OCR Text |
Show MANAGER CLYDE MILAN OWES HIS RISE TO SERIES OF ACCIDENTS ,.y Iflii! A Peculiar Chain of Circumstances Brought About the Appointment of Washington's Wash-ington's Latest Leader. Clyde Milan, who was made manager of the Washington American League team, late last year, owes his appointment appoint-ment to a very peculiar chain of circumstances. cir-cumstances. George McBride was manager of the Washington team last year. He was doing a very good job of it. One day, while batting grounders to the infield-ers, infield-ers, he was struck over the eye by a thrown ball from the outfield. Forced Out of Game. The injury forced JIcBride out of the game for two weeks. It was necessary nec-essary that the club have a temporary leader. Clyde Milan and Walter Johnson John-son are the two veterans of the team. Walter having no desire to manage, the job fell to Clyde. Was Milan successful as a temporary manager? He certainly was. Under his direction the club won eleven straight ball games and was prominently promi-nently mentioned as a pennant contender. con-tender. The day McBride returned to the team the club lost. The injury to McBride was happening happen-ing No. 1, the winning of the eleven games was happening No. 2. It was No. 3, however, that convinced President Presi-dent Griffith that Milan was worthy of a chance as manager. Detroit was playing at Washington. It had been customary for Heilman to bat third in the lineup, Veach hitting just back of him. On this day a change was made in the batting order. Heilman was placed fourth in the lineup, line-up, but neither he nor Veach was notified no-tified of the change. A Long Hit. Heilman came up in the first Inning In the third position, and made one of the longest hits ever seen on the Washington park, the ball almost clearing the left field fence. It struck high op in the extreme end of the bleachers in left center. It was a terrific ter-rific wallop. Milan had scanned the Detroit batting bat-ting order as he gave the umpire the Washington lineup. As the ball hit In the . bleachers Milan ran np to the home plate. He conferred with the umpire, showed that Heilman had batted bat-ted out of order, which caused the official of-ficial to declare Veach, the proper batsman, out, erasing Heilman's home run. "That one Incident proved to me that Milan had his head up and was managerial timber," Is the way President Presi-dent Griffith puts it. |