“Ball Players of Today are More Sensitive”

When Lee Fohl took over the reigns of the Cleveland Indians in 1915—his first major league managerial job which Indians owner Charles Somers said was a temporary appointment—the syndicated News Enterprise Association presented Fohl as a new kind of manager:

“The baseball manager who wants to make a success of it these days will forget that John McGraw and Frank Chance won pennants by driving players.

“Such is the philosophy of Lee Fohl, temporary manager…who most likely will start the 1916 campaign as their regular manager.”

Fohl said:

“Ball players of today are more sensitive than those of 10 years ago.  You can’t get anywhere by driving them.  Hammer team work into them, let each one work out his own problems most of the time and correct their mistakes without handing around ‘bawl outs.”

Fohl

Fohl said he studied “his player’s faces,” and determined the best way to handle each individual while never “riding any of them.”

Fohl also shared some of his managerial philosophy:

“A manager should not send a batter up to the plate with definite orders.  Any time you put a batter under orders you are taking something away from him for, in following instructions he may be forced to let a grand opportunity pass.”

Fohl was also critical of managers who worked their pitchers too much before the season:

“Pitchers should not be worked too hard in the spring training camp.  That’s when their arms are the weakest, but custom is to make them do more than twice as much labor as they will be called to perform later when their arms are strong.”

The Indians improved as a result of Fohl’s philosophy—after riding out the horrible 1915 season when they were 45-79 under Fohl–they finished 77-77 in 1916 and improved to 88-66 and 73-54 in 1917 and ’18, third and second place finishes.  Cleveland was 44-34 in third place on July 19, 1919, when Fohl resigned and was replaced by Tris Speaker. He managed six more seasons—1921-23 with the St. Louis Browns and 1924-26 with the Boston Red Sox; he finished with a 713-792 managerial record.

Tags: Boston Red Sox, Charles Somers, Cleveland Indians, Frank Chance, John McGraw, Lee Fohl, St. Louis Browns, Tris Speaker