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Show GIANTS UNABLE TO WIH FDURSTRAIGHT Psychology of Baseball Is Brought Forward as Reason Rea-son for Failure The psychology of baseball manifests tself in many angles of the game "It expla ns wh a p tcher with leBS stuff than others s a star why the pitcher w th everyth ng necessary to a success ful career a ofteut mee n ed ocre It cxpla ns wh a batter cau h t the best p tchers and tc helpless before the lesser ones lt explains why a p tcher s great against some tea s and unable to hold h s own aga nst others This year the G ants had a chance to create a world s record b winning the r fourth consec tive pennant They had probably the best chance of any team n the history of the An encan and N t onal leagues They fa led Why! What s the psychology of tl Only two teams m leagues of top notch rank have e er won four s cces s ve pennants and these accomplished the feat n ore than a quarter cent ry ago Thev were Boston of the Profes s onal assoc at on wh ch won n 1872 3 4 o and St Lou s of the Amer can asso at on wh eh won n 1885 6 7 8 Ne ther of the leagues represented by these lour t me winners was the equal of the Amer can and Nat onal leagues of today Tor th s reason had McG aw won th s year he would have set a world s record McGraws Hope Blasted And McCraw had h s heart set upon w nn ng t e pennant th s j ear They call h n the I tt e Napoleon and 1 ke tl e real Napoleon he atp res to be not onlv an ong the foremost but the fore most n an n b s 1 ne After w nn ng three pennants n a row he fa led in b s attempt to snatch the fourth as s x other great managers have done before h m H s team started out well enough but when Boston cl allenged them they cracked and cracked badly In less than a month he saw h s fondest hopes, h s most beaut f 1 dreams cr mble and finally dash themselvos to p eces on the rocks of failure The lownfall of the G ants was one of the n ost unexpected in years It was also one of the most pathet c chapters wt tten n the career of Mc G aw Only one other can compare w th t n th s respect the nab 1 ty of the team to win n any of ts three last worhl s ser es Surely a fairer measure of success s due such a manager as McGraw gome have attrbutel the tr umph of tl e Braves over New York to over con fidence on the part of the players of the latter team Others have la d t to the general lapse of form of the p tch ng staff of wh ch Mathewson and perhaps Tesreau have been the only cons stent performers Son e po nt to the failure of the other s x teams to w n the r fourth pennant n a row as what seems to be 1 roof conclus ve tl at the feat cannot le accompl shed n these latter dajs The winn n of the fourth game t s declared s mposs ble Three Times and Out Is t? Is that the explanat on of the C ants fa lure to w n th s yearj Is t that a w nn hg team rema ns as such no more than three years at a stretch and then g ves out? Th s would appear to be the case The reasons that could be advanced as to why a team reta n ng all the stars of ts heyday should fall suddenly grve way at once to a general deel ne n form are many Overconfidence m ght be one and njunes and lack of phvs cal cond t on are others Then there s the mental s.tate of the players Cont nued success unless taken w th a gra n of salt as the old maxim has it s 1 kely to produce most damaging re suits The players on a team that has won w th tmpet ease three years n success on are prone to become careless n the r ways Espec ally f they ob ta n a lead early n the season s th s cond t on 1 kely to ex st Eemembenng the r easy v ctor es of the past they do not worry part c larly about the b s ness n hand They become an easy go ng lot although apparently they are fight ng with all the r old dash and v eor But when reverses beg n to come their way and the lead that at one t n e was cons dered a safe one dw ndles day after day until t becomes a nonent ty the old oTder changes Tl e players real ze that they have a contender worthy of the r mettle aifd that they will have to exte d tl emselves Tl en t a that the psycholog cal end shows tself Unable to Respond As s the case of the G ants th s year when the team extends tself to the 1 m t to ward off the impending danger, only to find that t w U not be wa ded off but that t is n the fight to btay the players struggle hard lor a wh le and then usually gi e up adm tt ng defeat They have found the going so easy for such a long t me that they are unable to respond wl en they encounter the supreme tst It s the sudden awaken ng to the fact that they are not nonpare Is that they are not nvinc ble that causes them to wo ry and lose themselves JIcGraw himself v ews the s tuat on from th s angle He says that t is ex ceedingly hard to manage a team that has won several pennants n success on Unlike a young team you cannot dr ve the players to do the best The nov elty of winn ng is lack ng and they have not the necessarv amb t on The othe b g teams that ha e won three pennants n -success on only to fa 1 n the fo rth attempts are Ch cago Nat onals won 1880 to 188' Lost to Boston n 1SS3 Trank Anson manager Boston Nat onal won 1S1 to 1893 Fin shed tl rd n 9I F ank e ce manage Baft more Nat onal won 1894 to 1896 Lost to Poston in 189 Ned Ha on manage Pittsburg Nat onals won 101 to 1901 F n shed fourth n 1904 Fred Clark manager Ch cigo Nat onals won 1906 to 1908 Lost to P t sburg n 1909 Frank Chance nanager Detro t Amer can won 190 to 1909 F n hed th d n lin Hugh Tenn ngs manager |