The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-02-17
CONFLICT IN PLAYING RULES Amendments Cause Trouble for
 Ball Players UMPIRES IN A BAD WAY National Commission Deals Severely With Players Who Jumped to Out
 law Clubs, Ruling Them
 Off for Life.
UMPIRES IN A BAD WAY

Baseball critics the country over are wondering how the magnates and rule makers can order that rules 47 and 4e be carried out in full and strictly. The rules conflict in the sharpest manner, and all because of the amendments to rule 4 adopted at the meeting of the rules committee Thursday.
 Rule 4 says that If the attempt to bunt result in a foul not legally caught. d strike may be called by the umpire D Section of rule 49 says a strike Is, among other things, "an attempt to bunt which results in a foul"
 Thus comes the conflict. Rule 47 says an attempt to bunt which results in a foul may be called a strike by the umpire. Rule 49 says that an attempt to bunt which results in foul lis" a , strike In other words, sometimes the umpire will call strike" when a batsman | attemps to bunt and the ball goes foul, | and sometimes he will call 1t merely foul
 The fans are to be given many oppor- tunities to hop the umpire this sea son. The hotheaded players are going to get fined time after time, and suspended often. and the umpires will get in bad and become awfully unpopular, and the baseball writers will be kept on the fence" and President Kavanaugh and other league executives will grow gray hairs all because a lot of experts over looked the main chance and "monkeyed with the buzzsaw."
 Now, really and truly" the amend ments to rule 47 affect the foul strike rule directly and indirectly, although it does not totally put section of rule 49 out of business. It causes that section, however, to read somewhat along the lines suggest ed by John McGraw, who wanted the foul strike rule amended. McGraw wanted fouls hit in front of the batsman to count as strikes, but those which went back of him were not to be called strikes. He figured 1t out that no batsman could in- tentionally foul ball back of him, and such fouls were always accidental. Any good batter, however he stated, can foul the ball outside the first or third base lines.
 As 1t is now, these new amendments give the umpire the sole right of decid-
  It's funny business anyhow, to amend a rule in such a way that 1t will con hlct with another. and then not to re- move the conflict. It looks like there was oversight on somebody's part
 Southern League Meeting.
 The Southern league magnates will get together in New Orleans next Friday, and will remain in session two days. A mass of business Is due to come before the body for action, and just what the outcome will be nobody appears to know. There is a loud "holler" being made be- cause the advance copies of the proposed schedule have not been sent out to the several clubs for examination and study. Ordinarily these copies have been distrib- uted two weeks or more before the meet ing, but up to nog none have been seen in Birmingham Atlanta, Montgomery or Shreveport Nashville and Little Rock both appear to know all about the dates in the schedule, but the other managers are up in the air and there Is likely to be some talking about 1t when the league takes up the proposition.
 The Reach ball will more than likely
 
 league for three years. The ball used the past few years was unsatisfactory and the players, managers and fans all grew tired of it. It was dead soggy and appeared to have not enough rubber in its makeup.
 President Kavanaugh's proposition for the appointment of a corps of league auditors. to keep the books and records of the games played and to handle all the money and tickets, will be discussed and it Is anticipated by the persons who understand the idea fully that it will be adopted by the league. The proposition, 1t is said, would tend to save money to the clubs, because they would not need the services of a secretary at monthly salary. The auditors would be paid a certain sum for each game handled, as the umpires and scorers are paid now.
 The management of the New Orleans club has made arrangements to entertain the delegates to the meeting in fine style It being just about Mardi Grass tme there will be lots of entertaining things for the visitors to see, and balls and dinner parties and visits to the two race tracks and all sorts of other nice things will be on the programme. It is under
 
 attend the meeting will remain over for the carnival festivities
 Hard Blow to Jumpers.
 The action of the national commission in refusing to grant the petitions of five ball players for reinstatement, is a hard blow to the contract jumpers and the out laws. One of the five men Is Doc" Reis- ling. who acted as pitcher and first base man two seasons ago with the New Or leans club for a while, and was sold to Brooklyn.
 Jack Haydon was the only man given any encouragement by the commission He stated he had played with Brooklyn two years and had had several chances to rise in the business, these being ruined each time by the towering up" process. Finally he jumped. He pleaded his case well, and the commission gave him to understand that if he would make another application at the close of the coming sea- son, it would be favorably acted upon
 The other four men, however. are out of organized baseball forever. They can never again play with any club that is affiliated with the national commission and that means mighty near every club in the country except the Pennsylvania outlaws. The outlaw clubs have the habit of offering large salaries as a bait and then, when the suckers are landed. sal aries smaller even than those with which they had become dissatisfied are offered. and the poor sucker must accept whatever