Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 178, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1910 — HARMONY AND CONDITION THE GREAT FACTORS IN SUCCESS, SAYS GIBSON [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HARMONY AND CONDITION THE GREAT FACTORS IN SUCCESS, SAYS GIBSON

(Copyright. 1910, by Joseph B. Bowles.) It is working together and working all the time, keeping In condition, and having confidence in one’s own ball club that wins. With the Pittsburg club it has been the case. I think Clarke has made us all better ball players by his own example. You see we have a crowd of fellows who like each other personally, and any one will do anything to help the others. There is a lot In that. Then every man on the team will jump across the river for Clarke, and that helps more. He drilled the team work into us, and I think we have it. No one man won the pennant for us; it was the whole bunch working together and fighting, no matter how badly we seemed beaten. Our style of play and team hitting broke up the other clubs, and we won it by making runs, which are all that count, and forgetting errors Just as fast as we made them. I had a hard season, being in nearly every game, but was lucky. I think the biggest part of the success of our pitchers last year was that they had confidence in my work and in the team behind them. If some of those clubs knew the chances we took they would wonder we ever won. It helps pitchers to know they can put that ball right over straight and feel that some one will go out and get it for them. A fellow does not properly understand the value of team work until he has caught a bunch of pitchers who try to do exactly what they are signaled to do and never complain If the catcher’s judgment is wrong. ■ It is a pleasure to catch pitchers who will work with you as if you were one. That is the only way for a battery to work. If they get to crossing each other and mixing things up the pitcher will look bad and*.the catcher look worse, and the team will lose. I cannot tell muc6 about how to

catch, because I think a fellow must stay back there and think and study and learn until he gets it for himself. There are some pointers, however, that may be of some use to young fellows who are just breaking in. Stand steady all the time and as nearly in throwing position as possible. Study the batters, what kinds of bats they bring up, how they stand in the box, and try to think out what they are likely to try to do. Alway» step in as close as possible when expecting to have to make a throw or when the batter is showing signs of bunting. Be ready to go in at all times. Another thing, a catcher can do a pitcher a lot of damage by using bad judgment in what to call for. Do not curve a pitcher to Tleath. Make his work just as easy for him as the situation permit, if you are giving the signals. It is easier, of course, to catch the curves when they are out. It is a bad idea, too, for a catcher to try to protect himself at the expense of a pitcher. A catcher should not make pitchers pitch out too often and waste balls that may be valuable, just so he can throw from better position to catch runners. A catcher ought to watch the base runners more closely than any other man does. He ought to protect the pitcher by signaling him when to drive runners back, and at the same time to protect himself. He ought never to allow a pitcher to pitch with players out of position, not until he is certain the whole team knows what the signal Is, if he has signaled for some throw. He 'ought always try ,to slow up pitchers when they are working too fast, and give them a chance to steady. No player can tell another one how to play, but each one learns something from experience which may help a youngster, and I hope these ideas of mine will help some one. I think they would have helped me if some one had told me at the start \

GEORGE GIBSON.