint a
+committee to call upon Mr. Brush, the president of the club, who was ill
+in bed in the Lambs club at the time. Devlin, Bresnahan, Donlin, Tenney,
+and I were on that committee.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Brush,&#8221; I said to my employer, having been appointed the spokesman,
+&#8220;McGraw has left it up to us to decide whether we shall meet the Chicago
+team for the championship of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> National League to-morrow. A lot of the
+boys do not believe we ought to be forced to play over again for something
+we have already won, so the players have appointed this committee of five
+to consult with you and get your opinion on the subject. What we decide
+goes with them.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Brush looked surprised. I was nervous, more so than when I am in the
+box with three on the bases and &#8220;Joe&#8221; Tinker at the bat. Bresnahan fumbled
+with his hat, and Devlin coughed. Tenney leaned more heavily on his cane,
+and Donlin blew his nose. We five big athletes were embarrassed in the
+presence of this sick man. Suddenly it struck us all at the same time that
+the game would have to be played to keep ourselves square with our own
+ideas of courage. Even if the Cubs had claimed it on a technicality, even
+if we had really won the pennant once, that game had to be played now. We
+all saw that, and it was this thin, ill man in bed who made us see it even
+before he had said a word. It was the expression on his face. It seemed to
+say, &#8220;And I had confidence in you, boys, to do the right thing.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m going to leave it to you,&#8221; he answered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> &#8220;You boys can play the game
+or put it up to the directors of the League to decide as you want. But I
+shouldn&#8217;t think you would stop now after making all this fight.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The committee called an executive session, and we all thought of the crowd
+of fans looking forward to the game and of what the newspapers would say
+if we refused to play it and of Mr. Brush lying there, the man who wanted
+us to play, and it was rapidly and unanimously decided to imitate &#8220;Steve&#8221;
+Brodie and take a chance.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll play,&#8221; I said to Mr. Brush.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m glad,&#8221; he answered. &#8220;And, say, boys,&#8221; he added, as we started to file
+out, &#8220;I want to tell you something. Win or lose, I&#8217;m going to give the
+players a bonus of $10,000.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>That night was a wild one in New York. The air crackled with excitement
+and baseball. I went home, but couldn&#8217;t sleep for I live near the Polo
+Grounds, and the crowd began to gather there early in the evening of the
+day before the game to be ready for the opening of the gates the next
+morning. They tooted horns all night, and were never still. When I
+reported at the ball park, the gates had been closed by order of the
+National<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> Commission, but the streets for blocks around the Polo Grounds
+were jammed with persons fighting to get to the entrances.</p>
+
+<p>The players in the clubhouse had little to say to one another, but, after
+the bandages were adjusted, McGraw called his men around him and said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Chance will probably pitch Pfiester or Brown. If Pfiester works there is
+no use trying to steal. He won&#8217;t give you any lead. The right-handed
+batters ought to wait him out and the left-handers hit him when he gets in
+a hole. Matty is going to pitch for us.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Pfiester is a left-hand pitcher who watches the bases closely.</p>
+
+<p>Merkle had reported at the clubhouse as usual and had put on his uniform.
+He hung on the edge of the group as McGraw spoke, and then we all went to
+the field. It was hard for us to play that game with the crowd which was
+there, but harder for the Cubs. In one place, the fence was broken down,
+and some employees were playing a stream of water from a fire hose on the
+cavity to keep the crowd back. Many preferred a ducking to missing the
+game and ran through<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> the stream to the lines around the field. A string
+of fans recklessly straddled the roof of the old grand-stand.</p>
+
+<p>Every once in a while some group would break through the restraining ropes
+and scurry across the diamond to what appeared to be a better point of
+vantage. This would let a throng loose which hurried one way and another
+and mixed in with the players. More police had to be summoned. As I
+watched that half-wild multitude before the contest, I could think of
+three or four things I would rather do than umpire the game.</p>
+
+<p>I had rested my arm four days, not having pitched in the Boston series,
+and I felt that it should be in pretty good condition. Before that
+respite, I had been in nine out of fifteen games. But as I started to warm
+up, the ball refused to break. I couldn&#8217;t get anything on it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s the matter, Rog?&#8221; I asked Bresnahan. &#8220;They won&#8217;t break for me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;ll come as you start to work,&#8221; he replied, although I could see that
+he, too, was worried.</p>
+
+<p>John M. Ward, the old ball-player and now one of the owners of the Boston
+National League club, has told me since that, after working almost every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>
+day as I had been doing, it does a pitcher&#8217;s arm no good to lay off for
+three or four days. Only a week or ten days will accomplish any results.
+It would have been better for me to continue to work as often as I had
+been doing, for the short rest only seemed to deaden my arm.</p>
+
+<p>The crowd that day was inflammable. The players caught this incendiary
+spirit. McGinnity, batting out to our infield in practice, insisted on
+driving Chance away from the plate before the Cubs&#8217; leader thought his
+team had had its full share of the batting rehearsal. &#8220;Joe&#8221; shoved him a
+little, and in a minute fists were flying, although Chance and McGinnity
+are very good friends off the field.</p>
+
+<p>Fights immediately started all around in the stands. I remember seeing two
+men roll from the top to the bottom of the right-field bleachers, over the
+heads of the rest of the spectators. And they were yanked to their feet
+and run out of the park by the police.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Too bad,&#8221; I said to Bresnahan, nodding my head toward the departing
+belligerents, &#8220;they couldn&#8217;t have waited until they saw the game, anyway.
+I&#8217;ll bet they stood outside the park<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> all night to get in, only to be run
+out before it started.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I forgot the crowd, forgot the fights, and didn&#8217;t hear the howling after
+the game started. I knew only one thing, and that was my curved ball
+wouldn&#8217;t break for me. It surprised me that the Cubs didn&#8217;t hit it far,
+right away, but two of them fanned in the first inning and Herzog threw
+out Evers. Then came our first time at bat. Pfiester was plainly nervous
+and hit Tenney. Herzog walked and Bresnahan fanned out, Herzog being
+doubled up at second because he tried to advance on a short passed ball.
+&#8220;Mike&#8221; Donlin whisked a double to right field and Tenney counted.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time in almost a month, Merkle smiled. He was drawn up in
+the corner of the bench, pulling away from the rest of us as if he had
+some contagious disease and was quarantined. For a minute it looked as if
+we had them going. Chance yanked Pfiester out of the box with him
+protesting that he had been robbed on the decisions on balls and strikes.
+Brown was brought into the game and fanned Devlin. That ended the inning.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>We never had a chance against Brown. His curve was breaking sharply, and
+his control was microscopic. We went back to the field in the second with
+that one run lead. Chance made the first hit of the game off me in the
+second, but I caught him sleeping at first base, according to Klem&#8217;s
+decision. There was a kick, and Hofman, joining in the chorus of protests,
+was sent to the clubhouse.</p>
+
+<p>Tinker started the third with that memorable triple which gave the Cubs
+their chance. I couldn&#8217;t make my curve break. I didn&#8217;t have anything on
+the ball.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rog,&#8221; I said to Bresnahan, &#8220;I haven&#8217;t got anything to-day.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Keep at it, Matty,&#8221; he replied. &#8220;We&#8217;ll get them all right.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I looked in at the bench, and McGraw signalled me to go on pitching. Kling
+singled and scored Tinker. Brown sacrificed, sending Kling to second, and
+Sheckard flied out to Seymour, Kling being held on second base. I lost
+Evers, because I was afraid to put the ball over the plate for him, and he
+walked. Two were out now, and we had yet a chance to win the game as the
+score was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> only tied. But Schulte doubled, and Kling scored, leaving men
+on second and third bases. Still we had a Mongolian&#8217;s chance with them
+only one run ahead of us. Frank Chance, with his under jaw set like the
+fender on a trolley car, caught a curved ball over the inside corner of
+the plate and pushed it to right field for two bases. That was the most
+remarkable batting performance I have ever witnessed since I have been in
+the Big Leagues. A right-handed hitter naturally slaps a ball over the
+outside edge of the plate to right field, but Chance pushed this one, on
+the inside, with the handle of his bat, just over Tenney&#8217;s hands and on
+into the crowd. The hit scored Evers and Schulte and dissolved the game
+right there. It was the &#8220;break.&#8221; Steinfeldt fanned.</p>
+
+<p>None of the players spoke to one another as they went to the bench. Even
+McGraw was silent. We knew it was gone. Merkle was drawn up behind the
+water cooler. Once he said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It was my fault, boys.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>No one answered him. Inning after inning, our batters were mowed down by
+the great pitching of Brown, who was never better. His control of his
+curved ball was marvellous, and he had all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> his speed. As the innings
+dragged by, the spectators lost heart, and the cowbells ceased to jingle,
+and the cheering lost its resonant ring. It was now a surly growl.</p>
+
+<p>Then the seventh! We had our one glimmer of sunshine. Devlin started with
+a single to centre, and McCormick shoved a drive to right field. Recalling
+that Bridwell was more or less of a pinch hitter, Brown passed him
+purposely and Doyle was sent to the bat in my place. As he hobbled to the
+plate on his weak foot, said McGraw:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hit one, Larry.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The crowd broke into cheers again and was stamping its feet. The bases
+were full, and no one was out. Then Doyle popped up a weak foul behind the
+catcher. His batting eye was dim and rusty through long disuse. Kling went
+back for it, and some one threw a pop bottle which narrowly missed him,
+and another scaled a cushion. But Kling kept on and got what he went
+after, which was the ball. He has a habit of doing that. Tenney flied to
+Schulte, counting Devlin on the catch, and Tinker threw out Herzog. The
+game was gone. Never again did we have a chance.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>It was a glum lot of players in the clubhouse. Merkle came up to McGraw
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mac, I&#8217;ve lost you one <ins class="correction" title="original: penant">pennant</ins>. Fire me before I can do any more harm.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Fire you?&#8221; replied McGraw. &#8220;We ran the wrong way of the track to-day.
+That&#8217;s all. Next year is another season, and do you think I&#8217;m going to let
+you go after the gameness you&#8217;ve shown through all this abuse? Why you&#8217;re
+the kind of a guy I&#8217;ve been lookin&#8217; for many years. I could use a carload
+like you. Forget this season and come around next spring. The newspapers
+will have forgotten it all then. Good-by, boys.&#8221; And he slipped out of the
+clubhouse.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a regular guy,&#8221; said Merkle.</p>
+
+<p>Merkle has lived down that failure to touch second and proved himself to
+be one of the gamest players that ever stood in a diamond. Many times
+since has he vindicated himself. He is a great first baseman now, and
+McGraw and he are close friends. That is the &#8220;inside&#8221; story of the most
+important game ever played in baseball and Merkle&#8217;s connection with it.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2>
+<h3>When the Teams Are in Spring Training</h3>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><i>The Hardships of the Preliminary Practice in Limbering up Muscles
+and Reducing Weight for the Big Campaign&mdash;How a Ball Club is Whipped
+into Playing Shape&mdash;Trips to the South Not the Picnics they Seem to
+Be&mdash;The Battle of the Bushers to Stay in the Big Show&mdash;Making a
+Pitcher&mdash;Some Fun on the Side, including the Adventure of the Turkish
+Bath.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Spring</span> training! The words probably remind the reader of the sunny South
+and light exercise and good food and rubs and other luxuries, but the
+reader perhaps has never been with a Big League ball club when it is
+getting ready to go into a six months&#8217; campaign.</p>
+
+<p>All I can ever remember after a training trip is taking off and putting on
+a uniform, and running around the ball park under the inspiration of John
+McGraw, and he is some inspirer.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>The heavier a man gets through the winter, the harder the routine work is
+for him, and a few years ago I almost broke down and cried out of sympathy
+for Otis Crandall, who arrived in camp very corpulent.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What have you been doing this winter, Otie?&#8221; McGraw asked him after
+shaking hands in greeting, &#8220;appearing with a show as the stout lady?
+You&#8217;ll have to take a lot of that off.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Taking it off&#8221; meant running several miles every day so bundled up that
+the Indiana agriculturist looked like the pictures published of &#8220;Old Doc&#8221;
+Cook which showed him discovering the north pole. Ever since, Crandall&#8217;s
+spring training, like charity, has begun at home, and he takes exercise
+night and morning throughout the winter, so that when he comes into camp
+his weight will be somewhere near normal. In 1911 he had the best year of
+his career. He is the type of man who cannot afford to carry too much
+weight. He is stronger when he is slimmer.</p>
+
+<p>In contrast to him is George Wiltse, who maps out a training course with
+the idea of adding several pounds, as he is better with all the real
+weight he can put on. By that I do not mean any fat.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>George came whirling and spinning and waltzing and turkey-trotting and
+pirouetting across the field at Marlin Springs, Texas, the Giants&#8217; spring
+training headquarters, one day in the spring of 1911, developing steps
+that would have ruled him off any cotillion floor in New York in the days
+of the ban on the grizzly bear and kindred dances. Suddenly he dove down
+with his left hand and reached as far as he could.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s that one, George?&#8221; I yelled as he passed me.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Getting ready to cover first base on a slow hit, Matty,&#8221; he replied, and
+was off on another series of hand springs that made him look more like a
+contortionist rehearsing for an act which he was going to take out for the
+&#8220;big time&#8221; than a ball-player getting ready for the season.</p>
+
+<p>But perhaps some close followers of baseball statistics will recall a game
+that Wiltse took from the Cubs in 1911 by a wonderful one-hand reaching
+catch of a low throw to first base. Two Chicago runners were on the bags
+at the time and the loss of that throw would have meant that they both
+scored. Wiltse caught the ball, and it made the third out, and the Giants
+won the game. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>Thousands of fans applauded the catch, but the play was not
+the result of the exigencies of the moment. It was the outcome of
+forethought used months before.</p>
+
+<p>Spectators at ball games who wonder at the marvellous fielding of Wiltse
+should watch him getting ready during the spring season at Marlin. He is a
+tireless worker, and when he is not pitching he is doing hand springs and
+other acrobatic acts to limber up all his muscles. It is torture then, but
+it pays in the end.</p>
+
+<p>When I was a young fellow and read about the Big League clubs going South,
+I used to think what a grand life that must be. Riding in Pullmans, some
+pleasant exercise which did not entail the responsibility of a ball game,
+and plenty of food, with a little social recreation, were all parts of my
+dream. A young ball-player looks on his first spring training trip as a
+stage-struck young woman regards the theatre. She cannot wait for her
+first rehearsal, and she thinks only of the lobster suppers and the
+applause and the lights and the life, but nowhere in her dream is there a
+place for the raucous voice of the stage manager and the long jumps of
+&#8220;one night stands&#8221; with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> loss of sleep and the poor meals and the cold
+dressing rooms. As actors begin to dread the drudgery of rehearsing, so do
+baseball men detest the drill of the spring training. The only thing that
+I can think of right away which is more tiresome and less interesting is
+signal practice with a college football team.</p>
+
+<p>About the time that the sap starts up in the trees and the young man&#8217;s
+fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love and baseball, the big trek starts.
+Five hundred ball-players, attached more or less firmly to sixteen major
+league clubs, spread themselves out over the southern part of the United
+States, from Florida to California, and begin to prepare for the campaign
+that is to furnish the answer to that annual question, &#8220;Which is the best
+baseball club in the world?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In the case of the Giants, McGraw, with a flock of youngsters, has already
+arrived when the older men begin to drift into camp. The youngsters, who
+have come from the bushes and realize that this is their one big chance to
+make good, to be a success or a failure in their chosen profession&mdash;in
+short, to become a Big Leaguer or go back to the bushes for good&mdash;have
+already been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> working for ten days and are in fair shape. They stare at
+the regulars as the veterans straggle in by twos and threes, and McGraw
+has a brief greeting for each. He could use a rubber stamp.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How are you, Matty? What kind of shape are you in? Let&#8217;s see you in a
+uniform at nine o&#8217;clock to-morrow morning.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>When I first start South, for the spring trip, after shivering through a
+New York winter, I arouse myself to some enthusiasm over the prospect, but
+all this has evaporated after listening to that terse speech from McGraw,
+for I know what it means. Nothing looms on the horizon but the hardest
+five weeks&#8217; grind in the world.</p>
+
+<p>The next day the practice begins, and for the first time in five months, a
+uniform is donned. I usually start my work by limbering up slowly, and on
+the first day I do not pitch at all. With several other players, I help to
+form a large circle and the time is spent in throwing the ball at
+impossible and unreachable points in the anatomy. The man next to you
+shoots one away up over your head and the next one at your feet and off to
+the side while he is looking at the third man from you. This is great for
+limbering up, but the loosening<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> is torture. After about fifteen minutes
+of that, the winter-logged player goes over on the bench and drops down
+exhausted. But does he stay there? Not if McGraw sees him, and he is one
+of the busiest watchers I have ever met.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Here, Matty,&#8221; he will shout, &#8220;lead this squad three times around the park
+and be careful not to cut the corners.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>By the time that little formality is finished, a man&#8217;s tongue is hanging
+out and he goes to get a drink of water. The spring training is just one
+darned drink after another and still the player is always thirsty.</p>
+
+<p>After three hours of practice, McGraw may say:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All right, Matty. Go back to the hotel and get a bath and a rub and cut
+it out for to-day.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Or he may remark:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re looking heavy this year. Better take another little workout this
+afternoon.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And so ends the first day. That night I flex the muscles in my salary wing
+and wonder to myself if it is going to be <i>very</i> sore. I get the answer
+next day. And what always makes me maddest is that the fans up North
+imagine that we are having some kind of a picnic in Marlin Springs,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>
+Texas. My idea of no setting for a pleasure party is Marlin Springs,
+Texas.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i229.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="center"><small>Photo by L. Van Oeyen, Cleveland, Ohio</small></p>
+<p class="center"><strong>Close Play at the Plate</strong></p>
+<p class="note">This picture illustrates how easily the base runner, with his deceptive
+slide, can get away from the catcher, who has the ball waiting for him. It
+is always a hard decision for the umpire. Shown in the picture are, left
+to right, Conroy of Washington, Umpire Evans, and Catcher Land of Cleveland.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The morning of the second day is always a pleasant occasion. The muscles
+which have remained idle so long begin to rebel at the unaccustomed
+exercise, and the players are as pleasant as a flock of full-grown grizzly
+bears. I would not be a waiter for a ball club on a spring tour if they
+offered me a contract with a salary as large as J. P. Morgan&#8217;s income.</p>
+
+<p>Each year the winter kinks seem to have settled into the muscles more
+permanently and are harder to iron out. Of course, there comes a last time
+for each one of us to go South, and every season I think, on the morning
+of the second day, when I try to work my muscles, that this one is my
+last.</p>
+
+<p>The bushers lend variety to the life in a spring camp. Many of them try
+hard to &#8220;horn in&#8221; with the men who have made good as Big Leaguers. When a
+young player really seems to want to know something, any of the older men
+will gladly help him, but the trouble with most of them is that they think
+they are wonders when they arrive.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How do you hold a curve?&#8221; a young fellow asked me last spring.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>I showed him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do you think Hans Wagner is as good as Ty Cobb?&#8221; he asked me next.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Listen!&#8221; I answered. &#8220;Did you come down here to learn to play ball or
+with the idea that you are attending some sort of a conversational
+soiree?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Many recruits think that, if they can get friendly with the veterans, they
+will be retained on account of their social standing, and I cannot &#8220;go&#8221;
+young ball-players who attempt to become the bootblacks for the old ones.</p>
+
+<p>I have seen many a youngster ruin himself, even for playing in the minors,
+through his too vigorous efforts to make good under the large tent. He
+will come into camp, and the first day out put everything he has on the
+ball to show the manager &#8220;he&#8217;s got something.&#8221; The Giants had a young
+pitcher with them in 1911, named Nagle, who tried to pick up the pace, on
+the first day in camp, at which he had left off on the closing day of the
+previous year. He started to shoot the ball over to the batters with big,
+sharp breaking curves on it. He had not been South three days before he
+developed a sore arm that required a sling to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> help him carry it around,
+and he never was able to twirl again before he was shunted back into the
+lesser leagues.</p>
+
+<p>But hope springs eternal in the breast of the bush leaguer in the spring,
+and many a young fellow, when he gets his send-off from the little, old
+home town, with the local band playing at the station, knows that the next
+time the populace of that place hears of him, it will be through seeing
+his name in the headlines of the New York papers. And then along about the
+middle of April, he comes sneaking back into the old burg, crestfallen and
+disappointed. There are a lot of humor and some pathos in a spring
+training trip. Many a busher I have seen go back who has tried hard to
+make good and just could not, and I have felt sorry for him. It is just
+like a man in any other business getting a chance at a better job than the
+one he is holding and not being big enough to fit it. It is the one time
+that opportunity has knocked, and most of the bush leaguers do not know
+the combination to open the door, and, as has been pointed out,
+opportunity was never charged with picking locks. Many are called in the
+spring, but few get past. Most of them are sincere young<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> fellows, too,
+trying to make good, and I have seen them work until their tongues were
+hanging out and the perspiration was starting all over them, only to hear
+McGraw say:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m sorry, but you will have to go back again. I&#8217;ve let you out to
+Kankakee.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Steve Evans&#8221;, who now plays right field on the St. Louis club, was South
+with the Giants one season and worked hard to stick. But McGraw had a lot
+of young out-fielders, and some minor league magnate from Montreal came
+into camp one day who liked &#8220;Steve&#8217;s&#8221; action. McGraw started for the
+outfield where Evans was chasing flies and tried to get to &#8220;Steve,&#8221; but
+every time the manager approached him with the minor league man, Evans
+would rush for a ball on another corner of the field, and he became
+suddenly hard of hearing. Finally McGraw abandoned the chase and let
+another out-fielder go to Montreal, retaining Evans.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Say, &#8216;Steve,&#8217;&#8221; said &#8220;Mac,&#8221; that night, &#8220;why didn&#8217;t you come, when I
+called you out on the field there this afternoon?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Because I could hear the rattle of the tin can you wanted to tie to me,
+all over the lot,&#8221; replied<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> Evans. And eventually, by that subtle dodging,
+he landed in the Big League under Bresnahan and has made good out there.</p>
+
+<p>I believe that a pitcher by profession has the hardest time of any of the
+specialists who go into a spring camp. His work is of a more routine
+nature than that which attaches to any of the other branches of the
+baseball art. It is nothing but a steady grind.</p>
+
+<p>The pitcher goes out each morning and gets a catcher with a big mitt and a
+loud voice and, with a couple of his fellow artists, starts to warm up
+with this slave-driver. The right sort of a catcher for spring rehearsing
+is never satisfied with anything you do. I never try to throw a curve for
+ten days at least after I get South, for a misplaced curve early in the
+season may give a man a sore arm for the greater part of the summer, and
+Big League clubs are not paying pitchers for wearing crippled whips.</p>
+
+<p>After warming up for an hour or so, three or four pitchers throw slow ones
+to a batter and try to get the ball on the half bounce and compete as to
+the number of fumbles. This is great for limbering up.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>Then comes the only real enjoyment of the day. It is quick in passing,
+like a piece of great scenery viewed out of the window of a railroad coach
+going sixty miles an hour. Each afternoon the regulars play the Yannigans
+(the spring name of the second team) a game of six innings, and each
+pitcher has a chance to work about one inning. The batters are away off
+form and are missing the old round-house curve by two feet that they would
+hit out of the lot in mid-season. This makes you think for a few minutes
+that you are a good pitcher. But there is even a drawback to this brief
+bit of enjoyment, for the diamond at Marlin is skinned&mdash;that is, made of
+dirt, although it is billed as a grass infield, and the ball gets &#8220;wingy.&#8221;
+Little pieces of the cover are torn loose by contact with the rough dirt,
+and it is not at all like the hard, smooth, grass-stained ball that is
+prevalent around the circuit in mid-season. Grass seed has been planted on
+this infield, but so far, like a lot of bushers, it has failed to make
+good its promises.</p>
+
+<p>After that game comes the inevitable run around the park which has been a
+headliner in spring training ever since the institution was discovered. A
+story is told of &#8220;Cap&#8221; Anson and his famous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> old White Stockings.
+According to the reports I have heard, training with the &#8220;Cap&#8221; when he was
+right was no bed of roses. After hours of practice, he would lead the men
+in long runs, and the better he felt, the longer the runs. One hot day, so
+the story goes, Anson was toiling around the park, with his usual
+determination, at the head of a string of steaming, sweating players, when
+&#8220;Bill&#8221; Dahlen, a clever man at finding an opening, discovered a loose
+board in the fence on the back stretch, pulled it off, and dived through
+the hole. On the next lap two more tired athletes followed him, and at
+last the whole squad was on the other side of the fence, watching their
+leader run on tirelessly. But &#8220;Cap&#8221; must have missed the &#8220;plunk, plunk&#8221; of
+the footsteps behind him, for he looked around and saw that his players
+were gone. He kept grimly on, alone, until he had finished, and then he
+pushed his red face through the hole in the fence and saw his men.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Your turn now, boys,&#8221; he said, and while he sat in the grand-stand as the
+sole spectator, he made that crowd of unfortunate athletes run around the
+track twice as many times as he himself had done.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>&#8220;Guess I won&#8217;t have
+to nail up that hole in the fence, boys,&#8221; &#8220;Cap&#8221; remarked when it was all over.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of the influence of catchers on pitchers during the training
+trip, there is the well-known case of Wilbert Robinson, the old catcher,
+and &#8220;Rube&#8221; Marquard, the great left-handed pitcher of the Giants. &#8220;Robbie&#8221;
+devoted himself almost entirely in the spring of 1911 to the training of
+the then erratic &#8220;Rube,&#8221; and he handed back to McGraw at the end of the
+rehearsal the man who turned out to be the premier pitcher of his League,
+according to the official figures, and figures are not in the habit of
+lying.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Robbie&#8221; used to take Marquard off into some corner every day and talk to
+him for hours. Draw up close, for I am going to tell you the secret of how
+Marquard became a great pitcher and that, too, at just about the time the
+papers were mentioning him as the &#8220;$11,000 lemon,&#8221; and imploring McGraw to
+let him go to some club in exchange for a good capable bat boy.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now &#8216;Rube,&#8217;&#8221; would be &#8220;Robbie&#8217;s&#8221; first line in the daily lecture, &#8220;you&#8217;ve
+got to start on the first ball to get the batter. Always have <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>something
+on him and never let him have anything on you. This is the prescription
+for a great pitcher.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>One of the worst habits of Marquard&#8217;s early days was to get a couple of
+strikes on a batter and then let up until he got himself &#8220;into a hole&#8221; and
+could not put the ball over. Robinson by his coaching gave him the
+confidence he lacked.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Rube,&#8217; you&#8217;ve got a lot of stuff to-day,&#8221; &#8220;Robbie&#8221; would advise, &#8220;but
+don&#8217;t try to get it all on the ball. Mix it with a little control, and it
+will make a great blend. Now, this guy is a high ball hitter. Let&#8217;s see
+you keep it low for him. He waits, so you will have to get it over.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And out there in the hot Texas sun, with much advice and lots of patience,
+Wilbert Robinson was manufacturing a great pitcher out of the raw
+material. One of Marquard&#8217;s worst faults, when he first broke into the
+League, was that he did not know the batters and their grooves, and these
+weaknesses Robinson drilled into his head&mdash;not that a drill was required
+to insert the information. Robinson was the coacher, umpire, catcher and
+batter rolled into one, and as a result look at the &#8220;Rube.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>When Marquard began to wabble a little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> toward the end of 1911 and to show
+some of his old shyness while the club was on its last trip West, Robinson
+hurried on to Chicago and worked with him for two days. The &#8220;Rube&#8221; had
+lost the first game of the series to the Cubs, but he turned around after
+Robinson joined us and beat them to death in the last contest.</p>
+
+<p>Pitchers, old and young, are always trying for new curves in the spring
+practice, and out of the South, wafted over the wires by the fertile
+imaginations of the flotilla of correspondents, drift tales each spring of
+the &#8220;fish&#8221; ball and the new &#8220;hook&#8221; jump and the &#8220;stop&#8221; ball and many more
+eccentric curves which usually boil down to modifications of the old ones.
+I worked for two weeks once on a new, slow, spit ball that would wabble,
+but the trouble was that I could never tell just when or where it was
+going to wabble, and so at last I had to abandon it because I could not
+control it.</p>
+
+<p>After sending out fake stories of new and wonderful curves for several
+years, at last the correspondents got a new one when the spit ball was
+first discovered by Stricklett, a Brooklyn pitcher, several seasons ago.
+One Chicago correspondent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> sent back to his paper a glowing tale of the
+wonderful new curve called the &#8220;spit ball,&#8221; which was obtained by the use
+of saliva, only to get a wire from his office which read:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s all right to &#8216;fake&#8217; about new curves, but when it comes to being
+vulgar about it, that&#8217;s going too far. Either drop that spit ball or mail
+us your resignation.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The paper refused to print the story and a real new curve was born without
+its notice. As a matter of fact, Bowerman, the old Giant catcher, was
+throwing the spit ball for two or three years before it was discovered to
+be a pitching asset. He used to wet his fingers when catching, and as he
+threw to second base the ball would take all sorts of eccentric breaks
+which fooled the baseman, and none could explain why it did it until
+Stricklett came through with the spit ball.</p>
+
+<p>Many good pitchers, who feel their arms begin to weaken, work on certain
+freak motions or forms of delivery to make themselves more effective or
+draw out their baseball life in the Big Leagues for a year or two. A story
+is told of &#8220;Matty&#8221; Kilroy, a left-hander, who lived for two years through
+the development of what he called the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> &#8220;Bazzazaz&#8221; balk, and it had the
+same effect on his pitching as administering oxygen often has on a patient
+who is almost dead.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My old soup bone,&#8221; says Kilroy, &#8220;was so weak that I couldn&#8217;t break a pane
+of glass at fifty feet. So one winter I spent some time every day out in
+the back yard getting that balk motion down. I had a pretty fair balk
+motion when my arm was good, but I saw that it had to be better, so I put
+one stone in the yard for a home plate and another up against the fence
+for first base. Then I practised looking at the home plate stone and
+throwing at first base with a snap of the wrist and without moving my
+feet. It was stare steady at the batter, then the arm up to about my ear,
+and zip, with a twist of the wrist at first base, and you&#8217;ve got him!</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I got so I could throw &#8217;em harder to the bag with that wrist wriggle than
+I could to the batter, and I had them stickin&#8217; closer to the base for two
+years than a sixteen-year-old fellow does to his gal when they&#8217;ve just
+decided they would do for each other.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As a rule McGraw takes charge of the batters and general team work at
+spring practice, and he is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> one of the busiest little persons in seven
+counties, for he says a lot depends on the start a club gets in a league
+race. He always wants the first jump because it is lots easier falling
+back than catching up.</p>
+
+<p>After a week or so of practice, the team is divided up into two squads,
+and one goes to San Antonio and the other to Houston each Saturday and
+Sunday to play games. One of the older men takes charge of the younger
+players, and there is a lot of rivalry between the two teams to see which
+one will make the better record, I remember one year I was handling the
+youngsters, and we went to Houston to play the team there and just managed
+to nose out a victory. McGraw thought that for the next Saturday he had
+better strengthen the Yannigans up a bit, so he sent Roger Bresnahan along
+to play third base instead of Henderson, the young fellow we had the week
+before. Playing third base could not exactly have been called a habit with
+&#8220;Rog&#8221; at that time. He was still pretty fat, and bending over quick after
+grounders was not his regular line. He booted two or three and finally
+managed to lose the game for us. We sent McGraw the following telegram
+that night:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>&#8220;John McGraw, manager of the Giants, San Antonio, Texas:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Will trade Bresnahan for Henderson. Rush answer.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>McGraw does not like to have any of his clubs beaten by the minor
+leaguers, because the bushers are inclined to imitate pouter pigeons right
+away after beating the Big Leaguers.</p>
+
+<p>The social side of a training trip consists of kicking about the grub,
+singing songs at night, and listening to the same old stories that creep
+out of the bushes on crutches year after year. Last spring the food got so
+bad that some of the newspaper men fixed up a fake story they said they
+were going to send to New York, displayed it to the proprietor, and he
+came through with beefsteak for three nights in succession, thus
+establishing a record and proving the power of the press. The trouble with
+the diet schedule on a spring trip is that almost invariably those hotels
+on the bush-league circuits serve dinner in the middle of the day, just
+when a ball-player does not feel like eating anything much. Then at night
+they have a pick-up supper when one&#8217;s stomach feels as if it thought a
+fellow&#8217;s throat had been cut.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>The Giants had an umpire with them in the spring of 1911, named Hansell,
+who enlivened the long, weary, training season some. Like a lot of the
+recruits who thought that they were great ball-players, this Hansell
+firmly believed he was a great umpire. He used to try to put players who
+did not agree with his decisions out of the game and, of course, they
+would not go.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why don&#8217;t you have them arrested if they won&#8217;t leave?&#8221; McGraw asked him
+one day. &#8220;I would.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>So the next afternoon Hansell had a couple of the local constables out at
+the grounds and tried to have Devore pinched for kicking on a decision.
+&#8220;Josh&#8221; got sore and framed it up to have a camera man at the park the next
+day to take a moving picture of a mob scene, Hansell, the umpire, to be
+the hero and mobbed. Hansell fell for it until he saw all the boys picking
+up real clods and digging the dirt out of their spikes, and then he made a
+run for it and never came back. That is how we lost a great umpire.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You boys made it look too realistic for him,&#8221; declared McGraw.</p>
+
+<p>Hansell had a notion that he was a runner and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> offered to bet Robinson,
+who is rather corpulent now, that he could beat him running across the
+field. Robinson took him, and walked home ahead of the umpire in the race.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t see where I get off on this deal,&#8221; complained McGraw when it was
+over. &#8220;I framed up this race for you two fellows, and then Hansell comes
+to me and borrows the ten to pay &#8216;Robbie.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Somebody fixed up a Turkish bath in the hotel one day by stuffing up the
+cracks in one of the bathrooms and turning the hot water into the tub and
+the steam into the radiator full blast.</p>
+
+<p>Several towels were piled on the radiator and the players sat upon this
+swathed in blankets to take off weight. They entered the impromptu Turkish
+bath, wearing only the well-known smile. McGraw still maintains that it
+was &#8220;Bugs&#8221; Raymond who pulled out the towels when it came the manager&#8217;s
+turn to sit on the radiator, and, if he could have proved his case,
+Raymond would not have needed a doctor. It would have been time for the
+undertaker.</p>
+
+<p>Finally comes the long wending of the way up North. &#8220;Bugs&#8221; Raymond always
+depends on his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> friends for his refreshments, and as he had few friends in
+Marlin in 1911, he got few drinks. But when we got to Dallas cocktails
+were served with the dinner and all the ball-players left them untouched,
+McGraw enforcing the old rule that lips that touch &#8220;licker&#8221; shall never
+moisten a spit ball for him. &#8220;Bugs&#8221; was missed after supper and some one
+found him out in the kitchen licking up all the discarded Martinis. That
+was the occasion of his first fine of the season, and after that, as
+&#8220;Bugs&#8221; himself admitted, &#8220;life for him was just one fine after another.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>At last, after the long junket through the South, on which all managers
+are Simon Legrees, is ended, comes a welcome day, when the new uniforms
+are donned and the band plays and &#8220;them woids&#8221; which constitute the
+sweetest music to the ears of a ball-player, roll off the tongue of the
+umpire:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The batteries for to-day are Rucker and Bergen for Brooklyn, Marquard and
+Meyers for New York. Play ball!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The season is on.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2>
+<h3>Jinxes and What They Mean to a Ball-Player</h3>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><i>A Load of Empty Barrels, Hired by John McGraw, once Pulled the
+Giants out of a Losing Streak&mdash;The Child of Superstition Appears to
+the Ball-Player in Many Forms&mdash;Various Ways in which the Influence of
+the Jinx can be Overcome&mdash;The True Story of &#8220;Charley&#8221; Faust&mdash;The
+Necktie that Helped Win a Pennant.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">A friend</span> of mine, who took a different fork in the road when we left
+college from the one that I have followed, was walking down Broadway in
+New York with me one morning after I had joined the Giants, and we passed
+a cross-eyed man. I grabbed off my hat and spat in it. It was a new hat,
+too. &#8220;What&#8217;s the matter with you, Matty?&#8221; he asked, surprised.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Spit in your hat quick and kill that jinx,&#8221;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> I answered, not thinking for
+the minute, and he followed my example.</p>
+
+<p>I forgot to mention, when I said he took another fork in the road, that he
+had become a pitcher, too, but of a different kind. He had turned out to
+be sort of a conversational pitcher, for he was a minister, and, as luck
+would have it, on the morning we met that cross-eyed man he was wearing a
+silk hat. I was shocked, pained, and mortified when I saw what I had made
+him do. But he was the right sort, and wanted to go through with the thing
+according to the standards of the professional man with whom he happened
+to be at the time.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s the idea?&#8221; he asked as he replaced his hat.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Worst jinx in the world to see a cross-eyed man,&#8221; I replied. &#8220;But I hope
+I didn&#8217;t hurt your silk hat,&#8221; I quickly apologized.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not at all. But how about these ball-players who masticate the weed? Do
+they kill jinxes, too?&#8221; he wanted to know. And I had to admit that they
+were the main exterminators of the jinx.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then,&#8221; he went on, &#8220;I&#8217;m glad that the percentage of wearers of cross eyes
+is small.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>I have just looked into one of my favorite works for that word &#8220;jinx,&#8221; and
+found it not. My search was in Webster&#8217;s dictionary. But any ball-player
+can give a definition of it with his hands tied behind him&mdash;that is, any
+one except &#8220;Arlie&#8221; Latham, and, with his hands bound, he is deaf and dumb.
+A jinx is something which brings bad luck to a ball-player, and the
+members of the profession have built up a series of lucky and unlucky
+omens that should be catalogued. And besides the common or garden variety
+of jinxes, many stars have a series of private or pet and trained ones
+that are more malignant in their forms than those which come out in the
+open.</p>
+
+<p>A jinx is the child of superstition, and ball-players are among the most
+superstitious persons in the world, notwithstanding all this conversation
+lately about educated men breaking into the game and paying no attention
+whatever to the good and bad omens. College men are coming into both the
+leagues, more of them each year, and they are doing their share to make
+the game better and the class of men higher, but they fall the hardest for
+the jinxes. And I don&#8217;t know as it is anything to be ashamed of at that.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>A really true, on-the-level, honest-to-jiminy jinx can do all sorts of
+mean things to a professional ball-player. I have seen it make a bad
+pitcher out of a good one, and a blind batter out of a three-hundred
+hitter, and I have seen it make a ball club, composed of educated men,
+carry a Kansas farmer, with two or three screws rattling loose in his
+dome, around the circuit because he came as a prophet and said that he was
+accompanied by Miss Fickle Fortune. And that is almost a jinx record.</p>
+
+<p>Jinx and Miss Fickle Fortune never go around together. And ball-players
+are always trying to kill this jinx, for, once he joins the club, all hope
+is gone. He dies hard, and many a good hat has been ruined in an effort to
+destroy him, as I have said before, because the wearer happened to be
+chewing tobacco when the jinx dropped around. But what&#8217;s a new hat against
+a losing streak or a batting slump?</p>
+
+<p>Luck is a combination of confidence and getting the breaks. Ball-players
+get no breaks without confidence in themselves, and lucky omens inspire
+this confidence. On the other hand, unlucky signs take it away. The lucky
+man is the one who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> hits the nail on the head and not his fingers, and the
+ability to swat the nail on its receptive end is a combination of
+self-confidence and an aptitude for hammering. Good ball-playing is the
+combination of self-confidence and the ability to play.</p>
+
+<p>The next is &#8220;Red&#8221; Ames, although designated as &#8220;Leon&#8221; by his family when a
+very small boy before he began to play ball. (He is still called &#8220;Leon&#8221; in
+the winter.) Ames is of Warren, Ohio, and the Giants, and he is said to
+hold the Marathon record for being the most unlucky pitcher that ever
+lived, and I agree with the sayers. For several seasons, Ames couldn&#8217;t
+seem to win a ball game, no matter how well he pitched. In 1909, &#8220;Red&#8221;
+twirled a game on the opening day of the season against Brooklyn that was
+the work of a master. For nine innings he held his opponents hitless, only
+to have them win in the thirteenth. Time and again Ames has pitched
+brilliantly, to be finally beaten by a small score, because one of the men
+behind him made an error at a critical moment, or because the team could
+not give him any runs by which to win. No wonder the newspapers began to
+speak of Ames as the &#8220;hoodoo&#8221; pitcher and the man &#8220;who couldn&#8217;t win.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>There was a cross-eyed fellow who lived between Ames and the Polo Grounds,
+and &#8220;Red&#8221; used to make a detour of several blocks en route to the park to
+be sure to miss him in case he should be out walking. But one day in 1911,
+when it was his turn to pitch, he bumped into that cross-eyed man and, in
+spite of the fact that he did his duty by his hat and got three or four
+small boys to help him out, he failed to last two innings. When it came
+time to go West on the final trip of the 1911 season, Ames was badly
+discouraged.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t see any use in taking me along, Mac,&#8221; he said to McGraw a few
+days before we left. &#8220;The club can&#8217;t win with me pitching if the other
+guys don&#8217;t even get a foul.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The first stop was in Boston, and on the day we arrived it rained. In the
+mail that day, addressed to Leon Ames, came a necktie and a four-leaf
+clover from a prominent actress, wishing Ames good luck. The directions
+were inside the envelope. The four-leaf clover, if the charm were to work,
+must be worn on both the uniform and street clothes, and the necktie was
+to be worn with the street clothes and concealed in the uniform, if that
+necktie could be concealed <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>anywhere. It would have done for a headlight
+
+and made Joseph&#8217;s coat of many colors look like a mourning garment.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Might as well wish good luck to a guy on the way to the morgue,&#8221; murmured
+Ames as he surveyed the layout, but he manfully put on the necktie, taking
+his first dose of the prescription, as directed, at once, and he tucked
+the four-leaf clover away carefully in his wallet.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve got your work cut out for you, old boy,&#8221; he remarked to the charm
+as he put it away, &#8220;but I&#8217;d wear you if you were a horseshoe.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The first day that Ames pitched in Boston he won, and won in a stroll.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The necktie,&#8221; he explained that night at dinner, and pointed to the
+three-sheet, colored-supplement affair he was wearing around his collar,
+&#8220;I don&#8217;t change her until I lose.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><i>And he didn&#8217;t lose a game on that trip.</i> Once he almost did, when he was
+taken out in the sixth inning, and a batter put in for him, but the Giants
+finally pulled out the victory and he got the credit for it. He swept
+through the West unbeatable, letting down Pittsburg with two or three
+hits, cleaning up in St. Louis, and finally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> breaking our losing streak in
+Chicago after two games had gone against us. And all the time he wore that
+spectrum around his collar for a necktie. As it frayed with the wear and
+tear, more colors began to show, although I didn&#8217;t think it possible. If
+he had had occasion to put on his evening clothes, I believe that tie
+would have gone with it.</p>
+
+<p>For my part, I would almost rather have lost a game and changed the
+necktie, since it gave one the feeling all the time that he was carrying
+it around with him because he had had the wrong end of an election bet, or
+something of the sort. But not Ames! He was a game guy. He stuck with the
+necktie, and it stuck with him, and the combination kept right on winning
+ball games. Maybe he didn&#8217;t mind it because he could not see it himself,
+unless he looked in a mirror, but it was rough on the rest of the team,
+except that we needed the games the necktie won, to take the pennant.</p>
+
+<p>Columns were printed in the newspapers about that necktie, and it became
+the most famous scarf in the world. Ames used to sleep with it under his
+pillow alongside of his bank roll, and he didn&#8217;t<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> lose another game until
+the very end of the season, when he dropped one against Brooklyn.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t hardly lay that up against the tie,&#8221; he said afterwards. &#8220;You
+see, Mac put all those youngsters into it, and I didn&#8217;t get any support.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Analyzing is a distasteful pastime to me, but let&#8217;s see what it was that
+made Ames win. Was it the necktie? Perhaps not. But some sliver of
+confidence, which resulted from that first game when he was dressed up in
+the scarf and the four-leaf clover, got stuck in his mind. And after that
+the rest was easy.</p>
+
+<p>Frank Chance, the manager of the Cubs, has a funny superstition which is
+of the personal sort. Most ball-players have a natural prejudice against
+the number &#8220;13&#8221; in any form, but particularly when attached to a Pullman
+berth. But Chance always insists, whenever possible, that he have &#8220;lower
+13.&#8221; He says that if he can just crawl in under that number he is sure of
+a good night&#8217;s rest, a safe journey, and a victory the next day. He has
+been in two or three minor railroad accidents, and he declares that all
+these occurred when he was sleeping on some other shelf besides &#8220;lower
+13.&#8221; He can usually satisfy his hobby,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> too, for most travellers steer
+clear of the berth.</p>
+
+<p>McGraw believes a stateroom brings him good luck, or at least he always
+insists on having one when he can get it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Chance can have &#8216;lower 13,&#8217;&#8221; says &#8220;Mac,&#8221; &#8220;but give me a stateroom for
+luck.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Most ball-players nowadays treat the superstitions of the game as jokes,
+probably because they are a little ashamed to acknowledge their
+weaknesses, but away down underneath they observe the proprieties of the
+ritual. Why, even I won&#8217;t warm up with the third baseman while I am
+waiting for the catcher to get on his mask and the rest of his
+paraphernalia. Once, when I first broke in with the Giants, I warmed up
+with the third baseman between innings and in the next round they hit me
+hard and knocked me out of the box. Since then I have had an uncommon
+prejudice against the practice, and I hate to hear a man even mention it.
+Devlin knows of my weakness and never suggests it when he is playing the
+bag, but occasionally a new performer will drill into the box score at
+third base and yell:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>&#8220;Come on, Matty! Warm up here while you&#8217;re waiting.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It gets me. I&#8217;ll pitch to the first baseman or a substitute catcher to
+keep warm, but I would rather freeze to death than heat up with the third
+baseman. That is one of my pet jinxes.</p>
+
+<p>And speaking of Arthur Devlin, he has a few hand-raised jinxes of his own,
+too. For instance, he never likes to hear a player hum a tune on the
+bench, because he thinks it will keep him from getting a base hit. He
+nearly beat a youngster to death one day when he kept on humming after
+Devlin had told him to stop.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Cut that out, Caruso,&#8221; yelled Arthur, as the recruit started his melody.
+&#8220;You are killing base hits.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The busher continued with his air until Devlin tried another form of
+persuasion.</p>
+
+<p>Arthur also has a favorite seat on the bench which he believes is luckier
+than the rest, and he insists on sitting in just that one place.</p>
+
+<p>But the worst blow Devlin ever had was when some young lady admirer of his
+in his palmy days, who unfortunately wore her eyes crossed, insisted on
+sitting behind third base for each game, so as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> to be near him. Arthur
+noticed her one day and, after that, it was all off. He hit the worst
+slump of his career. For a while no one could understand it, but at last
+he confessed to McGraw.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mac,&#8221; he said one night in the club-house, &#8220;it&#8217;s that jinx. Have you
+noticed her? She sits behind the bag every day, and she has got me going.
+She has sure slid the casters under me. I wish we could bar her out, or
+poison her, or shoot her, or chloroform her, or kill her in some nice,
+mild way because, if it isn&#8217;t done, this League is going to lose a
+ball-player. How can you expect a guy to play with that overlooking him
+every afternoon?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>McGraw took Devlin out of the game for a time after that, and the
+newspapers printed several yards about the cross-eyed jinx who had ruined
+the Giants&#8217; third baseman.</p>
+
+<p>With the infield weakened by the loss of Devlin, the club began to lose
+with great regularity. But one day the jinxess was missing and she never
+came back. She must have read in the newspapers what she was doing to
+Devlin, her hero, and quit the national pastime or moved to another part
+of the stand. With this weight off his shoulders,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> Arthur went back into
+the game and played like mad.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If she&#8217;d stuck much longer,&#8221; declared McGraw, joyous in his rejuvenated
+third baseman, &#8220;I would have had her eyes operated on and straightened.
+This club couldn&#8217;t afford to keep on losing ball games because you are
+such a Romeo, Arthur, that even the cross-eyed ones fall for you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Ball-players are very superstitious about the bats. Did you ever notice
+how the clubs are all laid out in a neat, even row before the bench and
+are scrupulously kept that way by the bat boy? If one of the sticks by any
+chance gets crossed, all the players will shout:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Uncross the bats! Uncross the bats!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It&#8217;s as bad as discovering a three-alarm fire in an excelsior factory.
+Don&#8217;t believe it? Then listen to what happened to the Giants once because
+a careless bat boy neglected his duty. The team was playing in Cincinnati
+in the season of 1906 when one of the bats got crossed through the
+carelessness of the boy. What was the result? &#8220;Mike&#8221; Donlin, the star
+slugger of the team, slid into third base and came up with a broken
+ankle.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>Ever since that time we have carried our own boy with us, because a club
+with championship aspirations cannot afford to take a chance with those
+foreign artists handling the bats. They are likely to throw you down at
+any time.</p>
+
+<p>The Athletics have a funny superstition which is private or confined to
+their team as far as I know. When luck seems to be breaking against them
+in a game, they will take the bats and throw them wildly into the air and
+let them lie around in front of their bench, topsy-turvy. They call this
+changing the luck, but any other club would consider that it was the worst
+kind of a jinx. It is the same theory that card-players have about
+shuffling the deck vigorously to bring a different run of fortune. Then,
+if the luck changes, the Athletics throw the bats around some more to keep
+it. This act nearly cost them one of their best ball-players in the third
+game of the 1911 world&#8217;s series.</p>
+
+<p>The Philadelphia players had tossed their bats to break their run of luck,
+for the score was 1 to 0 against them, when Baker came up in the ninth
+inning. He cracked his now famous home run into the right-field bleachers,
+and the men on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> bench hurled the bats wildly into the air. In jumping
+up and reaching for a bat to throw, Jack Barry, the shortstop, hit his
+head on the concrete roof of the structure and was stunned for a minute.
