Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 184, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1917 — MINOR LEAGUE PILOT HAS, NO EASY JOB, SAYS DONLIN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MINOR LEAGUE PILOT HAS, NO EASY JOB, SAYS DONLIN

Must Be Able to Play Every Role From That of President to Third Assistant Groundkeeper. A managerial berth in the minor leagues is no sinecure. Take Mike Donlin’s word for it. Mike contends that in order to be a first-class minor league pilot one must have the patience of Job, the hypnotic powers of Herb Flint, and the mental and physical ability to play every role from president of the club to third assistant groundkeeper. As Donlin has tried his hand at managing a minor league club, he ought to know something about it. He was appointed manager the Memphis club of the Southern association last winter, and he announced at the time that he had high hopes of making good. But last winter Mike didn’t know anything about the managerial game in the bushes. He served as manager of Memphis until about May 15, when he was handed his release. He says that his troubles began when the club lost something li-ke fifteen games by one run. Then the umpires commenced to make

life miserable for Mike, who is a hard loser, and finally he was blamed for everything that went wrong.. But Mike’s case is only one incident. Dozens of minor league managers have experienced the same troubles that befell Donlin, and dozens of future managers in the minors will experience them. The minor league manager has a hundred and one burdens on his shoulders. He generally has to deal with a

group of stockholders, and he has to please them individually and collectively. He must turn out a winner or stand for a continual panning from stockholders and fans. He must go out. and scdut for his own players, for the minors do not hire ivory hunters to assist the manager. He must, do at least 60 per cent of the thinking for his ball club on the field, and if the club loses a hard game through bonehead work the manager gets the blame, whether he is at fault or not. Just as soon as a minor league manager gets a good club together along comes some big league club and he sees his winning combination broken up through'sales er—the draft. He must go out and dig up players to fill the shoes of those who are taken away, and if he fails to find talent as good as he has lost they say he is slipping.

Mike Donlin.