“He [Bill Joyce] will not commit a fault into which Manager [Arthur] Irwin may have fallen; he will not overmanage. Men who know how to play the game do not like to be managed too much; they object to being given instructions in too much detail.” “Don’t Overmanage: How Managers Err on the Side of Too Much Zeal,” Inter Ocean, August 16, 1896, p10.
NOTE: The change in managers and management philosophy seemed to work. The New York Giants, 36-53-1 under Irwin, went 28-14-1 the rest of the season under Joyce. They were 83-48-7 the following year, but Joyce was replaced near the end of the 1898 season.
Previous earliest use (Dickson Baseball Dictionary, 3rd edition, 2009):
1914. “[Philadlephia first baseman Harry] Davis went to Cleveland as a manager and was a rank failure. The explanation of this is that he endeavored to apply the [Connie] Mack methods to a lot of tough old birds … who had no notion of treating Davis like a father and who resented the constant bossing. … Davis attempted to make old-timers like [Nap] Lajoie and the rest accept the same doctrine instanter. Davis over-managed and the club was all torn up into factions.” (Ty Cobb, Busting ’Em and Other Big League Stories; Peter Morris).