+He said that little black specks were floating in front of his eyes, but
+he gamely insisted on playing the contest out. &#8220;Connie&#8221; Mack was so
+worried over his condition that he sent Ira Thomas out on the field to
+inquire if he were all right, and this interrupted the game in the ninth
+inning. A lot of the spectators thought that Thomas was out there, bearing
+some secret message from &#8220;Connie&#8221; Mack. None knew that he was ascertaining
+the health of a player who had almost killed himself while killing a jinx.</p>
+
+<p>The Athletics, for two seasons, have carried with them on all their trips
+a combination bat boy and mascot who is a hunchback, and he outjinxed our
+champion jinx killer, Charley Faust, in the 1911 world&#8217;s series. A
+hunchback is regarded by ball-players as the best luck in the world. If a
+man can just touch that hump on the way to the plate, he is sure to get a
+hit, and any observant spectator will notice the Athletics&#8217; hitters
+rubbing the hunchback boy before leaving the bench.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> So attached to this
+boy have the players become that they voted him half a share of the prize
+money last year after the world&#8217;s series. Lots of ball-players would tell
+you that he deserved it because he has won two world&#8217;s pennants for them.</p>
+
+<p>Another great piece of luck is for a ball-player to rub a colored kid&#8217;s
+head. I&#8217;ve walked along the street with ball-players and seen them stop a
+young negro and take off his hat and run their hands through his kinky
+hair. Then I&#8217;ve seen the same ball-player go out and get two or three hits
+that afternoon and play the game of his life. Again, it is the confidence
+inspired, coupled with the ability.</p>
+
+<p>Another old superstition among ball-players is that a load of empty
+barrels means base hits. If an athlete can just pass a flock of them on
+the way to the park, he is sure to step right along stride for stride with
+the three-hundred hitters that afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>McGraw once broke up a batting slump of the Giants with a load of empty
+barrels. That is why I maintain he is the greatest manager of them all. He
+takes advantage of the little things, even the superstitions of his men,
+and turns them to his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> account. He played this trick in one of the first
+years that he managed the New York club. The batting of all the players
+had slumped at the same time. None could hit, and the club was losing game
+after game as a result, because the easiest pitchers were making the best
+batters look foolish. One day Bowerman came into the clubhouse with a
+smile on his face for the first time in a week.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Saw a big load of empty barrels this afternoon, boys,&#8221; he announced, &#8220;and
+just watch me pickle the pill out there to-day.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Right at that point McGraw got an idea, as he frequently does. Bowerman
+went out that afternoon and made four hits out of a possible five. The
+next day three or four more of the players came into the park, carrying
+smiles and the announcement that fortunately they, too, had met a load of
+empty barrels. They, then, all went out and regained their old batting
+strides, and we won that afternoon for the first time in a week. More saw
+a load of barrels the next day and started to bat. At last all the members
+of the team had met the barrels, and men with averages of .119 were
+threatening to chisel into the three-hundred<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> set. With remarkable
+regularity the players were meeting loads of empty barrels on their way to
+the park, and, with remarkable regularity and a great deal of expedition,
+the pitchers of opposing clubs were being driven to the shower bath.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Say,&#8221; asked &#8220;Billy&#8221; Gilbert, the old second baseman, of &#8220;Bill&#8221; Lauder,
+formerly the protector of the third corner, one day, &#8220;is one of that team
+of horses sorrel and the other white?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sure,&#8221; answered &#8220;Bill.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sure,&#8221; echoed McGraw. &#8220;I hired that load of empty barrels by the week to
+drive around and meet you fellows on the way to the park, and you don&#8217;t
+think I can afford to have them change horses every day, do you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Everybody had a good laugh and kept on swatting. McGraw asked for waivers
+on the load of empty barrels soon afterwards, but his scheme had stopped a
+batting slump and put the club&#8217;s hitters on their feet again. He plays to
+the little personal qualities and superstitions in the men to get the most
+out of them. And just seeing those barrels gave them the idea that they
+were bound to get the base hits, and they got them. Once more, the old
+confidence, hitched up with ability.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>What manager would have carried a Kansas farmer around the circuit with
+him besides McGraw? I refer to Charles Victor Faust of Marion, Kansas, the
+most famous jinx killer of them all. Faust first met the Giants in St.
+Louis on the next to the last trip the club made West in the season of
+1911, when he wandered into the Planter&#8217;s Hotel one day, asked for McGraw
+and announced that a fortune teller of Marion had informed him he would be
+a great pitcher and that for $5 he could have a full reading. This
+pitching announcement piqued Charles, and he reached down into his jeans,
+dug out his last five, and passed it over. The fortune teller informed
+Faust that all he had to do to get into the headlines of the newspapers
+and to be a great pitcher was to join the New York Giants. He joined, and,
+after he once joined, it would have taken the McNamaras in their best form
+to separate him from the said Giants.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Charley&#8221; came out to the ball park and amused himself warming up.
+Incidentally, the Giants did not lose a game while he was in the
+neighborhood. The night the club left for Chicago on that trip, he was
+down at the Union Station ready to go along.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>&#8220;Did you get your contract and transportation?&#8221; asked McGraw, as the lanky
+Kansan appeared.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; answered &#8220;Charley.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Pshaw,&#8221; replied McGraw. &#8220;I left it for you with the clerk at the hotel.
+The train leaves in two minutes,&#8221; he continued, glancing at his watch. &#8220;If
+you can run the way you say you can, you can make it and be back in time to catch it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was the last we saw of &#8220;Charley&#8221; Faust for a time&mdash;galloping up the
+platform in his angular way with that contract and transportation in sight.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m almost sorry we left him,&#8221; remarked McGraw as &#8220;Charley&#8221; disappeared
+in the crowd. We played on around the circuit with indifferent luck and
+got back to New York with the pennant no more than a possibility, and
+rather a remote one at that. The first day we were in New York &#8220;Charley&#8221;
+Faust entered the clubhouse with several inches of dust and mud caked on
+him, for he had come all the way either by side-door special or blind
+baggage.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m here, all right,&#8221; he announced quietly, and started to climb into a
+uniform.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I see you are,&#8221; answered McGraw.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>&#8220;Charley&#8221; stuck around for two or three days, and we won. Then McGraw
+decided he would have to be dropped and ordered the man on the door of the
+clubhouse to bar this Kansas kid out. Faust broke down and cried that day,
+and we lost. After that he became a member of the club, and we won game
+after game until some busy newspaper man obtained a vaudeville engagement
+for him at a salary of $100 a week. We lost three games the week he was
+absent from the grounds, and Faust saw at once he was not doing the right
+thing by the club, so, with a wave of his hand that would have gone with
+J. P. Morgan&#8217;s income, he passed up some lucrative vaudeville contracts,
+much to the disgust of the newspaper man, who was cutting the remuneration
+with him, and settled down to business. The club did not lose a game after
+that, and it was decided to take Faust West with us on the last and famous
+trip in 1911. Daily he had been bothering McGraw and Mr. Brush for his
+contract, for he wanted to pitch. The club paid him some money from time
+to time to meet his personal expenses.</p>
+
+<p>The Sunday night the club left for Boston, a vaudeville agent was at the
+Grand Central Station<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> with a contract offering Faust $100 a week for five
+weeks, which &#8220;Charley&#8221; refused in order to stick with the club. It was the
+greatest trip away from home in the history of baseball. Starting with the
+pennant almost out of reach, the Giants won eighteen and lost four games.
+One contest that we dropped in St. Louis was when some of the newspaper
+correspondents on the trip kidnapped Faust and sat him on the St. Louis
+bench.</p>
+
+<p>Another day in St. Louis the game had gone eleven innings, and the
+Cardinals needed one run to win. They had several incipient scores on the
+bases and &#8220;Rube&#8221; Marquard, in the box, was apparently going up in the air.
+Only one was out. Faust was warming up far in the suburbs when, under
+orders from McGraw, I ran out and sent him to the bench, for that was the
+place from which his charm seemed to be the most potent. &#8220;Charley&#8221; came
+loping to the bench as fast as his long legs would transport him and St.
+Louis didn&#8217;t score and we won the game. It was as nice a piece of pinch
+mascoting as I ever saw.</p>
+
+<p>The first two games that &#8220;Charley&#8221; really lost were in Chicago. And all
+through the trip, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> reiterated his weird prophecies that &#8220;the Giants
+with Manager McGraw were goin&#8217; ta win.&#8221; The players believed in him, and
+none would have let him go if it had been necessary to support him out of
+their own pockets. And we did win.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Charley,&#8221; with his monologue and great good humor, kept the players in
+high spirits throughout the journey, and the feeling prevailed that we
+couldn&#8217;t lose with him along. He was advertised all over the circuit, and
+spectators were going to the ball park to see Faust and Wagner. &#8220;Charley&#8221;
+admitted that he could fan out Hans because he had learned how to pitch
+out there in Kansas by correspondence school and had read of &#8220;Hans&#8217;s&#8221;
+weakness in a book. His one &#8220;groove&#8221; was massages and manicures. He would
+go into the barber shop with any member of the team who happened to be
+getting shaved and take a massage and manicure for the purposes of
+sociability, as a man takes a drink. He easily was the record holder for
+the manicure Marathon, hanging up the figures of five in one day in St.
+Louis. He also liked pie for breakfast, dinner and supper, and a small
+half before retiring.</p>
+
+<p>But, alas! &#8220;Charley&#8221; lost in the world&#8217;s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> series. He couldn&#8217;t make good.
+And a jinx killer never comes back. He is gone. And his expansive smile
+and bump-the-bumps slide are gone with him. That is, McGraw hopes he is
+gone. But he was a wonder while he had it. And he did a great deal toward
+giving the players confidence. With him on the bench, they thought they
+couldn&#8217;t lose, and they couldn&#8217;t. It has long been a superstition among
+ball-players that when a &#8220;bug&#8221; joins a club, it will win a championship,
+and the Giants believed it when &#8220;Charley&#8221; Faust arrived. Did &#8220;Charley&#8221;
+Faust win the championship for the Giants?</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p>Another time-honored superstition among ball-players is that no one must
+say to a pitcher as he goes to the box for the eighth inning:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Come on, now. Only six more men.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Or for the ninth:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Pitch hard, now. Only three left.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Ames says that he lost a game in St. Louis once because McGraw forgot
+himself and urged him to pitch hard because only three remained to be put
+out. Those three batters raised the mischief with Ames&#8217;s prospects; he was
+knocked out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> of the box in that last inning, and we lost the game. That
+was before the days of the wonder necktie.</p>
+
+<p>Ames won the third game played in Chicago on the last trip West. Coming
+into the ninth inning, he had the Cubs beaten, when McGraw began:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Come on, &#8216;Red,&#8217; only&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Nix, Mac,&#8221; cut in Ames, &#8220;for the love of Mike, be reasonable.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And then he won the game. But the chances are that if McGraw had got that
+&#8220;only three more&#8221; out, he would have lost, because it would have been
+working on his strained nerves.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2>
+<h3>Base Runners and How They Help a Pitcher to Win</h3>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><i>The Secret of Successful Base Running is Getting the Start&mdash;A Club
+Composed of Good Base Runners Is Likely to do More to Help a Pitcher
+Win Games than a Batting Order of Hard Hitters&mdash;Stealing Second Is an
+Art in Taking Chances&mdash;The Giants Stole their Way to a Pennant, but
+&#8220;Connie&#8221; Mack Stopped the Grand Larceny when it Came to a World&#8217;s
+Championship.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Many</span> times have the crowds at the Polo Grounds seen a man get on first
+base in a close game, and, with the pitcher&#8217;s motion, start to steal
+second, only to have the catcher throw him out. The spectators groan and
+criticise the manager.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why didn&#8217;t he wait for the hitters to bat him around?&#8221; is the cry.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>Then, again, a man starts for the base, times his get-away just right, and
+slides into the bag in a cloud of dust while the umpire spreads out his
+hands indicating that he is safe. The crowd cheers and proclaims McGraw a
+great manager and the stealer a great base runner. Maybe the next batter
+comes along with a hit, and the runner scores. It wins the game, and
+mention is made in the newspapers the next morning of the fast base
+running of the club. A man has covered ninety feet of ground while the
+ball is travelling from the pitcher to the catcher and back to the fielder
+who is guarding second base. It is the most important ninety feet in
+baseball. From second base just one hit scores the runner. Stealing
+second, one of the most picturesque plays of the game, is the gentle art
+of taking a chance.</p>
+
+<p>In 1911, the Giants stole more bases than any other Big League club has
+had to its credit since the Pirates established the record in 1903.
+Devore, Snodgrass, Murray, Merkle and Doyle, once they got on the bases
+were like loose mercury. They couldn&#8217;t be caught. And McGraw stole his way
+to a pennant with this quintet of runners, not alone because of the number
+of bases they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> pilfered, but because of the edge it gave the Giants on the
+rest of the clubs, with the men with base-stealing reputations on the
+team. I should say that holding these runners up on the bases and worrying
+about what they were going to do reduced the efficiency of opposing
+pitchers one-third.</p>
+
+<p>It wasn&#8217;t the speed of the men that accounted for the record. A sprinter
+may get into the Big League and never steal a base. But it was the McGraw
+system combined with their natural ability.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Get the start,&#8221; reiterates McGraw. &#8220;Half of base stealing is leaving the
+bag at the right time. Know when you have a good lead and then never stop
+until you have hit the dirt.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It is up to the pitcher as much as the catcher to stop base stealing, for
+once a club begins running wild on another, the bats might as well be
+packed up and the game conceded. Pitchers make a study of the individual
+runners and their styles of getting starts. In my mind, I know just how
+much of a lead every base runner in the National League can take on me
+with impunity.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Bob&#8221; Bescher of the Cincinnati club was the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> leading, bright, particular
+base-stealing star of the National League in the season of 1911, and the
+secret of his success was in his start. He tries to get as big a lead as
+possible with each pitch, and then, when he intends to leave, edges a
+couple of feet farther than usual, catching the pitcher unawares. With the
+two extra feet, Bescher is bound to get to second base at the same time as
+the ball, and no catcher in the world can stop him. Therefore, it is up to
+the pitcher to keep him from getting this start&mdash;the two more feet he
+seeks. I know that Bescher can take ten feet from the bag when I am
+pitching and get back safely. But, I am equally sure that, if he makes his
+lead twelve feet and I notice it, I can probably catch him. As a good
+ribbon salesman constantly has in his mind&#8217;s eye the answer to the
+question, &#8220;How far is a yard?&#8221; so I know at a glance exactly how far
+Bescher can lead and get back safely, when he is on first base. If I
+glance over and see him twelve feet away from the bag and about to start,
+I turn and throw and catch him flat-footed. The crowd laughs at him and
+says:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Bescher asleep at the switch again!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The real truth is that Bescher was not asleep,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> but trying to get that old
+jump which would have meant the stolen base. Again, he takes the twelve
+feet, and I don&#8217;t perceive it. He gets started with my arm and goes into
+the bag ahead of the ball.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Great base runner,&#8221; comments the fickle crowd.</p>
+
+<p>Bescher has only accomplished what he was trying to do before, but he has
+gotten away with it this time. Being a great ball-player is the gentle art
+of getting away with it.</p>
+
+<p>Spectators often wonder why a pitcher wearies them with throwing over to
+the first base many times, when it is plain to see that he has no chance
+of catching his quarry. &#8220;Bill&#8221; Dahlen used to be one of the best men in
+the game for getting back in some way when on base, employing a straddle
+slide and just hooking the bag with his toe, leaving &#8220;a shoe-string to
+touch.&#8221; The result was that he was always handing the pitcher the laugh as
+he brushed himself off, for none can say Dahlen was not an immaculate
+ball-player.</p>
+
+<p>But the pitchers found out that they could tire Dahlen out by repeatedly
+throwing over to the bag, and that, after five throws, which required<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>
+five dashes and slides back to the base, he was all in and could not steal
+because he didn&#8217;t have the physical strength left. Thus, as soon as Dahlen
+got on, a pitcher began throwing over until he had him tired out, and then
+he pitched to the batter. So &#8220;Bill&#8221; crossed them by living on the bag
+until he thought he saw his opportunity to get the jump, and then he would
+try to steal.</p>
+
+<p>Few good base runners watch the ball after they have once left the bag.
+They look at the baseman to see how he is playing and make the slide
+accordingly. If Devore sees Huggins of St. Louis behind the base, he
+slides in front and pulls his body away from the bag, so that he leaves
+the smallest possible area to touch. If he observes the baseman cutting
+inside to block him off, he goes behind and hooks it with just one toe,
+again presenting the minimum touching surface. If the ball is hit while
+the runner is en route, he takes one quick glance at the coacher on the
+third base line and can tell by his motions whether to turn back or to
+continue.</p>
+
+<p>McGraw devotes half his time and energy in the spring to teaching his men
+base running and the art of sliding, which, when highly cultivated,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> means
+being there with one toe and somewhere else with the rest of the body. But
+most of all he impresses on the athletes the necessity of getting the
+start before making the attempt to steal. As long as I live I shall
+believe that if Snodgrass had known he had the jump in the third game of
+the world&#8217;s series in 1911, when he really had it, and if he had taken
+advantage of it, we would have won the game and possibly the championship.
+It was in the contest that Baker balanced by banging the home run into the
+right field bleachers in the ninth inning, when I was pitching. That tied
+the score, 1 to 1.</p>
+
+<p>For nine innings I had been pitching myself out, putting everything that I
+had on every ball, because the team gave me no lead to rest on. When Baker
+pushed that ball into the bleachers with only two more men to get out to
+win the game, I was all in. But I managed to live through the tenth with
+very little on the ball, and we came to the bat. Snodgrass got a base on
+balls and journeyed to second on a sacrifice. He was taking a big lead off
+the middle base with the pitcher&#8217;s motion, and running back before the
+catcher got the ball, because a quick throw would have caught<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> him. It was
+bad baseball, but he was nervous with the intense strain and over-eager to
+score.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the time when he took a longer lead than any other, and Lapp,
+the Athletics&#8217; catcher, seeing him, was sure he was going to steal, and in
+his hurry to get the ball away and save the game, let it past him.
+Snodgrass had the jump, and probably would have made the base had he kept
+on going, but he had no orders to steal and had turned and taken a step or
+two back toward second when he saw Lapp lose the ball. Again he turned and
+retraced his steps, and I never saw a man turn so slowly, simply because I
+realized how important a turn that was going to be. Next I looked at Lapp
+and saw him picking up the ball, which had rolled only about three feet
+behind him. He snapped it to third and had Snodgrass by several feet.
+Snodgrass realized this as he plunged down the base line, but he could not
+stop and permit himself to be tagged and he could not go back, so he made
+that historic slide which was heard almost around the world, cut off
+several yards of Frank Baker&#8217;s trousers, and more important than the
+damage to the uniform, lost us the game.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>Snodgrass had the jump in his first start, and if he had kept right on
+going he would have made the bag without the aid of the passed ball, in my
+opinion. But he did not know that he had this advantage and was on his way
+back, when it looked for a minute as if the Athletics&#8217; catcher had made a
+mistake. This really turned out to be the &#8220;break&#8221; in the game, for it was
+on that passed ball that Snodgrass was put out. He would probably have
+scored the run which would have won the game had he lived either on second
+or third base, for a hit followed.</p>
+
+<p>After losing the contest after watching the opportunity thrown away, some
+fan called me on the <ins class="correction" title="original: te ephone">telephone</ins> that night, when I was feeling in anything
+but a conversational mood, and asked me:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Was that passed ball this afternoon part of the Athletics&#8217; inside game?
+Did Lapp do it on purpose?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In passing I want to put in a word for Snodgrass, not because he is a
+team-mate of mine, but on account of the criticism which he received for
+spiking Baker, and which was not deserved. And in that word I do not want
+to detract from Baker&#8217;s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> reputation a scintilla, if I could, for he is a
+great ball-player. But I want to say that if John Murray had ever been
+called upon to slide into that bag with Baker playing it as he did, Baker
+would probably have been found cut in halves, and only Murray&#8217;s own style
+of coasting would have been responsible for it. If Fred Clarke of
+Pittsburg had been the man coming in, Baker would probably have been
+neatly cut into thirds, one third with each foot.</p>
+
+<p>Clarke is known as one of the most wicked sliders in the National League.
+He jumps into the air and spreads his feet apart, showing his spikes as he
+comes in. The Giants were playing in Pittsburg several years ago, before I
+was married, and there was a friend of mine at the ball park with whom I
+was particularly eager to make a hit. The game was close, as are all
+contests which lend themselves readily to an anecdote, and Clarke got as
+far as third base in the eighth inning, with the score tied and two out.
+Warner, the Giants&#8217; catcher, let one get past him and I ran in to cover
+the plate. Clarke came digging for home and, as I turned to touch him, he
+slid and cut my trousers off, never touching my legs. It was small
+consolation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> to me that my stems were still whole and that the umpire had
+called Clarke out and that the game was yet saved. My love for my art is
+keen, but it stops at a certain point, and that point is where I have to
+send a hurry call for a barrel and the team&#8217;s tailor. The players made a
+sort of group around me while I did my Lady Godiva act from the plate to
+the bench.</p>
+
+<p>Murray has the ideal slide for a base gatherer, but one which commands the
+respect of all the guardians of the sacks in the National League. When
+about eight feet from the bag, he jumps into the air, giving the fielder a
+vision of two sets of nicely honed spikes aimed for the base. As Murray
+hits the bag, he comes up on his feet and is in a position to start for
+the next station in case of any fumble or slip. He is a great man to use
+this slide to advantage against young players, who are inclined to be
+timid when they see those spikes. It&#8217;s all part of the game as it is
+played in the large leagues.</p>
+
+<p>The Boston team was trying out a young player two years ago. Murray
+remarked to McGraw before the game:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The first time I get on, I bet I can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> make that fellow fumble and pick up
+an extra base.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Theatre tickets for the crowd on Saturday night?&#8221; inquired McGraw.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve said it,&#8221; answered Murray.</p>
+
+<p>Along about the second or third inning John walked, and started for second
+on the first ball pitched. The busher came in to cover the base, and
+Murray leaped clear of the ground and yelled:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Look out!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The newcomer evidently thought that Murray had lost control of his legs,
+got one look at those spikes, and bent all his energies toward dodging
+them, paying no attention whatever to the ball, which continued its
+unmolested journey to centre field. The new man proved to be one of the
+best little dodgers I ever saw. John was in a perfect position to start
+and went along to third at his leisure.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Didn&#8217;t I call the turn?&#8221; Murray yelled at McGraw as he came to the bench.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What show do you want to see?&#8221; asked McGraw.</p>
+
+<p>But on an old campaigner this show of spikes has no effect whatever. The
+capable basemen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> in the League know how to cover the bag so as to get the
+runner out and still give him room to come in without hurting any one. In
+spite of an impression that prevails to the contrary, ball-players never
+spike a man on purpose. At present, I don&#8217;t believe there is a runner in
+the National League who would cut down another man if he had the
+opportunity. If one man does spike another accidentally, he is heartily
+sorry, and often such an event affects his own playing and his base
+running ability.</p>
+
+<p>The feet-first slide is now more in vogue in the Big Leagues than the old
+head-first coast, and I attribute this to two causes. One is that the show
+of the spikes is a sort of assurance the base runner is going to have room
+to come into the bag, and the second is that the great amount of armor
+which a catcher wears in these latter days makes some such formidable
+slide necessary when coming into the plate.</p>
+
+<p>If a base runner hits a catcher squarely with his shin guards on, he is
+likely to be badly injured, and he must be sure that the catcher is going
+to give him a clear path. Some catchers block off the plate so that a man
+has got to shoot his spikes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> at them to get through, and I&#8217;m not saying
+that it&#8217;s bad catching, because that is the way to keep a man from
+scoring. Make him go around if possible.</p>
+
+<p>But the game has changed in the last few years as far as intentional
+spiking goes. Many a time, when I first started with the Giants, I heard a
+base runner shout at a fielder:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Get out of the way there or I&#8217;ll cut you in two!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And he would not have hesitated to do it, either. That was part of the
+game. But nowadays, if a player got the reputation of cutting men down and
+putting star players out of the game intentionally, he would soon be
+driven out of the League, probably on a stretcher.</p>
+
+<p>When John Hummel of the Brooklyn club spiked Doyle in 1908, and greatly
+lessened the Giants&#8217; chances of winning the pennant, which the club
+ultimately lost, he came around to our clubhouse after the game and
+inquired for Larry. When he found how badly Doyle was cut, he was as
+broken up as any member of our team.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If I&#8217;d known I was goin&#8217; to cut you, Larry, I wouldn&#8217;t have slid,&#8221; he said.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>&#8220;That&#8217;s all right,&#8221; answered
+Doyle. &#8220;I guess I was blockin&#8217; you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Ball-players don&#8217;t say much in a situation of that kind. But each one who
+witnessed the incident knew that when Doyle doubled down, spiked, most of
+our chances of the pennant went down with him, for it broke up the infield
+of the team at a most important moment. It takes some time for a new part
+to work into a clock so that it keeps perfect time again, no matter how
+delicate is the workmanship of the new part. So the best infielder takes
+time to fit into the infield of a Big League club and have it hit on all
+four cylinders again.</p>
+
+<p>Fred Merkle is one of the few ball-players who still prefers the
+head-first slide, and he sticks to it only on certain occasions. He is the
+best man to steal third base playing ball to-day. He declares that, when
+he is going into the bag, he can see better by shooting his head first and
+that he can swing his body away from the base and just hook it with one
+finger nail, leaving just that to touch. And he keeps his nails clipped
+short in the season, so that there is very little exposed to which the
+ball can be applied. If he sees that the third<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> baseman is playing inside
+the bag, he goes behind it and hooks it with his finger, and if the man is
+playing back, he cuts through in front, pulling his body away from the
+play. But the common or garden variety of player will take the hook slide,
+feet first, because he can catch the bag with one leg, and the feet aren&#8217;t
+as tender a portion of the anatomy to be roughly touched as the head and
+shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>A club of base runners will do more to help a pitcher win than a batting
+order of hard hitters, I believe. Speed is the great thing in the baseball
+of to-day. By speed I do not mean that good men must be sprinters alone.
+They must be fast starters, fast runners and fast thinkers. Remember that
+last one&mdash;fast thinkers.</p>
+
+<p>Harry McCormick, formerly the left-fielder on the Giants, when he joined
+the club before his legs began to go bad, was a sprinter, one of the
+fastest men who ever broke into the League. Before he took up baseball as
+a profession, he had been a runner in college. But McCormick was never a
+brilliant base stealer because he could not get the start.</p>
+
+<p>When a man is pitching for a club of base<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> runners he knows that every
+time a player with a stealing reputation gets on and there is an outside
+chance of his scoring, the run is going to be hung up. The tallies give a
+pitcher confidence to proceed. Then, when the club has the reputation of
+possessing a great bunch of base runners, the other pitcher is worried all
+the time and has to devote about half his energies to watching the bases.
+This makes him easier to hit.</p>
+
+<p>But put a hard hitter who is a slow base runner on the club, and he does
+little good. There used to be a man on the Giants, named &#8220;Charley&#8221;
+Hickman, who played third base and then the outfield. He was one of the
+best natural hitters who ever wormed his way into baseball, but when he
+got on, the bases were blocked. He could not run, and it took a hit to
+advance him a base. Get a fast man on behind him and, because the rules of
+the game do not permit one runner to pass another, it was like having a
+freight train preceding the Twentieth Century Limited on a single track
+road. Hickman was not so slow when he first started, but after a while his
+legs went bad and his weight increased, so that he was built like a box
+car, to carry out the railroad figure.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>Hickman finally dropped back into the minor leagues and continued to bat
+three hundred, but he had to lose the ball to make the journey clear
+around the bases on one wallop. Once he hit the old flag pole in centre
+field at the Polo Grounds on the fly, and just did nose the ball out at
+the plate. It was a record hit for distance. At last, while still
+maintaining the three-hundred pace, Hickman was dropped by the Toledo club
+of the American Association.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why did you let Charley Hickman go?&#8221; I asked the manager one day.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Because he was tyin&#8217; up traffic on the bases,&#8221; he replied.</p>
+
+<p>Merkle is not a particularly fast runner, but he is a great base stealer
+because he has acquired the knack of &#8220;getting away.&#8221; He never tries to
+steal until he has his start. He is also a good arriver, as I have pointed
+out. It was like getting a steamroller in motion to start Hickman.</p>
+
+<p>Clever ball-players and managers are always trying to evolve new
+base-running tactics that will puzzle the other team, but &#8220;there ain&#8217;t no
+new stuff.&#8221; It is a case of digging up the old ones. Pitchers are also
+earnest in their endeavors to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> discover improved ways to stop base
+running. Merkle and I worked out a play during the spring training season
+in 1911 which caught perhaps a dozen men off first base before the other
+teams began to watch for the trick. And it was not original with me. I got
+the idea from &#8220;Patsy&#8221; Flaherty, a Boston pitcher who has his salary wing
+fastened to his left side.</p>
+
+<p>Flaherty would pitch over to first base quickly, and the fielder would
+shoot the ball back. Then Flaherty would pop one through to the batter,
+often catching him off his guard, and sneaking a strike over besides
+leaving the runner flat on the ground in the position in which he had been
+when he slid back to the bag. If the batter hit the ball, the runner was
+in no attitude to get a start, and, on an infield tap, it was easy to make
+a double play.</p>
+
+<p>The next time that the man got on base, Flaherty would shoot the ball over
+to first as before, and the runner would be up on his feet and away from
+the bag, expecting him to throw it to the plate. But as the first baseman
+whipped it back quickly Flaherty returned the ball and the runner was
+caught flat footed and made to look foolish. Ball-players do certainly
+hate to appear ridiculous, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> the laugh from the crowd upsets a Big
+Leaguer more than anything else, even a call from McGraw, because the
+crowd cannot hear that and does not know the man is looking foolish.</p>
+
+<p>It was almost impossible to steal bases on &#8220;Patsy&#8221; Flaherty because he
+had the men hugging the bag all the time, and if he had had other
+essentials of a pitcher, he would have been a great one. He even lived in
+the Big League for some time with this quick throw as his only asset. I
+adopted the Flaherty movement, but it is harder for a right-hander to use,
+as he is not in such a good position to whip the ball to the bag. Merkle
+and I rehearsed it in spring practice. As soon as a man got on first base,
+I popped the ball over to Merkle, and without even making a stab at the
+runner, he shot it to me. Then back again, just as the runner had let go
+of the bag and was getting up. The theoretical result: He was caught
+flat-footed. Sometimes it worked. Then they began to play for me.</p>
+
+<p>Another play on which the changes have often been rung is the double steal
+with men on first and third bases. That is McGraw&#8217;s favorite situation in
+a crisis.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>&#8220;Somebody&#8217;s got
+to look foolish on the play,&#8221; says &#8220;Mac,&#8221; &#8220;and I don&#8217;t want to furnish any laughs.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The old way to work it was to have the man on first start for second, as
+if he were going to make a straight steal. Then as soon as the catcher
+drew his arm back to throw, the runner on third started home. No Big
+League club can have a look into the pennant set without trying to
+interrupt the journey of that man going to second in a tight place,
+because if no play is made for him and a hit follows, it nets the club two
+runs instead of one.</p>
+
+<p>Most teams try to stop this play by having the shortstop or second baseman
+come in and take a short throw, and if the man on third breaks for home,
+the receiver of the ball whips it back. If both throws are perfect, the
+runner is caught at the plate.</p>
+
+<p>But the catchers found that certain clubs were making this play in routine
+fashion, the runner on first starting with the pitch, and the one on third
+making his break just as soon as the catcher drew back his arm. Then the
+backstops began making a bluff throw to second and whipping the ball to
+third, often getting the runner by several feet,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> as he had already
+definitely started for the plate.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Tommy&#8221; Leach of the Pittsburg club was probably caught oftener on this
+bluff throw than any other man in baseball. For some time he had been
+making the play against clubs which used the short throw, and starting as
+the catcher drew back his arm, as that was the only chance he had to
+score. One day in the season of 1908, when the Pirates were playing
+against the Giants, Clarke was on first and Leach on third, with one run
+required to balance the game. McGraw knew the double steal was to be
+expected, as two were out. Bresnahan was aware of this, too.</p>
+
+<p>McGinnity was pitching, and with his motion, Clarke got his start.
+Bresnahan drew back his arm as if to throw to second, and true to form,
+Leach was on his way to the plate. But Bresnahan had not let go of the
+ball, and he shot it to Devlin, Leach being run down in the base line and
+the Pittsburg club eventually losing the game.</p>
+
+<p>Again and again Leach fell for this bluff throw, until the news spread
+around the circuit that once a catcher drew back his arm with a man on
+first base and &#8220;Tommy&#8221; Leach on third, there would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> be no holding him on
+the bag. He was caught time and again&mdash;indeed as frequently as the play
+came up. It was his &#8220;groove.&#8221; He could not be stopped from making his
+break. At last Clarke had to order him to abandon the play until he could
+cure himself of this self-starting habit.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What you want to do on that play is cross &#8217;em,&#8221; is McGraw&#8217;s theory, and
+he proceeded to develop the delayed steal with this intent.</p>
+
+<p>Put the men back on first and third bases. Thank you. The pitcher has the
+ball. The runner on first intentionally takes too large a lead. The
+pitcher throws over, and he moves a few steps toward second. Then a few
+more. All that time the man on third is edging off an inch, two inches, a
+foot. The first baseman turns to throw to second to stop that man. The
+runner on third plunges for the plate, and usually gets there. It&#8217;s a hard
+one to stop, but that&#8217;s its purpose.</p>
+
+<p>Then, again, it can be worked after the catcher gets the ball. The runner
+starts from first slowly and the catcher hesitates, not knowing whether to
+throw to first or second. Since the runner did not start with the pitch,
+theoretically no one has come in to take a short throw, and the play
+cannot<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> be made back to the plate if the ball is thrown to second. This
+form of the play is usually successful. Miller Huggins is one of the
+hardest second basemen in the League to work it against successfully. With
+men on first and third, he always comes in for the short throw on the
+chance, and covers himself up.</p>
+
+<p>After we had stolen our way to a pennant in the National League in the
+season of 1911, and after our five leading base runners had been &#8220;mugged&#8221;
+by the police in St. Louis so that the catchers would know them, many fans
+expected to see us steal a world&#8217;s championship, and we half expected it
+ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>But so did &#8220;Connie&#8221; Mack, and there lies the answer. He knew our strong
+point, and his players had discussed and rehearsed ways and means to break
+up our game. Mack had been watching the Giants for weeks previous to the
+series and had had his spies taking notes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve got to stop them running bases,&#8221; he told his men before the first
+game, I have learned since. And they did. Guess the St. Louis police must
+have sent Thomas and Lapp copies of those pictures.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>Mack&#8217;s pitchers cut their motions down to nothing with men on the bases,
+microscopic motions, and they watched the runners like hawks. Thomas had
+been practising to get the men. The first time that Devore made a break to
+steal, he was caught several feet from the bag.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And you call yourself fast!&#8221; commented Collins as he threw the ball back
+to the pitcher and jogged to his job. &#8220;You remind me of a cop on a fixed
+post,&#8221; he flung over his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>Pitchers have a great deal to do with the defensive efficiency of the
+club. If they do not hold the runners up, the best catcher in the world
+cannot stop them at their destination. That is the reason why so many
+high-class catchers have been developed by the Chicago Cubs. The team has
+always had a good pitching staff, and men like Overall, Brown and Reulbach
+force the runners to stick to the oases of safety.</p>
+
+<p>The Giants stole their way to a pennant in 1911, and it wasn&#8217;t on account
+of the speedy material, but because McGraw had spent days teaching his men
+to slide and emphasizing the necessity of getting the jump. Then he picked
+the stages of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> the game when the attempts to steal were to be made. But
+McGraw, with his all-star cast of thieves, was stopped in the world&#8217;s
+series by one Cornelius McGillicuddy.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII</h2>
+<h3>Notable Instances Where the &#8220;Inside&#8221; Game Has Failed</h3>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><i>The &#8220;Inside&#8221; Game is of Little Avail when a Batter Knocks a Home Run
+with the Bases Full&mdash;Many Times the Strategies of Managers have
+Failed because Opposing Clubs &#8220;Doctored&#8221; their Grounds&mdash;&#8220;Rube&#8221;
+Waddell Once Cost the Athletics a Game by Failing to Show up after
+the Pitcher&#8217;s Box had been Fixed for Him&mdash;But, although the &#8220;Inside&#8221;
+Game Sometimes Fails, no Manager Wants a Player who will Steal Second
+with the Bases Full.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">There</span> is an old story about an altercation which took place during a
+wedding ceremony in the backwoods of the Virginia mountains. The
+discussion started over the propriety of the best man holding the ring,
+and by the time that it had been finally settled the bride gazed around on
+a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> dead bridegroom, a dead father, and a dead best man, not to mention
+three or four very dead ushers and a clergyman.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Them new fangled self-cockin&#8217; automatic guns has sure raised hell with my
+prospects,&#8221; she sighed.</p>
+
+<p>That&#8217;s the way I felt when John Franklin Baker popped that home run into
+the right-field stand in the ninth inning of the third game of the 1911
+world&#8217;s series with one man already out. For eight and one-third <ins class="correction" title="original: innnings">innings</ins>
+the Giants had played &#8220;inside&#8221; ball, and I had carefully nursed along
+every batter who came to the plate, studying his weakness and pitching at
+it. It looked as if we were going to win the game, and then zing! And also
+zowie! The ball went into the stand on a line and I looked around at my
+fielders who had had the game almost within their grasp a minute before.
+Instantly, I realized that I had been pitching myself out, expecting the
+end to come in nine innings. My arm felt like so much lead hanging to my
+side after that hit. I wanted to go and get some crape and hang it on my
+salary whip. Then that old story about the wedding popped into my head,
+and I said to myself:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He has sure raised hell with your prospects.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>&#8220;Sam&#8221; Strang, the official pinch hitter of the Giants a few seasons ago,
+was one of the best in the business. McGraw sent him to the bat in the
+ninth inning of a game the Giants were playing in Brooklyn. We were two
+runs behind and two were already out, with one runner on the bases, and he
+was only as far as second. &#8220;Doc&#8221; Scanlon was pitching for Brooklyn, and,
+evidently intimidated by Sam&#8217;s pinch-hitting reputation or something,
+suddenly became wild and gave the Giant batter three balls. With the count
+three and nothing, McGraw shouted from the bench:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Wait it out, Sam!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But Sam did not hear him, and he took a nice masculine, virile, full-armed
+swing at the ball and fouled it out of the reach of all the local
+guardians of the soil.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Are you deaf?&#8221; barked McGraw. &#8220;Wait it out, I tell you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, Strang was a little deaf and did not hear the shouted
+instructions the second time. But &#8220;Doc&#8221; Scanlon was sensitive as to
+hearing and, feeling sure Strang would obey the orders of McGraw, thought
+he would be taking no chances in putting the next ball over the centre of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>
+the plate. It came up the &#8220;groove,&#8221; and Strang admired it as it
+approached. Then he took his swing, and the next place the ball touched
+was in the Italian district just over the right field fence. The hit tied
+the score.</p>
+
+<p>McGraw met Strang at the plate, and instead of greeting him with shouts of
+approbation, exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I ought to fine you $25, and would, except for those two runs and the few
+points&#8217; difference the game will make in the percentage. Come on now,
+boys. Let&#8217;s win this one.&#8221; And we did in the eleventh inning.</p>
+
+<p>That was a case of the &#8220;inside&#8221; game failing. Any Big League pitcher with
+brains would have laid the ball over after hearing McGraw shout earnest
+and direct orders at the batter to &#8220;wait it out.&#8221; Scanlon was playing the
+game and Strang was not, but it broke for Sam. It was the first time in
+his life that he ever hit the ball over the right field fence in Brooklyn,
+and he has never done it since. If he had not been lucky in connecting
+with that ball and lifting it where it did the most good, his pay envelope
+would have been lighter by $25 at the end of the month, and he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> would have
+obtained an accurate idea of McGraw&#8217;s opinion of his intellectuality.</p>
+
+<p>In the clubhouse after the victory, McGraw said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Honest, Sam, why did you swing at that ball after I had told you not to?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t hear you,&#8221; replied Strang.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, it&#8217;s lucky you hit it where they weren&#8217;t,&#8221; answered McGraw,
+&#8220;because if any fielder had connected with the ball, there would have been
+a rough greeting waiting for you on the bench. And as a tip, Sam, direct
+from me: You got away with it once, but don&#8217;t try it again. It was bad
+baseball.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But that straight one looked awful good to me coming up the &#8216;groove,&#8217;&#8221;
+argued Sam.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t fall for all the good lookers, Sam,&#8221; suggested McGraw, the
+philosopher.</p>
+
+<p>Strang is now abroad having his voice cultivated and he intends to enter
+the grand-opera field as soon as he can finish the spring training in
+Paris and get his throat into shape for the big league music circuit. But
+I will give any orchestra leader who faces Sam a tip. If he doesn&#8217;t want
+him to come in strong where the music is marked &#8220;rest,&#8221;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> don&#8217;t put one in
+the &#8220;groove,&#8221; because Strang just naturally can&#8217;t help swinging at it. He
+is a poor waiter.</p>
+
+<p>The Boston club lost eighteen straight games in the season of 1910, and as
+the team was leaving the Polo Grounds after having dropped four in a row,
+making the eighteen, I said to Tenney:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How does it seem, Fred, to be on a club that has lost eighteen straight?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s what General Sherman said war is,&#8221; replied Tenney, who seldom
+swears. &#8220;But for all-around entertainment I would like to see John McGraw
+on a team which had dropped fifteen or sixteen in a row.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As if Tenney had put the curse on us, the Giants hit a losing streak the
+next day that totalled six games straight. Everything that we tried broke
+against us. McGraw would attempt the double steal, and both throws would
+be accurate, and the runner caught at the plate. A hit and a run sign
+would be given, and the batter would run up against a pitch-out.</p>
+
+<p>McGraw was slowly going crazy. All his pet &#8220;inside&#8221; tricks were worthless.
+He, the king of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> baseball clairvoyants, could not guess right. It began to
+look to me as if Tenney would get his entertainment. After the sixth one
+had gone against us and McGraw had not spoken a friendly word to any one
+for a week, he called the players around him in the clubhouse.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I ought to let you all out and get a gang of high-school boys in here to
+defend the civic honor of this great and growing city whose municipal
+pride rests on your shoulders,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But I&#8217;m not going to do it.
+Hereafter we will cut out all &#8216;inside&#8217; stuff and play straight baseball.
+Every man will go up there and hit the ball just as you see it done on the
+lots.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Into this oration was mixed a judicious amount of sulphur. The Cubs had
+just taken the first three of a four-game series from us without any
+trouble at all. The next day we went out and resorted to the wallop,
+plain, untrimmed slugging tactics, and beat Chicago 17 to 1. Later we
+returned to the hand-raised, cultivated hot-house form of baseball, but
+for a week we played the old-fashioned game with a great deal of success.
+It changed our luck.</p>
+
+<p>Another method which has upset the &#8220;inside&#8221;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> game of many visiting teams
+is &#8220;doping&#8221; the grounds.</p>
+
+<p>The first time in my baseball career that I ever encountered this was in
+Brooklyn when Hanlon was the manager. Every time he thought I was going to
+pitch there, he would have the diamond doctored for me in the morning. The
+ground-keeper sank the pitcher&#8217;s box down so that it was below the level
+of all the bases instead of slightly elevated as it should be.</p>
+
+<p>Hanlon knew that I used a lot of speed when I first broke into the League,
+getting some of it from my elevation on the diamond. He had a team of fast
+men who depended largely on a bunting game and their speed in getting to
+first base to win. With me fielding bunts out of the hollow, they had a
+better chance of making their goal. Then pitching from the lower level
+would naturally result in the batters getting low balls, because I would
+be more apt to misjudge the elevation of the plate. Low ones were made to
+bunt. Finally, Hanlon always put into the box to work against me a little
+pitcher who was not affected as much as I by the topographical changes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why,&#8221; I said to George Davis, the Giants&#8217;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> manager, the first time I
+pitched out of the cellar which in Brooklyn was regarded as the pitcher&#8217;s
+box, &#8220;I&#8217;m throwing from a hollow instead of off a mound.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sure,&#8221; replied Davis. &#8220;They &#8216;doped&#8217; the grounds for you. But never mind.
+When we are entertaining, the box at the Polo Grounds will be built up the
+days you are going to pitch against Brooklyn, and you can burn them over
+and at their heads if you like.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The thing that worried the Athletics most before the last world&#8217;s series
+was the reputation of the Giants as base stealers. When we went to
+Philadelphia for the first game, I was surprised at the heavy condition of
+the base lines.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Did it rain here last night?&#8221; I inquired from a native.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; he answered.</p>
+
+<p>Then I knew that the lines had been wet down to slow up our fast runners
+and make it harder for them to steal. As things developed, this precaution
+was unnecessary, but it was an effort to break up what was known to be our
+strongest &#8220;inside&#8221; play.</p>
+
+<p>Baseball men maintain that the acme of doctoring<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> grounds was the work of
+the old Baltimore Orioles. The team was composed of fast men who were
+brilliant bunters and hard base runners. The soil of the infield was mixed
+with a form of clay which, when wet and then rolled, was almost as hard as
+concrete. The ground outside the first and third base lines was built up
+slightly to keep well placed bunts from rolling foul, while toward first
+base there was a distinct down grade to aid the runner in reaching that
+station with all possible expedition. Toward second there was a gentle
+slope, and it was down hill to third. But coming home from third was
+up-hill work. A player had to be a mountain climber to make it. This all
+benefited fast men like Keeler, McGraw, Kelley and Jennings whose most
+dangerous form of attack was the bunt.</p>
+
+<p>The Orioles did not stop at doctoring the infield. The grass in the
+outfield was permitted to grow long and was unkempt. Centre and left
+fields were kept level, but in right field there was a sharp down grade to
+aid the fast Keeler. He had made an exhaustive study of all the possible
+angles at which the ball might bound and had certain paths that he
+followed, but which were not marked out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> by sign posts for visiting
+right-fielders. He was sure death on hits to his territory, while usually
+wallops got past visiting right-fielders. And so great was the grade that
+&#8220;Wee Willie&#8221; was barely visible from the batter&#8217;s box. A hitting team
+coming to Baltimore would be forced to fall into the bunting game or be
+entirely outclassed. And the Orioles did not furnish their guests with
+topographical maps of the grounds either.</p>
+
+<p>The habit of doctoring grounds is not so much in vogue now as it once was.
+For a long time it was considered fair to arrange the home field to the
+best advantage of the team which owned it, for otherwise what was the use
+in being home? It was on the same principle that a general builds his
+breastworks to best suit the fighting style of his army, for they are his
+breastworks.</p>
+
+<p>But lately among the profession, sentiment and baseball legislation have
+prevailed against the doctoring of grounds, and it is done very little.
+Occasionally a pitching box is raised or lowered to meet the requirements
+of a certain man, but they are not altered every day to fit the pitcher,
+as they once were. Such tactics often hopelessly upset the plan of battle
+of the visiting club unless this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> exactly coincided with the habits of the
+home team. Many strategic plans have been wasted on carefully arranged
+grounds, and many &#8220;inside&#8221; plays have gone by the boards when the field
+was fixed so that a bunt was bound to roll foul if the ball followed the
+laws of gravitation, as it usually does, because the visiting team was
+known to have the bunting habit.</p>
+
+<p>A good story of doctored grounds gone wrong is told of the Philadelphia
+Athletics. The eccentric &#8220;Rube&#8221; Waddell had bundles of speed in his early
+days, and from a slightly elevated pitcher&#8217;s box the batter could scarcely
+identify &#8220;Rube&#8217;s&#8221; delivery from that of a cannon. He was scheduled to
+pitch one day and showed around at morning practice looking unusually fit
+for George.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How are you feeling to-day, George?&#8221; asked &#8220;Connie&#8221; Mack, his boss.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Never better,&#8221; replied the light-hearted &#8220;Rube.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, you work this afternoon.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All right,&#8221; answered Waddell.</p>
+
+<p>Then the ground-keeper got busy and built the pitcher&#8217;s box up about two
+feet, so that Waddell would have a splendid opportunity to cut loose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> all
+his speed. At that time he happened to be the only tall man on the
+pitching staff of the Philadelphia club, and, as a rule, the box was kept
+very low. The scheme would probably have worked out as planned, if it had
+not been that Waddell, in the course of his noon-day wanderings, met
+several friends in whose society he became so deeply absorbed that he
+neglected to report at the ball park at all. He also forgot to send word,
+and here was the pitcher&#8217;s box standing up out of the infield like one of
+the peaks of the Alps.</p>
+
+<p>As the players gathered, and Waddell failed to show up, the manager
+nervously looked at his watch. At last he sent out scouts to the &#8220;Rube&#8217;s&#8221;
+known haunts, but no trace of the temperamental artist could be found. The
+visitors were already on the field, and it was too late to lower the box.
+A short pitcher had to work in the game from this peak of progress, while
+the opposing team installed a skyscraper on the mound. The Philadelphia
+
+club was badly beaten and Waddell heavily fined for his carelessness in
+disrupting the &#8220;inside&#8221; play of his team.</p>
+
+<p>An old and favorite trick used to be to soap the soil around the pitcher&#8217;s
+box, so that when a man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> was searching for some place to dry his
+perspiring hands and grabbed up this soaped earth, it made his palm
+slippery and he was unable to control the ball.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, the home talent knew where the good ground lay and used it or
+else carried some unadulterated earth in their trousers&#8217; pockets, as a
+sort of private stock. But our old friend &#8220;Bugs&#8221; Raymond hit on a scheme
+to spoil this idea and make the trick useless. Arthur always perspired
+profusely when he pitched, and several managers, perceiving this, had made
+it a habit to soap the dirt liberally whenever it was his turn to work.
+While he was pitching for St. Louis, he went into the box against the
+Pirates one day in Pittsburg. His hands were naturally slippery, and
+several times he had complained that he could not dry them in the dirt,
+especially in Pittsburg soil.</p>
+
+<p>As Raymond worked in the game in question, he was noticed, particularly by
+the Pittsburg batters and spectators, to get better as he went along.
