Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1911 — DAVIS GIVES PLANS TO WIN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DAVIS GIVES PLANS TO WIN

Team Which Sets Pace, Compels Other Team to Give Ground and Is Aggressive Is Winner.

BY GEORGE DAVIS.

(Copyright, 1910, by Joseph B. Bowles.) Think quick, act quickly, claim everything in sight and watch every point. Run out every hit, take any kind of chances on the bases, Ynake the other side throw. That is the way to win in baseball. Plainly stated, the team which forces the pace, compels the other club to give ground, assumes the aggressive end of the game and throws the otlier team on the defensive right at the start is the winner. The hustling, aggressive, pushing club, no mat-ter-how much weaker than its adversaries, usually beats them. Team work has been one of my pet theories for many years. I think I knew j good deal of inside baseball

and team work with other teams, but } never realized fully the poesibllities of team work until I was with the White Stockings. I am not claiming any part of the credit, except that I was able to work with two such generals as Comiskey and Jones, and to contribute what I knew of the Inside game to them in return for what I

learned. I do not think there ever was a team as perfect in defensive and aggressive team work as the White Stockings were under Jones. Our system of signals was perfect, and besides that jwe had men with wonderfuly acute powers of observation, and every one worked together. One of the principal causes of victory to a pennant winning team is in the selection of pitchers to work against certain teams on certain days. The condition of the sky is studied, the lights and shadows on the grounds, the condition of the grounds and the force and direction of the wind, before a final selection is made. Of course every man on a team knows what pitcher is likely to be effective againßt certain teamst The study of the condition of the pitcher then becomes extremely important. He may have been go3d in his last game, but gone stale or stiff or lost some speed, or his curve. The manager or catcher must study the man in preliminary' practice to discover if there has been any such change. Then the other conditions must be taken into consideration. And, after that is all done, and the manager has thought and worried gray hairs into his head, an umpire may miscall one strike and turn the entire game, which shows how, much any one really knows about how to win.

George Davis.