Last of a Giant

A solid, squatty Irishman with a red face and a bull neck, John Joseph McGraw looks very much like what he was until last week--manager of one of the most famous baseball teams in history, the New York Giants. He has a sharp way of squinting his hard blue eyes, as though he were looking into the sun, a gruff, arrogant way of speaking. There was only a touch of his hardness, his arrogance in a typewritten message which Manager McGraw last week gave out to the Press in the grimy club offices of the Giants above Manhattan's Polo Grounds:

"For over two years, due to ill health, I have been contemplating the necessity of turning over the management of the Giants to someone else.

"My doctor advises me, because of my sinus condition, that it would be inadvisable to attempt any road trips with the club this season, so I suggested to Mr. Stoneham [Giant owner] that another manager be appointed. . . . We therefore agreed on Bill Terry [Giant first baseman, whom Owner Stoneham last spring threatened to 'drive out of baseball' when he refused the $15,000 salary offered him]. . . . I want it fully understood that Terry will have full and complete charge of the team and will have to assume entire responsibility therefor. . . ."

When Manager McGraw resigned last week, the Giants were eighth in the National League standing, exactly where they had been when Manager McGraw took charge in the summer of 1902. They had finished there only once in the interim, in 1915. McGraw's teams in other years had won ten pennants, finished second eleven times, third four times, fourth twice, fifth once. They won three World Series, four pennants in a row from 1921 to 1924. Famed as a strategist, Manager McGraw assumed responsibility for every play. Once he fined a batter, ordered to bunt, for hitting a home run. He took pride in developing players. Christy Mathewson, reputed the best pitcher in history, was a first baseman on the Giants when McGraw joined the club. McGraw discovered famed Frankie Frisch at Fordham, saw him become baseball's ablest second baseman. He began training Rightfielder Melvin Ott of the present Giants when Ott was 16.

Born in Truxton, N. Y. in 1873, McGraw began to play professional baseball when he was 17. A year later he joined the famed Baltimore Orioles. Quick, small irascible, he played third base while the Orioles won three pennants. When Owner Andrew Freeman offered him the job of managing the Giants McGraw demanded full control. He sold half the players, finished second in 1903, first in 1904.

As McGraw grew older and fatter, he became more dignified. He remained irritable, a harsh disciplinarian. There was reported to be dissension between manager and players. First act of Manager Terry last week was to "give the boys a break." Said he: "They won't have to report to the park at 10 in the morning or go to bed at any certain hour. . . . All I'm to ask is that they play good ball. . . ."

Tall, calm, competent, Manager Terry has been the Giants' first baseman since 1925. One of the best hitters in the League, he led it with an average of .401 in 1930, barely missed doing it again last year. Now only 33, he had been a professional ballplayer for six years and was planning to retire when McGraw discovered him in 1921. He played for Toledo in 1922, managed the team for part of the season of 1923. Last winter, when his reputed $23,000 salary was cut 40%, First Baseman Terry again threatened to retire. Manager McGraw called him "ungrateful." If Manager Terry had any specific plans beyond "giving the boys a break," he failed to divulge them last week.

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