+Frequently, his hand slipped into his back pocket, and then his control
+was wonderful. Sometimes, he would reach down and apparently pick up a
+handful of earth, but it did no damage.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> After the game, he walked over to
+Fred Clarke, and reached into his back pocket. His face broke into a grin.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ever see any of that stuff, Fred?&#8221; he asked innocently, showing the
+Pittsburg manager a handful of a dark brown substance. &#8220;That&#8217;s rosin. It&#8217;s
+great&mdash;lots better than soaped ground. Wish you&#8217;d keep a supply out there
+in the box for me when I&#8217;m going to work instead of that slippery stuff
+you&#8217;ve got out there now. Will you, as a favor to me?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Thereafter, all the pitchers got to carrying rosin or pumice stone in
+their pockets, for the story quickly went round the circuit, and it is
+useless to soap the soil in the box any more. There are many tricks by
+which the grounds or ball are &#8220;fixed,&#8221; but for nearly all an antidote has
+been discovered, and these questionable forms of the &#8220;inside&#8221; game have
+failed so often that they have largely been abandoned.</p>
+
+<p>One Big League manager used always to give his men licorice or some other
+dark and adhesive and juicy substance to chew on a dingy day. The purpose
+was to dirty the ball so that it was harder for the batters to see when
+the pitcher used his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> fast one. As soon as a new ball was thrown into the
+game, it was quickly passed around among the fielders, and instead of
+being the lily-white thing that left the umpire&#8217;s hands, when it finally
+got to the pitcher&#8217;s box it was a very pronounced brunette. But some
+eagle-eyed arbiter detected this, and kept pouring new balls into the game
+when the non-licorice chewers were at the bat, while he saved the
+discolored ones for the consumption of the masticators. It was another
+trick that failed.</p>
+
+<p>Frequently, backgrounds are tampered with if the home club is notably weak
+at the bat. The best background for a batter is a dull, solid green. Many
+clubs have painted backgrounds in several contrasting, broken colors so
+that the sunlight, shining on them, blinds the batter. The Chicago White
+Sox are said to have done this, and for many years the figures showed that
+the batting of both the Chicago players and the visitors at their park was
+very light. The White Sox&#8217;s hitting was weak anywhere, so that the poor
+background was an advantage to them.</p>
+
+<p>Injuries have often upset the &#8220;inside&#8221; play of a club. Usually a team&#8217;s
+style revolves around one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> or two men, and the taking of them out of the
+game destroys the whole machine. The substitute does not think as quickly;
+neither does he see and grasp the opportunities as readily. This was true
+of the Cubs last season. Chance and Evers used to be the &#8220;inside&#8221; game of
+the team. Evers was out of the game most of the summer and Chance was
+struck in the head with a pitched ball and had to quit. The playing of the
+Chicago team fell down greatly as a result.</p>
+
+<p>Chance is the sort of athlete who is likely to get injured. When he was a
+catcher he was always banged up because he never got out of the way of
+anything. He is that kind of player. If he has to choose between accepting
+a pair of spikes in a vital part of his anatomy and getting a put-out, or
+dodging the spikes and losing the put-out, he always takes the put-out and
+usually the spikes. He never dodges away from a ball when at bat that may
+possibly break over the plate and cost him a strike. That is why he was
+hit in the head. He lingered too long to ascertain whether the ball was
+going to curve and found out that it was not, which put him out of the
+game, the Cubs practically out of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> pennant race, and broke up their
+&#8220;inside&#8221; play.</p>
+
+<p>Roger Bresnahan is the same kind of a man. He thinks quickly, and is a
+brilliant player, but he never dodges anything. He is often hurt as a
+result. Once, when he was with the Giants, he was hit in the face with a
+pitched ball, and McGraw worried while he was laid up, for fear that it
+would make him bat shy. After he came back, he was just as friendly with
+the plate as ever. The injury of men like Chance and Bresnahan, whose
+services are of such vital importance to the &#8220;inside&#8221; play of a team,
+destroys the effectiveness of the club.</p>
+
+<p>Once, in 1908, when we were fighting the Cubs for the pennant at every
+step, McGraw planned a bunting game against Overall, who is big and not
+very fast in covering the little rollers. Bresnahan and O&#8217;Day had been
+having a serial argument through two games, and Roger, whose nerves were
+worn to a frazzle, like those of the rest of us at that time, thought
+&#8220;Hank&#8221; had been shading his judgment slightly toward the Cubs. In another
+story I have pointed out that O&#8217;Day, the umpire, was stubborn and that
+nothing could be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> gained by continually picking on him. When the batteries
+were announced for that game, McGraw said as the team went to the field:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We can beat this guy Overall by bunting.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bresnahan went out to put on his chest protector and shin guards. O&#8217;Day
+happened to be adjusting his makeup near him. Roger could not resist the
+temptation.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why don&#8217;t you put on a Chicago uniform, &#8216;Hank&#8217;, instead of those duds?&#8221;
+he asked. &#8220;Is it true, if the Cubs win the pennant, they&#8217;ve promised to
+elect you alderman in Chicago?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Get out of the game and off the field,&#8221; said O&#8217;Day.</p>
+
+<p>Bresnahan had to obey the injunction and Needham, the only other available
+catcher, went behind the mat. &#8220;Tom&#8221; Needham never beat out a bunt in his
+life, and he destroyed all McGraw&#8217;s plans because, with him in the game
+instead of Bresnahan, the style had to be switched. We lost. Bresnahan, a
+fast man and a good bunter batted third and would have been valuable in
+the attack best adapted to beat Overall. But his sudden demise and the
+enforced substitution of the plodding Needham ruined the whole plan of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>
+campaign. Therefore, frequently umpires upset a team&#8217;s &#8220;inside&#8221; game.</p>
+
+<p>One of McGraw&#8217;s schemes back-fired on him when Luderus, the hard-hitting
+Philadelphia first baseman, broke into the League. Some one had tipped
+&#8220;Mac&#8221; off, and tipped him wrong, that this youngster could be disconcerted
+in a pinch by the catcher discussing signs and what-not with him, thus
+distracting his attention.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Chief,&#8221; said McGraw before the game, &#8220;if this Luderus gets up in a tight
+place, slip him a little talk.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The situation came, and Meyers obeyed instructions. The game was in
+Philadelphia, and three men were on the bases with two out. Ames was
+pitching.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What are you bringing the bat up with you for?&#8221; asked the &#8220;Chief&#8221; as
+Luderus arranged himself at the plate.</p>
+
+<p>No answer.</p>
+
+<p>Then Meyers gave Ames his sign. Next he fixed his fingers in a fake signal
+and addressed the young batter.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The best hitters steal signs,&#8221; said the &#8220;Chief.&#8221; &#8220;Just look down in my
+glove and see the signals.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>But Luderus was not caught and kept his eyes glued on Ames. He hit the
+next ball over the right field wall and won the game. As he crossed the
+plate, he said to the &#8220;Chief&#8221;:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s too easy. I don&#8217;t need your signs. They pulled that one on me in the
+bushes long ago.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;After this, when that fellow bats,&#8221; said McGraw to Meyers later, &#8220;do as
+exact an imitation of the sphinx as you know how. The tip was no good.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The trick of talking to the hitter is an old one. The idea is for the
+catcher to give a wrong sign, for his benefit, after having flashed the
+right one, induce the batter, usually a youngster, to look down at it, and
+then have the pitcher shoot one over the plate while he is staring in the
+glove.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Steve&#8221; Evans, the St. Louis right-fielder, tells a story of a fan who sat
+in the same box at the Cardinals&#8217; park every day and devoted most of his
+time to roasting him (S. Evans). His favorite expressions in connection
+with Evans were &#8220;bone dead,&#8221; &#8220;wooden head,&#8221; and so on. He loudly claimed
+that &#8220;Steve&#8221; had no knowledge of the game and spoiled every play that
+Bresnahan tried to put through. One day, when the Giants were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> playing in
+St. Louis, some one knocked up a high foul which landed in this orator&#8217;s
+box. He saw it coming, tried to dodge, used poor judgment, and, realizing
+that the ball was going to strike him, snatched his hat off, and took it
+full on an immodestly bald head. &#8220;Steve&#8221; Evans was waiting to go to the
+bat. He shifted his chew to his other cheek and exclaimed in a voice that
+could not have been heard more than two miles away:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the &#8216;gink&#8217; who has been calling me a &#8216;bone head.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Steve&#8221; got a great laugh from the crowd, but right there the St. Louis
+club lost a patron, for the bald-headed one has never been seen at the
+grounds since, according to Evans, and his obituary has not been printed
+yet, either.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Al&#8221; Bridwell, formerly the Giants&#8217; shortstop, was one of the cleverest
+men at the &#8220;inside&#8221; game that ever broke into the Big Leagues, and it was
+this that made him valuable. Then suddenly his legs went bad, and he
+slowed up. It was his speed and his ability to bunt and his tireless
+waiting at the plate to make all toilers in the box pitch that had made
+him a great player. He seldom swung at a bad ball. As soon as he slowed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>
+up, McGraw knew he would have to go if the Giants were to win the pennant.
+He deeply regretted letting the gritty, little shortstop, whose legs had
+grown stiff in his service, leave the club, but sentiment never won any
+pennants.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Al,&#8221; he said to Bridwell, &#8220;I&#8217;m going to let you go to Boston. Your legs
+will be all right eventually, but I&#8217;ve got to have a fast man now while
+you are getting back your old speed.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s all right, &#8216;Mac,&#8217;&#8221; replied Bridwell. &#8220;It&#8217;s all part of the game.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He did not rave and swear that he had been double-crossed, as many players
+do under the same circumstances. I never heard Bridwell swear, and I never
+found any one else who did. He had been playing for weeks, when every time
+he moved it pained him, because he thought he might have a share of the
+money that winning a pennant would mean. It was a staggering blow to him,
+this sending him from a pennant possibility to a hopeless tail-ender, but
+he took it gamely.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I guess I was &#8216;gumming&#8217; the inside stuff,&#8221; he said.</p>
+
+<p>And he did get some of the prize money. The boys voted him a share.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>It will be seen that the &#8220;inside&#8221; game sometimes fails. Many a time I have
+passed a catcher or good batter to take a chance on a pitcher, and then
+have had him make a hit just when hits were not at all welcome. I walked a
+catcher once and had the pitcher shove the ball over first base for a
+single, when he closed his eyes and dodged back in an effort to get his
+head out of the line he thought it was pursuing before it curved. In
+ducking, he got his bat in front of the ball, a result he had never
+obtained with his eyes open.</p>
+
+<p>Once I started to pass &#8220;Hans&#8221; Wagner in a pinch to take a chance on the
+next batter, and was a little careless in throwing the ball too close to
+the plate. He reached out and slapped it for a single. Again the &#8220;inside&#8221;
+game had failed.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking pretty generally, most managers prefer to use this &#8220;inside&#8221; game,
+though, and there are few vacancies in the Big Leagues right now for the
+man who is liable to steal second with the bases full.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><b>Transcriber&#8217;s Notes:</b></p>
+
+<p>Punctuation has been corrected without note.</p>
+
+<p>Other than the corrections noted by hover information, inconsistencies in
+spelling and hyphenation have been retained from the original.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+</body>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pitching in a Pinch, by Christy Mathewson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Pitching in a Pinch
+       or, Baseball from the Inside
+
+Author: Christy Mathewson
+
+Commentator: John N. Wheeler
+
+Release Date: July 30, 2010 [EBook #33291]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PITCHING IN A PINCH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PITCHING IN A PINCH
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Christy Mathewson
+
+Copyright by L. Van Oeyen, Cleveland, Ohio]
+
+
+
+
+  PITCHING IN A PINCH
+
+  OR BASEBALL FROM THE INSIDE
+
+
+  BY CHRISTY MATHEWSON
+
+
+  WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
+  JOHN N. WHEELER
+
+
+  ILLUSTRATED
+
+
+  GROSSET & DUNLAP
+  PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
+
+  Made in the United States of America
+
+
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT, 1912
+  BY CHRISTOPHER MATHEWSON
+
+  This edition is issued under arrangement with the publishers
+  G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, NEW YORK AND LONDON
+
+  The Knickerbocker Press, New York
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+Introducing a reader to Christy Mathewson seems like a superfluous piece
+of writing and a waste of white paper. Schoolboys of the last ten years
+have been acquainted with the exact figures which have made up Matty's
+pitching record before they had ever heard of George Washington, because
+George didn't play in the same League.
+
+Perfectly good rational and normal citizens once deserted a reception to
+the Governor of the State because Christy Mathewson was going to pitch
+against the Chicago club. If the committee on arrangements wanted to make
+the hour of the reception earlier, all right, but no one could be expected
+to miss seeing Matty in the box against Chance and his Cubs for the sake
+of greeting the Governor.
+
+Besides being a national hero, Matty is one of the closest students of
+baseball that ever came into the Big League. By players, he has long been
+recognized as the greatest pitcher the game has produced. He has been
+pitching in the Big Leagues for eleven years and winning games right
+along.
+
+His great pitching practically won the world's championship for the Giants
+from the Philadelphia Athletics in 1905, and, six years later, he was
+responsible for one of the two victories turned in by New York pitchers in
+a world's series again with the Athletics.
+
+At certain periods in his baseball career, he has pitched almost every day
+after the rest of the staff had fallen down. When the Giants were making
+their determined fight for the championship in 1908, the season that the
+race was finally decided by a single game with the Cubs, he worked in nine
+out of the last fifteen games in an effort to save his club from defeat.
+And he won most of them. That has always been the beauty of his
+pitching--his ability to win.
+
+Matty was born in Factoryville, Pa., thirty-one years ago, and, after
+going to Bucknell College, he began to play ball with the Norfolk club of
+the Virginia League, but was soon bought by the New York Giants, where he
+has remained ever since and is likely to stay for some time to come, if he
+can continue to make himself as welcome as he has been so far. He was
+only nineteen when he joined the club and was a headliner from the start.
+Always he has been a student and something of a writer, having done
+newspaper work from time to time during the big series. He has made a
+careful study of the Big League batters. He has kept a sort of baseball
+diary of his career, and, frequently, I have heard him relate unwritten
+chapters of baseball history filled with the thrilling incidents of his
+personal experience.
+
+"Why don't you write a real book of the Big Leaguers?" I asked him one
+day.
+
+And he has done it. In this book he is telling the reader of the game as
+it is played in the Big Leagues. As a college man, he is able to put his
+impressions of the Big Leagues on paper graphically. It's as good as his
+pitching and some exciting things have happened in the Big Leagues,
+stories that never found their way into the newspapers. Matty has told
+them. This is a true tale of Big Leaguers, their habits and their methods
+of playing the game, written by one of them.
+
+JOHN N. WHEELER.
+
+NEW YORK, March, 1912.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                              PAGE
+
+     I--THE MOST DANGEROUS BATTERS I HAVE MET                    1
+
+    II--"TAKE HIM OUT!"                                         21
+
+   III--PITCHING IN A PINCH                                     54
+
+    IV--BIG LEAGUE PITCHERS AND THEIR PECULIARITIES             74
+
+     V--PLAYING THE GAME FROM THE BENCH                         93
+
+    VI--COACHING--GOOD AND BAD                                 117
+
+   VII--HONEST AND DISHONEST SIGN STEALING                     140
+
+  VIII--UMPIRES AND CLOSE DECISIONS                            161
+
+    IX--THE GAME THAT COST A PENNANT                           183
+
+     X--WHEN THE TEAMS ARE IN SPRING TRAINING                  206
+
+    XI--JINXES AND WHAT THEY MEAN TO A BALL-PLAYER             230
+
+   XII--BASE RUNNERS AND HOW THEY HELP A PITCHER TO WIN        255
+
+  XIII--NOTABLE INSTANCES WHERE THE "INSIDE" GAME HAS FAILED   381
+
+
+
+
+Pitching in a Pinch
+
+
+
+
+Pitching in a Pinch
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+The Most Dangerous Batters I Have Met
+
+     _How "Joe" Tinker Changed Overnight from a Weakling at the Plate to
+     the Worst Batter I Had to Face--"Fred" Clarke of Pittsburg cannot be
+     Fooled by a Change of Pace, and "Hans" Wagner's Only "Groove" Is a
+     Base on Balls--"Inside" Information on All the Great Batters._
+
+
+I have often been asked to which batters I have found it hardest to pitch.
+
+It is the general impression among baseball fans that Joseph Faversham
+Tinker, the short-stop of the Chicago Cubs, is the worst man that I have
+to face in the National League. Few realize that during his first two
+years in the big show Joe Tinker looked like a cripple at the plate when I
+was pitching. His "groove" was a slow curve over the outside corner, and I
+fed him slow curves over that very outside corner with great regularity.
+Then suddenly, overnight, he became from my point of view the most
+dangerous batter in the League.
+
+Tinker is a clever ball-player, and one day I struck him out three times
+in succession with low curves over the outside corner. Instead of getting
+disgusted with himself, he began to think and reason. He knew that I was
+feeding him that low curve over the outside corner, and he started to look
+for an antidote. He had always taken a short, choppy swing at the ball.
+When he went to the clubhouse after the game in which he struck out three
+times, he was very quiet, so I have been told. He was just putting on his
+last sock when he clapped his hand to his leg and exclaimed:
+
+"I've got it."
+
+"Got what?" asked Johnny Evers, who happened to be sitting next to Tinker.
+
+"Got the way to hit Matty, who had me looking as if I came from the home
+for the blind out there to-day," answered Joe.
+
+"I should say he did," replied Evers. "But if you've found a way to hit
+him, why, I'm from away out in Missouri near the Ozark Mountains."
+
+"Wait till he pitches again," said Tinker by way of conclusion, as he took
+his diamond ring from the trainer and left the clubhouse.
+
+It was a four-game series in Chicago, and I had struck Tinker out three
+times in the first contest. McGraw decided that I should pitch the last
+game as well. Two men were on the bases and two were out when Tinker came
+to the bat for the first time in this battle, and the outfielders moved in
+closer for him, as he had always been what is known as a "chop" hitter. I
+immediately noticed something different about his style as he set himself
+at the plate, and then it struck me that he was standing back in the box
+and had a long bat. Before this he had always choked his bat short and
+stood up close. Now I observed that he had his stick way down by the
+handle.
+
+Bresnahan was catching, and he signalled for the regular prescription for
+Tinker. With a lot of confidence I handed him that old low curve. He
+evidently expected it, for he stepped almost across the plate, and, with
+that long bat, drove the ball to right field for two bases over the head
+of George Browne, who was playing close up to the infield, scoring both
+runs and eventually winning the game.
+
+"I've got your number now, Matty!" he shouted at me as he drew up at
+second base.
+
+I admit that he has had it quite frequently since he switched his batting
+style. Now the outfielders move back when Tinker comes to the plate, for,
+if he connects, he hits "'em far" with that long bat. Ever since the day
+he adopted the "pole" he has been a thorn in my side and has broken up
+many a game. That old low curve is his favorite now, and he reaches for it
+with the same cordiality as is displayed by an actor in reaching for his
+pay envelope. The only thing to do is to keep them close and try to
+outguess him, but Tinker is a hard man to beat at the game of wits.
+
+Many a heady hitter in the Big League could give the signs to the opposing
+pitcher, for he realizes what his weakness is and knows that a twirler is
+going to pitch at it. But, try as hard as he will, he cannot often cover
+up his "groove," as Tinker did, and so he continues to be easy for the
+twirler who can put the ball where he wants it.
+
+Fred Clarke, of Pittsburg, has always been a hard man for me to fool on
+account of his batting form. A hitter of his type cannot be deceived by a
+change of pace, because he stands up close to the plate, chokes his bat
+short, and swings left-handed. When a pitcher cannot deceive a man with a
+change of pace, he has to depend on curves. Let me digress briefly to
+explain why a change of pace will not make the ball miss Clarke's bat. He
+is naturally a left-field hitter, and likes the ball on the outside corner
+of the plate. That means he swings at the ball late and makes most of his
+drives to left field.
+
+How is a batter fooled by a change of pace? A pitcher gives him a speedy
+one and then piles a slow one right on top of it with the same motion. The
+batter naturally thinks it is another fast ball and swings too soon--that
+is, before the ball gets to him. But when a man like Clarke is at the bat
+and a pitcher tries to work a change of pace, what is the result? He
+naturally swings late and so hits a fast ball to left field. Then as the
+slow one comes up to the plate, he strikes at it, granted he is deceived
+by it, timing his swing as he would at a fast ball. If it had been a fast
+ball, as he thought, he would have hit it to left field, being naturally a
+late swinger. But on a slow one he swings clear around and pulls it to
+right field twice as hard as he would have hit it to left field because
+he has obtained that much more drive in the longer swing. Therefore, it is
+a rule in the profession that no left-handed batter who hits late can be
+deceived by a change of pace.
+
+"Rube" Ellis, a left-handed hitter of the St. Louis Club, entered the
+League and heard complimentary stories about my pitching. Ellis came up to
+bat the first day that I pitched against him wondering if he would get
+even a foul. He was new to me and I was looking for his "groove." I gave
+him one over the outside corner, and he jabbed it to left field. The next
+time, I thought to work the change of pace, and, swinging late, he hauled
+the ball around to right field, and it nearly tore Fred Tenny's head off
+en route over first base. Five hits out of five times at bat he made off
+me that day, and, when he went to the clubhouse, he remarked to his team
+mates in this wise:
+
+"So that is the guy who has been burning up this League, huh? We've got
+better 'n him in the coast circuit. He's just got the Indian sign on you.
+That's all."
+
+I did a little thinking about Ellis's hitting. He used a long bat and held
+it down near the end and "poled 'em." He was naturally a left-field
+hitter and, therefore, swung late at the ball. I concluded that fast ones
+inside would do for Mr. Ellis, and the next time we met he got just those.
+He has been getting them ever since and now, when he makes a hit off me,
+he holds a celebration.
+
+"Hans" Wagner, of Pittsburg, has always been a hard man for me, but in
+that I have had nothing on a lot of other pitchers. He takes a long bat,
+stands well back from the plate, and steps into the ball, poling it. He is
+what is known in baseball as a free swinger, and there are not many free
+swingers these days. This is what ailed the Giants' batting during the
+world's series in 1911. They all attempted to become free swingers
+overnight and were trying to knock the ball out of the lot, instead of
+chopping it.
+
+In the history of baseball there have not been more than fifteen or twenty
+free swingers altogether, and they are the real natural hitters of the
+game, the men with eyes nice enough and accurate enough to take a long
+wallop at the ball. "Dan" Brouthers was one, and so was "Cap" Anson.
+Sherwood Magee and "Hans" Wagner are contemporary free swingers. Men of
+this type wield a heavy bat as if it were a toothpick and step back and
+forth in the box, hitting the ball on any end of the plate. Sometimes it
+is almost impossible to pass a man of this sort purposely, for a little
+carelessness in getting the ball too close to the plate may result in his
+stepping up and hitting it a mile. Pitchers have been searching for
+Wagner's "groove" for years, and, if any one of them has located it, he
+has his discovery copyrighted, for I never heard of it.
+
+Only one pitcher, that I can recall, always had it on Wagner, and that man
+was Arthur Raymond, sometimes called "Bugs." He seemed to upset the German
+by his careless manner in the box and by his "kidding" tactics. I have
+seen him make Wagner go after bad balls, a thing that "Hans" seldom can be
+induced to do by other twirlers.
+
+I remember well the first time I pitched against Wagner. Jack Warner was
+catching, and I, young and new in the League, had spent a lot of time with
+him, learning the weaknesses of the batters and being coached as to how to
+treat them. Wagner loomed up at the bat in a pinch, and I could not
+remember what Warner had said about his flaw. I walked out of the box to
+confer with the catcher.
+
+"What's his 'groove,' Jack?" I asked him.
+
+"A base on balls," replied Warner, without cracking a smile.
+
+That's always been Wagner's "groove."
+
+There used to be a player on the Boston team named Claude Ritchey who "had
+it on me" for some reason or other. He was a left-handed hitter and
+naturally drove the ball to left field, so that I could not fool him with
+a change of pace. He was always able to outguess me in a pinch and seemed
+to know by intuition what was coming.
+
+There has been for a long time an ardent follower of the Giants named Mrs.
+Wilson, who raves wildly at a game, and is broken-hearted when the team
+loses. The Giants were playing in Boston one day, and needed the game very
+badly. It was back in 1905, at the time the club could cinch the pennant
+by winning one contest, and the flag-assuring game is the hardest one to
+win. Two men got on the bases in the ninth inning with the score tied and
+no one out. The crowd was stamping its feet and hooting madly, trying to
+rattle me. I heard Mrs. Wilson shrill loudly above the noise:
+
+"Stick with them, Matty!"
+
+Ritchey came up to the bat, and I passed him purposely, trying to get him
+to strike at a bad ball. I wouldn't take a chance on letting him hit at a
+good one. Mrs. Wilson thought I was losing my control, and unable to stand
+it any longer she got up and walked out of the grounds. Then I fanned the
+next two batters, and the last man hit a roller to Devlin and was thrown
+out at first base. I was told afterwards that Mrs. Wilson stood outside
+the ground, waiting to hear the crowd cheer, which would have told her it
+was all over.
+
+She lingered at the gate until the fourteenth inning, fearing to return
+because she expected to see us routed. At last she heard a groan from the
+home crowd when we won in the fourteenth. Still she would not believe that
+I had weathered the storm and won the game that gave the Giants a pennant,
+but waited to be assured by some of the spectators leaving the grounds
+before she came around to congratulate us.
+
+All batters who are good waiters, and will not hit at bad balls, are hard
+to deceive, because it means a twirler has to lay the ball over, and then
+the hitter always has the better chance. A pitcher will try to get a man
+to hit at a bad ball before he will put it near the plate.
+
+Many persons have asked me why I do not use my "fade-away" oftener when it
+is so effective, and the only answer is that every time I throw the
+"fade-away" it takes so much out of my arm. It is a very hard ball to
+deliver. Pitching it ten or twelve times in a game kills my arm, so I save
+it for the pinches.
+
+Many fans do not know what this ball really is. It is a slow curve pitched
+with the motion of a fast ball. But most curve balls break away from a
+right-handed batter a little. The fade-away breaks toward him.
+
+Baker, of the Athletics, is one of the most dangerous hitters I have ever
+faced, and we were not warned to look out for him before the 1911 world's
+series, either. Certain friends of the Giants gave us some "inside"
+information on the Athletics' hitters. Among others, the Cubs supplied us
+with good tips, but no one spread the Baker alarm. I was told to watch out
+for Collins as a dangerous man, one who was likely to break up a game any
+time with a long drive.
+
+I consider Baker one of the hardest, cleanest hitters I have ever faced,
+and he drives the ball on a line to any field. The fielders cannot play
+for him. He did not show up well in the first game of the world's series
+because the Athletics thought they were getting our signs, and we crossed
+Baker with two men on the bases in the third inning. He lost a chance to
+be a hero right there.
+
+The roughest deal that I got from Baker in the 1911 series was in the
+third game, which was the second in New York. We had made one run and the
+ninth inning rolled around with the Giants still leading, 1 to 0. The
+first man at the bat grounded out and then Baker came up. I realized by
+this time that he was a hard proposition, but figured that he could not
+hit a low curve over the outside corner, as he is naturally a right-field
+hitter. I got one ball and one strike on him and then delivered a ball
+that was aimed to be a low curve over the outside corner. Baker refused to
+swing at it, and Brennan, the umpire, called it a ball.
+
+I thought that it caught the outside corner of the plate, and that Brennan
+missed the strike. It put me in the hole with the count two balls and one
+strike, and I had to lay the next one over very near the middle to keep
+the count from being three and one. I pitched a curve ball that was meant
+for the outside corner, but cut the plate better than I intended. Baker
+stepped up into it and smashed it into the grand-stand in right field for
+a home run, and there is the history of that famous wallop. This tied the
+score.
+
+A pitcher has two types of batters to face. One is the man who is always
+thinking and guessing and waiting, trying to get the pitcher in the hole.
+Evers, of the Cubs, is that sort. They tell me that "Ty" Cobb of Detroit
+is the most highly developed of this type of hitter. I have never seen him
+play. Then the other kind is the natural slugger, who does not wait for
+anything, and who could not outguess a pitcher if he did. The brainy man
+is the harder for a pitcher to face because he is a constant source of
+worry.
+
+There are two ways of fooling a batter. One is literally to "mix 'em up,"
+and the other is to keep feeding him the same sort of a ball, but to
+induce him to think that something else is coming. When a brainy man is at
+the bat, he is always trying to figure out what to expect. If he knows,
+then his chances of getting a hit are greatly increased. For instance, if
+a batter has two balls and two strikes on him, he naturally concludes that
+the pitcher will throw him a curve ball, and prepares for it. Big League
+ball-players recognize only two kinds of pitched balls--the curve and the
+straight one.
+
+When a catcher in the Big League signals for a curved ball, he means a
+drop, and, after handling a certain pitcher for a time, he gets to know
+just how much the ball is going to curve. That is why the one catcher
+receives for the same pitcher so regularly, because they get to work
+together harmoniously. "Chief" Meyers, the big Indian catcher on the
+Giants, understands my style so well that in some games he hardly has to
+give a sign. But, oddly enough, he could never catch Raymond because he
+did not like to handle the spit ball, a hard delivery to receive, and
+Raymond and he could not get along together as a battery. They would cross
+each other. But Arthur Wilson caught Raymond almost perfectly. This
+explains the loss of effectiveness of many pitchers when a certain catcher
+is laid up or out of the game.
+
+"Cy" Seymour, formerly the outfielder of the Giants, was one of the
+hardest batters I ever had to pitch against when he was with the
+Cincinnati club and going at the top of his stride. He liked a curved
+ball, and could hit it hard and far, and was always waiting for it. He was
+very clever at out-guessing a pitcher and being able to conclude what was
+coming. For a long time whenever I pitched against him I had "mixed 'em
+up" literally, handing him first a fast ball and then a slow curve and so
+on, trying to fool him in this way. But one day we were playing in
+Cincinnati, and I decided to keep delivering the same kind of a ball, that
+old fast one around his neck, and to try to induce him to believe that a
+curve was coming. I pitched him nothing but fast ones that day, and he was
+always waiting for a curve. The result was that I had him in the hole all
+the time, and I struck him out three times. He has never gotten over it.
+Only recently I saw Seymour, and he said:
+
+"Matty, you are the only man that ever struck me out three times in the
+same game."
+
+He soon guessed, however, that I was not really mixing them up, and then I
+had to switch my style again for him.
+
+Some pitchers talk to batters a great deal, hoping to get their minds off
+the game in this way, and thus be able to sneak strikes over. But I find
+that talking to a batter disconcerts me almost as much as it does him, and
+I seldom do it. Repartee is not my line anyway.
+
+Bender talked to the Giant players all through that first game in the 1911
+world's series, the one in which he wore the smile, probably because he
+was a pitcher old in the game and several of the younger men on the New
+York team acted as if they were nervous. Snodgrass and the Indian kept up
+a running fire of small talk every time that the Giants' centre-fielder
+came to the plate.
+
+Snodgrass got hit by pitched balls twice, and this seemed to worry Bender.
+When the New York centre-fielder came to the bat in the eighth inning, the
+Indian showed his even teeth in the chronic grin and greeted Snodgrass in
+this way:
+
+"Look out, Freddie, you don't get hit this time."
+
+Then Bender wound up and with all his speed drove the ball straight at
+Snodgrass's head, and Bender had more speed in that first game than I ever
+saw him use before. Snodgrass dodged, and the ball drove into Thomas's
+glove. This pitching the first ball at the head of a batter is an old
+trick of pitchers when they think a player intends to get hit purposely or
+that he is crowding the plate.
+
+"If you can't push 'em over better than that," retorted Snodgrass, "I
+won't need to get hit. Let's see your fast one now."
+
+"Try this one," suggested Bender, as he pitched another fast one that cut
+the heart of the plate. Snodgrass swung and hit nothing but the air. The
+old atmosphere was very much mauled by bats in that game anyway.
+
+"You missed that one a mile, Freddie," chuckled the Indian, with his grin.
+
+Snodgrass eventually struck out and then Bender broke into a laugh.
+
+"You ain't a batter, Freddie," exclaimed the Indian, as he walked to the
+bench. "You're a backstop. You can never get anywhere without being hit."
+
+If a pitcher is going to talk to a batter, he must size up his man. An
+irritable, nervous young player often will fall for the conversation, but
+most seasoned hitters will not answer back. The Athletics, other than
+Bender, will not talk in a game. We tried to get after them in the first
+contest in 1911, and we could not get a rise out of one of them, except
+when Snodgrass spiked Baker, and I want to say right here that this much
+discussed incident was accidental. Baker was blocking Snodgrass out, and
+the New York player had a perfect right to the base line.
+
+Sherwood Magee of the Philadelphia National League team is one of the
+hardest batters that I ever have had to face, because he has a great eye,
+and is of the type of free swingers who take a mad wallop at the ball, and
+are always liable to break up a game with a long drive. Just once I talked
+to him when he was at the bat, more because we were both worked up than
+for any other reason, and he came out second best. It was while the Giants
+were playing at American League Park in 1911 after the old Polo Grounds
+had burned. Welchonce, who was the centre-fielder for the Phillies at the
+time, hit a slow one down the first base line, and I ran over to field the
+ball. I picked it up as the runner arrived and had no time to straighten
+up to dodge him. So I struck out my shoulder and he ran into it. There was
+no other way to make the play, but I guess it looked bad from the stand,
+because Welchonce fell down.
+
+Magee came up to bat next, threw his hat on the ground, and started to
+call me names. He is bad when irritated--and tolerably easy to irritate,
+as shown by the way in which he knocked down Finnegan, the umpire, last
+season because their ideas on a strike differed slightly. I replied on
+that occasion, but remembered to keep the ball away from the centre of the
+plate. That is about all I did do, but he was more wrought up than I and
+hit only a slow grounder to the infield. He was out by several feet. He
+took a wild slide at the bag, however, feet first, in what looked like an
+attempt to spike Merkle. We talked some more after that, but it has all
+been forgotten now.
+
+To be a successful pitcher in the Big League, a man must have the head and
+the arm. When I first joined the Giants, I had what is known as the "old
+round-house curve," which is no more than a big, slow outdrop. I had been
+fooling them in the minor leagues with it, and I was somewhat chagrined
+when George Davis, then the manager of the club, came to me and told me to
+forget the curve, as it would be of no use. It was then that I began to
+develop my drop ball.
+
+A pitcher must watch all the time for any little unconscious motion before
+he delivers the ball. If a base runner can guess just when he is going to
+pitch, he can get a much better start. Drucke used to have a little motion
+with his foot just before he pitched, of which he himself was entirely
+unconscious, but the other clubs got on to it and stole bases on him
+wildly. McGraw has since broken him of it.
+
+The Athletics say that I make a motion peculiar to the fade-away. Some
+spit-ball pitchers announce when they are going to throw a moist one by
+looking at the ball as they dampen it. At other times, when they "stall,"
+they do not look at the ball. The Big League batter is watching for all
+these little things and, if a pitcher is not careful, he will find a lot
+of men who are hard to pitch to. There are plenty anyway, and, as a man
+grows older, this number increases season by season.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+"Take Him Out"
+
+     _Many a Pitcher's Heart has been Broken by the Cry from the Stands,
+     "Take Him Out"--Russell Ford of the New York Yankees was Once Beaten
+     by a Few Foolish Words Whispered into the Batter's Ear at a Critical
+     Moment--Why "Rube" Marquard Failed for Two Years to be a Big
+     Leaguer--The Art of Breaking a Pitcher into Fast Company._
+
+
+A pitcher is in a tight game, and the batter makes a hit. Another follows
+and some fan back in the stand cries in stentorian tones:
+
+"Take him out!"
+
+It is the dirge of baseball which has broken the hearts of pitchers ever
+since the game began and will continue to do so as long as it lives.
+Another fan takes up the shout, and another, and another, until it is a
+chorus.
+
+"Take him out! Take him out! Take him out!"
+
+The pitcher has to grin, but that constant cry is wearing on nerves strung
+to the breaking point. The crowd is against him, and the next batter hits,
+and a run scores. The manager stops the game, beckons to the pitcher from
+the bench, and he has to walk away from the box, facing the crowd--not the
+team--which has beaten him. It is the psychology of baseball.
+
+Some foolish words once whispered into the ear of a batter by a clever
+manager in the crisis of one of the closest games ever played in baseball
+turned the tide and unbalanced a pitcher who had been working like a
+perfectly adjusted machine through seven terrific innings. That is also
+the "psychology of pitching." The man wasn't beaten because he weakened,
+because he lost his grip, because of any physical deficiency, but because
+some foolish words--words that meant nothing, had nothing to do with the
+game--had upset his mental attitude.
+
+The game was the first one played between the Giants and the Yankees in
+the post-season series of 1910, the batter was Bridwell, the manager was
+John McGraw, and the pitcher, Russell Ford of the Yankees. The cast of
+characters having been named, the story may now enter the block.
+
+Spectators who recall the game will remember that the two clubs had been
+battling through the early innings with neither team able to gain an
+advantage, and the Giants came to bat for the eighth inning with the score
+a tie. Ford was pitching perfectly with all the art of a master craftsman.
+Each team had made one run. I was the first man up and started the eighth
+inning with a single because Ford slackened up a little against me,
+thinking that I was not dangerous. Devore beat out an infield hit, and
+Doyle bunted and was safe, filling the bases. Then Ford went to work. He
+struck out Snodgrass, and Hemphill caught Murray's fly far too near the
+infield to permit me to try to score. It looked as if Ford were going to
+get out of the hole when "Al" Bridwell, the former Giant shortstop, came
+to the bat. Ford threw him two bad balls, and then McGraw ran out from the
+bench, and, with an autocratic finger, held up the game while he whispered
+into Bridwell's ear.
+
+"Al" nodded knowingly, and the whole thing was a pantomime, a wordless
+play, that made _Sumurun_ look like a bush-league production. Bridwell
+stepped back into the batter's box, and McGraw returned to the bench. On
+the next pitch, "Al" was hit in the leg and went to first base, forcing
+the run that broke the tie across the plate. That run also broke Ford's
+heart. And here is what McGraw whispered into the attentive ear of
+Bridwell:
+
+"How many quail did you say you shot when you were hunting last fall, Al?"
+
+John McGraw, the psychologist, baseball general and manager, had heard
+opportunity knock. With his fingers on the pulse of the game, he had felt
+the tenseness of the situation, and realized, all in the flash of an eye,
+that Ford was wabbling and that anything would push him over. He stopped
+the game and whispered into Bridwell's ear while Ford was feeling more and
+more the intensity of the crisis. He had an opportunity to observe the
+three men on the bases. He wondered what McGraw was whispering, what trick
+was to be expected. Was he telling the batter to get hit? Yes, he must be.
+Then he did just that--hit the batter, and lost the game.
+
+Why can certain pitchers always beat certain clubs and why do they look
+like bush leaguers against others? To be concrete, why can Brooklyn fight
+Chicago so hard and look foolish playing against the Giants? Why can the
+Yankees take game after game from Detroit and be easy picking for the
+Cleveland club in most of their games? Why does Boston beat Marquard when
+he can make the hard Philadelphia hitters look like blind men with bats in
+their hands? Why could I beat Cincinnati game after game for two years
+when the club was filled with hard hitters? It is the psychology of
+baseball, the mental attitudes of the players, some intangible thing that
+works on the mind. Managers are learning to use this subtle, indescribable
+element which is such a factor.
+
+The great question which confronts every Big League manager is how to
+break a valuable young pitcher into the game. "Rube" Marquard came to the
+Giants in the fall of 1908 out of the American Association heralded as a
+world-beater, with a reputation that shimmered and shone. The newspapers
+were crowded with stories of the man for whom McGraw had paid $11,000, who
+had been standing them on their heads in the West, who had curves that
+couldn't be touched, and was a bargain at the unheard-of price paid for
+him.
+
+"Rube" Marquard came to the Giants in a burst of glory and publicity when
+the club was fighting for the pennant. McGraw was up against it for
+pitchers at that time, and one win, turned in by a young pitcher, might
+have resulted in the Giants winning the pennant as the season ended.
+
+"Don't you think Marquard would win? Can't you put him in?" Mr. Brush, the
+owner of the club, asked McGraw one day when he was discussing the
+pitching situation with the manager.
+
+"I don't know," answered McGraw. "If he wins his first time out in the Big
+Leagues, he will be a world-beater, and, if he loses, it may cost us a
+good pitcher." But Mr. Brush was insistent. Here a big price had been paid
+for a pitcher with a record, and pitchers were what the club needed. The
+newspapers declared that the fans should get a look at this "$11,000
+beauty" in action. A double header was scheduled to be played with the
+Cincinnati club in the month of September, in 1908, and the pitching staff
+was gone. McGraw glanced over his collection of crippled and worked-out
+twirlers. Then he saw "Rube" Marquard, big and fresh.
+
+"Go in and pitch," he ordered after Marquard had warmed up.
+
+McGraw always does things that way, makes up his mind about the most
+important matters in a minute and then stands by his judgment. Marquard
+went into the box, but he didn't pitch much. He has told me about it
+since.
+
+"When I saw that crowd, Matty," he said, "I didn't know where I was. It
+looked so big to me, and they were all wondering what I was going to do,
+and all thinking that McGraw had paid $11,000 for me, and now they were to
+find out whether he had gotten stuck, whether he had picked up a gold
+brick with the plating on it very thin. I was wondering, myself, whether I
+would make good."
+
+What Marquard did that day is a matter of record, public property, like
+marriage and death notices. Kane, the little rightfielder on the
+Cincinnati club, was the first man up, and, although he was one of the
+smallest targets in the league, Marquard hit him. He promptly stole
+second, which worried "Rube" some more. Up came Lobert, the man who broke
+Marquard's heart.
+
+"Now we'll see," said Lobert to "Rube," as he advanced to the plate,
+"whether you're a busher." Then Lobert, the tantalizing Teuton with the
+bow-legs, whacked out a triple to the far outfield and stopped at third
+with a mocking smile on his face which would have gotten the late Job's
+goat.
+
+"You're identified," said "Hans"; "you're a busher."
+
+Some fan shouted the fatal "Take him out." Marquard was gone. Bescher
+followed with another triple, and, after that, the official scorer got
+writer's cramp trying to keep track of the hits and runs. The number of
+hits, I don't think, ever was computed with any great amount of
+exactitude. Marquard was taken out of the box in the fifth inning, and he
+was two years recovering from the shock of that beating. McGraw had put
+him into the game against his better judgment, and he paid for it dearly.
+
+Marquard had to be nursed along on the bench finishing games, starting
+only against easy clubs, and learning the ropes of the Big Leagues before
+he was able to be a winning pitcher. McGraw was a long time realizing
+on his investment. All Marquard needed was a victory, a decisive win, over
+a strong club.
+
+
+[Illustration: Photo by L. Van Oeyen, Cleveland, Ohio
+
+Ty Cobb and Hans Wagner
+
+"An American and National League star of the first magnitude. Fans of the
+rival leagues never tire of discussing the relative merits of these two
+great players. Both are always willing to take a chance, and seem to do
+their best work when pressed hardest."]
+
+
+The Giants played a disastrous series with the Philadelphia club early in
+July, 1911, and lost four games straight. All the pitchers were shot to
+pieces, and the Quakers seemed to be unbeatable. McGraw was at a loss for
+a man to use in the fifth game. The weather was steaming hot, and the
+players were dragged out, while the pitching staff had lost all its
+starch. As McGraw's eye scanned his bedraggled talent, Marquard, reading
+his thoughts, walked up to him.
+
+"Give me a chance," he asked.
+
+"Go in," answered McGraw, again making up his mind on the spur of the
+moment. Marquard went into the game and made the Philadelphia batters,
+whose averages had been growing corpulent on the pitching of the rest of
+the staff, look foolish. There on that sweltering July afternoon, when
+everything steamed in the blistering heat, a pitcher was being born again.
+Marquard had found himself, and, for the rest of the season, he was
+strongest against the Philadelphia team, for it had been that club which
+restored his confidence.
+
+There is a sequel to that old Lobert incident, too. In one of the last
+series in Philadelphia, toward the end of the season, Marquard and Lobert
+faced each other again. Said Marquard:
+
+"Remember the time, you bow-legged Dutchman, when you asked me whether I
+was a busher? Here is where I pay you back. This is the place where you
+get a bad showing up."
+
+And he fanned Lobert--whiff! whiff! whiff!--like that. He became the
+greatest lefthander in the country, and would have been sooner, except for
+the enormous price paid for him and the widespread publicity he received,
+which caused him to be over-anxious to make good. It's the psychology of
+the game.
+
+"You can't hit what you don't see," says "Joe" Tinker of Marquard's
+pitching. "When he throws his fast one, the only way you know it's past
+you is because you hear the ball hit the catcher's glove."
+
+Fred Clarke, of the Pittsburg club, was up against the same proposition
+when he purchased "Marty" O'Toole for $22,500 in 1911. The newspapers of
+the country were filled with figures and pictures of the real estate and
+automobiles that could be bought with the same amount of money, lined up
+alongside of pictures of O'Toole, as when the comparative strengths of the
+navies of the world are shown by placing different sizes of battleships in
+a row, or when the length of the _Lusitania_ is emphasized by printing a
+picture of it balancing gracefully on its stern alongside the Singer
+Building.
+
+Clarke realized that he had all this publicity with which to contend, and
+that it would do his expensive new piece of pitching bric-a-brac no good.
+O'Toole, jerked out of a minor league where he had been pitching quietly,
+along with his name in ten or a dozen papers, was suddenly a national
+figure, measuring up in newspaper space with Roosevelt and Taft and J.
+Johnson.
+
+When O'Toole joined the Pirates near the end of the season, Clarke knew
+down in his heart the club had no chance of winning the pennant with
+Wagner hurt, although he still publicly declared he was in the race. He
+did not risk jumping O'Toole right into the game as soon as he reported
+and taking the chance of breaking his heart. Opposing players, if they
+are up in the pennant hunt, are hard on a pitcher of this sort and would
+lose no opportunity to mention the price paid for him and connect it
+pointedly with his showing, if that showing was a little wobbly. Charity
+begins at home, and stays there, in the Big Leagues. At least, I never saw
+any of it on the ball fields, especially if the club is in the race, and
+the only thing that stands between it and a victory is the ruining of a
+$22,500 pitcher of a rival.
+
+Clarke nursed O'Toole along on the bench for a couple of weeks until he
+got to be thoroughly acclimated, and then he started him in a game against
+Boston, the weakest club in the league, after he had sent for Kelly,
+O'Toole's regular catcher, to inspire more confidence. O'Toole had an easy
+time of it at his Big League debut, for the Boston players did not pick on
+him any to speak of, as they were not a very hard bunch of pickers. The
+Pittsburg team gave him a nice comfortable, cosy lead, and he was pitching
+along ahead of the game all the way. In the fifth or sixth inning Clarke
+slipped Gibson, the regular Pittsburg catcher, behind the bat, and O'Toole
+had won his first game in the Big League before he knew it. He then
+reasoned I have won here. I belong here. I can get along here. It isn't
+much different from the crowd I came from, except for the name, and that's
+nothing to get timid about if I can clean up as easily as I did to-day.
+
+Fred Clarke, also a psychologist and baseball manager, had worked a
+valuable pitcher into the League, and he had won his first game. If he had
+started him against some club like the Giants, for instance, where he
+would have had to face a big crowd and the conversation and spirit of
+players who were after a pennant and hot after it, he might have lost and
+his heart would have been broken. Successfully breaking into the game an
+expensive pitcher, who has cost a club a large price, is one of the
+hardest problems which confronts a manager. Now O'Toole is all right if he
+has the pitching goods. He has taken his initial plunge, and all he has to
+do is to make good next year. The psychology element is eliminated from
+now on.
+
+I have been told that Clarke was the most relieved man in seven counties
+when O'Toole came through with that victory in Boston.
+
+"I had in mind all the time," said Fred, "what happened to McGraw when he
+was trying to introduce Marquard into the smart set, and I was afraid the
+same thing would happen to me. I had a lot of confidence in the nerve of
+that young fellow though, because he stood up well under fire the first
+day he got into Pittsburg. One of those lady reporters was down to the
+club offices to meet him the morning he got into town, and they always
+kind of have me, an old campaigner, stepping away from the plate. She
+pulled her pad and pencil on Marty first thing, before he had had a chance
+to knock the dirt out of his cleats, and said:
+
+"'Now tell me about yourself.'
+
+"He stepped right into that one, instead of backing away.
+
+"'What do you want me to tell?' he asks her.
+
+"Then I knew he was all right. He was there with the 'come-back.'"
+
+But the ideal way to break a star into the Big League is that which marked
+the entrance of Grover Cleveland Alexander, of the Philadelphia club. The
+Cincinnati club had had its eye on Alexander for some time, but "Tacks"
+Ashenbach, the scout, now dead, had advised against him, declaring that he
+would be no good against "regular batters." Philadelphia got him at the
+waiver price and he was among the lot in the newspapers marked "Those who
+also joined." He started out in 1911 and won two or three games before
+anyone paid any attention to him. Then he kept on winning until one
+manager was saying to another:
+
+"That guy, Alexander, is a hard one to beat."
+
+He had won ten or a dozen games before it was fully realized that he was a
+star. Then he was so accustomed to the Big League he acted as if he had
+been living in it all his life, and there was no getting on his nerves.
+When he started, he had everything to gain and nothing to lose. If he
+didn't last, the newspapers wouldn't laugh at him, and the people wouldn't
+say:
+
+"$11,000, or $22,500, for a lemon." That's the dread of all ball players.
+
+Such is the psychology of introducing promising pitchers into the Big
+Leagues. The Alexander route is the ideal one, but it's hard to get stars
+now without paying enormous prices for them. Philadelphia was lucky.
+
+There is another element which enters into all forms of athletics. Tennis
+players call it nervousness, and ball players, in the frankness of the
+game, call it a "yellow streak." It is the inability to stand the gaff,
+the weakening in the pinches. It is something ingrained in a man that
+can't be cured. It is the desire to quit when the situation is serious. It
+is different from stage fright, because a man may get over that, but a
+"yellow streak" is always with him. When a new player breaks into the
+League, he is put to the most severe test by the other men to see if he is
+"yellow." If he is found wanting, he is hopeless in the Big League, for
+the news will spread, and he will receive no quarter. It is the cardinal
+sin in a ball player.
+
+For some time after "Hans" Wagner's poor showing in the world's series of
+1903, when the Pittsburg club was defeated for the World's Championship by
+the Boston American League club, it was reported that he was "yellow."
+This grieved the Dutchman deeply, for I don't know a ball player in either
+league who would assay less quit to the ton than Wagner. He is always
+there and always fighting. Wagner felt the inference which his team mates
+drew very keenly. This was the real tragedy in Wagner's career.
+Notwithstanding his stolid appearance, he is a sensitive player, and this
+hurt him more than anything else in his life ever has.
+
+When the Pittsburg club played Detroit in 1909 for the championship of the
+world, many, even of Wagner's admirers, said, "The Dutchman will quit." It
+was in this series he vindicated himself. His batting scored the majority
+of the Pittsburg runs, and his fielding was little short of wonderful. He
+was demonstrating his gameness. Many men would have quit under the
+reflection. They would have been unable to withstand the criticism, but
+not Wagner.
+
+Many persons implied that John Murray, the rightfielder on the Giants, was
+"yellow" at the conclusion of the 1911 world's series because, after
+batting almost three hundred in the season, he did not get a hit in the
+six games. But there isn't a man on the team gamer. He hasn't any nerves.
