Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 203, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1915 — WOULD SHIFT ATTACK [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WOULD SHIFT ATTACK

Manager Herzog Favors Switching Tactics in Contests. First Half of Game Usually Played in Way Differing From Last Period —Interesting Theory of Cincinnati Leader. Manager Herzog of the Cincinnati Reds believes that the first half of a game of ball is usually to be played differently from the second half, that is, when applied to fairly close games. He has quite an interesting theory on this subject, which is entirely original with him. “The average player," said Herzog, “does not realize the great difference between, say, the first five Innings of a game and the last four innings. In the early stages of a game one doesn't know how many runs are going to be needed to win. It is Impossible to say how the pitcher is going to go, or what the breaks are going to be. A team may need only one run to win or it may require a dozen. “The odds are that it will need more than one. Therefore my policy early in the game is not to play for a single run, but to force the issue and try to score as many as possible. That is why I don’t believe in the sacrifice game around In the first or second round, only to find that that lone run is worth nothing to us. “The early half of a game should be an effort to score just as many runs as possible, for you never can be sure how many you are going to

need. Pile up as big a lead as you can in the first few innings and so be prepared for emergendes. But suppose both pitchers going strongly and we come up to the sixth or seventh inning tied, or one run behind or ahead. i “Then the whole situation changes. It is evident by that time what your pitcher is capable of and a single run becomes much more important than it was in the first or second inning. You will often see our men playing a sacrifice game from the sixth inning on, because by that time we may have found out that one run will win for us in the game for an inning or two longer. This is a very important principle of the game and one that is often overlooked by both players and managers. "Whenever I see a club fighting to get one run around in the first or second inning and neglecting possible chances to score three or four runs, I have it figured out that we have a good chance to beat that club. You will often see a change in our style of play as the game grows older, and I think the system will win many dose games for us.”

Manager Herzog.