There are many tricks to the coacher's trade, both offensive and defensive, and it is the quickest-witted man who is the best coacher. The sentry at first yells as the pitcher winds up, "There he goes!" imitating the first baseman as nearly as possible, in the hope that the twirler will waste one by pitching out and thus give the batter an advantage. The coacher on third base will shout at the runner on a short hit to the outfield, "Take your turn!" in the dim hope that the fielder, seeing the man rounding third, will throw the ball home, and the hitter can thus make an extra base. And the job of coaching is no sinecure. McGraw has told me after directing a hard game that he is as tired as if he had played. VII Honest and Dishonest Sign Stealing _Everything Fair in Baseball except the Dishonest Stealing of Signals--The National Game More a Contest of the Wits than Most Onlookers Imagine._ When the Philadelphia Athletics unexpectedly defeated the Chicago Cubs in the world's series of 1910, the National League players cried that their signals had been stolen by the American League team, and that, because Connie Mack's batters knew what to expect, they had won the championship. But were the owners or any member of the Philadelphia club arrested charged with grand larceny in stealing the baseball championship of the world? No. Was there any murmur against the methods of Connie Mack's men? No, again. By a strange kink in the ethics of baseball John Kling, the Chicago catcher, was blamed by the other players on the defeated team for the signs being stolen. They charged that he had been careless in covering his signals and that the enemy's coachers, particularly Topsy Hartsell, a clever man at it, had seen them from the lines. This was really the cause of Kling leaving the Cubs and going to Boston in 1911. After the games were over and the series was lost, many of the players, and especially the pitchers, would hardly speak to Kling, the man who had as much as any one else to do with the Cubs winning four championships, and the man who by his great throwing had made the reputations of a lot of their pitchers. But the players were sore because they had lost the series and lost the extra money which many of them had counted as their own before the games started, and they looked around for some one to blame and found Kling. One of the pitchers complained after he had lost a game: "Can't expect a guy to win with his catcher giving the signs so the coachers can read 'em and tip the batters." "And you can't expect a catcher to win a game for you if you haven't got anything on the ball," replied Kling, for he is quick tempered and cannot stand reflections on his ability. But the pitcher's chance remark had given the other players an excuse for fixing the blame, and it was put on Kling.