+He's one of the sort of ball players who says:
+
+"Well, now I've got my chew of tobacco in my mouth. Let her go."
+
+There is an interesting bit of psychology connected with Wagner and the
+spit-ball. It comes as near being Wagner's "groove" as any curve that has
+found its way into the Big Leagues. This is explained by the fact that
+the first time Wagner ever faced "Bugs" Raymond he didn't get a hit with
+Arthur using the spitter. Consequently the report went around the circuit
+that Wagner couldn't hit the spit-ball. He disproved this theory against
+two or three spit-ball pitchers, but as long as Raymond remained in the
+League he had it on the hard-hitting Dutchman.
+
+"Here comes a 'spitter,' Hans. Look out for it," Raymond would warn
+Wagner, with a wide grin, and then he would pop up a wet one.
+
+"Guess I'll repeat on that dose, Hans; you didn't like that one."
+
+And Wagner would get so worked up that he frequently struck out against
+"Bugs" when the rest of his club was hitting the eccentric pitcher hard.
+It was because he achieved the idea on the first day he couldn't hit the
+spit-ball, and he wasn't able to rid his mind of the impression. Many fans
+often wondered why Raymond had it on Wagner, the man whose only "groove"
+is a base on balls. "Bugs" had the edge after that first day when Wagner
+lost confidence in his ability to hit the spit-ball as served by Raymond.
+
+In direct contrast to this loss of confidence on Wagner's part was the
+incident attendant upon Arthur Devlin's debut into the Big League. He had
+joined the club a youngster, in the season of 1904, and McGraw had not
+counted upon him to play third base, having planned to plant Bresnahan at
+that corner. But Bresnahan developed sciatic rheumatism early in the
+season, and Devlin was put on the bag in the emergency with a great deal
+of misgiving.
+
+The first day he was in the game he came up to the bat with the bases
+full. The Giants were playing Brooklyn at the Polo Grounds, and two men
+had already struck out, with the team two runs behind. Devlin came out
+from the bench.
+
+"Who is this youthful-looking party?" one fan asked another, as they
+scanned their score cards.
+
+"Devlin, some busher, taking Bresnahan's place," another answered.
+
+"Well, it's all off now," was the general verdict.
+
+The crowd settled back, and one could feel the lassitude in the
+atmosphere. But Devlin had his first chance to make good in a pinch. There
+was no weariness in his manner. Poole, the Brooklyn pitcher, showing less
+respect than he should have for the newcomer in baseball society, spilled
+one over too near the middle, and Arthur drove out a home run, winning
+the game. Those who had refused to place any confidence in him only a
+moment before, were on their feet cheering wildly now. And Devlin played
+third base for almost eight years after that, and none thought of
+Bresnahan and his rheumatism until he began catching again. Devlin, after
+that home run, was oozing confidence from every pore and burned up the
+League with his batting for three years. He got the old confidence from
+his start. The fans had expected nothing from him, and he had delivered.
+He had gained everything. He had made the most dramatic play in baseball
+on his first day, a home run with the bases full.
+
+When Fred Snodgrass first started playing as a regular with the Giants
+about the middle of the season of 1910, he hit any ball pitched him hard
+and had all the fans marvelling at his stick work. He believed that he
+could hit anything and, as long as he retained that belief, he could.
+
+But the Chalmers Automobile Company had offered a prize of one nice,
+mild-mannered motor car to the batter in either league who finished the
+season with the biggest average.
+
+Snodgrass was batting over four hundred at one time and was ahead of them
+all when suddenly the New York evening papers began to publish the daily
+averages of the leaders for the automobile, boosting Snodgrass. It
+suddenly struck Fred that he was a great batter and that to keep his place
+in that daily standing he would have to make a hit every time he went to
+the plate. These printed figures worried him. His batting fell off
+miserably until, in the post season series with the Yankees, he gave one
+of the worst exhibitions of any man on the team. The newspapers did it.
+
+"They got me worrying about myself," he told me once. "I began to think
+how close I was to the car and had a moving picture of myself driving it.
+That settled it."
+
+Many promising young players are broken in their first game in the Big
+League by the ragging which they are forced to undergo at the hands of
+veteran catchers. John Kling is a very bad man with youngsters, and
+sometimes he can get on the nerves of older players in close games when
+the nerves are strung tight. The purpose of a catcher in talking to a man
+in this way is to distract his attention from batting, and once this is
+accomplished he is gone. A favorite trick of a catcher is to say to a new
+batter:
+
+"Look out for this fellow. He's got a mean 'bean' ball, and he hasn't any
+influence over it. There's a poor 'boob' in the hospital now that stopped
+one with his head."
+
+Then the catcher signs for the pitcher to throw the next one at the young
+batter's head. If he pulls away, an unpardonable sin in baseball, the dose
+is repeated.
+
+"Yer almost had your foot in the water-pail over by the bench that time,"
+says the catcher.
+
+Bing! Up comes another "beaner." Then, after the catcher has sized the new
+man up, he makes his report.
+
+"He won't do. He's yellow."
+
+And the players keep mercilessly after this shortcoming, this ingrained
+fault which, unlike a mechanical error, cannot be corrected until the new
+player is driven out of the League. Perhaps the catcher says:
+
+"He's game, that guy. No scare to him."
+
+After that he is let alone. It's the psychology of batting.
+
+Once, when I first broke into the League, Jack Chesbro, then with
+Pittsburg, threw a fast one up, and it went behind my head, although I
+tried to dodge back. He had lots of speed in those days, too. It set me
+wondering what would have happened if the ball had hit me. The more I
+thought, the more it struck me that it would have greatly altered my face
+had it gotten into the course of the ball. Ever afterwards, he had it on
+me, and, for months, a fast one at the head had me backing away from the
+plate.
+
+In contrast to this experience of mine was the curing of "Josh" Devore,
+the leftfielder of the Giants, of being bat shy against left-handers.
+Devore has always been very weak at the bat with a southpaw in the box,
+dragging his right foot away from the plate. This was particularly the
+case against "Slim" Sallee, the tenuous southpaw of the St. Louis
+Nationals. Finally McGraw, exasperated after "Josh" had struck out twice
+in one day, said:
+
+"That fellow hasn't got speed enough to bend a pane of glass at the home
+plate throwing from the box, and you're pullin' away as if he was shooting
+them out of a gun. It's a crime to let him beat you. Go up there the next
+time and get hit, and see if he can hurt you. If you don't get hit,
+you're fined $10."
+
+Devore, who is as fond of $10 as the next one, went to the bat and took
+one of Sallee's slants in a place where it would do the least damage. He
+trotted to first base smiling.
+
+"What'd I tell you?" asked McGraw, coaching. "Could he hurt you?"
+
+"Say," replied "Josh," "I'd hire out to let them pitch baseballs at me if
+none could throw harder than that guy."
+
+Devore was cured of being bat shy when Sallee was pitching, right then and
+there, and he has improved greatly against all left-handers ever since, so
+much so that McGraw leaves him in the game now when a southpaw pitches,
+instead of placing Beals Becker in left field as he used to. All Devore
+needed was the confidence to stand up to the plate against them, to rid
+his mind of the idea that, if once he got hit, he would leave the field
+feet first. That slam in the slats which Sallee handed him supplied the
+confidence.
+
+When Devore was going to Philadelphia for the second game of the world's
+series in the fall of 1911, the first one in the other town, he was
+introduced to "Ty" Cobb, the Detroit out-fielder, by some newspaper man
+on the train, and, as it was the first time Devore had ever met Cobb, he
+sat down with him and they talked all the way over.
+
+"Gee," said "Josh" to me, as we were getting off the train, "that fellow
+Cobb knows a lot about batting. He told me some things about the American
+League pitchers just now, and he didn't know he was doing it. I never let
+on. But I just hope that fellow Plank works to-day, if they think that I
+am weak against left-handers. Say, Matty, I could write a book about that
+guy and his 'grooves' now, after buzzing Cobb, and the funny thing is he
+didn't know he was telling me."
+
+Plank pitched that day and fanned Devore four times out of a possible
+four. "Josh" didn't even get a foul off him.
+
+"Thought you knew all about that fellow," I said to Devore after the game.
+
+"I've learned since that Cobb and he are pretty thick," replied "Josh,"
+"and I guess 'Ty' was giving me a bad steer."
+
+It was evident that Cobb had been filling "Josh" up with misinformation
+that was working around in Devore's mind when he went to the plate to
+face Plank, and, instead of being open to impressions, these wrong
+opinions had already been planted and he was constantly trying to confirm
+them. Plank was crossing him all the time, and, being naturally weak
+against left-handers, this additional handicap made Devore look foolish.
+
+In the well-worn words of Mr. Dooley, it has been my experience "to trust
+your friends, but cut the cards." By that, I mean one ball player will
+often come to another with a tip that he really thinks worth while, but
+that avails nothing in the end. A man has to be a pretty smart ball player
+to dispense accurate information about others, because the Big Leaguers
+know their own "grooves" and are naturally trying to cover them up. Then a
+batter may be weak against one pitcher on a certain kind of a ball, and
+may whale the same sort of delivery, with a different twist to it, out of
+the lot against another.
+
+That was the experience I had with "Ed" Delehanty, the famous slugger of
+the old Philadelphia National League team, who is now dead. During my
+first year in the League several well-meaning advisers came to me and
+said:
+
+"Don't give 'Del' any high fast ones because, if you do, you will just
+wear your fielders out worse than a George M. Cohan show does the chorus.
+They will think they are in a Marathon race instead of a ball game."
+
+Being young, I took this advice, and the first time I pitched against
+Delehanty, I fed him curved balls. He hit these so far the first two times
+he came to bat that one of the balls was never found, and everybody felt
+like shaking hands with Van Haltren, the old Giant outfielder, when he
+returned with the other, as if he had been away on a vacation some place.
+In fact, I had been warned against giving any of this Philadelphia team of
+sluggers high fast ones, and I had been delivering a diet of curves to all
+of them which they were sending to the limits of the park and further,
+with great regularity. At last, when Delehanty came to the bat for the
+third time in the game, Van Haltren walked into the box from the outfield
+and handed the ball to me, after he had just gone to the fence to get it.
+Elmer Flick had hit it there.
+
+"Matty," he pleaded, "for the love of Mike, slip this fellow a base on
+balls and let me get my wind."
+
+Instead I decided to switch my style, and I fed Delehanty high fast ones,
+the dangerous dose, and he struck out then and later. He wasn't expecting
+them and was so surprised that he couldn't hit the ball. Only two of the
+six balls at which he struck were good ones. I found out afterwards that
+the tradition about not delivering any high fast balls to the Philadelphia
+hitters was the outgrowth of the old buzzer tipping service, established
+in 1899, by which the batters were informed what to expect by Morgan
+Murphy, located in the clubhouse with a pair of field-glasses and his
+finger on a button which worked a buzzer under the third-base coaching
+box. The coacher tipped the batter off what was coming and the
+signal-stealing device had worked perfectly. The hitters had all waited
+for the high fast ones in those days, as they can be hit easier if a man
+knows that they are coming, and can also be hit farther.
+
+But, after the buzzer had been discovered and the delivery of pitchers
+could not be accurately forecast, this ability to hit high fast ones
+vanished, but not the tradition. The result was that this Philadelphia
+club was getting a steady diet of curves and hitting them hard, not
+expecting anything else. When I first pitched against Delehanty, his
+reputation as a hitter gave him a big edge on me. Therefore I was willing
+to take any kind of advice calculated to help me, but eventually I had to
+find out for myself. If I had taken a chance on mixing them up the first
+time he faced me, I still doubt if he would have made those two long hits,
+but it was his reputation working in my mind and the idea that he ate up
+high fast balls that prevented me from taking the risk.
+
+Each pitcher has to find out for himself what a man is going to hit. It's
+all right to take advice at first, but, if this does not prove to be the
+proper prescription, it's up to him to experiment and not continue to feed
+him the sort of balls that he is hitting.
+
+Reputations count for a great deal in the Big Leagues. Cobb has a record
+as being a great base runner, and I believe that he steals ten bases a
+season on this reputation. The catcher knows he is on the bag, realizes
+that he is going to steal, fears him, hurries his throw, and, in his
+anxiety, it goes bad. Cobb is safe, whereas, if he had been an ordinary
+runner with no reputation, he would probably have been thrown out.
+Pitchers who have made names for themselves in the Big Leagues, have a
+much easier time winning as a consequence.
+
+"All he's got to do is to throw his glove into the box to beat that club,"
+is an old expression in baseball, which means that the opposing batters
+fear the pitcher and that his reputation will carry him through if he has
+nothing whatever on the ball.
+
+Newspapers work on the mental attitude of Big League players. This has
+been most marked in Cincinnati, and I believe that the local newspapers
+have done as much as anything to keep a pennant away from that town. When
+the team went south for the spring practice, the newspapers printed
+glowing reports of the possibilities of the club winning the pennant, but,
+when the club started to fall down in the race, they would knock the men,
+and it would take the heart out of the players. Almost enough good players
+have been let go by the Cincinnati team to make a world's championship
+club. There are Donlin, Seymour, Steinfeldt, Lobert and many more. Ball
+players inhale the accounts printed in the newspapers, and a correspondent
+with a grouch has ruined the prospects of many a good player and club. The
+New York newspapers, first by the great amount of publicity given to his
+old record, and then by criticising him for not making a better showing,
+had a great deal to do with Marquard failing to make good the first two
+years he was in New York, as I have shown.
+
+A smart manager in the Big League is always working to keep his valuable
+stars in the right frame of mind. On the last western trip the Giants made
+in the season of 1911, when they won the pennant by taking eighteen games
+out of twenty-two games, McGraw refused to permit any of the men to play
+cards. He realized that often the stakes ran high and that the losers
+brooded over the money which they lost and were thinking of this rather
+than the game when on the ball field. It hurt their playing, so there were
+no cards. He also carried "Charley" Faust, the Kansas Jinx killer, along
+to keep the players amused and because it was thought that he was good
+luck. It helped their mental attitude.
+
+The treatment of a new player when he first arrives is different now from
+what it was in the old days. Once there was a time when the veteran looked
+upon the recruit with suspicion and the feeling that he had come to take
+his job and his bread and butter from him. If a young pitcher was put
+into the box, the old catcher would do all that he could to irritate him,
+and many times he would inform the batters of the other side what he was
+going to throw.
+
+"He's tryin' to horn my friend Bill out of a job," I have heard catchers
+charge against a youngster.
+
+This attitude drove many a star ball player back to the minors because he
+couldn't make good under the adverse circumstances, but nothing of the
+sort exists now. Each veteran does all that he can to help the youngster,
+realizing that on the younger generation depends the success of the club,
+and that no one makes any money by being on a loser. Travelling with a
+tail-end ball club is the poorest pastime in the world. I would rather
+ride in the first coach of a funeral procession.
+
+The youngster is treated more courteously now when he first arrives. In
+the old days, the veterans of the club sized up the recruit and treated
+him like a stranger for days, which made him feel as if he were among
+enemies instead of friends, and, as a result, it was much harder for him
+to make good. Now all hands make him a companion from the start, unless
+he shows signs of being unusually fresh.
+
+There is a lot to baseball in the Big Leagues besides playing the game. No
+man can have a "yellow streak" and last. He must not pay much attention to
+his nerves or temperament. He must hide every flaw. It's all part of the
+psychology of baseball. But the saddest words of all to a pitcher are
+three--"Take Him Out."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+Pitching in a Pinch
+
+     _Many Pitchers Are Effective in a Big League Ball Game until that
+     Heart-Breaking Moment Arrives Known as the "Pinch"--It Is then that
+     the Man in the Box is Put to the Severest Test by the Coachers and
+     the Players on the Bench--Victory or Defeat Hangs on his Work in that
+     Inning--Famous "Pinches."_
+
+
+In most Big League ball games, there comes an inning on which hangs
+victory or defeat. Certain intellectual fans call it the crisis; college
+professors, interested in the sport, have named it the psychological
+moment; Big League managers mention it as the "break," and pitchers speak
+of the "pinch."
+
+This is the time when each team is straining every nerve either to win or
+to prevent defeat. The players and spectators realize that the outcome of
+the inning is of vital importance. And in most of these pinches, the real
+burden falls on the pitcher. It is at this moment that he is "putting all
+he has" on the ball, and simultaneously his opponents are doing everything
+they can to disconcert him.
+
+Managers wait for this break, and the shrewd league leader can often time
+it. Frequently a certain style of play is adopted to lead up to the pinch,
+then suddenly a slovenly mode of attack is changed, and the team comes on
+with a rush in an effort to break up the game. That is the real test of a
+pitcher. He must be able to live through these squalls.
+
+Two evenly matched clubs have been playing through six innings with
+neither team gaining any advantage. Let us say that they are the Giants
+and the Chicago Cubs. Suddenly the Chicago pitcher begins to weaken in the
+seventh. Spectators cannot perceive this, but McGraw, the Giants' manager,
+has detected some crack. All has been quiet on the bench up to this
+moment. Now the men begin to fling about sweaters and move around, one
+going to the water cooler to get a drink, another picking up a bat or two
+and flinging them in the air, while four or five prospective hitters are
+lined up, swinging several sticks apiece, as if absolutely confident that
+each will get his turn at the plate.
+
+The two coachers on the side lines have become dancing dervishes, waving
+sweaters and arms wildly, and shouting various words of discouragement to
+the pitcher which are calculated to make his job as soft as a bed of
+concrete. He has pitched three balls to the batter, and McGraw vehemently
+protests to the umpire that the twirler is not keeping his foot on the
+slab. The game is delayed while this is discussed at the pitcher's box and
+the umpire brushes off the rubber strip with a whisk broom.
+
+There is a kick against these tactics from the other bench, but the damage
+has been done. The pitcher passes the batter, forgets what he ought to
+throw to the next man, and cannot get the ball where he wants it. A base
+hit follows. Then he is gone. The following batter triples, and, before
+another pitcher can be warmed up, three or four runs are across the plate,
+and the game is won. That explains why so many wise managers keep a
+pitcher warming up when the man in the box is going strong.
+
+It is in the pinch that the pitcher shows whether or not he is a Big
+Leaguer. He must have something besides curves then. He needs a head, and
+he has to use it. It is the acid test. That is the reason so many men, who
+shine in the minor leagues, fail to make good in the majors. They cannot
+stand the fire.
+
+A young pitcher came to the Giants a few years ago. I won't mention his
+name because he has been pitching good minor-league ball since. He was a
+wonder with the bases empty, but let a man or two get on the sacks, and he
+wouldn't know whether he was in a pitcher's box or learning aviation in
+the Wright school, and he acted a lot more like an aviator in the crisis.
+McGraw looked him over twice.
+
+"He's got a spine like a charlotte russe," declared "Mac," after his
+second peek, and he passed him back to the bushes.
+
+Several other Big League managers, tempted by this man's brilliant record
+in the minors, have tried him out since, but he has always gone back.
+McGraw's judgment of the man was correct.
+
+On the other hand, Otis Crandall came to the New York club a few years ago
+a raw country boy from Indiana. I shall never forget how he looked the
+first spring I saw him in Texas. The club had a large number of recruits
+and was short of uniforms. He was among the last of the hopefuls to arrive
+and there was no suit for him, so, in a pair of regular trousers with his
+coat off, he began chasing flies in the outfield. His head hung down on
+his chest, and, when not playing, a cigarette drooped out of the corner of
+his mouth. But he turned out to be a very good fly chaser, and McGraw
+admired his persistency.
+
+"What are you?" McGraw asked him one day.
+
+"A pitcher," replied Crandall. Two words constitute an oration for him.
+
+"Let's see what you've got," said McGraw.
+
+Crandall warmed up, and he didn't have much of anything besides a sweeping
+outcurve and a good deal of speed. He looked less like a pitcher than any
+of the spring crop, but McGraw saw something in him and kept him. The
+result is he has turned out to be one of the most valuable men on the
+club, because he is there in a pinch. He couldn't be disturbed if the
+McNamaras tied a bomb to him, with a time fuse on it set for "at once." He
+is the sort of pitcher who is best when things look darkest. I've heard
+the crowd yelling, when he has been pitching on the enemy's ground, so
+that a sixteen-inch gun couldn't have been heard if it had gone off in the
+lot.
+
+"That crowd was making some noise," I've said to Crandall after the
+inning.
+
+"Was it?" asked Otie. "I didn't notice it."
+
+One day in 1911, he started a game in Philadelphia and three men got on
+the bases with no one out, along about the fourth or fifth inning. He shut
+them out without a run. It was the first game he had started for a long
+while, his specialty having been to enter a contest, after some other
+pitcher had gotten into trouble, with two or three men on the bases and
+scarcely any one out. After he came to the bench with the threatening
+inning behind him, he said to me:
+
+"Matty, I didn't feel at home out there to-day until a lot of people got
+on the bases. I'll be all right now." And he was. I believe that Crandall
+is the best pitcher in a pinch in the National League and one of the most
+valuable men to a team, for he can play any position and bats hard.
+Besides being a great pinch pitcher, he can also hit in a crush, and won
+many games for the Giants in 1911 that way.
+
+Very often spectators think that a pitcher has lost his grip in a pinch,
+when really he is playing inside baseball. A game with Chicago in Chicago
+back in 1908 (not the famous contest that cost the Giants a championship;
+I did not have any grip at all that day; but one earlier in the season)
+best illustrates the point I want to bring out. Mordecai Brown and I were
+having a pitchers' duel, and the Giants were in the lead by the score of 1
+to 0 when the team took the field for the ninth inning.
+
+It was one of those fragile games in which one run makes a lot of
+difference, the sort that has a fringe of nervous prostration for the
+spectators. Chance was up first in the ninth and he pushed a base hit to
+right field. Steinfeldt followed with a triple that brought Chance home
+and left the run which would win the game for the Cubs on third base. The
+crowd was shouting like mad, thinking I was done. I looked at the hitters,
+waiting to come up, and saw Hofman and Tinker swinging their bats in
+anticipation. Both are dangerous men, but the silver lining was my second
+look, which revealed to me Kling and Brown following Hofman and Tinker.
+
+Without a second's hesitation, I decided to pass both Hofman and Tinker,
+because the run on third base would win the game anyway if it scored, and
+with three men on the bags instead of one, there would be a remote chance
+for a triple play, besides making a force out at the plate possible.
+Remember that no one was out at this time. Kling and Brown had always been
+easy for me.
+
+When I got two balls on Hofman, trying to make him hit at a bad one, the
+throng stood up in the stand and tore splinters out of the floor with its
+feet. And then I passed Hofman. The spectators misunderstood my motive.
+
+"He's done. He's all in," shouted one man in a voice which was one of the
+carrying, persistent, penetrating sort. The crowd took the cry up and
+stamped its feet and cheered wildly.
+
+Then I passed Tinker, a man, as I have said before, who has had a habit of
+making trouble for me. The crowd quieted down somewhat, perhaps because it
+was not possible for it to cheer any louder, but probably because the
+spectators thought that now it would be only a matter of how many the Cubs
+would win by. The bases were full, and no one was out.
+
+But that wildly cheering crowd had worked me up to greater effort, and I
+struck Kling out and then Brown followed him back to the bench for the
+same reason. Just one batter stood between me and a tied score now. He was
+John Evers, and the crowd having lost its chortle of victory, was begging
+him to make the hit which would bring just one run over the plate. They
+were surprised by my recuperation after having passed two men. Evers
+lifted a gentle fly to left field and the three men were left on the
+bases. The Giants eventually won that game in the eleventh inning by the
+score of 4 to 1.
+
+But that system doesn't always work. Often I have passed a man to get a
+supposedly poor batter up and then had him bang out a base hit. My first
+successful year in the National League was 1901, although I joined the
+Giants in the middle of the season of 1900. The Boston club at that time
+had a pitcher named "Kid" Nichols who was a great twirler. The first two
+games I pitched against the Boston club were against this man, and I won
+the first in Boston and the second in New York, the latter by the score of
+2 to 1.
+
+Both teams then went west for a three weeks' trip, and when the Giants
+returned a series was scheduled with Boston at the Polo Grounds. There was
+a good deal of speculation as to whether I would again beat the veteran
+"Kid" Nichols, and the newspapers, discussing the promised pitching duel,
+stirred up considerable enthusiasm over it. Of course, I, the youngster,
+was eager to make it three straight over the veteran. Neither team had
+scored at the beginning of the eighth inning. Boston runners got on second
+and third bases with two out, and Fred Tenney, then playing first base on
+the Boston club, was up at the bat. He had been hitting me hard that day,
+and I decided to pass him and take a chance on "Dick" Cooley, the next
+man, and a weak batter. So Tenney got his base on balls, and the sacks
+were full.
+
+Two strikes were gathered on Cooley, one at which he swung and the other
+called, and I was beginning to congratulate myself on my excellent
+judgment, which was really counting my chickens while they were still in
+the incubator. I attempted to slip a fast one over on Cooley and got the
+ball a little too high. The result was that he stepped into it and made a
+three base hit which eventually won the game by the score of 3 to 0. That
+was once when passing a man to get a weak batter did not work.
+
+I have always been against a twirler pitching himself out, when there is
+no necessity for it, as so many youngsters do. They burn them through for
+eight innings and then, when the pinch comes, something is lacking. A
+pitcher must remember that there are eight other men in the game, drawing
+more or less salary to stop balls hit at them, and he must have confidence
+in them. Some pitchers will put all that they have on each ball. This is
+foolish for two reasons.
+
+In the first place, it exhausts the man physically and, when the pinch
+comes, he has not the strength to last it out. But second and more
+important, it shows the batters everything that he has, which is
+senseless. A man should always hold something in reserve, a surprise to
+spring when things get tight. If a pitcher has displayed his whole
+assortment to the batters in the early part of the game and has used all
+his speed and his fastest breaking curve, then, when the crisis comes, he
+"hasn't anything" to fall back on.
+
+Like all youngsters, I was eager to make a record during my first year in
+the Big League, and in one of the first games I pitched against Cincinnati
+I made the mistake of putting all that I had on every ball. We were
+playing at the Polo Grounds, and the Giants had the visitors beaten 2 to
+0, going into the last inning. I had been popping them through, trying to
+strike out every hitter and had not held anything in reserve. The first
+man to the bat in the ninth got a single, the next a two bagger, and by
+the time they had stopped hitting me, the scorer had credited the
+Cincinnati club with four runs, and we lost the game, 4 to 2.
+
+I was very much down in the mouth over the defeat, after I had the game
+apparently won, and George Davis, then the manager of the Giants, noticed
+it in the clubhouse.
+
+"Never mind, Matty," he said, "it was worth it. The game ought to teach
+you not to pitch your head off when you don't need to."
+
+It did. I have never forgotten that lesson. Many spectators wonder why a
+pitcher does not work as hard as he can all through the game, instead of
+just in the pinches. If he did, they argue, there would be no pinches. But
+there would be, and, if the pitcher did not conserve his energy, the
+pinches would usually go against him.
+
+Sometimes bawling at a man in a pinch has the opposite effect from that
+desired. Clarke Griffith, recently of Cincinnati, has a reputation in the
+Big Leagues for being a bad man to upset a pitcher from the coacher's box.
+Off the field he is one of the decentest fellows in the game, but, when
+talking to a pitcher, he is very irritating. I was working in a game
+against the Reds in Cincinnati one day, just after he had been made
+manager of the club, and Griffith spent the afternoon and a lot of breath
+trying to get me going. The Giants were ahead, 5 to 1, at the beginning of
+the seventh. In the Cincinnati half of that inning, "Mike" Mitchell
+tripled with the bases full and later tallied on an outfield fly which
+tied the score. The effect this had on Griffith was much the same as that
+of a lighted match on gasolene.
+
+"Now, you big blond," he shouted at me, "we've got you at last."
+
+I expected McGraw to take me out, as it looked in that inning as if I was
+not right, but he did not, and I pitched along up to the ninth with the
+score still tied and with Griffith, the carping critic, on the side
+lines. We failed to count in our half, but the first Cincinnati batter got
+on the bases, stole second, and went to third on a sacrifice. He was there
+with one out.
+
+"Here's where we get you," chortled Griffith. "This is the point at which
+you receive a terrible showing up."
+
+I tried to get the next batter to hit at bad balls, and he refused, so
+that I lost him. I was afraid to lay the ball over the plate in this
+crisis, as a hit or an outfield fly meant the game. Hoblitzell and
+Mitchell, two of Griffith's heaviest batters, were scheduled to arrive at
+the plate next.
+
+"You ought to be up, Mike," yelled the Cincinnati manager at Mitchell, who
+was swinging a couple of sticks preparatory to his turn at the bat. "Too
+bad you won't get a lick, old man, because Hobby's going to break it up
+right here."
+
+Something he said irritated me, but, instead of worrying me, it made me
+feel more like pitching. I seldom talk to a coacher, but I turned to
+Griffith and said:
+
+"I'll bring Mike up, and we'll see what he can do."
+
+I deliberately passed Hoblitzell without even giving him a chance to hit
+at a single ball. It wasn't to make a grand stand play I did this, but
+because it was baseball. One run would win the game anyway, and, with more
+men on the bases, there were more plays possible. Besides Hoblitzell is a
+nasty hitter, and I thought that I had a better chance of making Mitchell
+hit the ball on the ground, a desirable thing under the conditions.
+
+"Now, Mike," urged Griffith, as Mitchell stepped up to the plate, "go as
+far as you like. Blot up the bases, old boy. This blond is gone."
+
+That sort of talk never bothers me. I had better luck with Mitchell than I
+had hoped. He struck out. The next batter was easy, and the Giants won the
+game in the tenth inning. According to the newspaper reports, I won
+twenty-one or twenty-two games before Cincinnati beat me again, so it can
+be seen that joshing in pinches is not effective against all pitchers. A
+manager must judge the temperament of his victim. But Griffith has never
+stopped trying to rag me. In 1911, when the Giants were west on their
+final trip, I was warming up in Cincinnati before a game, and he was
+batting out flies near me. He would talk to me between each ball he hit
+to the outfield.
+
+"Got anything to-day, Matty?" he asked. "Guess there ain't many games left
+in you. You're getting old."
+
+When I broke into the National League, the Brooklyn club had as bad a
+bunch of men to bother a pitcher as I ever faced. The team had won the
+championship in 1900, and naturally they were all pretty chesty. When I
+first began to play in 1901, this crowd--Kelly, Jennings, Keeler and
+Hanlon--got after me pretty strong. But I seemed to get pitching
+nourishment out of their line of conversation and won a lot of games. At
+last, so I have been told, Hanlon, who was the manager, said to his
+conversational ball players:
+
+"Lay off that Mathewson kid. Leave him alone. He likes the chatter you
+fellows spill out there."
+
+They did not bother me after that, but this bunch spoiled many a promising
+young pitcher.
+
+Speaking of sizing up the temperament of batters and pitchers in a pinch,
+few persons realize that it was a little bit of carelessly placed
+conversation belonging to "Chief" Bender, the Indian pitcher on the
+Athletics, that did as much as anything to give the Giants the first game
+in the 1911 world's series.
+
+"Josh" Devore, the left-fielder on the New York team, is an in-and-out
+batter, but he is a bulldog in a pinch and is more apt to make a hit in a
+tight place than when the bases are empty. And he is quite as likely to
+strike out. He is the type of ball player who cannot be rattled. With
+"Chief" Myers on second base, the score tied, and two out, Devore came to
+the bat in the seventh inning of the first game.
+
+"Look at little 'Josh,'" said Bender, who had been talking to batters all
+through the game.
+
+Devore promptly got himself into the hole with two strikes and two balls
+on him, but a little drawback like that never worries "Josh."
+
+"I'm going to pitch you a curved ball over the outside corner," shouted
+Bender as he wound up.
+
+"I know it, Chief," replied "Josh," and he set himself to receive just
+that sort of delivery.
+
+Up came the predicted curve over the outside corner. "Josh" hit it to left
+field for two bases, and brought home the winning run. Bender evidently
+thought that, by telling Devore what he was actually going to pitch, he
+would make him think he was going to cross him.
+
+"I knew it would be a curve ball," Devore told me after the game. "With
+two and two, he would be crazy to hand me anything else. When he made that
+crack, I guessed that he was trying to cross me by telling the truth.
+Before he spoke, I wasn't sure which corner he was going to put it over,
+but he tipped me."
+
+Some batters might have been fooled by those tactics. It was taking a
+chance in a pinch, and Bender lost.
+
+Very few of the fans who saw this first game of the 1911 world's series
+realize that the "break" in that contest came in the fifth inning. The
+score was tied, with runners on second and third bases with two out, when
+"Eddie" Collins, the fast second baseman of the Athletics, and a dangerous
+hitter, came to the bat. I realized that I was skating on thin ice and was
+putting everything I had on the ball. Collins hit a slow one down the
+first base line, about six feet inside the bag.
+
+With the hit, I ran over to cover the base, and Merkle made for the ball,
+but he had to get directly in my line of approach to field it. Collins,
+steaming down the base line, realized that, if he could get the decision
+at first on this hit, his team would probably win the game, as the two
+other runners could score easily. In a flash, I was aware of this, too.
+
+"I'll take it," yelled Merkle, as he stopped to pick up the ball.
+
+Seeing Merkle and me in front of him, both heavy men, Collins knew that he
+could not get past us standing up. When still ten or twelve feet from the
+bag, he slid, hoping to take us unawares and thus avoid being touched. He
+could then scramble to the bag. As soon as he jumped, I realized what he
+hoped to do, and, fearing that Merkle would miss him, I grabbed the first
+baseman and hurled him at Collins. It was an old-fashioned, football
+shove, Merkle landing on Collins and touching him out. A great many of the
+spectators believed that I had interfered with Merkle on the play. As a
+matter of fact, I thought that it was the crisis of the game and knew
+that, if Collins was not put out, we would probably lose. That football
+shove was a brand new play to me in baseball, invented on the spur of the
+second, but it worked.
+
+In minor leagues, there are fewer games in which a "break" comes. It does
+not develop in all Big League contests by any means. Sometimes one team
+starts to win in the first inning and simply runs away from the other club
+all the way. But in all close games the pinch shows up.
+
+It happens in many contests in the major leagues because of the almost
+perfect baseball played. Depending on his fielders, a manager can play for
+this "break." And when the pinch comes, it is a case of the batter's nerve
+against the pitcher's.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+Big League Pitchers and Their Peculiarities.
+
+     _Nearly Every Pitcher in the Big Leagues Has Some Temperamental or
+     Mechanical Flaw which he is Constantly Trying to Hide, and which
+     Opposing Batters are always Endeavoring to Uncover--The Giants Drove
+     Coveleski, the Man who Beat them out of a Pennant, Back to the Minor
+     Leagues by Taunting him on One Sore Point--Weaknesses of Other
+     Stars._
+
+
+Like great artists in other fields of endeavor, many Big League pitchers
+are temperamental. "Bugs" Raymond, "Rube" Waddell, "Slim" Sallee, and
+"Wild Bill" Donovan are ready examples of the temperamental type. The
+first three are the sort of men of whom the manager is never sure. He does
+not know, when they come into the ball park, whether or not they are in
+condition to work. They always carry with them a delightful atmosphere of
+uncertainty.
+
+In contrast to this eccentric group, there are those with certain
+mechanical defects in their pitching of which opposing clubs take
+advantage. Last comes the irritable, nervous box artist who must have
+things just so, even down to the temperature, before he can work
+satisfactorily.
+
+"As delicate as prima donnas," says John McGraw of this variety.
+
+He speaks of the man who loses his love for his art when his shirt is too
+tight or a toe is sore. This style, perhaps, is the most difficult for a
+manager to handle, unless it is the uncertain, eccentric sort.
+
+As soon as a new pitcher breaks into the Big Leagues, seven clubs are
+studying him with microscopic care to discover some flaw in his physical
+style or a temperamental weakness on which his opponents can play.
+Naturally, if the man has such a "groove," his team mates are endeavoring
+to hide it, but it soon leaks out and becomes general gossip around the
+circuit. Then the seven clubs start aiming at this flaw, and oftentimes
+the result is that a promising young pitcher, because he has some one
+definite weakness, goes back to the minors. A crack in the temperament is
+the worst. Mechanical defects can usually be remedied when discovered.
+
+Few baseball fans know that the Giants drove a man back to the minor
+leagues who once pitched them out of a pennant. The club was tipped off to
+a certain, unfortunate circumstance in the twirler's early life which left
+a lasting impression on his mind. The players never let him forget this
+when he was in a game, and it was like constantly hitting him on a boil.
+
+Coveleski won three games for the Philadelphia National League club from
+the Giants back in 1908, when one of these contests would have meant a
+pennant to the New York club and possibly a world's championship. That was
+the season the fight was decided in a single game with the Chicago Cubs
+after the regular schedule had been played out. Coveleski was hailed as a
+wonder for his performance.
+
+Just after the season closed, "Tacks" Ashenbach, the scout for the
+Cincinnati club, now dead, and formerly a manager in the league where
+Coveleski got his start, came to McGraw and laughed behind his hand.
+
+"Mac," he said, "I'm surprised you let that big Pole beat you out of a
+championship. I can give you the prescription to use every time that he
+starts working. All you have to do is to imitate a snare drum."
+
+"What are you trying to do--kid me?" asked McGraw, for he was still
+tolerably irritable over the outcome of the season.
+
+"Try it," was Ashenbach's laconic reply.
+
+The result was that the first game Coveleski started against the Giants
+the next season, there was a chorus of "rat-a-tat-tats" from the bench,
+with each of the coachers doing a "rat-a-tat-tat" solo, for we decided,
+after due consideration, this was the way to imitate a snare drum. We
+would have tried to imitate a calliope if we had thought that it would
+have done any good against this pitcher.
+
+"I'll hire a fife and drum corps if the tip is worth anything," declared
+McGraw.
+
+"Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!" came the chorus as Coveleski wound up to
+pitch the first ball. It went wide of the plate.
+
+"Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!" it was repeated all through the inning.
+When Coveleski walked to the Philadelphia bench at the end of the first
+round, after the Giants had made three runs off him, he looked over at us
+and shouted:
+
+"You think you're smart, don't you?"
+
+"Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!" was the only reply. But now we knew we had
+him. When a pitcher starts to talk back, it is a cinch that he is
+irritated. So the deadly chorus was kept up in volleys, until the umpire
+stopped us, and then it had to be in a broken fire, but always there was
+the "Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!" When Coveleski looked at McGraw
+coaching on third base, the manager made as if to beat a snare drum, and
+as he glanced at Latham stationed at first, "Arlie" would reply with the
+"rat-a-tat-tat."
+
+The team on the bench sounded like a fife and drum corps without the
+fifes, and Coveleski got no peace. In the fourth inning, after the game
+had been hopelessly lost by the Philadelphia club, Coveleski was taken
+out. We did not understand the reason for it, but we all knew that we had
+found Coveleski's "groove" with that "rat-a-tat-tat" chorus. The man who
+had beaten the New York club out of a pennant never won another game
+against the Giants.
+
+"Say," said McGraw to "Tacks" Ashenbach the next time the club was in
+Cincinnati, "there are two things I want to ask you. First, why does that
+'rat-a-tat-tat' thing get under Coveleski's skin so badly, and, second,
+why didn't you mention it to us when he was beating the club out of a
+championship last fall?"
+
+"Never thought of it," asserted Ashenbach. "Just chanced to be telling
+stories one day last winter about the old times in the Tri-State, when
+that weakness of Coveleski's happened to pop into my mind. Thought maybe
+he was cured."
+
+"Cured!" echoed McGraw. "Only way he could be cured of that is to poison
+him. But tip me. Why is it?"
+
+"Well, this is the way I heard it," answered Ashenbach. "When he was a
+coal miner back in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, he got stuck on some Jane who
+was very fond of music. Everybody who was any one played in the Silver
+Cornet Band down in Melodeon Hall on Thursday nights. The girl told
+Coveleski that she couldn't see him with an X-ray unless he broke into the
+band.
+
+"'But I can't play any instrument,' said the Pole.
+
+"'Well, get busy and learn, and don't show around here until you have,'
+answered the girl.
+
+"Now Coveleski had no talent for music, so he picked out the snare drum as
+his victim and started practising regularly, getting some instruction from
+the local bandmaster. After he had driven all the neighbors pretty nearly
+crazy, the bandmaster said he would give him a show at the big annual
+concert, when he tried to get all the pieces in his outfit that he could.
+Things went all right until it was time for Coveleski to come along with a
+little bit on the snare drum, and then he was nowhere in the neighborhood.
+He didn't even swing at it. But later, when the leader waved for a solo
+from the fiddle, Coveleski mistook it for his hit-and-run sign and came in
+so strong on the snare drum that no one could identify the fiddle in the
+mixup.
+
+"The result was that the leader asked for waivers on old Coveleski very
+promptly, and the girl was not long in following suit. That snare drum
+incident has been the sore point in his makeup ever since."
+
+"I wish I'd known it last fall about the first of September," declared
+McGraw.
+
+But the real snapper came later when the Cincinnati club was whipsawed on
+the information. In a trade with Philadelphia, Griffith got Coveleski for
+Cincinnati along with several other players. Each game he started against
+us he got the old "rat-a-tat-tat." Griffith protested to the umpires, but
+it is impossible to stop a thing of that sort even though the judges of
+play did try.
+
+The Pole did not finish another game against the Giants until his last in
+the Big League. One day we were hitting him near and far, and the
+"rat-a-tat-tat" chorus was only interrupted by the rattle of the bats
+against the ball, when he looked in at the bench to see if Griffith wanted
+to take him out, for it was about his usual leaving time.
+
+"Stay in there and get it," shouted back Griff.
+
+Coveleski did. He absorbed nineteen hits and seventeen runs at the hands
+of the Giants, this man who had taken a championship of the National
+League away from us.
+
+That night Griffith asked for waivers on him, and he left the Big Leagues
+for good. He was a good twirler, except for that one flaw, which cost him
+his place in the big show. There is little mercy among professional ball
+players when a game is at stake, especially if the man has taken a
+championship away from a team by insisting upon working out of his turn,
+so he can win games that will benefit his club not a scintilla.
+
+Mordecai Brown, the great pitcher of the Chicago Cubs and the man who did
+more than any other one player to bring four National League pennants and
+two world's championships to that club, has a physical deformity which has
+turned out to be an advantage. Many years ago, Brown lost most of the
+first finger of his right hand in an argument with a feed cutter, said
+finger being amputated at the second joint; while his third finger is
+shorter than it should be, because a hot grounder carried part of it away
+one day. In some strange way, Brown has achieved wonders with this
+crippled hand. It is on account of the missing finger that he is called
+"Three Fingered" Brown, and he is better known by that appellation than by
+his real name.
+
+Brown beat the Giants a hard game one day in 1911, pitching against me. He
+had a big curve, lots of speed, and absolute control. The Giants could
+not touch him. Next day McGraw was out warming up with Arthur Wilson, the
+young catcher on the club.
+
+"Wonder if he gets any new curve with that short first finger?" said
+McGraw, and thereupon crooked his own initial digit and began trying to
+throw the ball in different ways off it to see what the result would be.
+Finally he decided:
+
+"No, I guess he doesn't get anything extra with the abbreviated finger,
+but that's lucky for you fellows, because, if I thought he did, I'd have a
+surgeon out here to-morrow operating on the first fingers of each of you
+pitchers."
+
+Brown is my idea of the almost perfect pitcher He is always ready to work.
+It is customary for most managers in the Big Leagues to say to a man on
+the day he is slated to pitch:
+
+"Well, how do you feel to-day? Want to work?"
+
+Then if the twirler is not right, he has a chance to say so. But Brown
+always replies:
+
+"Yes, I'm ready."
+
+He likes to pitch and is in chronic condition. It will usually be found at
+the end of a season that he has taken part in more games than any other
+pitcher in the country. He held the Chicago pitching staff together in
+1911.
+
+"Three Fingered" Brown is a finished pitcher in all departments of the
+game. Besides being a great worker, he is a wonderful fielder and sure
+death on bunts. He spends weeks in the spring preparing himself to field
+short hits in the infield, and it is fatal to try to bunt against him. He
+has perfected and used successfully for three years a play invented by
+"Joe" McGinnity, the former Giant pitcher. This play is with men on first
+and second bases and no one out or one out. The batter tries to sacrifice,
+but instead of fielding the ball to first base, which would advance the
+two base runners as intended, Brown makes the play to third and thus
+forces out the man nearest the plate. This is usually successful unless
+the bunt is laid down perfectly along the first base line, so that the
+ball cannot be thrown to third base.
+
+The Cubs have always claimed it was this play which broke the Detroit
+club's heart in the world's series in 1908, and turned the tide so that
+the Cubs took the championship. The American League team was leading in
+the first game, and runners were on first and second bases, "Ty" Cobb
+being on the middle sack. It was evident that the batter would try to
+sacrifice. Brown walked over to Steinfeldt, playing third base, pulling
+out a chew of tobacco as he went.
+
+"No matter what this guy does or where he hits it, stick to your bag,"
+ordered Brown.
+
+Then he put the chew of tobacco in his mouth, a sign which augurs ill for
+his opponents, and pitched a low one to the batter, a perfect ball to
+bunt. He followed the pitch through and was on top of the plate as the
+batter laid it down. The ball rolled slowly down the third base line until
+Brown pounced on it. He whirled and drove the ball at Steinfeldt, getting
+Cobb by a foot. That play carried Detroit off its feet, as a sudden
+reversal often will a ball club, when things are apparently breaking for
+it. Cobb, the Tigers' speed flash, had been caught at third base on an
+attempted sacrifice, an unheard of play, and, from that point on, the
+American Leaguers wilted, according to the stories of Chance and his men.
+
+It is Brown's perfect control that has permitted catchers like Kling and
+Archer to make such great records as throwers. This pitcher can afford to
+waste a ball--that is, pitch out so the batter cannot hit it, but putting
+the catcher in a perfect position to throw--and then he knows he can get
+the next one over. A catcher's efficiency as a thrower depends largely on
+the pitcher's ability to have good enough control of the ball to be able
+to pitch out when it is necessary. Brown helps a catcher by the way in
+which he watches the bases, not permitting the runners to take any lead on
+him. All around, I think that he is one of the most finished pitchers of
+the game.
+
+Russell Ford, of the New York American League club, has a hard pitching
+motion because he seems to throw a spit ball with a jerk. He cannot pitch
+more than one good game in four or five days. McGraw had detected this
+weakness from watching the Highlanders play before the post-season series
+in 1910, and took advantage of it.
+
+"If Ford pitches to-day," said McGraw to his team in the clubhouse before
+the first game, "wait everything out to the last minute. Make him pitch
+every ball you can."
+
+McGraw knew that the strain on Ford's arm would get him along toward the
+end of the game. In the eighth inning the score was tied when Devore came
+to the bat. No crack in Ford was perceptible to the rest of us, but McGraw
+must have detected some slight sign of weakening. He stopped "Josh" on the
+way to the plate and ordered:
+
+"Now go ahead and get him."
+
+By the time the inning was over, the Giants had made four runs, and
+eventually won the game by the score of 5 to 1. McGraw just played for
+this flaw in Ford's pitching, and hung his whole plan of battle on the
+chance of it showing.
+
+"Old Cy" Young has the absolutely perfect pitching motion. When he jumped
+from the National League to the Boston American League club some years
+ago, during the war times, many National League players thought that he
+was through.
+
+"What," said Fred Clarke, the manager of the Pittsburg club, "you American
+Leaguers letting that old boy make good in your set? Why, he was done when
+he jumped the National. He'd lost his speed."
+
+"But you ought to see his curve ball," answered "Bill" Dineen, then
+pitching for the Boston Americans.
+
+"Curve ball," echoed Clarke. "He never had any curve that it didn't take a
+microscope to find. He depended on his speed."
+
+"Well, he's got one now," replied Dineen.
+
+Clarke had a chance to look at the curve ball later, for, with Dineen,
+Young did a lot toward winning the world's championship for Boston from
+Pittsburg in 1903. The old pitcher was wise enough to realize, when he
+began to lose his speed, that he would have to develop a curve ball or go
+back to the minors, and he set to work and produced a peach. He is still
+pitching--for the National League now--and he will win a lot of games yet.
+When he came back in 1911, the American Leaguers said:
+
+"What, going to let that old man in your show again? He's done."
+
+Maybe he will yet figure in another world's championship. One never can
+tell. Anyway, he has taken a couple of falls out of Pittsburg just for
+good luck since he came back to the National League.
+
+Some pitchers depend largely on their motions to fool batters. "Motion
+pitchers" they might be called. Such an elaborate wind-up is developed
+that it is hard for a hitter to tell when and from where the ball is
+coming. "Slim" Sallee of the St. Louis Nationals hasn't any curve to
+mention and he lacks speed, but he wins a lot of ball games on his motion.
+
+"It's a crime," says McGraw, "to let a fellow like that beat you. Why, he
+has so little on the ball that it looks like one of those Salome dancers
+when it comes up to the plate, and actually makes me blush."
+
+But Sallee will take a long wind-up and shoot one off his shoe tops and
+another from his shoulder while he is facing second base. He has good
+control, has catalogued the weaknesses of the batters, and can work the
+corners. With this capital, he was winning ball games for the Cardinals in
+1911 until he fell off the water wagon. He is different from Raymond in
+that respect. When he is on the vehicle, he is on it, and, when he is off,
+he is distinctly a pedestrian.
+
+The way the Giants try to beat Sallee is to get men on the bases, because
+then he has to cut down his motion or they will run wild on him. As soon
+as a runner gets on the bag with Sallee pitching, he tries to steal to
+make "Slim" reduce that long winding motion which is his greatest asset.
+But Sallee won several games from the Giants last season because we could
+not get enough men on the bases to beat him. He only gave us four or five
+hits per contest.
+
+For a long time, "Josh" Devore, the Giants' left-fielder, was "plate shy"
+with left-handers--that is, he stepped away--and all the pitchers in the
+League soon learned of this and started shooting the first ball, a fast
+one, at his head to increase his natural timidity. Sallee, in particular,
+had him scared.
+
+"Stand up there," said McGraw to "Josh" one day when Sallee was pitching,
+"and let him hit you. He hasn't speed enough to hurt you."
+
+"Josh" did, got hit, and found out that what McGraw said was true. It
+cured him of being afraid of Sallee.
+
+As getting men on the bases decreases Sallee's effectiveness, even if he
+is a left-hander, so it increases the efficiency of "Lefty" Leifield of
+Pittsburg. The Giants never regard Sallee as a left-hander with men on the
+bases. Most southpaws can keep a runner close to the bag because they are
+facing first base when in a position to pitch, but Sallee cannot. On the
+other hand, Leifield uses almost exactly the same motion to throw to first
+base as to pitch to the batter. These two are so nearly alike that he can
+change his mind after he starts and throw to the other place.
