folly, is that of engaging ugly and vicious tempered players for their
teams, who are simply demoralizing agents in any team on which they are
engaged. These ill-tempered fellows are not only death to necessary
discipline, but they are sure to find occasions to form cliques in a
team, which war against the best interests of the club at large, and are
obnoxious in the extreme to the pennant winning rule of _playing for the
side_, a rule as important to the success of a club team in a pennant
race, as the reserve rule is to the life of the professional club
business at large. Bad management of clubs involves a variety of
blunders, not only in the running of the team without regard to business
principles--sadly neglected by a majority of the League clubs in
1894--but especially in the making up of teams in the spring months, in
which one blunder is conspicuous, viz., that of selecting players for
each team without regard to their ability to play in _harmony together_,
but solely by the records made in the unreliable table of averages of
the past season, in which everything in the way of scoring figures tends
to aid the mere record player and throws obstacles in the way of team
work players' records. Another managerial blunder is shown in the
gathering together of a long list of signed players, with the view of
selecting a strong team of a dozen players from the crowd for the
serious work of the campaign. For instance, in the makeup of many of the
League teams of 1894, the blunder of getting together six or eight
pitchers and occupying the whole of the early part of the season's
campaign in experiments with them was positive folly. It has never paid
in a single instance. It was, in fact, death to the success of at least
four League teams last season, Cincinnati in particular. Many of last
year's team managers failed to realize the important fact that in
testing the merits of pitchers in the spring season they need to be
given a fair trial, and not dismiss them after the hasty judgment of
their ability of a few games of trial. Pitchers need to be thoroughly