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Show INSIDE MSEHII IS DISpMG Big League Managers Unable Un-able to Get Men Capable of Executing Orders. By I. E. SAKEOEN. 1 (Chicago Tribune.) 1 Inside baseball, as it flourished io the major j leagues ten or twelve years ago, has been j gradually disappearing from the diamond. Tuia I Is In epite of the fact veteran managers bare I been retained In charge of the majority of the I teams in the big show. But they have not had the players capable of executing their orders to any such extent ss formerly. There are foxy and brainy ball players in the game now, but the number of those who let the manager do all the thinking for them has increased of late and fo has the quantity of performers per-formers whose memories are so short they forget orders between the bench and tbe batsman's box. So intensely did the managers aDd all their players a dozen years ago concentrate on baseball base-ball that they would sometimes dope out a play which might possibly win one game In a whole season then lay for the chance to pull that play, wholly satisfied with , the brain mat ter expended on it If it proved successful. The common or garden variety of plays wbicb are considered inside stuff by the new generation of players was A- B. C. to the stars of a dozen years ago. Forgot His Part. To illustrate tbe point T recall a play which probably would have won a pennant for Chicago in 1909 if one of the White Sox players had not forgotten his part in it at the crucial instant. Fielder Jones was manager that year and came back from Portland in tbe spring with an idea which he confided to players on the training trip and incidentally to me. He figured they might win one or possibly two games with it daring that season and they all voted it worth trying. The idea was simply to spring a surprise on the opposing team in a situation which arises not infrequently. With the bases full, two men out, and three balls and two strikes called on the batsman, you all have seen the conventional con-ventional thing. All the base runners start with tbe pitcher's windup and lope nonchalantly toward to-ward tbe next base, knowing that, if the pitcher delivers a ball they will be forced to advance, and, if the batsman is retired, they will be merely left on their bases. Jones's idea was to attempt a fake steal home from third base In such a situation in the hope of catching the pitcher off watch. It was approved by his players, and they talked it over till it seemed as if every one was letter perfect on it. Opportunity Arrive Early in the pennant race of 1008 tbe chance cajne to spring it in a game in St. Louis. The White Sox went into the ninth Inning with the score tied. They filled up the bases with two out and tbe play was on. Jiggs Donahue was the next batsman, on whom the play depended. While awaiting his turn at bat Donahue bad been leaning against the grandstand visiting with some friends from his home city, Springfield. Spring-field. Ohio, who were at tbe game. As be walked to the plate I heard Jones call to him from the bench twice: "Watch out, Jiggs." And. of course, I ws's watching, too, after the discussion I had beard of the contemplated play. Donahue apparently was wise to it, becanse he played bis string out carefully and, by fouling off a couple of strikes, got tbe count to three balls and two strikes. When the pitcher wound up for the next one, George Davis, who was on third, started madly for the plate, as if trying to steal it. The ruse worked perfectly, for tbe pitcher fired the ball low and outside, just right for the catcher to tag out the runner. It was a fourth ball, and would have forced Davis home all right, but Donahue reached for it, missed it, and struck out, retiring the side. Springs Poor Alibi. The Browns won the game in extra innings, and Donahue's alibi was that he thought it was a squeeze play Davis was pulling. Jiggs actually did not know how many men were out and had forgotten the play entirely. Jones was So furious he ordered Donahue 'to stay on tbe bench for tbe rest of tbe season when be was not at bat or In the field, and that was the origin of tbe coolness between Jones and the first baseman who starred so brilliantly in the world series of 1906. If you remember your baseball geography, you can recall that in 1908 the White Sox were beaten out of the pennant on the last day of tbe schedule by Detroit, and that April game in St. Louis, which that Inside play would have won, would have meant a championship for the south side. |