+
+He keeps men hugging the bag, and it is next to impossible to steal bases
+on him. If he gets his arm so far forward in pitching to the batter that
+he cannot throw to the base, he can see a man start and pitch out so the
+catcher has a fine chance to get the runner at second. If the signal is
+for a curved ball, he can make it a high curve, and the catcher is in
+position to throw. Leifield has been working this combination pitch either
+to first base or the plate for years, and the motion for each is so
+similar that even the umpires cannot detect it and never call a balk on
+him.
+
+A busher broke into the League with the Giants one fall and was batting
+against Pittsburg. There was a man on first base and Leifield started to
+pitch to the plate, saw by a quick glance that the runner was taking too
+large a lead, and threw to first. The youngster swung at the ball and
+started to run it out. Every one laughed.
+
+"What were you trying to do?" asked McGraw.
+
+"I hit the ball," protested the bush leaguer. That is how perfect
+Leifield's motion is with men on the bases. But most of his effectiveness
+resides in that crafty motion.
+
+Many New York fans will remember "Dummy" Taylor, the deaf and dumb pitcher
+of the Giants. He won ball games for the last two years he was with the
+club on his peculiar, whirling motion, but as soon as men got on the bases
+and he had to cut it down, McGraw would take him out. That swing and his
+irresistible good nature are still winning games in the International
+League, which used to be the Eastern.
+
+So if a pitcher expects to be a successful Big Leaguer, he must guard
+against eccentricities of temperament and mechanical motion. As I have
+said, Drucke of the Giants for a long time had a little movement with his
+foot which indicated to the runner when he was going to pitch, and they
+stole bases wildly on him. But McGraw soon discovered that something was
+wrong and corrected it. The armor of a Big Leaguer must be impenetrable,
+for there are seven clubs always looking for flaws in the manufacture, and
+"every little movement has a meaning of its own."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+Playing the Game from the Bench
+
+     _Behind Every Big League Ball Game there Is a Master Mind which
+     Directs the Moves of the Players--How McGraw Won Two Pennants for the
+     Giants from the "Bench" and Lost One by Giving the Players Too Much
+     Liberty--The Methods of "Connie" Mack and Other Great Leaders_
+
+
+The bench! To many fans who see a hundred Big League ball games each
+season, this is a long, hooded structure from which the next batter
+emerges and where the players sit while their club is at bat. It is also
+the resort of the substitutes, manager, mascot and water cooler.
+
+But to the ball player it is the headquarters. It is the place from which
+the orders come, and it is here that the battle is planned and from here
+the moves are executed. The manager sits here and pulls the wires, and
+his players obey him as if they were manikins.
+
+"The batteries for to-day's game," says the umpire, "will be Sallee and
+Bresnahan for St. Louis; Wiltse and Meyers for New York."
+
+"Bunt," says McGraw as his players scatter to take their positions on the
+field. He repeats the order when they come to the bat for the first
+inning, because he knows that Sallee has two weaknesses, one being that he
+cannot field bunts and the other that a great deal of activity in the box
+tires him out so that he weakens. A bunting game hits at both these flaws.
+As soon as Bresnahan observes the plan of battle, he arranges his players
+to meet the attack; draws in his third baseman, shifts the shortstop more
+down the line toward third base, and is on the alert himself to gather in
+slow rollers just in front of the plate. The idea is to give Sallee the
+minimum opportunity to get at the ball and reduce his fielding
+responsibilities to nothing or less. There is one thing about Sallee's
+style known to every Big League manager. He is not half as effective with
+men on the bases, for he depends largely on his deceptive motion to fool
+the batters, and when he has to cut this down because runners are on the
+bases, his pitching ability evaporates.
+
+After the old Polo Grounds had been burned down in the spring of 1911, we
+were playing St. Louis at American League Park one Saturday afternoon, and
+the final returns of the game were about 19 to 5 in our favor, as near as
+I can remember. We made thirteen runs in the first inning. Many spectators
+went away from the park talking about a slaughter and a runaway score and
+so on. That game was won in the very first inning when Sallee went into
+the box to pitch, and McGraw had murmured that mystic word "Bunt!"
+
+The first batters bunted, bunted, bunted in monotonous succession. Sallee
+not yet in very good physical condition because it was early in the
+season, was stood upon his head by this form of attack. Bresnahan redraped
+his infield to try to stop this onslaught, and then McGraw switched.
+
+"Hit it," he directed the next batter.
+
+A line drive whistled past Mowrey's ears, the man who plays third base on
+the Cardinals. He was coming in to get a bunt. Another followed. The break
+had come. Bresnahan removed Sallee and put another pitcher into the box,
+but once a ball club starts to hit the ball, it is like a skidding
+automobile. It can't be stopped. The Giants kept on and piled up a
+ridiculous and laughable score, which McGraw had made possible in the
+first inning by directing his men to bunt.
+
+The Giants won the championship of the National League in 1904 and the New
+York fans gave the team credit for the victory. It was a club of young
+players, and McGraw realized this fact when he started his campaign. Every
+play that season was made from the bench, made by John McGraw through his
+agents, his manikins, who moved according to the wires which he pulled.
+And by the end of the summer his hands were badly calloused from pulling
+wires, but the Giants had the pennant.
+
+When the batter was at the plate in a critical stage, he would stall and
+look to the "bench" for orders to discover whether to hit the ball out or
+lay it down, whether to try the hit and run, or wait for the base runner
+to attempt to steal. By stalling, I mean that he would tie his shoe or fix
+his belt, or find any little excuse to delay the game so that he could get
+a flash at the "bench" for orders. A shoe lace has played an important
+role in many a Big League battle, as I will try to show later on in this
+story. If it ever became the custom to wear button shoes, the game would
+have to be revised.
+
+As the batter looked toward the bench, McGraw might reach for his
+handkerchief to blow his nose, and the batter knew it was up to him to hit
+the ball out. Some days in that season of 1904 I saw McGraw blow his nose
+during a game until it was red and sore on the end, and then another day,
+when he had a cold in his head, he had to do without his handkerchief
+because he wanted to play a bunting game. Until his cold got better, he
+had to switch to another system of signs.
+
+During that season, each coacher would keep his eye on the bench for
+orders. Around McGraw revolved the game of the Giants. He was the game.
+And most of that summer he spent upon the bench, because from there he
+could get the best look at the diamond, and his observations were not
+confined to one place or to one base runner. He was able to discover
+whether an out-fielder was playing too close for a batter, or too far
+out, and rearrange the men. He could perhaps catch a sign from the
+opposing catcher and pass it along to the batter. And he won the pennant
+from the bench. He was seldom seen on the coaching lines that year.
+
+Many fans wonder why, when the Giants get behind in a game, McGraw takes
+to the bench, after having been out on the coaching lines inning after
+inning while the club was holding its own or winning. Time and again I
+have heard him criticised for this by spectators and even by players on
+other clubs.
+
+"McGraw is 'yellow,'" players have said to me. "Just as soon as his club
+gets behind, he runs for cover."
+
+The crime of being "yellow" is the worst in the Big Leagues. It means that
+a man is afraid, that he lacks the nerve to face the music. But McGraw and
+"yellow" are as far apart as the poles, or Alpha and Omega, or Fifth
+Avenue and the Bowery, or any two widely separated and distant things. I
+have seen McGraw go on to ball fields where he is as welcome as a man with
+the black smallpox and face the crowd alone that, in the heat of its
+excitement, would like to tear him apart. I have seen him take all sorts
+of personal chances. He doesn't know what fear is, and in his bright
+lexicon of baseball there is no such word as "fear." His success is partly
+due to his indomitable courage.
+
+There is a real reason for his going to the bench when the team gets
+behind. It is because this increases the club's chances of winning. From
+the bench he can see the whole field, can note where his fielders are
+playing, can get a peek at the other bench, and perhaps pick up a tip as
+to what to expect. He can watch his own pitcher, or observe whether the
+opposing twirler drops his throwing arm as if weary. He is at the helm
+when "on the bench," and, noting any flaw in the opposition, he is in a
+position to take advantage of it at a moment's notice, or, catching some
+sign of faltering among his own men, he is immediately there to strengthen
+the weakness. Many a game he has pulled out of the fire by going back to
+the bench and watching. So the idea obtained by many spectators that he is
+quitting is the wrong one. He is only fighting harder.
+
+The Giants were playing Pittsburg one day in the season of 1909, and
+Clarke and McGraw had been having a great guessing match. It was one of
+those give-and-take games with plenty of batting, with one club forging
+ahead and then the other. Clarke had saved the game for Pittsburg in the
+sixth inning by a shoe-string. Leifield had been pitching up to this
+point, and he wasn't there or even in the neighborhood. But still the
+Pirates were leading by two runs, having previously knocked Ames out of
+the box. Doyle and McCormick made hits with no one out in our half of the
+sixth.
+
+It looked like the "break," and McGraw was urging his players on to even
+up the score, when Clarke suddenly took off his sun glasses in left field
+and stooped down to tie his shoe. When he removes his sun-glasses that is
+a sign for a pitcher to warm up in a hurry, and "Babe" Adams sprinted to
+the outfield with a catcher and began to heat up. Clarke took all of five
+minutes to tie that shoe, McGraw violently protesting against the delay in
+the meantime. Fred Clarke has been known to wear out a pair of shoe laces
+in one game tying and untying them. After the shoe was fixed up, he jogged
+slowly to the bench and took Leifield out of the box. In the interim,
+Adams had had an opportunity to warm up, and Clarke raised his arm and
+ordered him into the box. He fanned the next two men, and the last batter
+hit an easy roller to Wagner. We were still two runs to the bad after that
+promising start in the sixth, and Clarke, for the time being, had saved
+the game by a shoe string.
+
+McGraw, who had been on the coaching lines up to this point, retired to
+the bench after that, and I heard one of those wise spectators, sitting
+just behind our coop, who could tell Mr. Rockefeller how to run his
+business but who spends his life working as a clerk at $18 a week, remark
+to a friend:
+
+"It's all off now. McGraw has laid down."
+
+Watching the game through eyes half shut and drawn to a focus, McGraw
+waited. In the seventh inning Clarke came to bat with two men on the
+bases. A hit would have won the game beyond any doubt. In a flash McGraw
+was on his feet and ran out to Meyers, catching. He stopped the game, and,
+with a wave of his arm, drew Harry McCormick, playing left field, in close
+to third base. The game went on, and Wiltse twisted a slow curve over the
+outside corner of the plate to Clarke, a left-handed hitter. He timed his
+swing and sent a low hit singing over third base. McCormick dashed in and
+caught the ball off his shoe tops. That made three outs. McGraw had saved
+our chances of victory right there, for had McCormick been playing where
+he originally intended before McGraw stopped the contest, the ball would
+have landed in unguarded territory and two runs would have been scored.
+
+But McGraw had yet the game to win. As his team came to the bat for the
+seventh, he said:
+
+"This fellow Adams is a youngster and liable to be nervous and wild.
+Wait."
+
+The batters waited with the patience of Job. Each man let the first two
+balls pass him and made Adams pitch himself to the limit to every batter.
+It got on Adams's nerves. In the ninth he passed a couple of men, and a
+hit tied the score. Clarke left him in the box, for he was short of
+pitchers. On the game went to ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, innings. The
+score was still tied and Wiltse was pitching like a machine. McGraw was on
+the bench, leaving the coaching to his lieutenants. The club was still
+waiting for the youngster to weaken. At last, in the thirteenth, after one
+man had been put out, the eye of McGraw saw Adams drop his pitching arm to
+his side as if tired. It was only a minute motion. None of the spectators
+saw it, none of the players.
+
+"Now hit it, boys," came the order from the "bench." The style was
+switched, and the game won when three hits were rattled out. McGraw alone
+observed that sign of weakening and took advantage of it at the opportune
+time. He won the game from the bench. That is what makes him a great
+manager, observing the little things. Anyone can see the big ones. If he
+had been on the coaching lines, he would not have had as good an
+opportunity to study the young pitcher, for he would have had to devote
+his attention to the base runners. He might have missed this sign of
+wilting.
+
+McGraw is always studying a pitcher, particularly a new one in the League.
+The St. Louis club had a young pitcher last fall, named Laudermilk, who
+was being tried out. He had a brother on the team. In his first game
+against the Giants, played in St. Louis, he held us to a few scattered
+hits and gave us a terrific battle, only losing the game because one of
+his fielders made a costly error behind him. The papers of St. Louis
+boosted him as another "Rube" Waddell. He was left-handed. McGraw laughed.
+
+"All I want," he said, "is another crack at that Buttermilk after what I
+learned about him this afternoon. He can't control his curve, and all you
+fellows have got to do is wait for his fast one. He gave you that fight
+to-day because he had you all swinging at bad curve balls."
+
+Laudermilk made another appearance against the Giants later, and he made
+his disappearance in that game in the fourth inning, when only one was out
+to be exact, after we had scored five runs off him by waiting for his fast
+one, according to McGraw's orders.
+
+After winning the pennant in 1904 by sitting on the bench, keeping away
+from the coaching lines, and making every play himself, McGraw decided
+that his men were older and knew the game and that he would give them more
+rein in 1905. He appeared oftener on the coaching lines and attended more
+to the base runners than to the game as a whole. But in the crises he was
+the man who decided what was to be done. The club won the pennant that
+year and the world's championship. The players got very chesty immediately
+thereafter, and the buttons on their vests had to be shifted back to make
+room for the new measure. They knew the game and had won two pennants,
+besides a championship of the world.
+
+So in the season of 1906 McGraw started with a team of veterans, and it
+was predicted that he would repeat. But these men, who knew the game, were
+making decisions for themselves because McGraw was giving them more
+liberty. The runners went wild on the bases and tried things at the wrong
+stages. They lost game after game. At last, after a particularly
+disastrous defeat one day, McGraw called his men together in the clubhouse
+and addressed them in this wise:
+
+"Because you fellows have won two championships and beaten the Athletics
+is no reason for you all to believe that you are fit to write a book on
+how to play baseball. You are just running wild on the bases. You might as
+well not have a manager. Now don't any one try to pull anything without
+orders. We will begin all over again."
+
+But it is hard to teach old ball-players new tricks, and several fines
+had to be imposed before the orders were obeyed. The club did not win the
+championship that year.
+
+When McGraw won the pennant in 1911, he did it with a club of youngsters,
+many of them playing through their first whole season as regulars in the
+company. There were Snodgrass and Devore and Fletcher and Marquard. Every
+time a batter went to the plate, he had definite orders from the "bench"
+as to what he was to attempt--whether to take two, or lay the ball down,
+or swing, or work the hit and run. Each time that a man shot out from
+first base like a catapulted figure and slid into second, he had been
+ordered by McGraw to try to steal. If players protested against his
+judgment, his invariable answer was:
+
+"Do what I tell you, and I'll take the blame for mistakes."
+
+One of McGraw's laments is, "I wish I could be in three places at once."
+
+I never heard him say it with such a ring to the words as after Snodgrass
+was touched out in the third game of the 1911 world's series, in the tenth
+inning, when his life might have meant victory in that game anyway. I
+have frequently referred to the incident in these stories, so most of my
+readers are familiar with the situation. Snodgrass was put out trying to
+get to third base on a short passed ball, after he had started back for
+second to recover some of the ground he had taken in too long a lead
+before the ball got to Lapp. McGraw's face took on an expression of agony
+as if he were watching his dearest friend die.
+
+"If I could only have been there!" he said. "I wish I could be in three
+places at once."
+
+He meant the bench, the first base coaching line, and the third base line.
+At this particular time he was giving the batters orders from the bench.
+It was one of those incidents which come up in a ball game and have to be
+decided in the drawing of a breath, so that a manager cannot give orders
+unless he is right on the spot.
+
+It is my opinion that it is a big advantage to a team to have the manager
+on the bench rather than in the game. Frank Chance of the Chicago Cubs is
+a great leader, but I think he would be a greater one if he could find one
+of his mechanical ability to play first base, and he could sit on the
+bench as the director general. He is occupied with the duties of his
+position and often little things get by him. I believe that we beat the
+Cubs in two games in 1909 because Chance was playing first base instead of
+directing the game from the bench.
+
+In the first contest Ames was pitching and Schlei catching. Now, Schlei
+was no three hundred hitter, but he was a good man in a pinch and looked
+like Wagner when compared to Ames as a swatter. Schlei came up to the bat
+with men on second and third bases, two out, and a chance to win or put us
+ahead if he could make a hit. The first time it happened, McGraw unfolded
+his arms and relaxed, which is a sign that he is conceding something for
+the time being.
+
+"No use," he said. "All those runners are going to waste. We'll have to
+make another try in the next inning. They will surely pass Schlei to take
+a chance on Ames."
+
+Then Overall, who was pitching, whistled a strike over the plate and
+McGraw's body tightened and the old lines around the mouth appeared. Here
+was a chance yet.
+
+"They're going to let him hit," he cried joyfully.
+
+Schlei made a base hit on the next pitch and scored both men. Almost the
+same thing happened later on in the season with men on second and third
+bases, and Raymond, another featherweight hitter, pitching. It struck me
+as being an oversight on the part of Chance on both occasions, probably
+because he was so busy with his own position and watching the players on
+the field that he didn't notice the pitcher was the next batter. He let
+Schlei hit each time, which probably cost him two games.
+
+The Giants were playing St. Louis at the Polo Grounds in 1910, and I was
+pitching against Harmon. I held the Cardinals to one hit up to the ninth
+inning, and we had the game won by the score of 1 to 0, when their first
+batter in the ninth walked. Then, after two had been put out, another
+scratched a hit. It looked as if we still had the game won, since only one
+man was left to be put out and the runners were on first and second bases.
+Mowrey, the red-headed third baseman, came to the bat.
+
+"Murray's playing too near centre field for this fellow," remarked McGraw
+to some of the players on the bench.
+
+Hardly had he said it when Mowrey shoved a long fly to right field, which
+soared away toward the stand. Murray started to run with the ball. For a
+minute it looked as if he were going to get there, and then it just tipped
+his outstretched hands as it fell to the ground. It amounted to a
+three-base hit and won the game for the Cardinals by the score of 2 to 1.
+
+"I knew it," said McGraw, one of whose many roles is as a prophet of evil.
+"Didn't I call the turn? I ought to have gone out there and stopped the
+game and moved Murray over. I blame myself for that hit."
+
+That was a game in which the St. Louis batters made three hits and won it.
+It isn't the number of hits, so much as when they come, that wins ball
+games.
+
+Frequently, McGraw will stop a game--bring it to a dead standstill--by
+walking out from the bench as the pitcher is about to wind up.
+
+"Stop it a minute, Meyers," he will shout. "Pull Snodgrass in a little bit
+for this fellow."
+
+The man interested in statistics would be surprised at how many times
+little moves of this sort have saved games. But for the McGraw system to
+be effective, he must have working for him a set of players who are
+taking the old look around for orders all the time. He has a way of
+inducing the men to keep their heads up which has worked very well. If a
+player has been slow or has not taken all the distance McGraw believes is
+possible on a hit, he often finds $10 less in his pay envelope at the end
+of the month. And the conversation on the bench at times, when men have
+made errors of omission, would not fit into any Sunday-school room.
+
+During a game for the most part, McGraw is silent, concentrating his
+attention on the game, and the players talk in low tones, as if in church,
+discussing the progress of the contest. But let a player make a bad break,
+and McGraw delivers a talk to him that would have to be written on
+asbestos paper.
+
+Arthur Wilson was coaching at third base in one of the games in a series
+played in Philadelphia the first part of September, 1911. There were
+barely enough pitchers to go around at the time, and McGraw was very
+careful to take advantage of every little point, so that nothing would be
+wasted. He feels that if a game is lost because the other side is better,
+there is some excuse, but if it goes because some one's head should be
+used for furniture instead of thinking baseball, it is like losing money
+that might have been spent. Fletcher was on second base when Meyers came
+to bat. The Indian pushed the ball to right field along the line. Fletcher
+came steaming around third base and could have rolled home safely, but
+Wilson, misjudging the hit, rushed out, tackled him, and threw him back on
+the bag. Even the plodding Meyers reached second on the hit and McGraw was
+boiling. He promptly sent a coacher out to relieve Wilson, and his oratory
+to the young catcher would have made a Billingsgate fishwife sore. We
+eventually won the game, but at this time there was only a difference of
+something like one, and it would have been a big relief to have seen that
+run which Wilson interrupted across the plate.
+
+McGraw is always on Devore's hip because he often feels that this
+brilliant young player does not get as much out of his natural ability as
+he might. He is frequently listless, and, often, after a good hit, he will
+feel satisfied with himself and fan out a couple of times. So McGraw does
+all that he can to discourage this self-satisfaction. "Josh" is a great
+man in a pinch, for he hangs on like a bulldog, and instead of getting
+nervous, works the harder. If the reader will consult past history, he
+will note that it was a pinch hit by Devore which won the first
+world-series game, and one of his wallops, combined with a timely bingle
+by Crandall, was largely instrumental in bringing the second victory to
+the Giants. McGraw has made Devore the ball-player that he is by skilful
+handling.
+
+The Giants were having a nip and tuck game with the Cubs in the early part
+of last summer, when Devore came to the bat in one of those pinches and
+shot a three bagger over third base which won the game. As he slid into
+third and picked himself up, feeling like more or less of a hero because
+the crowd was announcing this fact to him by prolonged cheers, McGraw
+said:
+
+"Gee, you're a lucky guy. I wish I had your luck. You were shot full of
+horseshoes to get that one. When I saw you shut your eyes, I never thought
+you would hit it."
+
+This was like pricking a bubble, and "Josh's" chest returned to its normal
+measure.
+
+Marquard is another man whom McGraw constantly subjects to a
+conversational massage. Devore and Marquard room together on the road,
+and they got to talking about their suite at the hotel during a close game
+in Philadelphia one day. It annoys McGraw to hear his men discussing
+off-stage subjects during a critical contest, because it not only
+distracts their attention, but his and that of the other players.
+
+"Ain't that room of ours a dandy, Rube?" asked Devore.
+
+"Best in the lot," replied Marquard.
+
+"It's got five windows and swell furniture," said Devore.
+
+"Solid mahogany," said McGraw, who apparently had been paying no attention
+to the conversation. "That is, judging by some of the plays I have seen
+you two pull. Now can the conversation."
+
+Devore went down into Cuba with the Giants, carrying quite a bank roll
+from the world's series, and the idea that he was on a picnic. He started
+a personally conducted tour of Havana on his first night there and we lost
+the game the next day, "Josh" overlooking several swell opportunities to
+make hits in pinches. In fact he didn't even get a foul.
+
+"You are fined $25," said McGraw to him after the game.
+
+"You can't fine me," said Devore. "I'm not under contract."
+
+"Then you take the next boat home," replied the manager. "I didn't come
+down here to let a lot of coffee-colored Cubans show me up. You've got to
+either play ball or go home."
+
+Devore made four hits the next day.
+
+In giving his signs from the bench to the players, McGraw depends on a
+gesture or catch word. When "Dummy" Taylor, the deaf and dumb twirler, was
+with the club, all the players learned the deaf and dumb language. This
+medium was used for signing for a time, until smart ball players, like
+Evers and Leach, took up the study of it and became so proficient they
+could converse fluently on their fingers. But they were also great
+"listeners," and we didn't discover for some time that this was how they
+were getting our signs. Thereafter we only used the language for social
+purposes.
+
+Evers and McGraw got into a conversation one day in the deaf and dumb
+language at long range and "Johnny" Evers threw a finger out of joint
+replying to McGraw in a brilliant flash of repartee.
+
+Every successful manager is a distinct type. Each plays the game from the
+bench. "Connie" Mack gives his men more liberty than most. Chance rules
+for the most part with an iron hand. Bresnahan is ever spurring his men
+on. Chance changes his seat on the bench, and there is a double steal.
+"Connie" Mack uncrosses his legs, and the hit and run is tried.
+
+Most managers transmit their signs by movements or words. Jennings is
+supposed to have hidden in his jumble of jibes some catch words.
+
+The manager on the bench must know just when to change pitchers. He has to
+decide the exact time to send in a substitute hitter, when to install
+another base runner. All these decisions must be made in the "batting" of
+an eye. It takes quick and accurate judgment, and the successful manager
+must be right usually. That's playing the game from the bench.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+Coaching Good and Bad
+
+     _Coaching is Divided into Three Parts: Offensive, Defensive, and the
+     Use of Crowds to Rattle Players--Why McGraw Developed Scientific
+     Coaching--The Important Role a Coacher Plays in the Crisis of a Big
+     League Ball Game when, on his Orders, Hangs Victory or Defeat._
+
+
+Critical moments occur in every close ball game, when coaching may win or
+lose it. "That wasn't the stage for you to try to score," yelled John
+McGraw, the manager of the Giants, at "Josh" Devore, as the New York
+left-fielder attempted to count from second base on a short hit to left
+field, with no one out and the team one run behind in a game with the
+Pirates one day in 1911, when every contest might mean the winning or
+losing of the pennant.
+
+"First time in my life I was ever thrown out trying to score from second
+on a base hit to the outfield," answered Devore, "and besides the coacher
+sent me in."
+
+"I don't care," replied McGraw, "that was a two out play."
+
+As a matter of fact, one of the younger players on the team was coaching
+at third base at the time and made an error of judgment in sending Devore
+home, of which an older head would not have been guilty. And the Pirates
+beat us by just that one run the coacher sacrificed. The next batter came
+through with an outfield fly which would have scored Devore from third
+base easily.
+
+Probably no more wily general ever crouched on the coaching line at third
+base than John McGraw. His judgment in holding runners or urging them on
+to score is almost uncanny. Governed by no set rules himself, he has
+formulated a list of regulations for his players which might be called the
+"McGraw Coaching Curriculum." He has favorite expressions, such as "there
+are stages" and "that was a two out play," which mean certain chances are
+to be taken by a coacher at one point in a contest, while to attempt such
+a play under other circumstances would be nothing short of foolhardy.
+
+With the development of baseball, coaching has advanced until it is now an
+exact science. For many years the two men who stood at first and third
+bases were stationed there merely to bullyrag and abuse the pitchers,
+often using language that was a disgrace to a ball field. When they were
+not busy with this part of their art, they handed helpful hints to the
+runners as to where the ball was and whether the second baseman was
+concealing it under his shirt (a favorite trick of the old days), while
+the pitcher pretended to prepare to deliver it. But as rules were made
+which strictly forbade the use of indecent language to a pitcher, and as
+the old school of clowns passed, coaching developed into a science, and
+the sentries stationed at first and third bases found themselves occupying
+important jobs.
+
+For some time McGraw frowned down upon scientific coaching, until its
+value was forcibly brought home to him one day by an incident that
+occurred at the Polo Grounds, and since then he has developed it until his
+knowledge of advising base runners is the pinnacle of scientific
+coaching.
+
+A few years ago, the Giants were having a nip and tuck struggle one day,
+when Harry McCormick, then the left-fielder, came to the plate and knocked
+the ball to the old centre-field ropes. He sped around the bases, and when
+he reached third, it looked as if he could roll home ahead of the ball.
+"Cy" Seymour was coaching and surprised everybody by rushing out and
+tackling McCormick, throwing him down and trying to force him back to
+third base. But big McCormick got the best of the struggle, scrambled to
+his feet, and finally scored after overcoming the obstacle that Seymour
+made. That run won the game.
+
+"What was the matter with you, Cy?" asked McGraw as Seymour came to the
+bench after he had almost lost the game by his poor coaching.
+
+"The sun got in my eyes, and I couldn't see the ball," replied Seymour.
+
+"You'd better wear smoked glasses the next time you go out to coach,"
+replied the manager. The batter was hitting the ball due east, and the
+game was being played in the afternoon, so Seymour had no alibi. From the
+moment "Cy" made that mistake, McGraw realized the value of scientific
+coaching, which means making the most of every hit in a game.
+
+I have always held that a good actor with a knowledge of baseball would
+make a good coacher, because it is the acting that impresses a base
+runner, not the talking. More often than not, the conversation of a
+coacher, be it ever so brilliant, is not audible above the screeching of
+the crowd at critical moments. And I believe that McGraw is a great actor,
+at least of the baseball school.
+
+The cheering of the immense crowds which attend ball games, if it can be
+organized, is a potent factor in winning or losing them. McGraw gets the
+most out of a throng by his clever acting. Did any patron of the Polo
+Grounds ever see him turn to the stands or make any pretence that he was
+paying attention to the spectators? Does he ever play to the gallery? Yet
+it is admitted that he can do more with a crowd, make it more malleable,
+than any other man in baseball to-day.
+
+The attitude of the spectators makes a lot of difference to a ball club. A
+lackadaisical, half-interested crowd often results in the team playing
+slovenly ball, while a lively throng can inject ginger into the men and
+put the whole club on its toes. McGraw is skilled in getting the most out
+of the spectators without letting them know that he is doing it.
+
+Did you ever watch the little manager crouching, immovable, at third base
+with a mitt on his hand, when the New York club goes to bat in the seventh
+inning two runs behind? The first hitter gets a base on balls. McGraw
+leaps into the air, kicks his heels together, claps his mitt, shouts at
+the umpire, runs in and pats the next batter on the back, and says
+something to the pitcher. The crowd gets it cue, wakes up and leaps into
+the air, kicking its heels together. The whole atmosphere inside the park
+is changed in a minute, and the air is bristling with enthusiasm. The
+other coacher, at first base, is waving his hands and running up and down
+the line, while the men on the bench have apparently gained new hope. They
+are moving about restlessly, and the next two hitters are swinging their
+bats in anticipation with a vigor which augurs ill for the pitcher. The
+game has found Ponce de Leon's fountain of youth, and the little, silent
+actor on the third base coaching line is the cause of the change.
+
+"Nick" Altrock, the old pitcher on the Chicago White Sox, was one of the
+most skilful men at handling a crowd that the game has ever developed. As
+a pitcher, Altrock was largely instrumental in bringing a world's
+championship to the American League team in 1906, and, as a coacher, after
+his Big League pitching days were nearly done, he won many a game by his
+work on the lines in pinches. Baseball has produced several comedians,
+some with questionable ratings as humorists. There is "Germany" Schaefer
+of the Washington team, and there were "Rube" Waddell, "Bugs" Raymond and
+others, but "Nick" Altrock could give the best that the game has brought
+out in the way of comic-supplement players a terrible battle for the
+honors.
+
+At the old south side park in Chicago, I have seen him go to the lines
+with a catcher's mitt and a first-baseman's glove on his hands and lead
+the untrained mob as skilfully as one of those pompadoured young men with
+a megaphone does the undergraduates at a college football game.
+
+My experience as a pitcher has been that it is not the steady, unbroken
+flood of howling and yelling, with the incessant pounding of feet, that
+gets on the nerves of a ball-player, but the broken, rhythmical waves of
+sound or the constant reiteration of one expression. A man gets accustomed
+to the steady cheering. It becomes a part of the game and his
+surroundings, as much as the stands and the crowd itself are, and he does
+not know that it is there. Let the coacher be clever enough to induce a
+crowd to repeat over and over just one sentence such as "Get a hit," "Get
+a hit," and it wears on the steadiest nerves. Nick Altrock had his
+baseball chorus trained so that, by a certain motion of the arm, he could
+get the crowd to do this at the right moment.
+
+But the science of latter-day coaching means much more than using the
+crowd. All coaching, like all Gaul and four or five other things, is
+divided into three parts, defensive coaching, offensive coaching and the
+use of the crowd. Offensive coaching means the handling of base runners,
+and requires quick and accurate judgment. The defensive sort is the advice
+that one player on the field gives another as to where to throw the ball,
+who shall take a hit, and how the base runner is coming into the bag.
+There is a sub-division of defensive coaching which might be called the
+illegitimate brand. It is giving "phoney" advice to a base runner by the
+fielders of the other side that may lead him, in the excitement of the
+moment, to make a foolish play. This style has developed largely in the
+Big Leagues in the last three or four years.
+
+Offensive coaching, in my opinion, is the most important. For a man to be
+a good coacher he must be trained for the work. The best coachers are the
+seasoned players, the veterans of the game. A man must know the throwing
+ability of each outfielder on the opposing club, he must be familiar with
+the speed of the base runner whom he is handling, and he must be so
+closely acquainted with the game as a whole that he knows the stages at
+which to try a certain play and the circumstances under which the same
+attempt would be foolish. Above all things, he must be a quick thinker.
+
+Watch McGraw on the coaching lines some day. As he crouches, he picks up a
+pebble and throws it out of his way, and two base runners start a double
+steal. "Hughie" Jennings emits his famous "Ee-Yaah!" and the third
+baseman creeps in, expecting Cobb to bunt with a man on first base and no
+one out. The hitter pushes the ball on a line past the third baseman. The
+next time Jennings shrieks his famous war-cry, it has a different
+intonation, and the batter bunts.
+
+"Bill" Dahlen of the Brooklyn club shouts, "Watch his foot," and the base
+runner starts while the batter smashes the ball on a hit and run play.
+Again the pitcher hears that "Watch his foot." He "wastes one," so that
+the batter will not get a chance at the ball and turns to first base. He
+is surprised to find the runner anchored there. Nothing has happened. So
+it will be seen that the offensive coacher controls the situation and
+directs the plays, usually taking his orders from the manager, if the boss
+himself is not on the lines.
+
+In 1911 the Giants led the National League by a good margin in stealing
+bases, and to this speed many critics attributed the fact that the
+championship was won by the club. I can safely say that every base which
+was pilfered by a New York runner was stolen by the direct order of
+McGraw, except in the few games from which he was absent. Then his
+lieutenants followed his system as closely as any one can pursue the
+involved and intricate style that he alone understands. If it was the base
+running of the Giants that won the pennant for the club, then it was the
+coaching of McGraw, employing the speed of his men and his opportunities,
+which brought the championship to New York.
+
+The first thing that every manager teaches his players now is to obey
+absolutely the orders of the coacher, and then he selects able men to give
+the advice. The brain of McGraw is behind each game the Giants play, and
+he plans every move, most of the hitters going to the plate with definite
+instructions from him as to what to try to do. In order to make this
+system efficient, absolute discipline must be assured. If a player has
+other ideas than McGraw as to what should be done, "Mac's" invariable
+answer to him is:
+
+"You do what I tell you, and I'll take the responsibility if we lose."
+
+For two months at the end of 1911, McGraw would not let either "Josh"
+Devore or John Murray swing at a first ball pitched to them. Murray did
+this one day, after he had been ordered not to, and he was promptly fined
+$10 and sat down on the bench, while Becker played right field. Many fans
+doubtless recall the substitution of Becker, but could not understand the
+move.
+
+Murray and Devore are what are known in baseball as "first-ball hitters."
+That is, they invariably hit at the first one delivered. They watch a
+pitcher wind up and swing their bats involuntarily, as a man blinks his
+eyes when he sees a blow started. It is probably due to slight
+nervousness. The result was that the news of this weakness spread rapidly
+around the circuit by the underground routes of baseball, and every
+pitcher in the League was handing Devore and Murray a bad ball on the
+first one. Of course, each would miss it or else make a dinky little hit.
+They were always "in the hole," which means that the pitcher had the
+advantage in the count. McGraw became exasperated after Devore had fanned
+out three times one day by getting bad starts, hitting at the first ball.
+
+"After this," said McGraw to both Murray and Devore in the clubhouse, "if
+either of you moves his bat off his shoulder at a first ball, even if it
+cuts the plate, you will be fined $10 and sat down."
+
+Murray forgot the next day, saw the pitcher wind up, and swung his bat at
+the first one. He spent the rest of the month on the bench. But Devore's
+hitting improved at once because all the pitchers, expecting him to swing
+at the first one, were surprised to find him "taking it" and, as it was
+usually bad, he had the pitcher constantly "in the hole," instead of being
+at a disadvantage himself. For this reason he was able to guess more
+accurately what the pitcher was going to throw, and his hitting
+consequently improved. So did Murray's after he had served his term on the
+bench. The right-fielder hit well up to the world's series and then he
+just struck a slump that any player is liable to encounter. But so
+dependent is McGraw's system on absolute discipline for its success that
+he dispensed with the services of a good player for a month to preserve
+his style.
+
+In contrast, "Connie" Mack, the manager of the Athletics, and by many
+declared to be the greatest leader in the country (although each private,
+of course, is true to his own general), lets his players use their own
+judgment largely. He seldom gives a batter a direct order unless the pinch
+is very stringent.
+
+The most difficult position to fill as a coacher is at third base, the
+critical corner. There a man's judgment must be lightning fast and always
+accurate. He encourages runners with his voice, but his orders are given
+primarily with his hands, because often the noise made by the crowd drowns
+out the shouted instructions. Last, he must be prepared to handle all
+sorts of base running.
+
+On nearly every ball club, there are some players who are known in the
+frank parlance of the profession as "hog wild runners."
+
+The expression means that these players are bitten by a sort of "bug"
+which causes them to lose their heads when once they get on the bases.
+They cannot be stopped, oftentimes fighting with a coacher to go on to the
+next base, when it is easy to see that if the attempt is made, the runner
+is doomed.
+
+New York fans have often seen McGraw dash out into the line at third base,
+tackle Murray, and throw him back on the bag. He is a "hog wild" runner,
+and with him on the bases, the duties of a coacher become more arduous. He
+will insist on scoring if he is not stopped or does not drop dead.
+
+Some youngster was coaching on third base in a game with Boston in the
+summer of 1911 and the Giants had a comfortable lead of several runs.
+Murray was on second when the batter hit clearly and sharply to left
+field. Murray started, and, with his usual intensity of purpose, rounded
+third base at top speed, bound to score. The ball was already on the way
+home when Murray, about ten feet from the bag, tripped and fell. He
+scrambled safely back to the cushion on all fours. There was nothing else
+to do.
+
+"This is his third year with me," laughed McGraw on the bench, "and that's
+the first time he has ever failed to try to score from second base on a
+hit unless he was tackled."
+
+All ball clubs have certain "must" motions which are as strictly observed
+as danger signals on a railroad. A coacher's hand upraised will stop a
+base runner as abruptly as the uplifted white glove of a traffic policeman
+halts a row of automobiles. A wave of the arm will start a runner going at
+top speed again.
+
+Many times a quick-witted ball-player wins a game for his club by his snap
+judgment. Again McGraw is the master of that. He took a game from the
+Cubs in 1911, because, always alert for flaws in the opposition, he
+noticed the centre-fielder drop his arm after getting set to throw the
+ball home. Devore was on second base, and one run was needed to win the
+game. Doyle hit sharply to centre field, and Devore, coming from second,
+started to slow up as he rounded third. Hofman, the Chicago
+centre-fielder, perceiving this slackening of pace, dropped his arm.
+McGraw noticed this, and, with a wave of his arm, notified Devore to go
+home. With two strides he was at top speed again, and Hofman, taken by
+surprise, threw badly.
+
+The run scored which won the game.
+
+The pastime of bullyragging the pitcher by the coachers has lost its
+popularity recently. The wily coacher must first judge the temperament of
+a pitcher before he dares to undertake to get on his nerves. Clarke
+Griffith, formerly the manager of Cincinnati, has a reputation for being
+able to ruin young pitchers just attempting to establish themselves in the
+Big League. Time and again he has forced youngsters back to the minors by
+his constant cry of "Watch his foot" or "He's going to waste this one."
+
+
+[Illustration: Photo by L. Van Oeyen, Cleveland, Ohio
+
+Baker out at the plate trying to stretch a triple into a home run. This
+picture shows Catcher Easterly of Cleveland waiting with the ball to touch
+Baker. The home-run hero of the Athletics is shown in the picture starting
+the fall-away slide in an effort to get away from Easterly. Harry Davis is
+approaching the plate, and Jack Sheridan is awaiting the outcome at the
+plate.]
+
+
+The rules are very strict now about talking to pitchers, but, if a
+complaint is made, Griffith declares that he was warning the batter that
+it was to be a pitchout, which is perfectly legitimate. The rules permit
+the coacher to talk to the batter and the base runners.
+
+Griffith caught a Tartar in Grover Cleveland Alexander, the sensational
+pitcher of the Philadelphia club. It was at his first appearance in
+Cincinnati that the young fellow got into the hole with several men on the
+bases, and "Mike" Mitchell coming up to the bat.
+
+"Now here is where we get a look at the 'yellow,'" yelled Griffith at
+Alexander.
+
+The young pitcher walked over toward third base.
+
+"I'm going to make that big boob up at the bat there show such a 'yellow
+streak' that you won't be able to see any white," declared Alexander, and
+then he struck Mitchell out. Griffith had tried the wrong tactics.
+
+A story is told of Fred Clarke and "Rube" Waddell, the eccentric twirler.
+Waddell was once one of the best pitchers in the business when he could
+concentrate his attention on his work, but his mind wandered easily.
+
+"Now pay no attention to Clarke," warned his manager before the game.
+
+Clarke tried everything from cajolery to abuse on Waddell with no effect,
+because the eccentric "Rube" had been tipped to fight shy of the Pittsburg
+manager. Suddenly Clarke became friendly and walked with Waddell between
+innings, chatting on trivial matters. At last he said:
+
+"Why don't you come out on my ranch in Kansas and hunt after the season,
+George? I've got a dog out there you might train."
+
+"What kind of a dog?" asked Waddell at once interested.
+
+"Just a pup," replied Clarke, "and you can have him if he takes a fancy to
+you."
+
+"They all do," replied Waddell. "He's as good as mine."
+
+The next inning the big left-hander was still thinking of that dog, and
+the Pirates made five runs.
+
+In many instances defensive coaching is as important as the offensive
+brand, which simply indorses the old axiom that any chain is only as
+strong as its weakest link or any ball club is only as efficient as its
+most deficient department. When Roger Bresnahan was on the Giants, he was
+one of those aggressive players who are always coaching the other fielders
+and holding a team together, a type so much desired by a manager. If a
+slow roller was hit between the pitcher's box and third base, I could
+always hear "Rog" yelling, "You take it, Matty," or, "Artie, Artie,"
+meaning Devlin, the third baseman. He was in a position to see which man
+would be better able to make the play, and he gave this helpful advice.
+His coaching saved many a game for the Giants in the old days. "Al"
+Bridwell, the former shortstop, was of the same type, and, if you have
+ever attended a ball game at the Polo Grounds, you have doubtless heard
+him in his shrill, piercing voice, shouting:
+
+"I've got it! I've got it!" or, "You take it!"
+
+This style of coaching saves ball-players from accidents, and accidents
+have lost many a pennant. I have always held that it was a lack of the
+proper coaching that sent "Cy" Seymour, formerly the Giant centre-fielder,
+out of the Big Leagues and back to the minors. Both Murray and he
+attempted to catch the same fly in the season of 1909 and came into
+collision. Seymour went down on the field, but later got up and played
+the game out. However, he hurt his leg so badly that it never regained its
+strength.
+
+Then there is that other style of defensive coaching which is the shouting
+of misleading advice by the fielders to the base runners. Collins and
+Barry, the second baseman and shortstop on the Athletics, worked a clever
+trick in one of the games of the 1911 world's series which illustrates my
+point. The play is as old as the one in which the second baseman hides the
+ball under his shirt so as to catch a man asleep off first base, but often
+the old ones are the more effective.
+
+Doyle was on first base in one of the contests played in Philadelphia, and
+the batter lifted a short foul fly to Baker, playing third base. The crowd
+roared and the coacher's voice was drowned by the volume of sound. "Eddie"
+Collins ran to cover second base, and Barry scrabbled his hand along the
+dirt as if preparing to field a ground ball.
+
+"Throw it here! Throw it here!" yelled Collins, and Doyle, thinking that
+they were trying for a force play, increased his efforts to reach second.
+Baker caught the fly, and Larry was doubled up at first base so far that
+he looked foolish. Yet it really was not his fault. The safest thing for a
+base runner to do under those circumstances is to get one glimpse of the
+coacher's motions and then he can tell whether to go back or to go on.
+
+"Johnnie" Kling, the old catcher of the Chicago Cubs, used to work a
+clever piece of defensive coaching with John Evers, the second baseman.
+This was tried on young players and usually was successful. The victim was
+picked out before the game, and the play depended upon him arriving at
+second base. Once there the schemers worked it as follows:
+
+When the "busher" was found taking a large lead, Evers would dash to the
+bag and Kling would make a bluff to throw the ball, but hold it. The
+runner naturally scampered for the base. Then, seeing that Kling had not
+thrown, he would start to walk away from it again.
+
+"If the Jew had thrown that time, he would have had you," Evers would
+carelessly hurl over his shoulder at the intended victim. The man usually
+turned for a fatal second to reply. Tinker, who was playing shortstop,
+rushed in from behind, Kling whipped the ball to the bag, and the man,
+caught off his guard, was tagged out. The play was really made before the
+game, when the victim was selected.
+
+It was this same Evers-Kling combination that turned the tide in the first
+inning of the most famous game ever played in baseball, the extra one
+between the Giants and the Cubs in the season of 1908. The Chicago club
+was nervous in the first inning. Tenney was hit by a pitched ball, and
+Herzog walked. It looked as if Pfeister, the Chicago pitcher, was losing
+his grip. Bresnahan struck out, and Kling, always alert, dropped the third
+strike, but conveniently at his feet. Thinking that here was an
+opportunity the crowd roared. Evers, playing deep, almost behind Herzog,
+shouted, "Go on!"
+
+Herzog took the bait in the excitement of the moment and ran--and was
+nipped many yards from first base.
+
+There are many tricks to the coacher's trade, both offensive and
+defensive, and it is the quickest-witted man who is the best coacher. The
+sentry at first yells as the pitcher winds up, "There he goes!" imitating
+the first baseman as nearly as possible, in the hope that the twirler
+will waste one by pitching out and thus give the batter an advantage. The
+coacher on third base will shout at the runner on a short hit to the
+outfield, "Take your turn!" in the dim hope that the fielder, seeing the
+man rounding third, will throw the ball home, and the hitter can thus make
+an extra base. And the job of coaching is no sinecure. McGraw has told me
+after directing a hard game that he is as tired as if he had played.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+Honest and Dishonest Sign Stealing
+
+     _Everything Fair in Baseball except the Dishonest Stealing of
+     Signals--The National Game More a Contest of the Wits than Most
+     Onlookers Imagine._
+
+
+When the Philadelphia Athletics unexpectedly defeated the Chicago Cubs in
+the world's series of 1910, the National League players cried that their
+signals had been stolen by the American League team, and that, because
+Connie Mack's batters knew what to expect, they had won the championship.
+
+But were the owners or any member of the Philadelphia club arrested
+charged with grand larceny in stealing the baseball championship of the
+world? No. Was there any murmur against the methods of Connie Mack's men?
+No, again. By a strange kink in the ethics of baseball John Kling, the
+Chicago catcher, was blamed by the other players on the defeated team for
+the signs being stolen. They charged that he had been careless in covering
+his signals and that the enemy's coachers, particularly Topsy Hartsell, a
+clever man at it, had seen them from the lines. This was really the cause
+of Kling leaving the Cubs and going to Boston in 1911.
+
+After the games were over and the series was lost, many of the players,
+and especially the pitchers, would hardly speak to Kling, the man who had
+as much as any one else to do with the Cubs winning four championships,
+and the man who by his great throwing had made the reputations of a lot of
+their pitchers. But the players were sore because they had lost the series
+and lost the extra money which many of them had counted as their own
+before the games started, and they looked around for some one to blame and
+found Kling. One of the pitchers complained after he had lost a game:
+
+"Can't expect a guy to win with his catcher giving the signs so the
+coachers can read 'em and tip the batters."
+
+"And you can't expect a catcher to win a game for you if you haven't got
+anything on the ball," replied Kling, for he is quick tempered and cannot
+stand reflections on his ability. But the pitcher's chance remark had
+given the other players an excuse for fixing the blame, and it was put on
+Kling.
+
+I honestly do not believe that Kling was in any way responsible for the
+rout of the proud Cubs. The Chicago pitchers were away off form in the
+series and could not control the ball, thus getting themselves "into the
+hole" all the time. Shrewd Connie Mack soon realized this and ordered his
+batters to wait everything out, to make the twirlers throw every ball
+possible. The result was that, with the pitcher continually in the hole,
+the batters were guessing what was coming and frequently guessing right,
+as any smart hitter could under the circumstances. This made it look as if
+the Athletics were getting the Cubs' signals.
+
+"Why, I changed signs every three innings, Matty," Kling told me
+afterwards in discussing the charge. "Some of the boys said that I gave
+the old bended-knee sign for a curve ball. Well, did you ever find
+anything to improve on the old ones? That's why they are old."
+
+But the Cubs still point the finger of scorn at Kling, for it hurts to
+lose. I know it, I have lost myself. Even though the Athletics are charged
+with stealing the signs whether they did or not, it is no smirch on the
+character of the club, for they stole honestly--which sounds like a
+paradox.
+
+"You have such jolly funny morals in this bally country," declared an
+Englishman I once met. "You steal and rob in baseball and yet you call it
+fair. Now in cricket we give our opponents every advantage, don't cher
+know, and after the game we are all jolly good fellows at tea together."
+
+This brings us down to the ethics of signal stealing. Each game has its
+own recognized standards of fairness. For instance, no tricks are
+tolerated in tennis, yet the baseball manager who can devise some scheme
+by which he disconcerts his opponents is considered a great leader. I was
+about to say that all is fair in love, war, and baseball, but will modify
+that too comprehensive statement by saying all is fair in love, war, and
+baseball except stealing signals dishonestly, which listens like another
+paradox. Therefore, I shall divide the subject of signal stealing into
+half portions, the honest and the dishonest halves, and, since we are
+dealing in paradoxes, take up the latter first.
+
+Dishonest signal stealing might be defined as obtaining information by
+artificial aids. The honest methods are those requiring cleverness of eye,
+mind, and hand without outside assistance. One of the most flagrant and
+for a time successful pieces of signal stealing occurred in Philadelphia
+several years ago.
+
+Opposing players can usually tell when the batsman is getting the signs,
+because he steps up and sets himself for a curve with so much confidence.
+During the season of 1899 the report went around the circuit that the
+Philadelphia club was stealing signals, because the batters were popping
+them all on the nose, but no one was able to discover the transmitter. The
+coachers were closely watched and it was evident that these sentinels were
+not getting the signs.
+
+It was while the Washington club, then in the National League, was playing
+Philadelphia that there came a rainy morning which made the field very
+wet, and for a long time it was doubtful whether a game could be played
+in the afternoon, but the Washington club insisted on it and overruled the
+protests of the Phillies. Arlie Latham, now the coacher on the Giants',
+was playing third base for the Senators at the time. He has told me often
+since how he discovered the device by which the signs were being stolen.
