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 THE MANAGERS OF 1893.

The best company of managers that ever controlled the League clubs in a single season were the twelve of 1893. There was but one of the twelve who was not, to a more or less extent, handicapped by club official interference, and that one was Anson, he alone having entire control of his team. But only the minority were troubled by official orders to any special extent, the instance of the St. Louis club being the most prominent. Next to Anson, Ward and Hanlon had the smallest handicap in this respect, both having pretty much their own way. As for Boston, the team virtually managed itself, from all accounts, just as the old Metropolitans did in 1884 when they won the Association pennant. Anson, of course, led the kicking of the season, though he was less offensive in this respect than usual and not as bad as Ward, Tebeau and Comiskey; but the whole twelve kicked more or less, except the best of the crowd, the veteran Harry Wright, who "plays the umpire" better than any manager in the business, Ward being the very reverse, kicking being his weak point. Comiskey used to be quite down to Anson's mark in this deficiency in management and captaining; but he seems to have grown wiser within the past year. Nash kicked largely to hide strategic points of players' base running. Donovan did it because the "other fellows kicked," as did Foutz, and, in fact, the majority. Tebeau did it by instinct; Allen kicked against the wishes of Harry Wright, and to "please the boss," so it is said. Hanlon kicked more from habit, while Pfeffer did it from early teaching in the Ansonian school. Quinn kicked under orders from his boss, as an echo from the bench. O'Rourke knew better than to go into it deep, but he, too, indulged in the folly at times. By and by, in the coming times of a base ball millenium, "playing the umpire" will have become part and parcel of strategic skill in a captain's work. Here is the list of the nominal bosses of the field for 1893: