Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1912 — FEW ABLE MANAGERS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FEW ABLE MANAGERS

Only Six Qualify ax Being Suocessful Leaders. - i :rasrM 8® Much Depends on Financial End of Baseball Venture That Any Chief- 1 tain Keeping Team in Lead '■[;* la Valuable Asset. What salary Is a successful ma|eg! league baseball manager Worth? Tb® question Is a common one, and tho answer most commonly given is: “AS he can get.” That is about as near as one can express it in figures. So ntueh of the financial success of a baseball venture depends upon the showing of the team, Which is the concrete representative of the that any manager, who can keep a team in the race for the championship of his league is worth a great deal to the baseball promoter. In these days even a tail-end team is not necessarily a financial loser. : ~WIt plays 77 games at home before

crowds made small by lack of inter* est In its efforts, it must be remenv bered that the s&metaU-end team play* 77 games away from home each season and gets on the average a shade better than 40 per cent, of the receipts of the games. | But the big money to baseball is made by the "winners” the champions and the near champions who are in the race all or most all of the season. Consequently every club owner wants a winner, some of them for sportsmanlike as well as financial reason#; others of them merely for the coin. To get a winning ball team a club owner must get a successful manager. There is no other way. A promoter can spend money with both hands seven days a week for seven years, buying and ball players, «hd never get bis team out of eighth place at the end of the season. Unless the club owner has a manager possessed of the qualifications demanded by the club, he cannot expect a winning team. : If it were possible to corral 12 or li stars of the present day Into- one team, handled by an inexperienced, incompetent managers, that aggregate of stars would stand small chance in a major league pennant nee. A clever, brainy manager.with a good team of average players is a better Investment financially than a lot of managerless stars would be. | The supply of managers is no scarce that those who have made good beyond doubt can command almost any figure they ask for. The practice in becoming more and more common of. cutting the manager in on the profits. This can be done either as a stockholder, as in the case of Frank Chance, of the Cubs, and Connie Mack, of the Athletics, or by making the manager's contract call for a certain percentage

of the profits in addition to a stated salary, as in the case of Hugh lehr aings. of the Detroit club. Seld* * land3° today, there appears o be only five major league mancnmagsp W Aio«ne*a ■ ' tiZSsSat v. -A. _ - -, T .

Hugh Jennings.

Frank Chance.