+He repeated the story to me recently when I asked him for the facts to use
+in this book.
+
+"There was a big puddle in the third base coaching box that day," said
+Latham. "And it was in the third inning that I noticed Cupid Childs, the
+Philadelphia second baseman, coaching. He stood with one foot in the
+puddle and never budged it, although the water came up to his shoe-laces.
+He usually jumped around when on the lines, and this stillness surprised
+me.
+
+"'Better go get your rubbers if you are goin' to keep that trilby there,'
+I said to him. 'Charley horse and the rheumatism have no terrors for you.'
+
+"But he kept his foot planted in the puddle just the same, and first thing
+the batter cracked out a base hit.
+
+"'So that's where you're gettin' the signs?' I said to him, not guessing
+that it really was. Then he started to jump around and we got the next
+two batters out right quick, there being a big slump in the Philadelphia
+hitting as soon as he took his foot out of that puddle.
+
+"When the Washington club went to bat I hiked out to the third base line
+and started to coach, putting my foot into the puddle as near the place
+where Childs had had his as I could.
+
+"'Here's where we get a few signs,' I yelled, 'and I ain't afraid of
+Charley horse, either.'
+
+"I looked over at the Philadelphia bench, and there were all the extra
+players sitting with their caps pulled down over their eyes, so that I
+couldn't see their faces. The fielders all looked the other way. Then I
+knew I was on a warm scent.
+
+"When the Washington players started back for the field I told Tommy
+Corcoran that I thought they must be getting the signs from the third base
+coaching box, although I hadn't been able to feel anything there. He went
+over and started pawing around in the dirt and water with his spikes and
+fingers. Pretty soon he dug up a square chunk of wood with a buzzer on the
+under side of it.
+
+"'That ought to help their hitting a little,' he remarked as he kept on
+pulling. Up came a wire, and when he started to pull on it he found that
+it was buried about an inch under the soil and ran across the outfield. He
+kept right on coiling it up and following it, like a hound on a scent, the
+Philadelphia players being very busy all this time and nervous like a
+busher at his debut into Big League society. One of the substitutes
+started to run for the clubhouse, but I stopped him.
+
+"Tommy was galloping by this time across the outfield and all the time
+pulling up this wire. It led straight to the clubhouse, and there sitting
+where he could get a good view of the catcher's signs with a pair of
+field-glasses was Morgan Murphy. The wire led right to him.
+
+"'What cher doin'?' asked Tommy.
+
+"'Watchin' the game,' replied Murphy.
+
+"'Couldn't you see it easier from the bench than lookin' through those
+peepers from here? And why are you connected up with this machine?'
+inquired Tommy, showin' him the chunk of wood with the buzzer attached.
+
+"'I guess you've got the goods,' Murphy answered with a laugh, and all the
+newspapers laughed at it then, too. But the batting averages of the
+Philadelphia players took an awful slump after that.
+
+"'Why didn't they tip me?' asked Murphy as he put aside his field-glasses
+and went to the bench and watched the rest of the game from there. And we
+later won that contest, our first victory of the series, which was no
+discredit to us, since it was like gamblin' against loaded dice,"
+concluded "Arlie."
+
+The newspapers may have laughed at the incident in those days, but since
+that time the National Commission has intimated that if there was ever a
+recurrence of such tactics, the club caught using them would be subjected
+to a heavy fine and possibly expulsion from the League. So much have
+baseball standards improved.
+
+The incident is a great illustration of the unfair method of obtaining
+signs. Since then, there have come from time to time reports of teams
+taking signals by mechanical devices. The Athletics once declared that the
+American League team in New York had a man stationed behind the fence in
+centre field with a pair of glasses and that he shifted a line in the
+score board slightly, so as to tip off the batters, but this charge was
+never confirmed. It was said a short time ago that the Athletics
+themselves had a spy located in a house outside their grounds and that he
+tipped the batters by raising and lowering an awning a trifle. When the
+Giants went to Philadelphia in 1911 for the first game of the world's
+series in the enemy's camp, I kept watching the windows of the houses just
+outside of the park for suspicious movements, but could discover none.
+Once in Pittsburg I thought that the Pirates were getting the Giants'
+signals and I kept my eyes glued to the score board in centre field,
+throughout one whole series, to see if any of the figures moved or changed
+positions, as that seemed to be the only place from which a batter could
+be tipped. But I never discovered anything wrong.
+
+There are many fair ways to steal the signs of the enemy, so many that the
+smart ball-player is always kept on the alert by them. Baseball geniuses,
+some almost magicians, are constantly looking for new schemes to find out
+what the catcher is telling the pitcher, what the batter is tipping the
+base runner to, or what the coacher's instructions are. The Athletics have
+a great reputation as being a club able to get the other team's signs if
+they are obtainable. This is their record all around the American League
+circuit.
+
+Personally I do not believe that Connie Mack's players steal as much
+information as they get the credit for, but the reputation itself, if they
+never get a sign, is valuable. If a prizefighter is supposed to have a
+haymaking punch in his left hand, the other fellow is going to be
+constantly looking out for that left. If the players on a club have great
+reputations as signal stealers, their opponents are going to be on their
+guard all the time, which gives the team with the reputation just that
+much advantage. If a pitcher has a reputation, he has the percentage on
+the batter. Therefore, this gossip about the signal-stealing ability of
+the Athletics has added to their natural strength.
+
+"Bill," I said to Dahlen, the Brooklyn manager, one day toward the end of
+the season of 1911, when the Giants were playing their schedule out after
+the pennant was sure, "see if you can get the Chief's signs."
+
+Dahlen coached on first base and then went to third, always looking for
+Meyers's signals. Pretty soon he came to me.
+
+"I can see them a little bit, Matty," he reported.
+
+"Chief," I said to Meyers that night as I buttonholed him in the
+clubhouse, "you've got to be careful to cover up your signs in the Big
+Series. The Athletics have a reputation of being pretty slick at getting
+them. And to make sure we will arrange a set of signs that I can give if
+we think they are 'hep' to yours."
+
+So right there Meyers and I fixed up a code of signals that I could give
+to him, the Chief always to use some himself which would be "phoney" of
+course, and might have the desirable effect of "crossing them."
+
+In the first championship game at the Polo Grounds, Topsy Hartsell was out
+on the coaching lines looking for signals, and the Chief started giving
+the real ones until Davis stepped into a curve ball and cracked it to left
+field for a single, scoring the only run made by the Athletics. Right here
+Meyers stopped, and I began transmitting the private information, although
+the Chief continued to pass out signals that meant nothing. The Athletics
+were getting the Indian's and could not understand why the answers seemed
+invariably to be wrong, for a couple of them struck out swinging at bad
+balls, and one batter narrowly avoided being hit by a fast one when
+apparently he had been tipped off to a curve and was set ready to swing at
+it. They did not discover that I was behind the signals, although to make
+this method successful the catcher must be a clever man. If he makes it
+too obvious that his signals are "phoney" and are meant to be seen, then
+the other club will look around for the source of the real ones. Meyers
+carefully concealed his misleading wig-wags beneath his chest protector,
+under his glove and behind his knee, as any good catcher does his real
+signs, so they would not look at my head.
+
+Many persons argue: if a man sees the signs, what good does it do him if
+he does not know what they mean? It is easy for a smart ball-player to
+deduce the answers, because there are only three real signs passed between
+a pitcher and catcher, the sign for the fast one, for the curve ball and
+for the pitchout. If a coacher sees a catcher open his hand behind his
+glove and then watches the pitcher throw a fast one, he is likely to guess
+that the open palm says "Fast one."
+
+After a coacher has stolen the desired information, he must be clever to
+pass it along to the batter without the other club being aware that he is
+doing it. He may straighten up to tell the batter a curve ball is coming,
+and bend over to forecast a fast one, and turn his back as a neutral
+signal, meaning that he does not know what is coming. If a coacher is
+smart enough to pass the meanings to the batter without the other team
+getting on, he may go through the entire season as a transmitter of
+information. To steal signs fairly requires quickness of mind, eye and
+action. Few players can do it successfully. Perhaps that is why it is
+considered fair.
+
+If a team is going to make a success of signal stealing it must get every
+sign that is given, for an occasional crumb of information picked up at
+random is worse than none at all. First, it is dangerous. A batter, tipped
+off that a curved ball is coming, steps up to the plate and is surprised
+to meet a fast one, which often he has not time to dodge. Many a good
+ball-player has been injured in this way, and an accident to a star has
+cost more than one pennant.
+
+"Joe" Kelley, formerly manager of the Reds, was coaching in Cincinnati one
+day several years ago, and "Eagle Eye Jake" Beckley, the old first
+baseman and a chronic three hundred hitter, was at the bat. I had been
+feeding him low drops and Kelley, on the third base line, thought he was
+getting the signals that Jack Warner, the Giant catcher in a former cast
+of characters, was giving. I saw Kelley apparently pass some information
+to Beckley, and the latter stepped almost across the plate ready for a
+curve. He encountered a high, fast one, close in, and he encountered it
+with that part of him between his neck and hat band. "Eagle Eye" was
+unconscious for two days after that and in the hospital several weeks.
+When he got back into the game he said to me one day:
+
+"Why didn't you throw me that curve, Matty, that 'Joe' tipped me to?"
+
+"Were you tipped off?" I asked. "Then it was 'Joe's' error, not mine."
+
+"Say," he answered, "if I ever take another sign from a coacher I hope the
+ball kills me."
+
+"It probably will," I replied. "That one nearly did."
+
+It is one of the risks of signal stealing. Beckley had received the wrong
+information and I felt no qualms at hitting him, for it was not a wild
+pitch but a misinterpreted signal which had put him out of the game. His
+manager, not I, was to blame. For this reason many nervous players refuse
+to accept any information from a coacher, even if the coacher thinks he
+knows what is going to be pitched, because they do not dare take the risk
+of getting hit by a fast one, against which they have little protection if
+set for a curve. On this account few National League clubs attempt to
+steal signs as a part of the regular team work, but many individuals make
+a practice of it for their own benefit and for the benefit of the batter,
+if he is not of the timid type.
+
+As soon as a runner gets on second base he is in an excellent position to
+see the hands of the catcher, and it is then that the man behind the bat
+is doing all that he can cover up. Jack Warner, the old Giant, used
+sometimes to give his signals with his mouth in this emergency, because
+they were visible from the pitcher's box, but not from second base. The
+thieves were looking at his hands for them. In the National League, Leach,
+Clarke, Wagner, Bresnahan, Evers, Tinker and a few more of the sort are
+dangerous to have on second. Wagner will get on the middle sack and watch
+the catcher until he thinks that he has discovered the pitchout sign,
+which means a ball is to be wasted in the hope that a base runner can be
+caught. Wagner takes a big lead, and the catcher, tempted, gives the
+"office" to waste one, thinking to nail "Hans" off second. The Dutchman
+sees it, and instead of running back to second dashes for third. He starts
+as the catcher lets go of the ball to throw to second and can usually make
+the extra base.
+
+Many coachers, who do not attempt to get the signs for fast and curved
+balls, study the catcher to get his pitchout sign, because once this is
+recognized it gives the team at the bat a great advantage. If a coacher
+sees the catcher give the pitchout signal he can stop the runner from
+trying to steal and the pitcher has wasted a ball and is "in the hole."
+Then if his control is uncertain the result is likely to be disastrous.
+
+Several players in the National League are always trying to get the
+batter's signs. Bresnahan, the manager and catcher of the St. Louis club,
+devotes half his time and energy to looking for the wireless code employed
+by batter and base runner. If he can discover the hit and run sign, then
+he is able to order a pitchout and catch the man who has started to run in
+response to it several feet at second base. He is a genius at getting this
+information.
+
+Once late in 1911, when the New York club was in St. Louis on the last
+trip West, I came up to the bat with Fletcher on first base. I rubbed the
+end of my stick with my hand and Roger exclaimed:
+
+"Why, that's your old hit and run, Matty! What are you trying to do, kid
+me?"
+
+"I forgot you knew it, Rog," I answered, "but it goes."
+
+He thought I was attempting to cross him and did not order a pitchout. The
+sign had been given intentionally. I hit the ball and had the laugh on
+him. If a catcher can get a pitchout on a hit and run sign he upsets the
+other team greatly. Take a fast man on first base and the batter signs him
+that he is going to hit the next ball. The runner gets his start and the
+ball comes up so wide that the batter could not half reach it with a
+ten-foot bat. The runner is caught easily at second base and it makes him
+look foolish. That is why so many catchers devote time to looking for
+this signal. It is a great fruit bearer.
+
+Many of the extra players on the bench are always on the alert for the hit
+and run sign. This is a typical situation:
+
+The Giants were playing the Pittsburg club one day in 1911. Byrne was on
+first base. Fred Clarke was at bat and Byrne started for second while
+Clarke hit the ball to right field, Byrne reaching third base on the play.
+
+"What did he do?" asked Ames.
+
+"Did you get it, Matty?" inquired Wiltse.
+
+"No," I answered. "Did you?"
+
+"I think he tapped his bat on the plate," replied Wiltse. The next time
+Clarke came up we were all looking to see if he tapped his bat on the
+plate. Byrne was again on first base. The Pirates' manager fixed his cap,
+he stepped back out of the box and knocked the dirt out of his cleats, and
+he did two or three other natural things before the pitch, but nothing
+happened. Then he tapped his bat on the plate.
+
+"Make him put them over, Chief," yelled Wiltse which, translated, meant,
+"Order a pitch-out, Chief. He just gave Byrne the hit and run sign."
+
+Meyers signed for a pitchout, and Byrne was caught ten feet from second.
+Wiltse on the bench had really nailed the base runner. As soon as a sign
+is discovered it is communicated to the other players, and they are always
+watching for it, but try to conceal the fact that they recognize it,
+because, as soon as a batter discovers that his messages are being read,
+he changes his code.
+
+From these few facts about signals and sign stealing some idea of the
+battle of wits that is going on between two ball clubs in a game may be
+obtained. That is why so few men without brains last in the Big Leagues
+nowadays. A young fellow broke in with the Giants a few years ago and was
+very anxious to make good. He was playing shortstop.
+
+"Watch for the catcher's signs and then shift," McGraw told him one day.
+It is well known in baseball that a right-handed hitter will naturally
+push a curve over the outside corner of the plate toward right field and
+over the inside he will pull it around toward third base. But this
+youngster was overanxious and would shift before the pitcher started to
+deliver the ball. Some smart player on another club noticed this and
+tipped the batters off to watch the youngster for the signs. When he
+shifted toward second base the batter set himself for a ball over the
+outside corner. For a long time McGraw could not understand how the other
+teams were getting the Giants' signs, especially as it was on our home
+grounds. At last he saw the new infielder shift one day and the batter
+prepare for an inside ball.
+
+"Say," he said to the player, rushing on the field after he had stopped
+the pitcher, "do you know you are telegraphing the signs to the batters by
+moving around before the pitcher throws the ball?"
+
+Bill Dahlen, formerly a shortstop on the Giants, used to shift, but he was
+clever enough to wait until the pitcher had started his motion, when it
+was too late for the batter to look at him.
+
+Ball-players are always looking to steal some sign so that they may
+"cross" the enemy. In the language of the Big Leagues it is "signs," never
+"signals." And in conclusion I reiterate my former sentiments that all is
+fair in love, war and baseball except stealing signs dishonestly.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+Umpires and Close Decisions
+
+     _Ball-players and Umpires are Regarded by the Fans as Natural
+     Enemies, and the Fans Are about Right--Types of Arbiters and how the
+     Players Treat them--"Silk" O'Loughlin, "Hank" O'Day, "Tim" Hurst,
+     "Bob" Emslie, and Others, and Close Ones they have Called--Also Some
+     Narrow Escapes which have Followed._
+
+
+When the Giants were swinging through the West in 1911 on the final trip,
+the club played three games in Pittsburg, with the pennant at that time
+only a possibility more or less remote. The Pirates still had a chance,
+and they were fighting hard for every game, especially as they were
+playing on their home grounds.
+
+The first contest of the series was on Saturday afternoon before a crowd
+that packed the gigantic stands which surrounded Forbes Field. The throng
+wanted to see the Pirates win because they were the Pirates, and the
+Giants beaten because they were the Giants, and were sticking their heads
+up above the other clubs in the race. I always think of the horse show
+when I play in Pittsburg, for they have the diamond horse-shoe of boxes
+there, you know. No; I'm wrong--it's at the Metropolitan Opera House they
+have the diamond horse-shoe. Any way, the diamond horse-shoe of boxes was
+doing business at Forbes Field that Saturday afternoon.
+
+This story is going to be about umpires, but the reader who has never seen
+the Forbes Field folks must get the atmosphere before I let the yarn into
+the block. Once, on a bright, sunny day there, I muffed fly after fly
+because the glint of Sol's rays on the diamonds blinded me. Always now I
+wear smoked glasses. "Josh" Devore is so afraid that he will lose social
+caste when he goes to Pittsburg that he gets his finger-nails manicured
+before he will appear on the field. And the lady who treated him one day
+polished them to such an ultimate glossiness that the sun flashed on them,
+and he dropped two flies in left field.
+
+"Look here, Josh," warned McGraw after the game, "I hire you to play ball
+and not to lead cotillions. Get some pumice stone and rub it on your
+finger-nails and cut out those John Drew manicures after this."
+
+This crowd is worse after umpires than the residents of the bleachers. The
+game on that Saturday worked out into a pitchers' battle between Marty
+O'Toole, the expensive exponent of the spit ball, and "Rube" Marquard, the
+great left-hander. Half of "Who's Who in Pittsburg" had already split
+white gloves applauding when, along about the fourth or fifth inning, Fred
+Clarke got as far as third base with one out. The score was nothing for
+either side as yet, and of such a delicate nature was the contest that one
+run was likely to decide it.
+
+"Hans" Wagner, the peerless, and the pride of Pittsburg, was at the bat.
+He pushed a long fly to Murray in right field, and John caught it and
+threw the ball home. Clarke and the ball arrived almost simultaneously.
+There was a slide, a jumble of players, and a small cloud of dust blew
+away from the home plate.
+
+"Ye're out!" bawled Mr. Brennan, the umpire, jerking his thumb over his
+shoulder with a conclusiveness that forbade argument. Clarke jumped up and
+stretched his hands four feet apart, for he recognizes no conclusiveness
+when "one is called against him."
+
+"Safe! that much!" he shouted in Brennan's ear, showing him the four-foot
+margin with his hands.
+
+There was a roar from the diamond horse-shoe that, if it could have been
+canned and put on a phonograph, would have made any one his fortune
+because it could have been turned on to accompany moving pictures of lions
+and other wild beasts to make them realistic.
+
+"Say," said Clarke to Brennan, "I know a pickpocket who looks honest
+compared to you, and I'd rather trust my watch to a second-story worker."
+
+Brennan was dusting off the plate and paid no attention to him. But Clarke
+continued to snap and bark at the umpire as he brushed himself off,
+referring with feeling to Mr. Brennan's immediate family, and weaving into
+his talk a sketch of the umpire's ancestors, for Clarke is a great master
+of the English language as fed to umpires.
+
+"Mr. Clarke," said Brennan, turning at last, "you were out. Now beat it to
+the bench before you beat it to the clubhouse."
+
+Clarke went grumbling and all the afternoon was after Brennan for the
+decision, his wrath increasing because the Pirates lost the game finally,
+although they would not have won it had they been given that decision. And
+the crowd was roaring at Brennan, too, throughout the remainder of the
+contest, asking him pointed questions about his habits and what his
+regular business was.
+
+It takes a man with nerve to make a decision like that--one that could be
+called either way because it was so close--and to make it as he sees it,
+which happened in this particular case to be against the home team.
+
+Many times have I, in the excitement of the moment, protested against the
+decision of an umpire, but fundamentally I know that the umpires are
+honest and are doing their best, as all ball-players are. The umpires make
+mistakes and the players make errors. Many arbiters have told me that when
+they are working they seldom know what inning it is or how many are out,
+and sometimes, in their efforts to concentrate their minds on their
+decisions, they say they even forget what clubs are playing and which is
+the home team.
+
+The future of the game depends on the umpire, for his honesty must not be
+questioned. If there is a breath of suspicion against a man, he is
+immediately let go, because constant repetition of such a charge would
+result in baseball going the way of horse racing and some other sports. No
+scandal can creep in where the umpire is concerned, for the very
+popularity of baseball depends on its honesty.
+
+"The only good umpire is a dead umpire," McGraw has declared many times
+when he has been disgruntled over some decision.
+
+"I think they're all dead ones in this League," replied Devore one day,
+"considering the decisions that they are handing me down there at second
+base. Why, I had that bag by three feet and he called me out."
+
+Many baseball fans look upon an umpire as a sort of necessary evil to the
+luxury of baseball, like the odor that follows an automobile.
+
+"Kill him! He hasn't got any friends!" is an expression shouted from the
+stands time and again during a game.
+
+But I know differently. I have seen umpires with friends. It is true that
+most ball-players regard umpires as their natural enemies, as a boy does a
+school teacher. But "Bill" Klem has friends because I have seen him with
+them, and besides he has a constant companion, which is a calabash pipe.
+And "Billy" Evans of the American League has lots of friends. And most all
+of the umpires have some one who will speak to them when they are off the
+field.
+
+These men in blue travel by themselves, live at obscure hotels apart from
+those at which the teams stop, and slip into the ball parks unobtrusively
+just before game time. They never make friends with ball-players off the
+field for fear that there might be a hint of scandal. Seldom do they take
+the same train with a club unless it cannot be avoided. "Hank" O'Day, the
+veteran of the National League staff, and Brennan took the same train out
+of Chicago with the Giants in the fall of 1911 because we stopped in
+Pittsburg for one game, and they had to be there to umpire. It was the
+only available means of transportation. But they stayed by themselves in
+another Pullman until some one told them "Charley" Faust, the official
+jinx-killer of the Giants, was doing his stunt. Then they both came back
+into the Giants' car and for the first time in my life I saw "Hank" O'Day
+laugh. His face acted as if it wasn't accustomed to the exercise and broke
+all in funny new wrinkles, like a glove when you put it on for the first
+time.
+
+There are several types of umpires, and ball-players are always studying
+the species to find out the best way to treat each man to get the most out
+of him. There are autocrats and stubborn ones and good fellows and
+weak-kneed ones, almost as many kinds as there are human beings. The
+autocrat of the umpire world is "Silk" O'Loughlin, now appearing with a
+rival show.
+
+"There are no close plays," says "Silk." "A man is always out or safe, or
+it is a ball or a strike, and the umpire, if he is a good man and knows
+his business, is always right. For instance, I am always right."
+
+He refuses to let the players discuss a decision with him, maintaining
+that there is never any room for argument. If a man makes any talk with
+him, it is quick to the shower bath. "Silk" has a voice of which he is
+proud and declares that he shares the honors with Caruso and that it is
+only his profession as an umpire that keeps him off the grand-opera
+circuit. I have heard a lot of American League ball-players say at various
+times that they wished he was on the grand-opera circuit or some more
+calorific circuit, but they were mostly prejudiced at those moments by
+some sentiments which "Silk" had just voiced in an official capacity.
+
+As is well known in baseball, "Silk" is the inventor of "Strike Tuh!" and
+the creased trousers for umpires. I have heard American League players
+declare that they are afraid to slide when "Silk" is close down over a
+play for fear they will bump up against his trousers and cut themselves.
+He is one of the kind of umpires who can go through a game on the hottest
+summer day, running about the bases, and still keep his collar unwilted.
+At the end he will look as if he were dressed for an afternoon tea.
+
+Always he wears on his right hand, which is his salary or decision wing, a
+large diamond that sparkles in the sunlight every time he calls a man
+out. Many American League players assert that he would rather call a man
+out than safe, so that he can shimmer his "cracked ice," but again they
+are usually influenced by circumstances. Such is "Silk," well named.
+
+Corresponding to him in the National League is "Billy" Klem. He always
+wears a Norfolk jacket because he thinks it more stylish, and perhaps it
+is, and he refuses to don a wind pad. Ever notice him working behind the
+bat? But I am going to let you in on a secret. That chest is not all his
+own. Beneath his jacket he carries his armor, a protector, and under his
+trousers' legs are shin guards. He insists that all players call him "Mr."
+He says that he thinks maybe soon his name will be in the social register.
+
+"Larry" Doyle thought that he had received the raw end of a decision at
+second base one day. He ran down to first, where Klem had retreated after
+he passed his judgment.
+
+"Say, 'Bill,'" exploded "Larry," "that man didn't touch the bag--didn't
+come within six feet of it."
+
+"Say, Doyle," replied Klem, "when you talk to me call me 'Mr. Klem.'"
+
+"But, Mr. Klem--" amended "Larry."
+
+Klem hurriedly drew a line with his foot as Doyle approached him
+menacingly.
+
+"But if you come over that line, you're out of the game, Mr. Doyle," he
+threatened.
+
+"All right," answered "Larry," letting his pugilistic attitude evaporate
+before the abruptness of Klem as the mist does before the classic noonday
+sun, "but, Mr. Klem, I only wanted to ask you if that clock in centre
+field is right by your watch, because I know everything about you is
+right."
+
+"Larry" went back, grinning and considering that he had put one over on
+Klem--Mr. Klem.
+
+For a long time "Johnny" Evers of the Chicago club declared that Klem owed
+him $5 on a bet he had lost to the second baseman and had neglected to
+pay. Now John, when he was right, could make almost any umpirical goat
+leap from crag to crag and do somersaults en route. He kept pestering Klem
+about that measly $5 bet, not in an obtrusive way, you understand, but by
+such delicate methods as holding up five fingers when Klem glanced down on
+the coaching lines where he was stationed, or by writing a large "5" in
+the dirt at the home plate with the butt of his bat as he came up when
+Klem was umpiring on balls and strikes, or by counting slowly and casually
+up to five and stopping with an abruptness that could not be misconstrued.
+
+One day John let his temper get away from him and bawled Klem out in his
+most approved fashion.
+
+"Here's your five, Mr. Evers," said Klem, handing him a five dollar bill,
+"and now you are fined $25."
+
+"And it was worth it," answered Evers, "to bawl you out."
+
+Next comes the O'Day type, and there is only one of them, "Hank." He is
+the stubborn kind--or perhaps _was_ the stubborn kind, would be better, as
+he is now a manager. He is bull-headed. If a manager gets after him for a
+decision, he is likely to go up in the air and, not meaning to do it, call
+close ones against the club that has made the kick, for it must be
+remembered that umpires are only "poor weak mortals after all." O'Day has
+to be handled with shock absorbers. McGraw tries to do it, but shock
+absorbers do not fit him well, and the first thing that usually occurs is
+a row.
+
+"Let me do the kicking, boys," McGraw always warns his players before a
+contest that O'Day is going to umpire. He does not want to see any of his
+men put out of the game.
+
+"Bill" Dahlen always got on O'Day's nerves by calling him "Henry." For
+some reason, O'Day does not like the name, and "Bill" Dahlen discovered
+long ago the most irritating inflection to give it so that it would rasp
+on O'Day's ears. He does not mind "Hank" and is not a "Mister" umpire. But
+every time Dahlen would call O'Day "Henry" it was the cold shower and the
+civilian's clothes for his.
+
+Dahlen was playing in St. Louis many years ago when the race track was
+right opposite the ball park. "Bill" had a preference in one of the later
+races one day and was anxious to get across the street and make a little
+bet. He had obtained a leave of absence on two preceding days by calling
+O'Day "Henry" and had lost money on the horses he had selected as fleet of
+foot. But this last time he had a "sure thing" and was banking on some
+positive information which had been slipped to him by a friend of the
+friend of the man who owned the winner, and "Bill" wanted to be there.
+Along about the fifth inning, "Bill" figured that it was time for him to
+get a start, so he walked up to O'Day and said:
+
+"Henry, do you know who won the first race?"
+
+"No, and you won't either, Mr. Dahlen," answered "Hank." "You are fined
+$25, and you stay here and play the game out."
+
+Some one had tipped "Hank" off. And the saddest part of the story is that
+"Bill's" horse walked home, and he could not get a bet down on him.
+
+"First time it ever failed to work," groaned "Bill" in the hotel that
+night, "and I said 'Henry' in my meanest way, too."
+
+Most clubs try to keep an umpire from feeling hostile toward the team
+because, even if he means to see a play right, he is likely to call a
+close one against his enemies, not intending to be dishonest. It would
+simply mean that you would not get any close ones from him, and the close
+ones count. Some umpires can be reasoned with, and a good fair protest
+will often make a man think perhaps he has called it wrong, and he will
+give you the edge on the next decision. A player must understand an umpire
+to know how to approach him to the best advantage. O'Day cannot be
+reasoned with. It is as dangerous to argue with him as it is to try to
+ascertain how much gasoline is in the tank of an automobile by sticking
+down the lighted end of a cigar or a cigarette.
+
+Emslie will listen to a reasonable argument. He is one of the finest
+umpires that ever broke into the League, I think. He is a good fellow. Far
+be it from me to be disloyal to my manager, for I think that he is the
+greatest that ever won a pennant, but Emslie put one over on McGraw in
+1911 when it was being said that Emslie was getting so old he could not
+see a play.
+
+"I'll bet," said McGraw to him one day after he had called one against the
+Giants, "that I can put a baseball and an orange on second base, and you
+can't tell the difference standing at the home plate, Bob."
+
+Emslie made no reply right then, but when the eye test for umpires was
+established by Mr. Lynch, the president of the League, "Bob" passed it at
+the head of the list and then turned around and went up to Chatham in
+Ontario, Canada, and made a high score with the rifle in a shooting match
+up there. After he had done that, he was umpiring at the Polo Grounds one
+day.
+
+"Want to take me on for a shooting go, John?" he asked McGraw as he passed
+him.
+
+"No, Bob, you're all right. I give it to you," answered McGraw, who had
+long forgotten his slur on Emslie's eyesight.
+
+Emslie is the sort of umpire who rules by the bond of good fellowship
+rather than by the voice of authority. "Old Bob" has one "groove" and it
+is a personal matter about which he is very sensitive. He is under cover.
+It is no secret, or I would not give way on him. But that luxuriant growth
+of hair, apparent, comes off at night like his collar and necktie. It used
+to be quite the fad in the League to "josh" "Bob" about his wig, but that
+pastime has sort of died out now because he has proven himself to be such
+a good fellow.
+
+I had to laugh to myself, and not boisterously, in the season of 1911 when
+Mr. Lynch appointed "Jack" Doyle, formerly a first baseman and a
+hot-headed player, an umpire and scheduled him to work with Emslie. I
+remembered the time several seasons ago when Doyle took offence at one of
+"Bob's" decisions and wrestled him all over the infield trying to get his
+wig off and show him up before the crowd. And then Emslie and he worked
+together like Damon and Pythias. This business makes strange bed-fellows.
+
+Emslie was umpiring in New York one day in the season of 1909, when the
+Giants were playing St. Louis. A wild pitch hit Emslie over the heart and
+he wilted down, unconscious. The players gathered around him, and
+Bresnahan, who was catching for St. Louis at the time, started to help
+"Bob." Suddenly the old umpire came to and began to fight off his
+first-aid-to-the-injured corps. No one could understand his attitude as he
+struggled to his feet and strolled away by himself, staggering a little
+and apparently dizzy. At last he came back and gamely finished the
+business of the day. I never knew why he fought with the men who were
+trying to help him until several weeks later, when we were playing in
+Pittsburg. As I came out from under the stand on my way to the bench,
+Emslie happened to be making his entrance at the same time.
+
+"Say, Matty," he asked me, "that time in New York did my wig come off? Did
+Bresnahan take my wig off?"
+
+"No, Bob," I replied, "he was only trying to help you."
+
+"I thought maybe he took it off while I was down and out and showed me up
+before the crowd," he apologized.
+
+"Listen, Bob," I said. "I don't believe there is a player in either League
+who would do that, and, if any youngster tried it now, he would probably
+be licked."
+
+"I'm glad to hear you say that, Matty," answered the old man, as he picked
+up his wind pad and prepared to go to work. And he called more bad ones on
+me that day than he ever had in his life before, but I never mentioned the
+wig to him.
+
+Most umpires declare they have off days just like players, when they know
+that they are making mistakes and cannot help it. If a pitcher of Mordecai
+Brown's kind, who depends largely on his control for his effectiveness,
+happens to run up against an umpire with a bad day, he might just as well
+go back to the bench. Brown is a great man to work the corners of the
+plate, and if the umpire is missing strikes, he is forced to lay the ball
+over and then the batters whang it out. Johnstone had an off day in
+Chicago in 1911, when Brown was working.
+
+"What's the use of my tryin' to pitch, Jim," said Brown, throwing down his
+glove and walking to the bench disgusted, "if you don't know a strike when
+you see one?"
+
+Sometimes an umpire who has been good will go into a long slump when he
+cannot call things right and knows it. Men like that get as discouraged as
+a pitcher who goes bad. There used to be one in the National League who
+was a pretty fair umpire when he started and seemed to be getting along
+fine until he hit one of those slumps. Then he began calling everything
+wrong and knew it. At last he quit, and the next time I saw him was in
+Philadelphia in the 1911 world's series. He was a policeman.
+
+"Hello, Matty," he shouted at me as we were going into Shibe Park for the
+first game there. "I can call you by your first name now," and he waved
+his hand real friendly. The last conversation I had with that fellow,
+unless my recollection fails me entirely, was anything but friendly.
+
+Umpires have told me that sometimes they see a play one way and call it
+another, and, as soon as the decision is announced, they realize that
+they have called it wrong. This malady has put more than one umpire out. A
+man on the National League staff has informed me since, that he called a
+hit fair that was palpably two feet foul in one of the most important
+games ever played in baseball, when he saw the ball strike on foul ground.
+
+"I couldn't help saying 'Fair ball,'" declared this man, and he is one of
+the best in the National League. "Luckily," he added, "the team against
+which the decision went won the game."
+
+Many players assert that arbiters hold a personal grudge against certain
+men who have put up too strenuous kicks, and for that reason the wise ones
+are careful how they talk to umpires of this sort. Fred Tenney has said
+for a long time that Mr. Klem gives him a shade the worst of it on all
+close ones because he had a run in with that umpire one day when they came
+to blows. Tenney is a great man to pick out the good ones when at the bat,
+and Fred says that if he is up with a three and two count on him now, Klem
+is likely to call the next one a strike if it is close, not because he is
+dishonest, but because he has a certain personal prejudice which he
+cannot overcome. And the funny part about it is that Tenney does not hold
+this up against Klem.
+
+Humorous incidents are always occurring in connection with umpires. We
+were playing in Boston one day a few years ago, and the score was 3 to 0
+against the Giants in the ninth inning. Becker knocked a home run with two
+men on the bases, and it tied the count. With men on first and third bases
+and one out in the last half of the ninth, a Boston batter tapped one to
+Merkle which I thought he trapped, but Johnstone, the umpire, said he
+caught it on the fly. It was simplicity itself to double the runner up off
+first base who also thought Merkle had trapped the ball and had started
+for second. That retired the side, and we won the game in the twelfth
+inning, whereas Boston would have taken it in the ninth if Johnstone had
+said the ball was trapped instead of caught on the fly.
+
+It was a very hot day, and those extra three innings in the box knocked me
+out. I was sick for a week with stomach trouble afterwards and could not
+pitch in Chicago, where we made our next stop. That was a case of where a
+decision in my favor "made me sick."
+
+"Tim" Hurst, the old American League umpire, was one of the most
+picturesque judges that ever spun an indicator. He was the sort who would
+take a player at his word and fight him blow for blow. "Tim" was umpiring
+in Baltimore in the old days when there was a runner on first base.
+
+"The man started to steal," says "Tim." He was telling the story only the
+other day in McGraw's billiard room in New York, and it is better every
+time he does it. "As he left the bag he spiked the first baseman and that
+player attempted to trip him. The second baseman blocked the runner and,
+in sliding into the bag, the latter tried to spike 'Hugh' Jennings, who
+was playing shortstop and covering, while Jennings sat on him to knock the
+wind out. The batter hit Robinson, who was catching, on the hands with his
+bat so that he couldn't throw, and 'Robbie' trod on my toes with his
+spikes and shoved his glove into my face so that I couldn't see to give
+the decision. It was one of the hardest that I have ever been called upon
+to make."
+
+"What did you do?" I asked him.
+
+"I punched 'Robbie' in the ribs, called it a foul and sent the runner
+back," replied "Tim."
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+The Game that Cost a Pennant
+
+     _The Championship of the National League was Decided in 1908 in One
+     Game between the Giants and Cubs--Few Fans Know that it Was Mr. Brush
+     who Induced the Disgruntled New York Players to Meet Chicago--This is
+     the "Inside" Story of the Famous Game, Including "Fred" Merkle's Part
+     in the Series of Events which Led up to it._
+
+
+The New York Giants and the Chicago Cubs played a game at the Polo Grounds
+on October 8, 1908, which decided the championship of the National League
+in one afternoon, which was responsible for the deaths of two spectators,
+who fell from the elevated railroad structure overlooking the grounds,
+which made Fred Merkle famous for not touching second, which caused
+lifelong friends to become bitter enemies, and which, altogether, was the
+most dramatic and important contest in the history of baseball. It stands
+out from every-day events like the battle of Waterloo and the
+assassination of President Lincoln. It was a baseball tragedy from a New
+York point of view. The Cubs won by the score of 4 to 2.
+
+Behind this game is some "inside" history that has never been written. Few
+persons, outside of the members of the New York club, know that it was
+only after a great deal of consultation the game was finally played, only
+after the urging of John T. Brush, the president of the club. The Giants
+were risking, in one afternoon, their chances of winning the pennant and
+the world's series--the concentration of their hopes of a season--because
+the Cubs claimed the right on a technicality to play this one game for the
+championship. Many members of the New York club felt that it would be
+fighting for what they had already won, as did their supporters. This made
+bad feeling between the teams and between the spectators, until the whole
+dramatic situation leading up to the famous game culminated in the climax
+of that afternoon. The nerves of the players were rasped raw with the
+strain, and the town wore a fringe of nervous prostration. It all burst
+forth in the game.
+
+Among other things, Frank Chance, the manager of the Cubs, had a cartilage
+in his neck broken when some rooter hit him with a handy pop bottle,
+several spectators hurt one another when they switched from conversational
+to fistic arguments, large portions of the fence at the Polo Grounds were
+broken down by patrons who insisted on gaining entrance, and most of the
+police of New York were present to keep order. They had their clubs
+unlimbered, too, acting more as if on strike duty than restraining the
+spectators at a pleasure park. Last of all, that night, after we had lost
+the game, the report filtered through New York that Fred Merkle, then a
+youngster and around whom the whole situation revolved, had committed
+suicide. Of course it was not true, for Merkle is one of the gamest
+ball-players that ever lived.
+
+My part in the game was small. I started to pitch and I didn't finish. The
+Cubs beat me because I never had less on the ball in my life. What I can't
+understand to this day is why it took them so long to hit me. Frequently
+it has been said that "Cy" Seymour started the Cubs on their victorious
+way and lost the game, because he misjudged a long hit jostled to centre
+field by "Joe" Tinker at the beginning of the third inning, in which
+chapter they made four runs. The hit went for three bases.
+
+Seymour, playing centre field, had a bad background against which to judge
+fly balls that afternoon, facing the shadows of the towering stand, with
+the uncertain horizon formed by persons perched on the roof. A baseball
+writer has said that, when Tinker came to the bat in that fatal inning, I
+turned in the box and motioned Seymour back, and instead of obeying
+instructions he crept a few steps closer to the infield. I don't recall
+giving any advice to "Cy," as he knew the Chicago batters as well as I did
+and how to play for them.
+
+Tinker, with his long bat, swung on a ball intended to be a low curve over
+the outside corner of the plate, but it failed to break well. He pushed
+out a high fly to centre field, and I turned with the ball to see Seymour
+take a couple of steps toward the diamond, evidently thinking it would
+drop somewhere behind second base. He appeared to be uncertain in his
+judgment of the hit until he suddenly turned and started to run back. That
+must have been when the ball cleared the roof of the stand and was visible
+above the sky line. He ran wildly. Once he turned, and then ran on again,
+at last sticking up his hands and having the ball fall just beyond them.
+He chased it and picked it up, but Tinker had reached third base by that
+time. If he had let the ball roll into the crowd in centre field, the Cub
+could have made only two bases on the hit, according to the ground rules.
+That was a mistake, but it made little difference in the end.
+
+All the players, both the Cubs and the Giants, were under a terrific
+strain that day, and Seymour, in his anxiety to be sure to catch the ball,
+misjudged it. Did you ever stand out in the field at a ball park with
+thirty thousand crazy, shouting fans looking at you and watch a ball climb
+and climb into the air and have to make up your mind exactly where it is
+going to land and then have to be there, when it arrived, to greet it,
+realizing all the time that if you are not there you are going to be
+everlastingly roasted? It is no cure for nervous diseases, that
+situation. Probably forty-nine times out of fifty Seymour would have
+caught the fly.
+
+"I misjudged that ball," said "Cy" to me in the clubhouse after the game.
+"I'll take the blame for it."
+
+He accepted all the abuse the newspapers handed him without a murmur and I
+don't think myself that it was more than an incident in the game. I'll try
+to show later in this story where the real "break" came.
+
+Just one mistake, made by "Fred" Merkle, resulted in this play-off game.
+Several newspaper men have called September 23, 1908, "Merkle Day,"
+because it was on that day he ran to the clubhouse from first base instead
+of by way of second, when "Al" Bridwell whacked out the hit that
+apparently won the game from the Cubs. Any other player on the team would
+have undoubtedly done the same thing under the circumstances, as the
+custom had been in vogue all around the circuit during the season. It was
+simply Fred Merkle's misfortune to have been on first base at the critical
+moment. The situation which gave rise to the incident is well known to
+every follower of baseball. Merkle, as a pinch hitter, had singled with
+two out in the ninth inning and the score tied, sending McCormick from
+first base to third. "Al" Bridwell came up to the bat and smashed a single
+to centre field. McCormick crossed the plate, and that, according to the
+customs of the League, ended the game, so Merkle dug for the clubhouse.
+Evers and Tinker ran through the crowd which had flocked on the field and
+got the ball, touching second and claiming that Merkle had been forced out
+there.
+
+Most of the spectators did not understand the play, as Merkle was under
+the shower bath when the alleged put-out was made, but they started after
+"Hank" O'Day, the umpire, to be on the safe side. He made a speedy
+departure under the grand-stand and the crowd got the put-out unassisted.
+Finally, while somewhere near Coogan's Bluff, he called Merkle out and the
+score a tie. When the boys heard this in the clubhouse, they laughed, for
+it didn't seem like a situation to be taken seriously. But it turned out
+to be one of those things that the farther it goes the more serious it
+becomes.
+
+"Connie" Mack, the manager of the Athletics, says:
+
+"There is no luck in Big League baseball. In a schedule of one hundred and
+fifty-four games, the lucky and unlucky plays break about even, except in
+the matter of injuries."
+
+But Mack's theory does not include a schedule of one hundred and
+fifty-five games, with the result depending on the one hundred and
+fifty-fifth. Chicago had a lot of injured athletes early in the season of
+1908, and the Giants had shot out ahead in the race in grand style. In the
+meantime the Cubs' cripples began to recuperate, and that lamentable event
+on September 23 seemed to be the turning-point in the Giants' fortunes.
+
+Almost within a week afterwards, Bresnahan had an attack of sciatic
+rheumatism and "Mike" Donlin was limping about the outfield, leading a
+great case of "Charley horse." Tenney was bandaged from his waist down and
+should have been wearing crutches instead of playing first base on a Big
+League club. Doyle was badly spiked and in the hospital. McGraw's daily
+greeting to his athletes when he came to the park was:
+
+"How are the cripples? Any more to add to the list of identified dead
+to-day?"
+
+Merkle moped. He lost flesh, and time after time begged McGraw to send him
+to a minor league or to turn him loose altogether.
+
+"It wasn't your fault," was the regular response of the manager who makes
+it a habit to stand by his men.
+
+We played on with the cripples, many double-headers costing the pitchers
+extra effort, and McGraw not daring to take a chance on losing a game if
+there were any opportunity to win it. He could not rest any of his men.
+Merkle lost weight and seldom spoke to the other players as the Cubs crept
+up on us day after day and more men were hurt. He felt that he was
+responsible for this change in the luck of the club. None of the players
+felt this way toward him, and many tried to cheer him up, but he was
+inconsolable. The team went over to Philadelphia, and Coveleski, the
+pitcher we later drove out of the League, beat us three times, winning the
+last game by the scantiest of margins. The result of that series left us
+three to play with Boston to tie the Cubs if they won from Pittsburg the
+next day, Sunday. If the Pirates had taken that Sunday game, it would
+have given them the pennant. We returned to New York on Saturday night
+very much downhearted.
+
+"Lose me. I'm the jinx," Merkle begged McGraw that night.
+
+"You stick," replied the manager.
+
+While we had been losing, the Cubs had been coming fast. It seemed as if
+they could not drop a game. At last Cincinnati beat them one, which was
+the only thing that made the famous season tie possible. There is an
+interesting anecdote connected with that Cincinnati contest which goes to
+prove the honesty of baseball. Two of the closest friends in the game are
+"Hans" Lobert, then with the Reds, and Overall, the former Chicago
+pitcher. It looked as if Chicago had the important game won up to the
+ninth inning when Lobert came to the bat with two men out and two on the
+bases. Here he had a chance to overcome the lead of one run which the Cubs
+had gained, and win the contest for the home club, but he would beat his
+best friend and maybe put the Cubs out of the running for the pennant.
+
+Lobert had two balls and two strikes when he smashed the next pitch to
+center field, scoring both the base runners. The hit came near beating the
+Cubs out of the championship. It would have if we had taken one of those
+close games against Philadelphia. Lobert was broken-hearted over his hit,
+for he wanted the Cubs to win. On his way to the clubhouse, he walked with
+Overall, the two striding side by side like a couple of mourners.
+
+"I'm sorry, 'Orvie,'" said Lobert. "I would not have made that hit for my
+year's salary if I could have helped it."
+
+"That's all right, 'Hans,'" returned Overall. "It's all part of the
+game."
+
+Next came the famous game in Chicago on Sunday between the Cubs and the
+Pittsburg Pirates, when a victory for the latter club would have meant the
+pennant and the big game would never have been played. Ten thousand
+persons crowded into the Polo Grounds that Sunday afternoon and watched a
+little electric score board which showed the plays as made in Chicago. For
+the first time in my life I heard a New York crowd cheering the Cubs with
+great fervor, for on their victory hung our only chances of ultimate
+success. The same man who was shouting himself hoarse for the Cubs that
+afternoon was for taking a vote on the desirability of poisoning the whole
+Chicago team on the following Thursday. Even the New York players were
+rooting for the Cubs.
+
+The Chicago team at last won the game when Clarke was called out at third
+base on a close play, late in the contest. With the decision, the Pirates'
+last chance went glimmering. The Giants now had three games to win from
+Boston on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, to make the deciding game on
+Thursday necessary. We won those, and the stage was cleared for the big
+number.
+
+The National Commission gave the New York club the option of playing three
+games out of five for the championship or risking it all on one contest.
+As more than half of the club was tottering on the brink of the hospital,
+it was decided that all hope should be hung on one game. By this time,
+Merkle had lost twenty pounds, and his eyes were hollow and his cheeks
+sunken. The newspapers showed him no mercy, and the fans never failed to
+criticise and hiss him when he appeared on the field. He stuck to it and
+showed up in the ball park every day, putting on his uniform and
+practising. It was a game thing to do. A lot of men, under the same fire,
+would have quit cold. McGraw was with him all the way.
+
+But it was not until after considerable discussion that it was decided to
+play that game. All the men felt disgruntled because they believed they
+would be playing for something they had already won. Even McGraw was so
+wrought up, he said in the clubhouse the night before the game:
+
+"I don't care whether you fellows play this game or not. You can take a
+vote."
+
+A vote was taken, and the players were not unanimous, some protesting it
+ought to be put up to the League directors so that, if they wanted to rob
+the team of a pennant, they would have to take the blame. Others insisted
+it would look like quitting, and it was finally decided to appoint a
+committee to call upon Mr. Brush, the president of the club, who was ill
+in bed in the Lambs club at the time. Devlin, Bresnahan, Donlin, Tenney,
+and I were on that committee.
+
+"Mr. Brush," I said to my employer, having been appointed the spokesman,
+"McGraw has left it up to us to decide whether we shall meet the Chicago
+team for the championship of the National League to-morrow. A lot of the
+boys do not believe we ought to be forced to play over again for something
+we have already won, so the players have appointed this committee of five
+to consult with you and get your opinion on the subject. What we decide
+goes with them."
+
+Mr. Brush looked surprised. I was nervous, more so than when I am in the
+box with three on the bases and "Joe" Tinker at the bat. Bresnahan fumbled
+with his hat, and Devlin coughed. Tenney leaned more heavily on his cane,
+and Donlin blew his nose. We five big athletes were embarrassed in the
+presence of this sick man. Suddenly it struck us all at the same time that
+the game would have to be played to keep ourselves square with our own
+ideas of courage. Even if the Cubs had claimed it on a technicality, even
+if we had really won the pennant once, that game had to be played now. We
+all saw that, and it was this thin, ill man in bed who made us see it even
+before he had said a word. It was the expression on his face. It seemed to
+say, "And I had confidence in you, boys, to do the right thing."
+
+"I'm going to leave it to you," he answered "You boys can play the game
+or put it up to the directors of the League to decide as you want. But I
+shouldn't think you would stop now after making all this fight."
+
+The committee called an executive session, and we all thought of the crowd
+of fans looking forward to the game and of what the newspapers would say
+if we refused to play it and of Mr. Brush lying there, the man who wanted
+us to play, and it was rapidly and unanimously decided to imitate "Steve"
+Brodie and take a chance.
+
+"We'll play," I said to Mr. Brush.
+
+"I'm glad," he answered. "And, say, boys," he added, as we started to file
+out, "I want to tell you something. Win or lose, I'm going to give the
+players a bonus of $10,000."
+
+That night was a wild one in New York. The air crackled with excitement
+and baseball. I went home, but couldn't sleep for I live near the Polo
+Grounds, and the crowd began to gather there early in the evening of the
+day before the game to be ready for the opening of the gates the next
+morning. They tooted horns all night, and were never still. When I
+reported at the ball park, the gates had been closed by order of the
+National Commission, but the streets for blocks around the Polo Grounds
+were jammed with persons fighting to get to the entrances.
