ng been a superstition among
ball-players that when a "bug" joins a club, it will win a championship,
and the Giants believed it when "Charley" Faust arrived. Did "Charley"
Faust win the championship for the Giants?

* * * * *

Another time-honored superstition among ball-players is that no one must
say to a pitcher as he goes to the box for the eighth inning:

"Come on, now. Only six more men."

Or for the ninth:

"Pitch hard, now. Only three left."

Ames says that he lost a game in St. Louis once because McGraw forgot
himself and urged him to pitch hard because only three remained to be put
out. Those three batters raised the mischief with Ames's prospects; he was
knocked out of the box in that last inning, and we lost the game. That
was before the days of the wonder necktie.

Ames won the third game played in Chicago on the last trip West. Coming
into the ninth inning, he had the Cubs beaten, when McGraw began:

"Come on, 'Red,' only----"

"Nix, Mac," cut in Ames, "for the love of Mike, be reasonable."

And then he won the game. But the chances are that if McGraw had got that
"only three more" out, he would have lost, because it would have been
working on his strained nerves.

XII

Base Runners and How They Help a Pitcher to Win

_The Secret of Successful Base Running is Getting the Start--A Club
Composed of Good Base Runners Is Likely to do More to Help a Pitcher
Win Games than a Batting Order of Hard Hitters--Stealing Second Is an
Art in Taking Chances--The Giants Stole their Way to a Pennant, but
"Connie" Mack Stopped the Grand Larceny when it Came to a World's
Championship._

Many times have the crowds at the Polo Grounds seen a man get on first
base in a close game, and, with the pitcher's motion, start to steal
second, only to have the catcher throw him out. The spectators groan and
criticise the manager.

"Why didn't he wait for the hitters to bat him around?" is the cry.

Then, again, a man starts for the base, times his get-away just right, and
slides into the bag in a cloud of dust while the umpire spreads out his
hands indicating that he is safe. The crowd cheers and proclaims McGraw a
great manager and the stealer a great base runner. Maybe the next batter
comes along with a hit, and the runner scores. It wins the game, and
mention is made in the newspapers the next morning of the fast base
running of the club. A man