+
+The players in the clubhouse had little to say to one another, but, after
+the bandages were adjusted, McGraw called his men around him and said:
+
+"Chance will probably pitch Pfiester or Brown. If Pfiester works there is
+no use trying to steal. He won't give you any lead. The right-handed
+batters ought to wait him out and the left-handers hit him when he gets in
+a hole. Matty is going to pitch for us."
+
+Pfiester is a left-hand pitcher who watches the bases closely.
+
+Merkle had reported at the clubhouse as usual and had put on his uniform.
+He hung on the edge of the group as McGraw spoke, and then we all went to
+the field. It was hard for us to play that game with the crowd which was
+there, but harder for the Cubs. In one place, the fence was broken down,
+and some employees were playing a stream of water from a fire hose on the
+cavity to keep the crowd back. Many preferred a ducking to missing the
+game and ran through the stream to the lines around the field. A string
+of fans recklessly straddled the roof of the old grand-stand.
+
+Every once in a while some group would break through the restraining ropes
+and scurry across the diamond to what appeared to be a better point of
+vantage. This would let a throng loose which hurried one way and another
+and mixed in with the players. More police had to be summoned. As I
+watched that half-wild multitude before the contest, I could think of
+three or four things I would rather do than umpire the game.
+
+I had rested my arm four days, not having pitched in the Boston series,
+and I felt that it should be in pretty good condition. Before that
+respite, I had been in nine out of fifteen games. But as I started to warm
+up, the ball refused to break. I couldn't get anything on it.
+
+"What's the matter, Rog?" I asked Bresnahan. "They won't break for me."
+
+"It'll come as you start to work," he replied, although I could see that
+he, too, was worried.
+
+John M. Ward, the old ball-player and now one of the owners of the Boston
+National League club, has told me since that, after working almost every
+day as I had been doing, it does a pitcher's arm no good to lay off for
+three or four days. Only a week or ten days will accomplish any results.
+It would have been better for me to continue to work as often as I had
+been doing, for the short rest only seemed to deaden my arm.
+
+The crowd that day was inflammable. The players caught this incendiary
+spirit. McGinnity, batting out to our infield in practice, insisted on
+driving Chance away from the plate before the Cubs' leader thought his
+team had had its full share of the batting rehearsal. "Joe" shoved him a
+little, and in a minute fists were flying, although Chance and McGinnity
+are very good friends off the field.
+
+Fights immediately started all around in the stands. I remember seeing two
+men roll from the top to the bottom of the right-field bleachers, over the
+heads of the rest of the spectators. And they were yanked to their feet
+and run out of the park by the police.
+
+"Too bad," I said to Bresnahan, nodding my head toward the departing
+belligerents, "they couldn't have waited until they saw the game, anyway.
+I'll bet they stood outside the park all night to get in, only to be run
+out before it started."
+
+I forgot the crowd, forgot the fights, and didn't hear the howling after
+the game started. I knew only one thing, and that was my curved ball
+wouldn't break for me. It surprised me that the Cubs didn't hit it far,
+right away, but two of them fanned in the first inning and Herzog threw
+out Evers. Then came our first time at bat. Pfiester was plainly nervous
+and hit Tenney. Herzog walked and Bresnahan fanned out, Herzog being
+doubled up at second because he tried to advance on a short passed ball.
+"Mike" Donlin whisked a double to right field and Tenney counted.
+
+For the first time in almost a month, Merkle smiled. He was drawn up in
+the corner of the bench, pulling away from the rest of us as if he had
+some contagious disease and was quarantined. For a minute it looked as if
+we had them going. Chance yanked Pfiester out of the box with him
+protesting that he had been robbed on the decisions on balls and strikes.
+Brown was brought into the game and fanned Devlin. That ended the inning.
+
+We never had a chance against Brown. His curve was breaking sharply, and
+his control was microscopic. We went back to the field in the second with
+that one run lead. Chance made the first hit of the game off me in the
+second, but I caught him sleeping at first base, according to Klem's
+decision. There was a kick, and Hofman, joining in the chorus of protests,
+was sent to the clubhouse.
+
+Tinker started the third with that memorable triple which gave the Cubs
+their chance. I couldn't make my curve break. I didn't have anything on
+the ball.
+
+"Rog," I said to Bresnahan, "I haven't got anything to-day."
+
+"Keep at it, Matty," he replied. "We'll get them all right."
+
+I looked in at the bench, and McGraw signalled me to go on pitching. Kling
+singled and scored Tinker. Brown sacrificed, sending Kling to second, and
+Sheckard flied out to Seymour, Kling being held on second base. I lost
+Evers, because I was afraid to put the ball over the plate for him, and he
+walked. Two were out now, and we had yet a chance to win the game as the
+score was only tied. But Schulte doubled, and Kling scored, leaving men
+on second and third bases. Still we had a Mongolian's chance with them
+only one run ahead of us. Frank Chance, with his under jaw set like the
+fender on a trolley car, caught a curved ball over the inside corner of
+the plate and pushed it to right field for two bases. That was the most
+remarkable batting performance I have ever witnessed since I have been in
+the Big Leagues. A right-handed hitter naturally slaps a ball over the
+outside edge of the plate to right field, but Chance pushed this one, on
+the inside, with the handle of his bat, just over Tenney's hands and on
+into the crowd. The hit scored Evers and Schulte and dissolved the game
+right there. It was the "break." Steinfeldt fanned.
+
+None of the players spoke to one another as they went to the bench. Even
+McGraw was silent. We knew it was gone. Merkle was drawn up behind the
+water cooler. Once he said:
+
+"It was my fault, boys."
+
+No one answered him. Inning after inning, our batters were mowed down by
+the great pitching of Brown, who was never better. His control of his
+curved ball was marvellous, and he had all his speed. As the innings
+dragged by, the spectators lost heart, and the cowbells ceased to jingle,
+and the cheering lost its resonant ring. It was now a surly growl.
+
+Then the seventh! We had our one glimmer of sunshine. Devlin started with
+a single to centre, and McCormick shoved a drive to right field. Recalling
+that Bridwell was more or less of a pinch hitter, Brown passed him
+purposely and Doyle was sent to the bat in my place. As he hobbled to the
+plate on his weak foot, said McGraw:
+
+"Hit one, Larry."
+
+The crowd broke into cheers again and was stamping its feet. The bases
+were full, and no one was out. Then Doyle popped up a weak foul behind the
+catcher. His batting eye was dim and rusty through long disuse. Kling went
+back for it, and some one threw a pop bottle which narrowly missed him,
+and another scaled a cushion. But Kling kept on and got what he went
+after, which was the ball. He has a habit of doing that. Tenney flied to
+Schulte, counting Devlin on the catch, and Tinker threw out Herzog. The
+game was gone. Never again did we have a chance.
+
+It was a glum lot of players in the clubhouse. Merkle came up to McGraw
+and said:
+
+"Mac, I've lost you one pennant. Fire me before I can do any more harm."
+
+"Fire you?" replied McGraw. "We ran the wrong way of the track to-day.
+That's all. Next year is another season, and do you think I'm going to let
+you go after the gameness you've shown through all this abuse? Why you're
+the kind of a guy I've been lookin' for many years. I could use a carload
+like you. Forget this season and come around next spring. The newspapers
+will have forgotten it all then. Good-by, boys." And he slipped out of the
+clubhouse.
+
+"He's a regular guy," said Merkle.
+
+Merkle has lived down that failure to touch second and proved himself to
+be one of the gamest players that ever stood in a diamond. Many times
+since has he vindicated himself. He is a great first baseman now, and
+McGraw and he are close friends. That is the "inside" story of the most
+important game ever played in baseball and Merkle's connection with it.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+When the Teams Are in Spring Training
+
+     _The Hardships of the Preliminary Practice in Limbering up Muscles
+     and Reducing Weight for the Big Campaign--How a Ball Club is Whipped
+     into Playing Shape--Trips to the South Not the Picnics they Seem to
+     Be--The Battle of the Bushers to Stay in the Big Show--Making a
+     Pitcher--Some Fun on the Side, including the Adventure of the Turkish
+     Bath._
+
+
+Spring training! The words probably remind the reader of the sunny South
+and light exercise and good food and rubs and other luxuries, but the
+reader perhaps has never been with a Big League ball club when it is
+getting ready to go into a six months' campaign.
+
+All I can ever remember after a training trip is taking off and putting on
+a uniform, and running around the ball park under the inspiration of John
+McGraw, and he is some inspirer.
+
+The heavier a man gets through the winter, the harder the routine work is
+for him, and a few years ago I almost broke down and cried out of sympathy
+for Otis Crandall, who arrived in camp very corpulent.
+
+"What have you been doing this winter, Otie?" McGraw asked him after
+shaking hands in greeting, "appearing with a show as the stout lady?
+You'll have to take a lot of that off."
+
+"Taking it off" meant running several miles every day so bundled up that
+the Indiana agriculturist looked like the pictures published of "Old Doc"
+Cook which showed him discovering the north pole. Ever since, Crandall's
+spring training, like charity, has begun at home, and he takes exercise
+night and morning throughout the winter, so that when he comes into camp
+his weight will be somewhere near normal. In 1911 he had the best year of
+his career. He is the type of man who cannot afford to carry too much
+weight. He is stronger when he is slimmer.
+
+In contrast to him is George Wiltse, who maps out a training course with
+the idea of adding several pounds, as he is better with all the real
+weight he can put on. By that I do not mean any fat.
+
+George came whirling and spinning and waltzing and turkey-trotting and
+pirouetting across the field at Marlin Springs, Texas, the Giants' spring
+training headquarters, one day in the spring of 1911, developing steps
+that would have ruled him off any cotillion floor in New York in the days
+of the ban on the grizzly bear and kindred dances. Suddenly he dove down
+with his left hand and reached as far as he could.
+
+"What's that one, George?" I yelled as he passed me.
+
+"Getting ready to cover first base on a slow hit, Matty," he replied, and
+was off on another series of hand springs that made him look more like a
+contortionist rehearsing for an act which he was going to take out for the
+"big time" than a ball-player getting ready for the season.
+
+But perhaps some close followers of baseball statistics will recall a game
+that Wiltse took from the Cubs in 1911 by a wonderful one-hand reaching
+catch of a low throw to first base. Two Chicago runners were on the bags
+at the time and the loss of that throw would have meant that they both
+scored. Wiltse caught the ball, and it made the third out, and the Giants
+won the game. Thousands of fans applauded the catch, but the play was not
+the result of the exigencies of the moment. It was the outcome of
+forethought used months before.
+
+Spectators at ball games who wonder at the marvellous fielding of Wiltse
+should watch him getting ready during the spring season at Marlin. He is a
+tireless worker, and when he is not pitching he is doing hand springs and
+other acrobatic acts to limber up all his muscles. It is torture then, but
+it pays in the end.
+
+When I was a young fellow and read about the Big League clubs going South,
+I used to think what a grand life that must be. Riding in Pullmans, some
+pleasant exercise which did not entail the responsibility of a ball game,
+and plenty of food, with a little social recreation, were all parts of my
+dream. A young ball-player looks on his first spring training trip as a
+stage-struck young woman regards the theatre. She cannot wait for her
+first rehearsal, and she thinks only of the lobster suppers and the
+applause and the lights and the life, but nowhere in her dream is there a
+place for the raucous voice of the stage manager and the long jumps of
+"one night stands" with the loss of sleep and the poor meals and the cold
+dressing rooms. As actors begin to dread the drudgery of rehearsing, so do
+baseball men detest the drill of the spring training. The only thing that
+I can think of right away which is more tiresome and less interesting is
+signal practice with a college football team.
+
+About the time that the sap starts up in the trees and the young man's
+fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love and baseball, the big trek starts.
+Five hundred ball-players, attached more or less firmly to sixteen major
+league clubs, spread themselves out over the southern part of the United
+States, from Florida to California, and begin to prepare for the campaign
+that is to furnish the answer to that annual question, "Which is the best
+baseball club in the world?"
+
+In the case of the Giants, McGraw, with a flock of youngsters, has already
+arrived when the older men begin to drift into camp. The youngsters, who
+have come from the bushes and realize that this is their one big chance to
+make good, to be a success or a failure in their chosen profession--in
+short, to become a Big Leaguer or go back to the bushes for good--have
+already been working for ten days and are in fair shape. They stare at
+the regulars as the veterans straggle in by twos and threes, and McGraw
+has a brief greeting for each. He could use a rubber stamp.
+
+"How are you, Matty? What kind of shape are you in? Let's see you in a
+uniform at nine o'clock to-morrow morning."
+
+When I first start South, for the spring trip, after shivering through a
+New York winter, I arouse myself to some enthusiasm over the prospect, but
+all this has evaporated after listening to that terse speech from McGraw,
+for I know what it means. Nothing looms on the horizon but the hardest
+five weeks' grind in the world.
+
+The next day the practice begins, and for the first time in five months, a
+uniform is donned. I usually start my work by limbering up slowly, and on
+the first day I do not pitch at all. With several other players, I help to
+form a large circle and the time is spent in throwing the ball at
+impossible and unreachable points in the anatomy. The man next to you
+shoots one away up over your head and the next one at your feet and off to
+the side while he is looking at the third man from you. This is great for
+limbering up, but the loosening is torture. After about fifteen minutes
+of that, the winter-logged player goes over on the bench and drops down
+exhausted. But does he stay there? Not if McGraw sees him, and he is one
+of the busiest watchers I have ever met.
+
+"Here, Matty," he will shout, "lead this squad three times around the park
+and be careful not to cut the corners."
+
+By the time that little formality is finished, a man's tongue is hanging
+out and he goes to get a drink of water. The spring training is just one
+darned drink after another and still the player is always thirsty.
+
+After three hours of practice, McGraw may say:
+
+"All right, Matty. Go back to the hotel and get a bath and a rub and cut
+it out for to-day."
+
+Or he may remark:
+
+"You're looking heavy this year. Better take another little workout this
+afternoon."
+
+And so ends the first day. That night I flex the muscles in my salary wing
+and wonder to myself if it is going to be _very_ sore. I get the answer
+next day. And what always makes me maddest is that the fans up North
+imagine that we are having some kind of a picnic in Marlin Springs,
+Texas. My idea of no setting for a pleasure party is Marlin Springs,
+Texas.
+
+
+[Illustration: Photo by L. Van Oeyen, Cleveland, Ohio
+
+Close Play at the Plate
+
+This picture illustrates how easily the base runner, with his deceptive
+slide, can get away from the catcher, who has the ball waiting for him. It
+is always a hard decision for the umpire. Shown in the picture are, left
+to right, Conroy of Washington, Umpire Evans, and Catcher Land of
+Cleveland.]
+
+
+The morning of the second day is always a pleasant occasion. The muscles
+which have remained idle so long begin to rebel at the unaccustomed
+exercise, and the players are as pleasant as a flock of full-grown grizzly
+bears. I would not be a waiter for a ball club on a spring tour if they
+offered me a contract with a salary as large as J. P. Morgan's income.
+
+Each year the winter kinks seem to have settled into the muscles more
+permanently and are harder to iron out. Of course, there comes a last time
+for each one of us to go South, and every season I think, on the morning
+of the second day, when I try to work my muscles, that this one is my
+last.
+
+The bushers lend variety to the life in a spring camp. Many of them try
+hard to "horn in" with the men who have made good as Big Leaguers. When a
+young player really seems to want to know something, any of the older men
+will gladly help him, but the trouble with most of them is that they think
+they are wonders when they arrive.
+
+"How do you hold a curve?" a young fellow asked me last spring.
+
+I showed him.
+
+"Do you think Hans Wagner is as good as Ty Cobb?" he asked me next.
+
+"Listen!" I answered. "Did you come down here to learn to play ball or
+with the idea that you are attending some sort of a conversational
+soiree?"
+
+Many recruits think that, if they can get friendly with the veterans, they
+will be retained on account of their social standing, and I cannot "go"
+young ball-players who attempt to become the bootblacks for the old ones.
+
+I have seen many a youngster ruin himself, even for playing in the minors,
+through his too vigorous efforts to make good under the large tent. He
+will come into camp, and the first day out put everything he has on the
+ball to show the manager "he's got something." The Giants had a young
+pitcher with them in 1911, named Nagle, who tried to pick up the pace, on
+the first day in camp, at which he had left off on the closing day of the
+previous year. He started to shoot the ball over to the batters with big,
+sharp breaking curves on it. He had not been South three days before he
+developed a sore arm that required a sling to help him carry it around,
+and he never was able to twirl again before he was shunted back into the
+lesser leagues.
+
+But hope springs eternal in the breast of the bush leaguer in the spring,
+and many a young fellow, when he gets his send-off from the little, old
+home town, with the local band playing at the station, knows that the next
+time the populace of that place hears of him, it will be through seeing
+his name in the headlines of the New York papers. And then along about the
+middle of April, he comes sneaking back into the old burg, crestfallen and
+disappointed. There are a lot of humor and some pathos in a spring
+training trip. Many a busher I have seen go back who has tried hard to
+make good and just could not, and I have felt sorry for him. It is just
+like a man in any other business getting a chance at a better job than the
+one he is holding and not being big enough to fit it. It is the one time
+that opportunity has knocked, and most of the bush leaguers do not know
+the combination to open the door, and, as has been pointed out,
+opportunity was never charged with picking locks. Many are called in the
+spring, but few get past. Most of them are sincere young fellows, too,
+trying to make good, and I have seen them work until their tongues were
+hanging out and the perspiration was starting all over them, only to hear
+McGraw say:
+
+"I'm sorry, but you will have to go back again. I've let you out to
+Kankakee."
+
+"Steve Evans", who now plays right field on the St. Louis club, was South
+with the Giants one season and worked hard to stick. But McGraw had a lot
+of young out-fielders, and some minor league magnate from Montreal came
+into camp one day who liked "Steve's" action. McGraw started for the
+outfield where Evans was chasing flies and tried to get to "Steve," but
+every time the manager approached him with the minor league man, Evans
+would rush for a ball on another corner of the field, and he became
+suddenly hard of hearing. Finally McGraw abandoned the chase and let
+another out-fielder go to Montreal, retaining Evans.
+
+"Say, 'Steve,'" said "Mac," that night, "why didn't you come, when I
+called you out on the field there this afternoon?"
+
+"Because I could hear the rattle of the tin can you wanted to tie to me,
+all over the lot," replied Evans. And eventually, by that subtle dodging,
+he landed in the Big League under Bresnahan and has made good out there.
+
+I believe that a pitcher by profession has the hardest time of any of the
+specialists who go into a spring camp. His work is of a more routine
+nature than that which attaches to any of the other branches of the
+baseball art. It is nothing but a steady grind.
+
+The pitcher goes out each morning and gets a catcher with a big mitt and a
+loud voice and, with a couple of his fellow artists, starts to warm up
+with this slave-driver. The right sort of a catcher for spring rehearsing
+is never satisfied with anything you do. I never try to throw a curve for
+ten days at least after I get South, for a misplaced curve early in the
+season may give a man a sore arm for the greater part of the summer, and
+Big League clubs are not paying pitchers for wearing crippled whips.
+
+After warming up for an hour or so, three or four pitchers throw slow ones
+to a batter and try to get the ball on the half bounce and compete as to
+the number of fumbles. This is great for limbering up.
+
+Then comes the only real enjoyment of the day. It is quick in passing,
+like a piece of great scenery viewed out of the window of a railroad coach
+going sixty miles an hour. Each afternoon the regulars play the Yannigans
+(the spring name of the second team) a game of six innings, and each
+pitcher has a chance to work about one inning. The batters are away off
+form and are missing the old round-house curve by two feet that they would
+hit out of the lot in mid-season. This makes you think for a few minutes
+that you are a good pitcher. But there is even a drawback to this brief
+bit of enjoyment, for the diamond at Marlin is skinned--that is, made of
+dirt, although it is billed as a grass infield, and the ball gets "wingy."
+Little pieces of the cover are torn loose by contact with the rough dirt,
+and it is not at all like the hard, smooth, grass-stained ball that is
+prevalent around the circuit in mid-season. Grass seed has been planted on
+this infield, but so far, like a lot of bushers, it has failed to make
+good its promises.
+
+After that game comes the inevitable run around the park which has been a
+headliner in spring training ever since the institution was discovered. A
+story is told of "Cap" Anson and his famous old White Stockings.
+According to the reports I have heard, training with the "Cap" when he was
+right was no bed of roses. After hours of practice, he would lead the men
+in long runs, and the better he felt, the longer the runs. One hot day, so
+the story goes, Anson was toiling around the park, with his usual
+determination, at the head of a string of steaming, sweating players, when
+"Bill" Dahlen, a clever man at finding an opening, discovered a loose
+board in the fence on the back stretch, pulled it off, and dived through
+the hole. On the next lap two more tired athletes followed him, and at
+last the whole squad was on the other side of the fence, watching their
+leader run on tirelessly. But "Cap" must have missed the "plunk, plunk" of
+the footsteps behind him, for he looked around and saw that his players
+were gone. He kept grimly on, alone, until he had finished, and then he
+pushed his red face through the hole in the fence and saw his men.
+
+"Your turn now, boys," he said, and while he sat in the grand-stand as the
+sole spectator, he made that crowd of unfortunate athletes run around the
+track twice as many times as he himself had done.
+
+"Guess I won't have to nail up that hole in the fence, boys," "Cap"
+remarked when it was all over.
+
+Speaking of the influence of catchers on pitchers during the training
+trip, there is the well-known case of Wilbert Robinson, the old catcher,
+and "Rube" Marquard, the great left-handed pitcher of the Giants. "Robbie"
+devoted himself almost entirely in the spring of 1911 to the training of
+the then erratic "Rube," and he handed back to McGraw at the end of the
+rehearsal the man who turned out to be the premier pitcher of his League,
+according to the official figures, and figures are not in the habit of
+lying.
+
+"Robbie" used to take Marquard off into some corner every day and talk to
+him for hours. Draw up close, for I am going to tell you the secret of how
+Marquard became a great pitcher and that, too, at just about the time the
+papers were mentioning him as the "$11,000 lemon," and imploring McGraw to
+let him go to some club in exchange for a good capable bat boy.
+
+"Now 'Rube,'" would be "Robbie's" first line in the daily lecture, "you've
+got to start on the first ball to get the batter. Always have something
+on him and never let him have anything on you. This is the prescription
+for a great pitcher."
+
+One of the worst habits of Marquard's early days was to get a couple of
+strikes on a batter and then let up until he got himself "into a hole" and
+could not put the ball over. Robinson by his coaching gave him the
+confidence he lacked.
+
+"'Rube,' you've got a lot of stuff to-day," "Robbie" would advise, "but
+don't try to get it all on the ball. Mix it with a little control, and it
+will make a great blend. Now, this guy is a high ball hitter. Let's see
+you keep it low for him. He waits, so you will have to get it over."
+
+And out there in the hot Texas sun, with much advice and lots of patience,
+Wilbert Robinson was manufacturing a great pitcher out of the raw
+material. One of Marquard's worst faults, when he first broke into the
+League, was that he did not know the batters and their grooves, and these
+weaknesses Robinson drilled into his head--not that a drill was required
+to insert the information. Robinson was the coacher, umpire, catcher and
+batter rolled into one, and as a result look at the "Rube."
+
+When Marquard began to wabble a little toward the end of 1911 and to show
+some of his old shyness while the club was on its last trip West, Robinson
+hurried on to Chicago and worked with him for two days. The "Rube" had
+lost the first game of the series to the Cubs, but he turned around after
+Robinson joined us and beat them to death in the last contest.
+
+Pitchers, old and young, are always trying for new curves in the spring
+practice, and out of the South, wafted over the wires by the fertile
+imaginations of the flotilla of correspondents, drift tales each spring of
+the "fish" ball and the new "hook" jump and the "stop" ball and many more
+eccentric curves which usually boil down to modifications of the old ones.
+I worked for two weeks once on a new, slow, spit ball that would wabble,
+but the trouble was that I could never tell just when or where it was
+going to wabble, and so at last I had to abandon it because I could not
+control it.
+
+After sending out fake stories of new and wonderful curves for several
+years, at last the correspondents got a new one when the spit ball was
+first discovered by Stricklett, a Brooklyn pitcher, several seasons ago.
+One Chicago correspondent sent back to his paper a glowing tale of the
+wonderful new curve called the "spit ball," which was obtained by the use
+of saliva, only to get a wire from his office which read:
+
+"It's all right to 'fake' about new curves, but when it comes to being
+vulgar about it, that's going too far. Either drop that spit ball or mail
+us your resignation."
+
+The paper refused to print the story and a real new curve was born without
+its notice. As a matter of fact, Bowerman, the old Giant catcher, was
+throwing the spit ball for two or three years before it was discovered to
+be a pitching asset. He used to wet his fingers when catching, and as he
+threw to second base the ball would take all sorts of eccentric breaks
+which fooled the baseman, and none could explain why it did it until
+Stricklett came through with the spit ball.
+
+Many good pitchers, who feel their arms begin to weaken, work on certain
+freak motions or forms of delivery to make themselves more effective or
+draw out their baseball life in the Big Leagues for a year or two. A story
+is told of "Matty" Kilroy, a left-hander, who lived for two years through
+the development of what he called the "Bazzazaz" balk, and it had the
+same effect on his pitching as administering oxygen often has on a patient
+who is almost dead.
+
+"My old soup bone," says Kilroy, "was so weak that I couldn't break a pane
+of glass at fifty feet. So one winter I spent some time every day out in
+the back yard getting that balk motion down. I had a pretty fair balk
+motion when my arm was good, but I saw that it had to be better, so I put
+one stone in the yard for a home plate and another up against the fence
+for first base. Then I practised looking at the home plate stone and
+throwing at first base with a snap of the wrist and without moving my
+feet. It was stare steady at the batter, then the arm up to about my ear,
+and zip, with a twist of the wrist at first base, and you've got him!
+
+"I got so I could throw 'em harder to the bag with that wrist wriggle than
+I could to the batter, and I had them stickin' closer to the base for two
+years than a sixteen-year-old fellow does to his gal when they've just
+decided they would do for each other."
+
+As a rule McGraw takes charge of the batters and general team work at
+spring practice, and he is one of the busiest little persons in seven
+counties, for he says a lot depends on the start a club gets in a league
+race. He always wants the first jump because it is lots easier falling
+back than catching up.
+
+After a week or so of practice, the team is divided up into two squads,
+and one goes to San Antonio and the other to Houston each Saturday and
+Sunday to play games. One of the older men takes charge of the younger
+players, and there is a lot of rivalry between the two teams to see which
+one will make the better record, I remember one year I was handling the
+youngsters, and we went to Houston to play the team there and just managed
+to nose out a victory. McGraw thought that for the next Saturday he had
+better strengthen the Yannigans up a bit, so he sent Roger Bresnahan along
+to play third base instead of Henderson, the young fellow we had the week
+before. Playing third base could not exactly have been called a habit with
+"Rog" at that time. He was still pretty fat, and bending over quick after
+grounders was not his regular line. He booted two or three and finally
+managed to lose the game for us. We sent McGraw the following telegram
+that night:
+
+"John McGraw, manager of the Giants, San Antonio, Texas:
+
+"Will trade Bresnahan for Henderson. Rush answer."
+
+McGraw does not like to have any of his clubs beaten by the minor
+leaguers, because the bushers are inclined to imitate pouter pigeons right
+away after beating the Big Leaguers.
+
+The social side of a training trip consists of kicking about the grub,
+singing songs at night, and listening to the same old stories that creep
+out of the bushes on crutches year after year. Last spring the food got so
+bad that some of the newspaper men fixed up a fake story they said they
+were going to send to New York, displayed it to the proprietor, and he
+came through with beefsteak for three nights in succession, thus
+establishing a record and proving the power of the press. The trouble with
+the diet schedule on a spring trip is that almost invariably those hotels
+on the bush-league circuits serve dinner in the middle of the day, just
+when a ball-player does not feel like eating anything much. Then at night
+they have a pick-up supper when one's stomach feels as if it thought a
+fellow's throat had been cut.
+
+The Giants had an umpire with them in the spring of 1911, named Hansell,
+who enlivened the long, weary, training season some. Like a lot of the
+recruits who thought that they were great ball-players, this Hansell
+firmly believed he was a great umpire. He used to try to put players who
+did not agree with his decisions out of the game and, of course, they
+would not go.
+
+"Why don't you have them arrested if they won't leave?" McGraw asked him
+one day. "I would."
+
+So the next afternoon Hansell had a couple of the local constables out at
+the grounds and tried to have Devore pinched for kicking on a decision.
+"Josh" got sore and framed it up to have a camera man at the park the next
+day to take a moving picture of a mob scene, Hansell, the umpire, to be
+the hero and mobbed. Hansell fell for it until he saw all the boys picking
+up real clods and digging the dirt out of their spikes, and then he made a
+run for it and never came back. That is how we lost a great umpire.
+
+"You boys made it look too realistic for him," declared McGraw.
+
+Hansell had a notion that he was a runner and offered to bet Robinson,
+who is rather corpulent now, that he could beat him running across the
+field. Robinson took him, and walked home ahead of the umpire in the race.
+
+"I don't see where I get off on this deal," complained McGraw when it was
+over. "I framed up this race for you two fellows, and then Hansell comes
+to me and borrows the ten to pay 'Robbie.'"
+
+Somebody fixed up a Turkish bath in the hotel one day by stuffing up the
+cracks in one of the bathrooms and turning the hot water into the tub and
+the steam into the radiator full blast.
+
+Several towels were piled on the radiator and the players sat upon this
+swathed in blankets to take off weight. They entered the impromptu Turkish
+bath, wearing only the well-known smile. McGraw still maintains that it
+was "Bugs" Raymond who pulled out the towels when it came the manager's
+turn to sit on the radiator, and, if he could have proved his case,
+Raymond would not have needed a doctor. It would have been time for the
+undertaker.
+
+Finally comes the long wending of the way up North. "Bugs" Raymond always
+depends on his friends for his refreshments, and as he had few friends in
+Marlin in 1911, he got few drinks. But when we got to Dallas cocktails
+were served with the dinner and all the ball-players left them untouched,
+McGraw enforcing the old rule that lips that touch "licker" shall never
+moisten a spit ball for him. "Bugs" was missed after supper and some one
+found him out in the kitchen licking up all the discarded Martinis. That
+was the occasion of his first fine of the season, and after that, as
+"Bugs" himself admitted, "life for him was just one fine after another."
+
+At last, after the long junket through the South, on which all managers
+are Simon Legrees, is ended, comes a welcome day, when the new uniforms
+are donned and the band plays and "them woids" which constitute the
+sweetest music to the ears of a ball-player, roll off the tongue of the
+umpire:
+
+"The batteries for to-day are Rucker and Bergen for Brooklyn, Marquard and
+Meyers for New York. Play ball!"
+
+The season is on.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+Jinxes and What They Mean to a Ball-Player
+
+     _A Load of Empty Barrels, Hired by John McGraw, once Pulled the
+     Giants out of a Losing Streak--The Child of Superstition Appears to
+     the Ball-Player in Many Forms--Various Ways in which the Influence of
+     the Jinx can be Overcome--The True Story of "Charley" Faust--The
+     Necktie that Helped Win a Pennant._
+
+
+A friend of mine, who took a different fork in the road when we left
+college from the one that I have followed, was walking down Broadway in
+New York with me one morning after I had joined the Giants, and we passed
+a cross-eyed man. I grabbed off my hat and spat in it. It was a new hat,
+too. "What's the matter with you, Matty?" he asked, surprised.
+
+"Spit in your hat quick and kill that jinx," I answered, not thinking for
+the minute, and he followed my example.
+
+I forgot to mention, when I said he took another fork in the road, that he
+had become a pitcher, too, but of a different kind. He had turned out to
+be sort of a conversational pitcher, for he was a minister, and, as luck
+would have it, on the morning we met that cross-eyed man he was wearing a
+silk hat. I was shocked, pained, and mortified when I saw what I had made
+him do. But he was the right sort, and wanted to go through with the thing
+according to the standards of the professional man with whom he happened
+to be at the time.
+
+"What's the idea?" he asked as he replaced his hat.
+
+"Worst jinx in the world to see a cross-eyed man," I replied. "But I hope
+I didn't hurt your silk hat," I quickly apologized.
+
+"Not at all. But how about these ball-players who masticate the weed? Do
+they kill jinxes, too?" he wanted to know. And I had to admit that they
+were the main exterminators of the jinx.
+
+"Then," he went on, "I'm glad that the percentage of wearers of cross eyes
+is small."
+
+I have just looked into one of my favorite works for that word "jinx," and
+found it not. My search was in Webster's dictionary. But any ball-player
+can give a definition of it with his hands tied behind him--that is, any
+one except "Arlie" Latham, and, with his hands bound, he is deaf and dumb.
+A jinx is something which brings bad luck to a ball-player, and the
+members of the profession have built up a series of lucky and unlucky
+omens that should be catalogued. And besides the common or garden variety
+of jinxes, many stars have a series of private or pet and trained ones
+that are more malignant in their forms than those which come out in the
+open.
+
+A jinx is the child of superstition, and ball-players are among the most
+superstitious persons in the world, notwithstanding all this conversation
+lately about educated men breaking into the game and paying no attention
+whatever to the good and bad omens. College men are coming into both the
+leagues, more of them each year, and they are doing their share to make
+the game better and the class of men higher, but they fall the hardest for
+the jinxes. And I don't know as it is anything to be ashamed of at that.
+
+A really true, on-the-level, honest-to-jiminy jinx can do all sorts of
+mean things to a professional ball-player. I have seen it make a bad
+pitcher out of a good one, and a blind batter out of a three-hundred
+hitter, and I have seen it make a ball club, composed of educated men,
+carry a Kansas farmer, with two or three screws rattling loose in his
+dome, around the circuit because he came as a prophet and said that he was
+accompanied by Miss Fickle Fortune. And that is almost a jinx record.
+
+Jinx and Miss Fickle Fortune never go around together. And ball-players
+are always trying to kill this jinx, for, once he joins the club, all hope
+is gone. He dies hard, and many a good hat has been ruined in an effort to
+destroy him, as I have said before, because the wearer happened to be
+chewing tobacco when the jinx dropped around. But what's a new hat against
+a losing streak or a batting slump?
+
+Luck is a combination of confidence and getting the breaks. Ball-players
+get no breaks without confidence in themselves, and lucky omens inspire
+this confidence. On the other hand, unlucky signs take it away. The lucky
+man is the one who hits the nail on the head and not his fingers, and the
+ability to swat the nail on its receptive end is a combination of
+self-confidence and an aptitude for hammering. Good ball-playing is the
+combination of self-confidence and the ability to play.
+
+The next is "Red" Ames, although designated as "Leon" by his family when a
+very small boy before he began to play ball. (He is still called "Leon" in
+the winter.) Ames is of Warren, Ohio, and the Giants, and he is said to
+hold the Marathon record for being the most unlucky pitcher that ever
+lived, and I agree with the sayers. For several seasons, Ames couldn't
+seem to win a ball game, no matter how well he pitched. In 1909, "Red"
+twirled a game on the opening day of the season against Brooklyn that was
+the work of a master. For nine innings he held his opponents hitless, only
+to have them win in the thirteenth. Time and again Ames has pitched
+brilliantly, to be finally beaten by a small score, because one of the men
+behind him made an error at a critical moment, or because the team could
+not give him any runs by which to win. No wonder the newspapers began to
+speak of Ames as the "hoodoo" pitcher and the man "who couldn't win."
+
+There was a cross-eyed fellow who lived between Ames and the Polo Grounds,
+and "Red" used to make a detour of several blocks en route to the park to
+be sure to miss him in case he should be out walking. But one day in 1911,
+when it was his turn to pitch, he bumped into that cross-eyed man and, in
+spite of the fact that he did his duty by his hat and got three or four
+small boys to help him out, he failed to last two innings. When it came
+time to go West on the final trip of the 1911 season, Ames was badly
+discouraged.
+
+"I don't see any use in taking me along, Mac," he said to McGraw a few
+days before we left. "The club can't win with me pitching if the other
+guys don't even get a foul."
+
+The first stop was in Boston, and on the day we arrived it rained. In the
+mail that day, addressed to Leon Ames, came a necktie and a four-leaf
+clover from a prominent actress, wishing Ames good luck. The directions
+were inside the envelope. The four-leaf clover, if the charm were to work,
+must be worn on both the uniform and street clothes, and the necktie was
+to be worn with the street clothes and concealed in the uniform, if that
+necktie could be concealed anywhere. It would have done for a headlight
+and made Joseph's coat of many colors look like a mourning garment.
+
+"Might as well wish good luck to a guy on the way to the morgue," murmured
+Ames as he surveyed the layout, but he manfully put on the necktie, taking
+his first dose of the prescription, as directed, at once, and he tucked
+the four-leaf clover away carefully in his wallet.
+
+"You've got your work cut out for you, old boy," he remarked to the charm
+as he put it away, "but I'd wear you if you were a horseshoe."
+
+The first day that Ames pitched in Boston he won, and won in a stroll.
+
+"The necktie," he explained that night at dinner, and pointed to the
+three-sheet, colored-supplement affair he was wearing around his collar,
+"I don't change her until I lose."
+
+_And he didn't lose a game on that trip._ Once he almost did, when he was
+taken out in the sixth inning, and a batter put in for him, but the Giants
+finally pulled out the victory and he got the credit for it. He swept
+through the West unbeatable, letting down Pittsburg with two or three
+hits, cleaning up in St. Louis, and finally breaking our losing streak in
+Chicago after two games had gone against us. And all the time he wore that
+spectrum around his collar for a necktie. As it frayed with the wear and
+tear, more colors began to show, although I didn't think it possible. If
+he had had occasion to put on his evening clothes, I believe that tie
+would have gone with it.
+
+For my part, I would almost rather have lost a game and changed the
+necktie, since it gave one the feeling all the time that he was carrying
+it around with him because he had had the wrong end of an election bet, or
+something of the sort. But not Ames! He was a game guy. He stuck with the
+necktie, and it stuck with him, and the combination kept right on winning
+ball games. Maybe he didn't mind it because he could not see it himself,
+unless he looked in a mirror, but it was rough on the rest of the team,
+except that we needed the games the necktie won, to take the pennant.
+
+Columns were printed in the newspapers about that necktie, and it became
+the most famous scarf in the world. Ames used to sleep with it under his
+pillow alongside of his bank roll, and he didn't lose another game until
+the very end of the season, when he dropped one against Brooklyn.
+
+"I don't hardly lay that up against the tie," he said afterwards. "You
+see, Mac put all those youngsters into it, and I didn't get any support."
+
+Analyzing is a distasteful pastime to me, but let's see what it was that
+made Ames win. Was it the necktie? Perhaps not. But some sliver of
+confidence, which resulted from that first game when he was dressed up in
+the scarf and the four-leaf clover, got stuck in his mind. And after that
+the rest was easy.
+
+Frank Chance, the manager of the Cubs, has a funny superstition which is
+of the personal sort. Most ball-players have a natural prejudice against
+the number "13" in any form, but particularly when attached to a Pullman
+berth. But Chance always insists, whenever possible, that he have "lower
+13." He says that if he can just crawl in under that number he is sure of
+a good night's rest, a safe journey, and a victory the next day. He has
+been in two or three minor railroad accidents, and he declares that all
+these occurred when he was sleeping on some other shelf besides "lower
+13." He can usually satisfy his hobby, too, for most travellers steer
+clear of the berth.
+
+McGraw believes a stateroom brings him good luck, or at least he always
+insists on having one when he can get it.
+
+"Chance can have 'lower 13,'" says "Mac," "but give me a stateroom for
+luck."
+
+Most ball-players nowadays treat the superstitions of the game as jokes,
+probably because they are a little ashamed to acknowledge their
+weaknesses, but away down underneath they observe the proprieties of the
+ritual. Why, even I won't warm up with the third baseman while I am
+waiting for the catcher to get on his mask and the rest of his
+paraphernalia. Once, when I first broke in with the Giants, I warmed up
+with the third baseman between innings and in the next round they hit me
+hard and knocked me out of the box. Since then I have had an uncommon
+prejudice against the practice, and I hate to hear a man even mention it.
+Devlin knows of my weakness and never suggests it when he is playing the
+bag, but occasionally a new performer will drill into the box score at
+third base and yell:
+
+"Come on, Matty! Warm up here while you're waiting."
+
+It gets me. I'll pitch to the first baseman or a substitute catcher to
+keep warm, but I would rather freeze to death than heat up with the third
+baseman. That is one of my pet jinxes.
+
+And speaking of Arthur Devlin, he has a few hand-raised jinxes of his own,
+too. For instance, he never likes to hear a player hum a tune on the
+bench, because he thinks it will keep him from getting a base hit. He
+nearly beat a youngster to death one day when he kept on humming after
+Devlin had told him to stop.
+
+"Cut that out, Caruso," yelled Arthur, as the recruit started his melody.
+"You are killing base hits."
+
+The busher continued with his air until Devlin tried another form of
+persuasion.
+
+Arthur also has a favorite seat on the bench which he believes is luckier
+than the rest, and he insists on sitting in just that one place.
+
+But the worst blow Devlin ever had was when some young lady admirer of his
+in his palmy days, who unfortunately wore her eyes crossed, insisted on
+sitting behind third base for each game, so as to be near him. Arthur
+noticed her one day and, after that, it was all off. He hit the worst
+slump of his career. For a while no one could understand it, but at last
+he confessed to McGraw.
+
+"Mac," he said one night in the club-house, "it's that jinx. Have you
+noticed her? She sits behind the bag every day, and she has got me going.
+She has sure slid the casters under me. I wish we could bar her out, or
+poison her, or shoot her, or chloroform her, or kill her in some nice,
+mild way because, if it isn't done, this League is going to lose a
+ball-player. How can you expect a guy to play with that overlooking him
+every afternoon?"
+
+McGraw took Devlin out of the game for a time after that, and the
+newspapers printed several yards about the cross-eyed jinx who had ruined
+the Giants' third baseman.
+
+With the infield weakened by the loss of Devlin, the club began to lose
+with great regularity. But one day the jinxess was missing and she never
+came back. She must have read in the newspapers what she was doing to
+Devlin, her hero, and quit the national pastime or moved to another part
+of the stand. With this weight off his shoulders, Arthur went back into
+the game and played like mad.
+
+"If she'd stuck much longer," declared McGraw, joyous in his rejuvenated
+third baseman, "I would have had her eyes operated on and straightened.
+This club couldn't afford to keep on losing ball games because you are
+such a Romeo, Arthur, that even the cross-eyed ones fall for you."
+
+Ball-players are very superstitious about the bats. Did you ever notice
+how the clubs are all laid out in a neat, even row before the bench and
+are scrupulously kept that way by the bat boy? If one of the sticks by any
+chance gets crossed, all the players will shout:
+
+"Uncross the bats! Uncross the bats!"
+
+It's as bad as discovering a three-alarm fire in an excelsior factory.
+Don't believe it? Then listen to what happened to the Giants once because
+a careless bat boy neglected his duty. The team was playing in Cincinnati
+in the season of 1906 when one of the bats got crossed through the
+carelessness of the boy. What was the result? "Mike" Donlin, the star
+slugger of the team, slid into third base and came up with a broken
+ankle.
+
+Ever since that time we have carried our own boy with us, because a club
+with championship aspirations cannot afford to take a chance with those
+foreign artists handling the bats. They are likely to throw you down at
+any time.
+
+The Athletics have a funny superstition which is private or confined to
+their team as far as I know. When luck seems to be breaking against them
+in a game, they will take the bats and throw them wildly into the air and
+let them lie around in front of their bench, topsy-turvy. They call this
+changing the luck, but any other club would consider that it was the worst
+kind of a jinx. It is the same theory that card-players have about
+shuffling the deck vigorously to bring a different run of fortune. Then,
+if the luck changes, the Athletics throw the bats around some more to keep
+it. This act nearly cost them one of their best ball-players in the third
+game of the 1911 world's series.
+
+The Philadelphia players had tossed their bats to break their run of luck,
+for the score was 1 to 0 against them, when Baker came up in the ninth
+inning. He cracked his now famous home run into the right-field bleachers,
+and the men on the bench hurled the bats wildly into the air. In jumping
+up and reaching for a bat to throw, Jack Barry, the shortstop, hit his
+head on the concrete roof of the structure and was stunned for a minute.
+He said that little black specks were floating in front of his eyes, but
+he gamely insisted on playing the contest out. "Connie" Mack was so
+worried over his condition that he sent Ira Thomas out on the field to
+inquire if he were all right, and this interrupted the game in the ninth
+inning. A lot of the spectators thought that Thomas was out there, bearing
+some secret message from "Connie" Mack. None knew that he was ascertaining
+the health of a player who had almost killed himself while killing a jinx.
+
+The Athletics, for two seasons, have carried with them on all their trips
+a combination bat boy and mascot who is a hunchback, and he outjinxed our
+champion jinx killer, Charley Faust, in the 1911 world's series. A
+hunchback is regarded by ball-players as the best luck in the world. If a
+man can just touch that hump on the way to the plate, he is sure to get a
+hit, and any observant spectator will notice the Athletics' hitters
+rubbing the hunchback boy before leaving the bench. So attached to this
+boy have the players become that they voted him half a share of the prize
+money last year after the world's series. Lots of ball-players would tell
+you that he deserved it because he has won two world's pennants for them.
+
+Another great piece of luck is for a ball-player to rub a colored kid's
+head. I've walked along the street with ball-players and seen them stop a
+young negro and take off his hat and run their hands through his kinky
+hair. Then I've seen the same ball-player go out and get two or three hits
+that afternoon and play the game of his life. Again, it is the confidence
+inspired, coupled with the ability.
+
+Another old superstition among ball-players is that a load of empty
+barrels means base hits. If an athlete can just pass a flock of them on
+the way to the park, he is sure to step right along stride for stride with
+the three-hundred hitters that afternoon.
+
+McGraw once broke up a batting slump of the Giants with a load of empty
+barrels. That is why I maintain he is the greatest manager of them all. He
+takes advantage of the little things, even the superstitions of his men,
+and turns them to his account. He played this trick in one of the first
+years that he managed the New York club. The batting of all the players
+had slumped at the same time. None could hit, and the club was losing game
+after game as a result, because the easiest pitchers were making the best
+batters look foolish. One day Bowerman came into the clubhouse with a
+smile on his face for the first time in a week.
+
+"Saw a big load of empty barrels this afternoon, boys," he announced, "and
+just watch me pickle the pill out there to-day."
+
+Right at that point McGraw got an idea, as he frequently does. Bowerman
+went out that afternoon and made four hits out of a possible five. The
+next day three or four more of the players came into the park, carrying
+smiles and the announcement that fortunately they, too, had met a load of
+empty barrels. They, then, all went out and regained their old batting
+strides, and we won that afternoon for the first time in a week. More saw
+a load of barrels the next day and started to bat. At last all the members
+of the team had met the barrels, and men with averages of .119 were
+threatening to chisel into the three-hundred set. With remarkable
+regularity the players were meeting loads of empty barrels on their way to
+the park, and, with remarkable regularity and a great deal of expedition,
+the pitchers of opposing clubs were being driven to the shower bath.
+
+"Say," asked "Billy" Gilbert, the old second baseman, of "Bill" Lauder,
+formerly the protector of the third corner, one day, "is one of that team
+of horses sorrel and the other white?"
+
+"Sure," answered "Bill."
+
+"Sure," echoed McGraw. "I hired that load of empty barrels by the week to
+drive around and meet you fellows on the way to the park, and you don't
+think I can afford to have them change horses every day, do you?"
+
+Everybody had a good laugh and kept on swatting. McGraw asked for waivers
+on the load of empty barrels soon afterwards, but his scheme had stopped a
+batting slump and put the club's hitters on their feet again. He plays to
+the little personal qualities and superstitions in the men to get the most
+out of them. And just seeing those barrels gave them the idea that they
+were bound to get the base hits, and they got them. Once more, the old
+confidence, hitched up with ability.
+
+What manager would have carried a Kansas farmer around the circuit with
+him besides McGraw? I refer to Charles Victor Faust of Marion, Kansas, the
+most famous jinx killer of them all. Faust first met the Giants in St.
+Louis on the next to the last trip the club made West in the season of
+1911, when he wandered into the Planter's Hotel one day, asked for McGraw
+and announced that a fortune teller of Marion had informed him he would be
+a great pitcher and that for $5 he could have a full reading. This
+pitching announcement piqued Charles, and he reached down into his jeans,
+dug out his last five, and passed it over. The fortune teller informed
+Faust that all he had to do to get into the headlines of the newspapers
+and to be a great pitcher was to join the New York Giants. He joined, and,
+after he once joined, it would have taken the McNamaras in their best form
+to separate him from the said Giants.
+
+"Charley" came out to the ball park and amused himself warming up.
+Incidentally, the Giants did not lose a game while he was in the
+neighborhood. The night the club left for Chicago on that trip, he was
+down at the Union Station ready to go along.
+
+"Did you get your contract and transportation?" asked McGraw, as the lanky
+Kansan appeared.
+
+"No," answered "Charley."
+
+"Pshaw," replied McGraw. "I left it for you with the clerk at the hotel.
+The train leaves in two minutes," he continued, glancing at his watch. "If
+you can run the way you say you can, you can make it and be back in time
+to catch it."
+
+It was the last we saw of "Charley" Faust for a time--galloping up the
+platform in his angular way with that contract and transportation in
+sight.
+
+"I'm almost sorry we left him," remarked McGraw as "Charley" disappeared
+in the crowd. We played on around the circuit with indifferent luck and
+got back to New York with the pennant no more than a possibility, and
+rather a remote one at that. The first day we were in New York "Charley"
+Faust entered the clubhouse with several inches of dust and mud caked on
+him, for he had come all the way either by side-door special or blind
+baggage.
+
+"I'm here, all right," he announced quietly, and started to climb into a
+uniform.
+
+"I see you are," answered McGraw.
+
+"Charley" stuck around for two or three days, and we won. Then McGraw
+decided he would have to be dropped and ordered the man on the door of the
+clubhouse to bar this Kansas kid out. Faust broke down and cried that day,
+and we lost. After that he became a member of the club, and we won game
+after game until some busy newspaper man obtained a vaudeville engagement
+for him at a salary of $100 a week. We lost three games the week he was
+absent from the grounds, and Faust saw at once he was not doing the right
+thing by the club, so, with a wave of his hand that would have gone with
+J. P. Morgan's income, he passed up some lucrative vaudeville contracts,
+much to the disgust of the newspaper man, who was cutting the remuneration
+with him, and settled down to business. The club did not lose a game after
+that, and it was decided to take Faust West with us on the last and famous
+trip in 1911. Daily he had been bothering McGraw and Mr. Brush for his
+contract, for he wanted to pitch. The club paid him some money from time
+to time to meet his personal expenses.
+
+The Sunday night the club left for Boston, a vaudeville agent was at the
+Grand Central Station with a contract offering Faust $100 a week for five
+weeks, which "Charley" refused in order to stick with the club. It was the
+greatest trip away from home in the history of baseball. Starting with the
+pennant almost out of reach, the Giants won eighteen and lost four games.
+One contest that we dropped in St. Louis was when some of the newspaper
+correspondents on the trip kidnapped Faust and sat him on the St. Louis
+bench.
+
+Another day in St. Louis the game had gone eleven innings, and the
+Cardinals needed one run to win. They had several incipient scores on the
+bases and "Rube" Marquard, in the box, was apparently going up in the air.
+Only one was out. Faust was warming up far in the suburbs when, under
+orders from McGraw, I ran out and sent him to the bench, for that was the
+place from which his charm seemed to be the most potent. "Charley" came
+loping to the bench as fast as his long legs would transport him and St.
+Louis didn't score and we won the game. It was as nice a piece of pinch
+mascoting as I ever saw.
+
+The first two games that "Charley" really lost were in Chicago. And all
+through the trip, he reiterated his weird prophecies that "the Giants
+with Manager McGraw were goin' ta win." The players believed in him, and
+none would have let him go if it had been necessary to support him out of
+their own pockets. And we did win.
+
+"Charley," with his monologue and great good humor, kept the players in
+high spirits throughout the journey, and the feeling prevailed that we
+couldn't lose with him along. He was advertised all over the circuit, and
+spectators were going to the ball park to see Faust and Wagner. "Charley"
+admitted that he could fan out Hans because he had learned how to pitch
+out there in Kansas by correspondence school and had read of "Hans's"
+weakness in a book. His one "groove" was massages and manicures. He would
+go into the barber shop with any member of the team who happened to be
+getting shaved and take a massage and manicure for the purposes of
+sociability, as a man takes a drink. He easily was the record holder for
+the manicure Marathon, hanging up the figures of five in one day in St.
+Louis. He also liked pie for breakfast, dinner and supper, and a small
+half before retiring.
+
+But, alas! "Charley" lost in the world's series. He couldn't make good.
+And a jinx killer never comes back. He is gone. And his expansive smile
+and bump-the-bumps slide are gone with him. That is, McGraw hopes he is
+gone. But he was a wonder while he had it. And he did a great deal toward
+giving the players confidence. With him on the bench, they thought they
+couldn't lose, and they couldn't. It has long been a superstition among
+ball-players that when a "bug" joins a club, it will win a championship,
+and the Giants believed it when "Charley" Faust arrived. Did "Charley"
+Faust win the championship for the Giants?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another time-honored superstition among ball-players is that no one must
+say to a pitcher as he goes to the box for the eighth inning:
+
+"Come on, now. Only six more men."
+
+Or for the ninth:
+
+"Pitch hard, now. Only three left."
+
+Ames says that he lost a game in St. Louis once because McGraw forgot
+himself and urged him to pitch hard because only three remained to be put
+out. Those three batters raised the mischief with Ames's prospects; he was
+knocked out of the box in that last inning, and we lost the game. That
+was before the days of the wonder necktie.
+
+Ames won the third game played in Chicago on the last trip West. Coming
+into the ninth inning, he had the Cubs beaten, when McGraw began:
+
+"Come on, 'Red,' only----"
+
+"Nix, Mac," cut in Ames, "for the love of Mike, be reasonable."
+
+And then he won the game. But the chances are that if McGraw had got that
+"only three more" out, he would have lost, because it would have been
+working on his strained nerves.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+Base Runners and How They Help a Pitcher to Win
+
+     _The Secret of Successful Base Running is Getting the Start--A Club
+     Composed of Good Base Runners Is Likely to do More to Help a Pitcher
+     Win Games than a Batting Order of Hard Hitters--Stealing Second Is an
+     Art in Taking Chances--The Giants Stole their Way to a Pennant, but
+     "Connie" Mack Stopped the Grand Larceny when it Came to a World's
+     Championship._
+
+
+Many times have the crowds at the Polo Grounds seen a man get on first
+base in a close game, and, with the pitcher's motion, start to steal
+second, only to have the catcher throw him out. The spectators groan and
+criticise the manager.
+
+"Why didn't he wait for the hitters to bat him around?" is the cry.
+
+Then, again, a man starts for the base, times his get-away just right, and
+slides into the bag in a cloud of dust while the umpire spreads out his
+hands indicating that he is safe. The crowd cheers and proclaims McGraw a
+great manager and the stealer a great base runner. Maybe the next batter
+comes along with a hit, and the runner scores. It wins the game, and
+mention is made in the newspapers the next morning of the fast base
+running of the club. A man has covered ninety feet of ground while the
+ball is travelling from the pitcher to the catcher and back to the fielder
+who is guarding second base. It is the most important ninety feet in
+baseball. From second base just one hit scores the runner. Stealing
+second, one of the most picturesque plays of the game, is the gentle art
+of taking a chance.
+
+In 1911, the Giants stole more bases than any other Big League club has
+had to its credit since the Pirates established the record in 1903.
+Devore, Snodgrass, Murray, Merkle and Doyle, once they got on the bases
+were like loose mercury. They couldn't be caught. And McGraw stole his way
+to a pennant with this quintet of runners, not alone because of the number
+of bases they pilfered, but because of the edge it gave the Giants on the
+rest of the clubs, with the men with base-stealing reputations on the
+team. I should say that holding these runners up on the bases and worrying
+about what they were going to do reduced the efficiency of opposing
+pitchers one-third.
+
+It wasn't the speed of the men that accounted for the record. A sprinter
+may get into the Big League and never steal a base. But it was the McGraw
+system combined with their natural ability.
+
+"Get the start," reiterates McGraw. "Half of base stealing is leaving the
+bag at the right time. Know when you have a good lead and then never stop
+until you have hit the dirt."
+
+It is up to the pitcher as much as the catcher to stop base stealing, for
+once a club begins running wild on another, the bats might as well be
+packed up and the game conceded. Pitchers make a study of the individual
+runners and their styles of getting starts. In my mind, I know just how
+much of a lead every base runner in the National League can take on me
+with impunity.
+
+"Bob" Bescher of the Cincinnati club was the leading, bright, particular
+base-stealing star of the National League in the season of 1911, and the
+secret of his success was in his start. He tries to get as big a lead as
+possible with each pitch, and then, when he intends to leave, edges a
+couple of feet farther than usual, catching the pitcher unawares. With the
+two extra feet, Bescher is bound to get to second base at the same time as
+the ball, and no catcher in the world can stop him. Therefore, it is up to
+the pitcher to keep him from getting this start--the two more feet he
+seeks. I know that Bescher can take ten feet from the bag when I am
+pitching and get back safely. But, I am equally sure that, if he makes his
+lead twelve feet and I notice it, I can probably catch him. As a good
+ribbon salesman constantly has in his mind's eye the answer to the
+question, "How far is a yard?" so I know at a glance exactly how far
+Bescher can lead and get back safely, when he is on first base. If I
+glance over and see him twelve feet away from the bag and about to start,
+I turn and throw and catch him flat-footed. The crowd laughs at him and
+says:
+
+"Bescher asleep at the switch again!"
+
+The real truth is that Bescher was not asleep, but trying to get that old
+jump which would have meant the stolen base. Again, he takes the twelve
+feet, and I don't perceive it. He gets started with my arm and goes into
+the bag ahead of the ball.
+
+"Great base runner," comments the fickle crowd.
+
+Bescher has only accomplished what he was trying to do before, but he has
+gotten away with it this time. Being a great ball-player is the gentle art
+of getting away with it.
+
+Spectators often wonder why a pitcher wearies them with throwing over to
+the first base many times, when it is plain to see that he has no chance
+of catching his quarry. "Bill" Dahlen used to be one of the best men in
+the game for getting back in some way when on base, employing a straddle
+slide and just hooking the bag with his toe, leaving "a shoe-string to
+touch." The result was that he was always handing the pitcher the laugh as
+he brushed himself off, for none can say Dahlen was not an immaculate
+ball-player.
+
+But the pitchers found out that they could tire Dahlen out by repeatedly
+throwing over to the bag, and that, after five throws, which required
+five dashes and slides back to the base, he was all in and could not steal
+because he didn't have the physical strength left. Thus, as soon as Dahlen
+got on, a pitcher began throwing over until he had him tired out, and then
+he pitched to the batter. So "Bill" crossed them by living on the bag
+until he thought he saw his opportunity to get the jump, and then he would
+try to steal.
+
+Few good base runners watch the ball after they have once left the bag.
+They look at the baseman to see how he is playing and make the slide
+accordingly. If Devore sees Huggins of St. Louis behind the base, he
+slides in front and pulls his body away from the bag, so that he leaves
+the smallest possible area to touch. If he observes the baseman cutting
+inside to block him off, he goes behind and hooks it with just one toe,
+again presenting the minimum touching surface. If the ball is hit while
+the runner is en route, he takes one quick glance at the coacher on the
+third base line and can tell by his motions whether to turn back or to
+continue.
+
+McGraw devotes half his time and energy in the spring to teaching his men
+base running and the art of sliding, which, when highly cultivated, means
+being there with one toe and somewhere else with the rest of the body. But
+most of all he impresses on the athletes the necessity of getting the
+start before making the attempt to steal. As long as I live I shall
+believe that if Snodgrass had known he had the jump in the third game of
+the world's series in 1911, when he really had it, and if he had taken
+advantage of it, we would have won the game and possibly the championship.
+It was in the contest that Baker balanced by banging the home run into the
+right field bleachers in the ninth inning, when I was pitching. That tied
+the score, 1 to 1.
+
+For nine innings I had been pitching myself out, putting everything that I
+had on every ball, because the team gave me no lead to rest on. When Baker
+pushed that ball into the bleachers with only two more men to get out to
+win the game, I was all in. But I managed to live through the tenth with
+very little on the ball, and we came to the bat. Snodgrass got a base on
+balls and journeyed to second on a sacrifice. He was taking a big lead off
+the middle base with the pitcher's motion, and running back before the
+catcher got the ball, because a quick throw would have caught him. It was
+bad baseball, but he was nervous with the intense strain and over-eager to
+score.
+
+Then came the time when he took a longer lead than any other, and Lapp,
+the Athletics' catcher, seeing him, was sure he was going to steal, and in
+his hurry to get the ball away and save the game, let it past him.
+Snodgrass had the jump, and probably would have made the base had he kept
+on going, but he had no orders to steal and had turned and taken a step or
+two back toward second when he saw Lapp lose the ball. Again he turned and
+retraced his steps, and I never saw a man turn so slowly, simply because I
+realized how important a turn that was going to be. Next I looked at Lapp
+and saw him picking up the ball, which had rolled only about three feet
+behind him. He snapped it to third and had Snodgrass by several feet.
+Snodgrass realized this as he plunged down the base line, but he could not
+stop and permit himself to be tagged and he could not go back, so he made
+that historic slide which was heard almost around the world, cut off
+several yards of Frank Baker's trousers, and more important than the
+damage to the uniform, lost us the game.
+
+Snodgrass had the jump in his first start, and if he had kept right on
+going he would have made the bag without the aid of the passed ball, in my
+opinion. But he did not know that he had this advantage and was on his way
+back, when it looked for a minute as if the Athletics' catcher had made a
+mistake. This really turned out to be the "break" in the game, for it was
+on that passed ball that Snodgrass was put out. He would probably have
+scored the run which would have won the game had he lived either on second
+or third base, for a hit followed.
+
+After losing the contest after watching the opportunity thrown away, some
+fan called me on the telephone that night, when I was feeling in anything
+but a conversational mood, and asked me:
+
+"Was that passed ball this afternoon part of the Athletics' inside game?
+Did Lapp do it on purpose?"
+
+In passing I want to put in a word for Snodgrass, not because he is a
+team-mate of mine, but on account of the criticism which he received for
+spiking Baker, and which was not deserved. And in that word I do not want
+to detract from Baker's reputation a scintilla, if I could, for he is a
+great ball-player. But I want to say that if John Murray had ever been
+called upon to slide into that bag with Baker playing it as he did, Baker
+would probably have been found cut in halves, and only Murray's own style
+of coasting would have been responsible for it. If Fred Clarke of
+Pittsburg had been the man coming in, Baker would probably have been
+neatly cut into thirds, one third with each foot.
+
+Clarke is known as one of the most wicked sliders in the National League.
+He jumps into the air and spreads his feet apart, showing his spikes as he
+comes in. The Giants were playing in Pittsburg several years ago, before I
+was married, and there was a friend of mine at the ball park with whom I
+was particularly eager to make a hit. The game was close, as are all
+contests which lend themselves readily to an anecdote, and Clarke got as
+far as third base in the eighth inning, with the score tied and two out.
+Warner, the Giants' catcher, let one get past him and I ran in to cover
+the plate. Clarke came digging for home and, as I turned to touch him, he
+slid and cut my trousers off, never touching my legs. It was small
+consolation to me that my stems were still whole and that the umpire had
+called Clarke out and that the game was yet saved. My love for my art is
+keen, but it stops at a certain point, and that point is where I have to
+send a hurry call for a barrel and the team's tailor. The players made a
+sort of group around me while I did my Lady Godiva act from the plate to
+the bench.
+
+Murray has the ideal slide for a base gatherer, but one which commands the
+respect of all the guardians of the sacks in the National League. When
+about eight feet from the bag, he jumps into the air, giving the fielder a
+vision of two sets of nicely honed spikes aimed for the base. As Murray
+hits the bag, he comes up on his feet and is in a position to start for
+the next station in case of any fumble or slip. He is a great man to use
+this slide to advantage against young players, who are inclined to be
+timid when they see those spikes. It's all part of the game as it is
+played in the large leagues.
+
+The Boston team was trying out a young player two years ago. Murray
+remarked to McGraw before the game:
+
+"The first time I get on, I bet I can make that fellow fumble and pick up
+an extra base."
+
+"Theatre tickets for the crowd on Saturday night?" inquired McGraw.
+
+"You've said it," answered Murray.
+
+Along about the second or third inning John walked, and started for second
+on the first ball pitched. The busher came in to cover the base, and
+Murray leaped clear of the ground and yelled:
+
+"Look out!"
+
+The newcomer evidently thought that Murray had lost control of his legs,
+got one look at those spikes, and bent all his energies toward dodging
+them, paying no attention whatever to the ball, which continued its
+unmolested journey to centre field. The new man proved to be one of the
+best little dodgers I ever saw. John was in a perfect position to start
+and went along to third at his leisure.
+
+"Didn't I call the turn?" Murray yelled at McGraw as he came to the bench.
+
+"What show do you want to see?" asked McGraw.
+
+But on an old campaigner this show of spikes has no effect whatever. The
+capable basemen in the League know how to cover the bag so as to get the
+runner out and still give him room to come in without hurting any one. In
+spite of an impression that prevails to the contrary, ball-players never
+spike a man on purpose. At present, I don't believe there is a runner in
+the National League who would cut down another man if he had the
+opportunity. If one man does spike another accidentally, he is heartily
+sorry, and often such an event affects his own playing and his base
+running ability.
+
+The feet-first slide is now more in vogue in the Big Leagues than the old
+head-first coast, and I attribute this to two causes. One is that the show
+of the spikes is a sort of assurance the base runner is going to have room
+to come into the bag, and the second is that the great amount of armor
+which a catcher wears in these latter days makes some such formidable
+slide necessary when coming into the plate.
+
+If a base runner hits a catcher squarely with his shin guards on, he is
+likely to be badly injured, and he must be sure that the catcher is going
+to give him a clear path. Some catchers block off the plate so that a man
+has got to shoot his spikes at them to get through, and I'm not saying
+that it's bad catching, because that is the way to keep a man from
+scoring. Make him go around if possible.
+
+But the game has changed in the last few years as far as intentional
+spiking goes. Many a time, when I first started with the Giants, I heard a
+base runner shout at a fielder:
+
+"Get out of the way there or I'll cut you in two!"
+
+And he would not have hesitated to do it, either. That was part of the
+game. But nowadays, if a player got the reputation of cutting men down and
+putting star players out of the game intentionally, he would soon be
+driven out of the League, probably on a stretcher.
+
+When John Hummel of the Brooklyn club spiked Doyle in 1908, and greatly
+lessened the Giants' chances of winning the pennant, which the club
+ultimately lost, he came around to our clubhouse after the game and
+inquired for Larry. When he found how badly Doyle was cut, he was as
+broken up as any member of our team.
+
+"If I'd known I was goin' to cut you, Larry, I wouldn't have slid," he
+said.
+
+"That's all right," answered Doyle. "I guess I was blockin' you."
+
+Ball-players don't say much in a situation of that kind. But each one who
+witnessed the incident knew that when Doyle doubled down, spiked, most of
+our chances of the pennant went down with him, for it broke up the infield
+of the team at a most important moment. It takes some time for a new part
+to work into a clock so that it keeps perfect time again, no matter how
+delicate is the workmanship of the new part. So the best infielder takes
+time to fit into the infield of a Big League club and have it hit on all
+four cylinders again.
+
+Fred Merkle is one of the few ball-players who still prefers the
+head-first slide, and he sticks to it only on certain occasions. He is the
+best man to steal third base playing ball to-day. He declares that, when
+he is going into the bag, he can see better by shooting his head first and
+that he can swing his body away from the base and just hook it with one
+finger nail, leaving just that to touch. And he keeps his nails clipped
+short in the season, so that there is very little exposed to which the
+ball can be applied. If he sees that the third baseman is playing inside
+the bag, he goes behind it and hooks it with his finger, and if the man is
+playing back, he cuts through in front, pulling his body away from the
+play. But the common or garden variety of player will take the hook slide,
+feet first, because he can catch the bag with one leg, and the feet aren't
+as tender a portion of the anatomy to be roughly touched as the head and
+shoulders.
+
+A club of base runners will do more to help a pitcher win than a batting
+order of hard hitters, I believe. Speed is the great thing in the baseball
+of to-day. By speed I do not mean that good men must be sprinters alone.
+They must be fast starters, fast runners and fast thinkers. Remember that
+last one--fast thinkers.
+
+Harry McCormick, formerly the left-fielder on the Giants, when he joined
+the club before his legs began to go bad, was a sprinter, one of the
+fastest men who ever broke into the League. Before he took up baseball as
+a profession, he had been a runner in college. But McCormick was never a
+brilliant base stealer because he could not get the start.
+
+When a man is pitching for a club of base runners he knows that every
+time a player with a stealing reputation gets on and there is an outside
+chance of his scoring, the run is going to be hung up. The tallies give a
+pitcher confidence to proceed. Then, when the club has the reputation of
+possessing a great bunch of base runners, the other pitcher is worried all
+the time and has to devote about half his energies to watching the bases.
+This makes him easier to hit.
+
+But put a hard hitter who is a slow base runner on the club, and he does
+little good. There used to be a man on the Giants, named "Charley"
+Hickman, who played third base and then the outfield. He was one of the
+best natural hitters who ever wormed his way into baseball, but when he
+got on, the bases were blocked. He could not run, and it took a hit to
+advance him a base. Get a fast man on behind him and, because the rules of
+the game do not permit one runner to pass another, it was like having a
+freight train preceding the Twentieth Century Limited on a single track
+road. Hickman was not so slow when he first started, but after a while his
+legs went bad and his weight increased, so that he was built like a box
+car, to carry out the railroad figure.
+
+Hickman finally dropped back into the minor leagues and continued to bat
+three hundred, but he had to lose the ball to make the journey clear
+around the bases on one wallop. Once he hit the old flag pole in centre
+field at the Polo Grounds on the fly, and just did nose the ball out at
+the plate. It was a record hit for distance. At last, while still
+maintaining the three-hundred pace, Hickman was dropped by the Toledo club
+of the American Association.
+
+"Why did you let Charley Hickman go?" I asked the manager one day.
+
+"Because he was tyin' up traffic on the bases," he replied.
+
+Merkle is not a particularly fast runner, but he is a great base stealer
+because he has acquired the knack of "getting away." He never tries to
+steal until he has his start. He is also a good arriver, as I have pointed
+out. It was like getting a steamroller in motion to start Hickman.
+
+Clever ball-players and managers are always trying to evolve new
+base-running tactics that will puzzle the other team, but "there ain't no
+new stuff." It is a case of digging up the old ones. Pitchers are also
+earnest in their endeavors to discover improved ways to stop base
+running. Merkle and I worked out a play during the spring training season
+in 1911 which caught perhaps a dozen men off first base before the other
+teams began to watch for the trick. And it was not original with me. I got
+the idea from "Patsy" Flaherty, a Boston pitcher who has his salary wing
+fastened to his left side.
+
+Flaherty would pitch over to first base quickly, and the fielder would
+shoot the ball back. Then Flaherty would pop one through to the batter,
+often catching him off his guard, and sneaking a strike over besides
+leaving the runner flat on the ground in the position in which he had been
+when he slid back to the bag. If the batter hit the ball, the runner was
+in no attitude to get a start, and, on an infield tap, it was easy to make
+a double play.
+
+The next time that the man got on base, Flaherty would shoot the ball over
+to first as before, and the runner would be up on his feet and away from
+the bag, expecting him to throw it to the plate. But as the first baseman
+whipped it back quickly Flaherty returned the ball and the runner was
+caught flat footed and made to look foolish. Ball-players do certainly
+hate to appear ridiculous, and the laugh from the crowd upsets a Big
+Leaguer more than anything else, even a call from McGraw, because the
+crowd cannot hear that and does not know the man is looking foolish.
+
+It was almost impossible to steal bases on "Patsy" Flaherty because he
+had the men hugging the bag all the time, and if he had had other
+essentials of a pitcher, he would have been a great one. He even lived in
+the Big League for some time with this quick throw as his only asset. I
+adopted the Flaherty movement, but it is harder for a right-hander to use,
+as he is not in such a good position to whip the ball to the bag. Merkle
+and I rehearsed it in spring practice. As soon as a man got on first base,
+I popped the ball over to Merkle, and without even making a stab at the
+runner, he shot it to me. Then back again, just as the runner had let go
+of the bag and was getting up. The theoretical result: He was caught
+flat-footed. Sometimes it worked. Then they began to play for me.
+
+Another play on which the changes have often been rung is the double steal
+with men on first and third bases. That is McGraw's favorite situation in
+a crisis.
+
+"Somebody's got to look foolish on the play," says "Mac," "and I don't
+want to furnish any laughs."
+
+The old way to work it was to have the man on first start for second, as
+if he were going to make a straight steal. Then as soon as the catcher
+drew his arm back to throw, the runner on third started home. No Big
+League club can have a look into the pennant set without trying to
+interrupt the journey of that man going to second in a tight place,
+because if no play is made for him and a hit follows, it nets the club two
+runs instead of one.
+
+Most teams try to stop this play by having the shortstop or second baseman
+come in and take a short throw, and if the man on third breaks for home,
+the receiver of the ball whips it back. If both throws are perfect, the
+runner is caught at the plate.
+
+But the catchers found that certain clubs were making this play in routine
+fashion, the runner on first starting with the pitch, and the one on third
+making his break just as soon as the catcher drew back his arm. Then the
+backstops began making a bluff throw to second and whipping the ball to
+third, often getting the runner by several feet, as he had already
+definitely started for the plate.
+
+"Tommy" Leach of the Pittsburg club was probably caught oftener on this
+bluff throw than any other man in baseball. For some time he had been
+making the play against clubs which used the short throw, and starting as
+the catcher drew back his arm, as that was the only chance he had to
+score. One day in the season of 1908, when the Pirates were playing
+against the Giants, Clarke was on first and Leach on third, with one run
+required to balance the game. McGraw knew the double steal was to be
+expected, as two were out. Bresnahan was aware of this, too.
+
+McGinnity was pitching, and with his motion, Clarke got his start.
+Bresnahan drew back his arm as if to throw to second, and true to form,
+Leach was on his way to the plate. But Bresnahan had not let go of the
+ball, and he shot it to Devlin, Leach being run down in the base line and
+the Pittsburg club eventually losing the game.
+
+Again and again Leach fell for this bluff throw, until the news spread
+around the circuit that once a catcher drew back his arm with a man on
+first base and "Tommy" Leach on third, there would be no holding him on
+the bag. He was caught time and again--indeed as frequently as the play
+came up. It was his "groove." He could not be stopped from making his
+break. At last Clarke had to order him to abandon the play until he could
+cure himself of this self-starting habit.
+
+"What you want to do on that play is cross 'em," is McGraw's theory, and
+he proceeded to develop the delayed steal with this intent.
+
+Put the men back on first and third bases. Thank you. The pitcher has the
+ball. The runner on first intentionally takes too large a lead. The
+pitcher throws over, and he moves a few steps toward second. Then a few
+more. All that time the man on third is edging off an inch, two inches, a
+foot. The first baseman turns to throw to second to stop that man. The
+runner on third plunges for the plate, and usually gets there. It's a hard
+one to stop, but that's its purpose.
+
+Then, again, it can be worked after the catcher gets the ball. The runner
+starts from first slowly and the catcher hesitates, not knowing whether to
+throw to first or second. Since the runner did not start with the pitch,
+theoretically no one has come in to take a short throw, and the play
+cannot be made back to the plate if the ball is thrown to second. This
+form of the play is usually successful. Miller Huggins is one of the
+hardest second basemen in the League to work it against successfully. With
+men on first and third, he always comes in for the short throw on the
+chance, and covers himself up.
+
+After we had stolen our way to a pennant in the National League in the
+season of 1911, and after our five leading base runners had been "mugged"
+by the police in St. Louis so that the catchers would know them, many fans
+expected to see us steal a world's championship, and we half expected it
+ourselves.
+
+But so did "Connie" Mack, and there lies the answer. He knew our strong
+point, and his players had discussed and rehearsed ways and means to break
+up our game. Mack had been watching the Giants for weeks previous to the
+series and had had his spies taking notes.
+
+"We've got to stop them running bases," he told his men before the first
+game, I have learned since. And they did. Guess the St. Louis police must
+have sent Thomas and Lapp copies of those pictures.
+
+Mack's pitchers cut their motions down to nothing with men on the bases,
+microscopic motions, and they watched the runners like hawks. Thomas had
+been practising to get the men. The first time that Devore made a break to
+steal, he was caught several feet from the bag.
+
+"And you call yourself fast!" commented Collins as he threw the ball back
+to the pitcher and jogged to his job. "You remind me of a cop on a fixed
+post," he flung over his shoulder.
+
+Pitchers have a great deal to do with the defensive efficiency of the
+club. If they do not hold the runners up, the best catcher in the world
+cannot stop them at their destination. That is the reason why so many
+high-class catchers have been developed by the Chicago Cubs. The team has
+always had a good pitching staff, and men like Overall, Brown and Reulbach
+force the runners to stick to the oases of safety.
+
+The Giants stole their way to a pennant in 1911, and it wasn't on account
+of the speedy material, but because McGraw had spent days teaching his men
+to slide and emphasizing the necessity of getting the jump. Then he picked
+the stages of the game when the attempts to steal were to be made. But
+McGraw, with his all-star cast of thieves, was stopped in the world's
+series by one Cornelius McGillicuddy.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+Notable Instances Where the "Inside" Game Has Failed
+
+     _The "Inside" Game is of Little Avail when a Batter Knocks a Home Run
+     with the Bases Full--Many Times the Strategies of Managers have
+     Failed because Opposing Clubs "Doctored" their Grounds--"Rube"
+     Waddell Once Cost the Athletics a Game by Failing to Show up after
+     the Pitcher's Box had been Fixed for Him--But, although the "Inside"
+     Game Sometimes Fails, no Manager Wants a Player who will Steal Second
+     with the Bases Full._
+
+
+There is an old story about an altercation which took place during a
+wedding ceremony in the backwoods of the Virginia mountains. The
+discussion started over the propriety of the best man holding the ring,
+and by the time that it had been finally settled the bride gazed around on
+a dead bridegroom, a dead father, and a dead best man, not to mention
+three or four very dead ushers and a clergyman.
+
+"Them new fangled self-cockin' automatic guns has sure raised hell with my
+prospects," she sighed.
+
+That's the way I felt when John Franklin Baker popped that home run into
+the right-field stand in the ninth inning of the third game of the 1911
+world's series with one man already out. For eight and one-third innings
+the Giants had played "inside" ball, and I had carefully nursed along
+every batter who came to the plate, studying his weakness and pitching at
+it. It looked as if we were going to win the game, and then zing! And also
+zowie! The ball went into the stand on a line and I looked around at my
+fielders who had had the game almost within their grasp a minute before.
+Instantly, I realized that I had been pitching myself out, expecting the
+end to come in nine innings. My arm felt like so much lead hanging to my
+side after that hit. I wanted to go and get some crape and hang it on my
+salary whip. Then that old story about the wedding popped into my head,
+and I said to myself:
+
+"He has sure raised hell with your prospects."
+
+"Sam" Strang, the official pinch hitter of the Giants a few seasons ago,
+was one of the best in the business. McGraw sent him to the bat in the
+ninth inning of a game the Giants were playing in Brooklyn. We were two
+runs behind and two were already out, with one runner on the bases, and he
+was only as far as second. "Doc" Scanlon was pitching for Brooklyn, and,
+evidently intimidated by Sam's pinch-hitting reputation or something,
+suddenly became wild and gave the Giant batter three balls. With the count
+three and nothing, McGraw shouted from the bench:
+
+"Wait it out, Sam!"
+
+But Sam did not hear him, and he took a nice masculine, virile, full-armed
+swing at the ball and fouled it out of the reach of all the local
+guardians of the soil.
+
+"Are you deaf?" barked McGraw. "Wait it out, I tell you."
+
+As a matter of fact, Strang was a little deaf and did not hear the shouted
+instructions the second time. But "Doc" Scanlon was sensitive as to
+hearing and, feeling sure Strang would obey the orders of McGraw, thought
+he would be taking no chances in putting the next ball over the centre of
+the plate. It came up the "groove," and Strang admired it as it
+approached. Then he took his swing, and the next place the ball touched
+was in the Italian district just over the right field fence. The hit tied
+the score.
+
+McGraw met Strang at the plate, and instead of greeting him with shouts of
+approbation, exclaimed:
+
+"I ought to fine you $25, and would, except for those two runs and the few
+points' difference the game will make in the percentage. Come on now,
+boys. Let's win this one." And we did in the eleventh inning.
+
+That was a case of the "inside" game failing. Any Big League pitcher with
+brains would have laid the ball over after hearing McGraw shout earnest
+and direct orders at the batter to "wait it out." Scanlon was playing the
+game and Strang was not, but it broke for Sam. It was the first time in
+his life that he ever hit the ball over the right field fence in Brooklyn,
+and he has never done it since. If he had not been lucky in connecting
+with that ball and lifting it where it did the most good, his pay envelope
+would have been lighter by $25 at the end of the month, and he would have
+obtained an accurate idea of McGraw's opinion of his intellectuality.
+
+In the clubhouse after the victory, McGraw said:
+
+"Honest, Sam, why did you swing at that ball after I had told you not to?"
+
+"I didn't hear you," replied Strang.
+
+"Well, it's lucky you hit it where they weren't," answered McGraw,
+"because if any fielder had connected with the ball, there would have been
+a rough greeting waiting for you on the bench. And as a tip, Sam, direct
+from me: You got away with it once, but don't try it again. It was bad
+baseball."
+
+"But that straight one looked awful good to me coming up the 'groove,'"
+argued Sam.
+
+"Don't fall for all the good lookers, Sam," suggested McGraw, the
+philosopher.
+
+Strang is now abroad having his voice cultivated and he intends to enter
+the grand-opera field as soon as he can finish the spring training in
+Paris and get his throat into shape for the big league music circuit. But
+I will give any orchestra leader who faces Sam a tip. If he doesn't want
+him to come in strong where the music is marked "rest," don't put one in
+the "groove," because Strang just naturally can't help swinging at it. He
+is a poor waiter.
+
+The Boston club lost eighteen straight games in the season of 1910, and as
+the team was leaving the Polo Grounds after having dropped four in a row,
+making the eighteen, I said to Tenney:
+
+"How does it seem, Fred, to be on a club that has lost eighteen straight?"
+
+"It's what General Sherman said war is," replied Tenney, who seldom
+swears. "But for all-around entertainment I would like to see John McGraw
+on a team which had dropped fifteen or sixteen in a row."
+
+As if Tenney had put the curse on us, the Giants hit a losing streak the
+next day that totalled six games straight. Everything that we tried broke
+against us. McGraw would attempt the double steal, and both throws would
+be accurate, and the runner caught at the plate. A hit and a run sign
+would be given, and the batter would run up against a pitch-out.
+
+McGraw was slowly going crazy. All his pet "inside" tricks were worthless.
+He, the king of baseball clairvoyants, could not guess right. It began to
+look to me as if Tenney would get his entertainment. After the sixth one
+had gone against us and McGraw had not spoken a friendly word to any one
+for a week, he called the players around him in the clubhouse.
+
+"I ought to let you all out and get a gang of high-school boys in here to
+defend the civic honor of this great and growing city whose municipal
+pride rests on your shoulders," he said. "But I'm not going to do it.
+Hereafter we will cut out all 'inside' stuff and play straight baseball.
+Every man will go up there and hit the ball just as you see it done on the
+lots."
+
+Into this oration was mixed a judicious amount of sulphur. The Cubs had
+just taken the first three of a four-game series from us without any
+trouble at all. The next day we went out and resorted to the wallop,
+plain, untrimmed slugging tactics, and beat Chicago 17 to 1. Later we
+returned to the hand-raised, cultivated hot-house form of baseball, but
+for a week we played the old-fashioned game with a great deal of success.
+It changed our luck.
+
+Another method which has upset the "inside" game of many visiting teams
+is "doping" the grounds.
+
+The first time in my baseball career that I ever encountered this was in
+Brooklyn when Hanlon was the manager. Every time he thought I was going to
+pitch there, he would have the diamond doctored for me in the morning. The
+ground-keeper sank the pitcher's box down so that it was below the level
+of all the bases instead of slightly elevated as it should be.
+
+Hanlon knew that I used a lot of speed when I first broke into the League,
+getting some of it from my elevation on the diamond. He had a team of fast
+men who depended largely on a bunting game and their speed in getting to
+first base to win. With me fielding bunts out of the hollow, they had a
+better chance of making their goal. Then pitching from the lower level
+would naturally result in the batters getting low balls, because I would
+be more apt to misjudge the elevation of the plate. Low ones were made to
+bunt. Finally, Hanlon always put into the box to work against me a little
+pitcher who was not affected as much as I by the topographical changes.
+
+"Why," I said to George Davis, the Giants' manager, the first time I
+pitched out of the cellar which in Brooklyn was regarded as the pitcher's
+box, "I'm throwing from a hollow instead of off a mound."
+
+"Sure," replied Davis. "They 'doped' the grounds for you. But never mind.
+When we are entertaining, the box at the Polo Grounds will be built up the
+days you are going to pitch against Brooklyn, and you can burn them over
+and at their heads if you like."
+
+The thing that worried the Athletics most before the last world's series
+was the reputation of the Giants as base stealers. When we went to
+Philadelphia for the first game, I was surprised at the heavy condition of
+the base lines.
+
+"Did it rain here last night?" I inquired from a native.
+
+"No," he answered.
+
+Then I knew that the lines had been wet down to slow up our fast runners
+and make it harder for them to steal. As things developed, this precaution
+was unnecessary, but it was an effort to break up what was known to be our
+strongest "inside" play.
+
+Baseball men maintain that the acme of doctoring grounds was the work of
+the old Baltimore Orioles. The team was composed of fast men who were
+brilliant bunters and hard base runners. The soil of the infield was mixed
+with a form of clay which, when wet and then rolled, was almost as hard as
+concrete. The ground outside the first and third base lines was built up
+slightly to keep well placed bunts from rolling foul, while toward first
+base there was a distinct down grade to aid the runner in reaching that
+station with all possible expedition. Toward second there was a gentle
+slope, and it was down hill to third. But coming home from third was
+up-hill work. A player had to be a mountain climber to make it. This all
+benefited fast men like Keeler, McGraw, Kelley and Jennings whose most
+dangerous form of attack was the bunt.
+
+The Orioles did not stop at doctoring the infield. The grass in the
+outfield was permitted to grow long and was unkempt. Centre and left
+fields were kept level, but in right field there was a sharp down grade to
+aid the fast Keeler. He had made an exhaustive study of all the possible
+angles at which the ball might bound and had certain paths that he
+followed, but which were not marked out by sign posts for visiting
+right-fielders. He was sure death on hits to his territory, while usually
+wallops got past visiting right-fielders. And so great was the grade that
+"Wee Willie" was barely visible from the batter's box. A hitting team
+coming to Baltimore would be forced to fall into the bunting game or be
+entirely outclassed. And the Orioles did not furnish their guests with
+topographical maps of the grounds either.
+
+The habit of doctoring grounds is not so much in vogue now as it once was.
+For a long time it was considered fair to arrange the home field to the
+best advantage of the team which owned it, for otherwise what was the use
+in being home? It was on the same principle that a general builds his
+breastworks to best suit the fighting style of his army, for they are his
+breastworks.
+
+But lately among the profession, sentiment and baseball legislation have
+prevailed against the doctoring of grounds, and it is done very little.
+Occasionally a pitching box is raised or lowered to meet the requirements
+of a certain man, but they are not altered every day to fit the pitcher,
+as they once were. Such tactics often hopelessly upset the plan of battle
+of the visiting club unless this exactly coincided with the habits of the
+home team. Many strategic plans have been wasted on carefully arranged
+grounds, and many "inside" plays have gone by the boards when the field
+was fixed so that a bunt was bound to roll foul if the ball followed the
+laws of gravitation, as it usually does, because the visiting team was
+known to have the bunting habit.
+
+A good story of doctored grounds gone wrong is told of the Philadelphia
+Athletics. The eccentric "Rube" Waddell had bundles of speed in his early
+days, and from a slightly elevated pitcher's box the batter could scarcely
+identify "Rube's" delivery from that of a cannon. He was scheduled to
+pitch one day and showed around at morning practice looking unusually fit
+for George.
+
+"How are you feeling to-day, George?" asked "Connie" Mack, his boss.
+
+"Never better," replied the light-hearted "Rube."
+
+"Well, you work this afternoon."
+
+"All right," answered Waddell.
+
+Then the ground-keeper got busy and built the pitcher's box up about two
+feet, so that Waddell would have a splendid opportunity to cut loose all
+his speed. At that time he happened to be the only tall man on the
+pitching staff of the Philadelphia club, and, as a rule, the box was kept
+very low. The scheme would probably have worked out as planned, if it had
+not been that Waddell, in the course of his noon-day wanderings, met
+several friends in whose society he became so deeply absorbed that he
+neglected to report at the ball park at all. He also forgot to send word,
+and here was the pitcher's box standing up out of the infield like one of
+the peaks of the Alps.
+
+As the players gathered, and Waddell failed to show up, the manager
+nervously looked at his watch. At last he sent out scouts to the "Rube's"
+known haunts, but no trace of the temperamental artist could be found. The
+visitors were already on the field, and it was too late to lower the box.
+A short pitcher had to work in the game from this peak of progress, while
+the opposing team installed a skyscraper on the mound. The Philadelphia
+club was badly beaten and Waddell heavily fined for his carelessness in
+disrupting the "inside" play of his team.
+
+An old and favorite trick used to be to soap the soil around the pitcher's
+box, so that when a man was searching for some place to dry his
+perspiring hands and grabbed up this soaped earth, it made his palm
+slippery and he was unable to control the ball.
+
+Of course, the home talent knew where the good ground lay and used it or
+else carried some unadulterated earth in their trousers' pockets, as a
+sort of private stock. But our old friend "Bugs" Raymond hit on a scheme
+to spoil this idea and make the trick useless. Arthur always perspired
+profusely when he pitched, and several managers, perceiving this, had made
+it a habit to soap the dirt liberally whenever it was his turn to work.
+While he was pitching for St. Louis, he went into the box against the
+Pirates one day in Pittsburg. His hands were naturally slippery, and
+several times he had complained that he could not dry them in the dirt,
+especially in Pittsburg soil.
+
+As Raymond worked in the game in question, he was noticed, particularly by
+the Pittsburg batters and spectators, to get better as he went along.
+Frequently, his hand slipped into his back pocket, and then his control
+was wonderful. Sometimes, he would reach down and apparently pick up a
+handful of earth, but it did no damage. After the game, he walked over to
+Fred Clarke, and reached into his back pocket. His face broke into a grin.
+
+"Ever see any of that stuff, Fred?" he asked innocently, showing the
+Pittsburg manager a handful of a dark brown substance. "That's rosin. It's
+great--lots better than soaped ground. Wish you'd keep a supply out there
+in the box for me when I'm going to work instead of that slippery stuff
+you've got out there now. Will you, as a favor to me?"
+
+Thereafter, all the pitchers got to carrying rosin or pumice stone in
+their pockets, for the story quickly went round the circuit, and it is
+useless to soap the soil in the box any more. There are many tricks by
+which the grounds or ball are "fixed," but for nearly all an antidote has
+been discovered, and these questionable forms of the "inside" game have
+failed so often that they have largely been abandoned.
+
+One Big League manager used always to give his men licorice or some other
+dark and adhesive and juicy substance to chew on a dingy day. The purpose
+was to dirty the ball so that it was harder for the batters to see when
+the pitcher used his fast one. As soon as a new ball was thrown into the
+game, it was quickly passed around among the fielders, and instead of
+being the lily-white thing that left the umpire's hands, when it finally
+got to the pitcher's box it was a very pronounced brunette. But some
+eagle-eyed arbiter detected this, and kept pouring new balls into the game
+when the non-licorice chewers were at the bat, while he saved the
+discolored ones for the consumption of the masticators. It was another
+trick that failed.
+
+Frequently, backgrounds are tampered with if the home club is notably weak
+at the bat. The best background for a batter is a dull, solid green. Many
+clubs have painted backgrounds in several contrasting, broken colors so
+that the sunlight, shining on them, blinds the batter. The Chicago White
+Sox are said to have done this, and for many years the figures showed that
+the batting of both the Chicago players and the visitors at their park was
+very light. The White Sox's hitting was weak anywhere, so that the poor
+background was an advantage to them.
+
+Injuries have often upset the "inside" play of a club. Usually a team's
+style revolves around one or two men, and the taking of them out of the
+game destroys the whole machine. The substitute does not think as quickly;
+neither does he see and grasp the opportunities as readily. This was true
+of the Cubs last season. Chance and Evers used to be the "inside" game of
+the team. Evers was out of the game most of the summer and Chance was
+struck in the head with a pitched ball and had to quit. The playing of the
+Chicago team fell down greatly as a result.
+
+Chance is the sort of athlete who is likely to get injured. When he was a
+catcher he was always banged up because he never got out of the way of
+anything. He is that kind of player. If he has to choose between accepting
+a pair of spikes in a vital part of his anatomy and getting a put-out, or
+dodging the spikes and losing the put-out, he always takes the put-out and
+usually the spikes. He never dodges away from a ball when at bat that may
+possibly break over the plate and cost him a strike. That is why he was
+hit in the head. He lingered too long to ascertain whether the ball was
+going to curve and found out that it was not, which put him out of the
+game, the Cubs practically out of the pennant race, and broke up their
+"inside" play.
+
+Roger Bresnahan is the same kind of a man. He thinks quickly, and is a
+brilliant player, but he never dodges anything. He is often hurt as a
+result. Once, when he was with the Giants, he was hit in the face with a
+pitched ball, and McGraw worried while he was laid up, for fear that it
+would make him bat shy. After he came back, he was just as friendly with
+the plate as ever. The injury of men like Chance and Bresnahan, whose
+services are of such vital importance to the "inside" play of a team,
+destroys the effectiveness of the club.
+
+Once, in 1908, when we were fighting the Cubs for the pennant at every
+step, McGraw planned a bunting game against Overall, who is big and not
+very fast in covering the little rollers. Bresnahan and O'Day had been
+having a serial argument through two games, and Roger, whose nerves were
+worn to a frazzle, like those of the rest of us at that time, thought
+"Hank" had been shading his judgment slightly toward the Cubs. In another
+story I have pointed out that O'Day, the umpire, was stubborn and that
+nothing could be gained by continually picking on him. When the batteries
+were announced for that game, McGraw said as the team went to the field:
+
+"We can beat this guy Overall by bunting."
+
+Bresnahan went out to put on his chest protector and shin guards. O'Day
+happened to be adjusting his makeup near him. Roger could not resist the
+temptation.
+
+"Why don't you put on a Chicago uniform, 'Hank', instead of those duds?"
+he asked. "Is it true, if the Cubs win the pennant, they've promised to
+elect you alderman in Chicago?"
+
+"Get out of the game and off the field," said O'Day.
+
+Bresnahan had to obey the injunction and Needham, the only other available
+catcher, went behind the mat. "Tom" Needham never beat out a bunt in his
+life, and he destroyed all McGraw's plans because, with him in the game
+instead of Bresnahan, the style had to be switched. We lost. Bresnahan, a
+fast man and a good bunter batted third and would have been valuable in
+the attack best adapted to beat Overall. But his sudden demise and the
+enforced substitution of the plodding Needham ruined the whole plan of
+campaign. Therefore, frequently umpires upset a team's "inside" game.
+
+One of McGraw's schemes back-fired on him when Luderus, the hard-hitting
+Philadelphia first baseman, broke into the League. Some one had tipped
+"Mac" off, and tipped him wrong, that this youngster could be disconcerted
+in a pinch by the catcher discussing signs and what-not with him, thus
+distracting his attention.
+
+"Chief," said McGraw before the game, "if this Luderus gets up in a tight
+place, slip him a little talk."
+
+The situation came, and Meyers obeyed instructions. The game was in
+Philadelphia, and three men were on the bases with two out. Ames was
+pitching.
+
+"What are you bringing the bat up with you for?" asked the "Chief" as
+Luderus arranged himself at the plate.
+
+No answer.
+
+Then Meyers gave Ames his sign. Next he fixed his fingers in a fake signal
+and addressed the young batter.
+
+"The best hitters steal signs," said the "Chief." "Just look down in my
+glove and see the signals."
+
+But Luderus was not caught and kept his eyes glued on Ames. He hit the
+next ball over the right field wall and won the game. As he crossed the
+plate, he said to the "Chief":
+
+"It's too easy. I don't need your signs. They pulled that one on me in the
+bushes long ago."
+
+"After this, when that fellow bats," said McGraw to Meyers later, "do as
+exact an imitation of the sphinx as you know how. The tip was no good."
+
+The trick of talking to the hitter is an old one. The idea is for the
+catcher to give a wrong sign, for his benefit, after having flashed the
+right one, induce the batter, usually a youngster, to look down at it, and
+then have the pitcher shoot one over the plate while he is staring in the
+glove.
+
+"Steve" Evans, the St. Louis right-fielder, tells a story of a fan who sat
+in the same box at the Cardinals' park every day and devoted most of his
+time to roasting him (S. Evans). His favorite expressions in connection
+with Evans were "bone dead," "wooden head," and so on. He loudly claimed
+that "Steve" had no knowledge of the game and spoiled every play that
+Bresnahan tried to put through. One day, when the Giants were playing in
+St. Louis, some one knocked up a high foul which landed in this orator's
+box. He saw it coming, tried to dodge, used poor judgment, and, realizing
+that the ball was going to strike him, snatched his hat off, and took it
+full on an immodestly bald head. "Steve" Evans was waiting to go to the
+bat. He shifted his chew to his other cheek and exclaimed in a voice that
+could not have been heard more than two miles away:
+
+"That's the 'gink' who has been calling me a 'bone head.'"
+
+"Steve" got a great laugh from the crowd, but right there the St. Louis
+club lost a patron, for the bald-headed one has never been seen at the
+grounds since, according to Evans, and his obituary has not been printed
+yet, either.
+
+"Al" Bridwell, formerly the Giants' shortstop, was one of the cleverest
+men at the "inside" game that ever broke into the Big Leagues, and it was
+this that made him valuable. Then suddenly his legs went bad, and he
+slowed up. It was his speed and his ability to bunt and his tireless
+waiting at the plate to make all toilers in the box pitch that had made
+him a great player. He seldom swung at a bad ball. As soon as he slowed
+up, McGraw knew he would have to go if the Giants were to win the pennant.
+He deeply regretted letting the gritty, little shortstop, whose legs had
+grown stiff in his service, leave the club, but sentiment never won any
+pennants.
+
+"Al," he said to Bridwell, "I'm going to let you go to Boston. Your legs
+will be all right eventually, but I've got to have a fast man now while
+you are getting back your old speed."
+
+"That's all right, 'Mac,'" replied Bridwell. "It's all part of the game."
+
+He did not rave and swear that he had been double-crossed, as many players
+do under the same circumstances. I never heard Bridwell swear, and I never
+found any one else who did. He had been playing for weeks, when every time
+he moved it pained him, because he thought he might have a share of the
+money that winning a pennant would mean. It was a staggering blow to him,
+this sending him from a pennant possibility to a hopeless tail-ender, but
+he took it gamely.
+
+"I guess I was 'gumming' the inside stuff," he said.
+
+And he did get some of the prize money. The boys voted him a share.
+
+It will be seen that the "inside" game sometimes fails. Many a time I have
+passed a catcher or good batter to take a chance on a pitcher, and then
+have had him make a hit just when hits were not at all welcome. I walked a
+catcher once and had the pitcher shove the ball over first base for a
+single, when he closed his eyes and dodged back in an effort to get his
+head out of the line he thought it was pursuing before it curved. In
+ducking, he got his bat in front of the ball, a result he had never
+obtained with his eyes open.
+
+Once I started to pass "Hans" Wagner in a pinch to take a chance on the
+next batter, and was a little careless in throwing the ball too close to
+the plate. He reached out and slapped it for a single. Again the "inside"
+game had failed.
+
+Speaking pretty generally, most managers prefer to use this "inside" game,
+though, and there are few vacancies in the Big Leagues right now for the
+man who is liable to steal second with the bases full.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
+
+Punctuation has been corrected without note.
+
+The following misprints have been corrected:
+  "Crounds" corrected to "Grounds" (page 65)
+  "temperameut" corrected to "temperament" (page 69)
+  "penant" corrected to "pennant" (page 205)
+  "te ephone" corrected to "telephone" (page 263)
+  "innnings" corrected to "innings" (page 282)
+
+Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in hyphenation
+have been retained from the original.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Pitching in a Pinch, by Christy Mathewson
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