Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-05-13

RELATIONS OF
UMPIRE AND PLAYER
Incidents Called Up by the Re-
cent "Run-In" Between
Hurst and Griffith.

JVuI ot oltu 0tIliItJIs
Open minded fans didn't cay much atten-
| ton to that little run-in between Umpire
Tim Hurst and Clark Griffith on the High
| LADDERS ball lot the other afternoon. It
was instantly recognized as one of those
| quick. impetuous and wholly unmeant mat
| tiers not susceptible of the least improve
ment by being talked about. Everybody
intel ested in the game knows what a hair
| fingered stout person the veteran Timothy
| Is when his phlegmatic moment speeds
along. and persons familiar with the per-
/, soi.ality Of Griffith are just as fully ac-
| GRANTED with the sudden tempestuousness
of that dark-jowled. earnest. ambitious AID
of late. sorely disappointed master of the
/ ball-playfng business. If, as seems TO be
the general verdict, the usually suave- and
| kidding" Tim gently drew Griffith beneath
| the shelter of the Higflanders' wooden avn
I ing and there handed him little one" on
| the lip. there was nobody In the High
| laEders' yard two minutes after the occur
renee who would have gone on the stand.
efther In base bail court or In an actual
| court, and testified to that effect. This is
not saying. either. that plenty of players
did not see the whole thing. But profess
sional ball players have an acute sense OF
values in these matters, and they can de-
eide as to which way the wind is blowing
as quickly as their neghtors. When the
witnesses Of the incident heard Griffith an
ncunce to the fnquiring newspaper men,
only couple of minutes after the thing
occurred. that he'd had that swollen lip
all the time, and then add, with a grinning
aside" that the unduly large lip had been
attacked during the previous night by
kissing bug, they promptly took their cue.
They perceived that Mr.. Griffith wasn't
rotly or turgid about the matter. so why
should they swell up" as the saying goes?
And so it all passed off smoothly enough.
with no fuss or recrimination to follow.
Hurst and Griffith, considering that one of
them is umpire and the other a ball
captain, are pretty good friends. and the
understanding between them probably goes
| a whole lot deeper than can be unbalanced
by any mere little lip-tap delivered in the
heat of the moment by either one or the
other.
The correct view probably Is that Griffith
assuredly gave Hurst some mighty power
full and reaching verbal, under -the-breath
dab or uppercut to draw that iip-tap from
the umpires arm. Griffith Is a perfect
past master in the art of saying these
slithering things. not only to umpires. but
to opposing ball players, in slow. rasp-
ing. deliberate way that is calculated to
rock the mental poise even of very patient
men. Griffith particularly enjoys himself
when he succeeds in getting player on
the opposing nine going at critical stage
of the game. l saw him work this dodge
in a peculiarly impish and maddening way
one day last summer when the Highlanders
were playing close game with the De-
trcits on the Griffith grounds.
That great pitcher. but somewhat hot
tempered young man, George Muilin, was
doing the finsing for the Detroits, and
Griffith was more than laying himself out
TO make Mullin explode and lose his effect
iveness from the very beginning of the
game. But Mullin had himself nerved
against Griffith's coaching attacks on this
occasion. and he only smiled whenever Crit
stith, through his funneled hands, sent him
some singularly hot one from his stand In
the first-base coaching box. Mullin went
right ahead and pitched great, heady ball.
and every time Griffith hurled some tan
talizng crack at him he'd actually seem to
10 better under the inspiration of the taunt
All the same. anybody accustomed to
reading between the lines of character
could see that Griffith's stabs were getting
on Mullins nerves, despite the latter S way
of seeming to smile them on and 1t looked
like dollars to red apples to me that Grlf-
fifth would break down Mullins determ1na-
ton to let the taunts go harmlessiy by be-
fore the termination of the game. l made
T. mental bet with myself 10 that erect,
and | won the bet.
The Highlanders had sudden walloping
streak when the game was tie in the
seventh inning, and they got three men on
the bags after two hands had gone down.
Mulin slowed up for the purpose OF steady
ing himself. He'd been doing a fine bit of
striking out that afternoon. and he was
plainly getting his repertoire arranged to
strike out the next man up, who had such
a fine chance to pretty nigh swab tire sacks
with anything like a safe binSle Mullins
teeth could almost be heard clicking to-
gether, so firmly did he set his jaw to fight
the series of verbal jabs that Griffith was
sending him through the funneied hands
from the Grst-base coaching box. and the
fine young pitcher was getting by with
his determination in great shape. until
After Mullin had got two strikes on his
man and nary ball. Griffith took a hitch
at his uniform lSnickerbockeIs for the pur-
.ft,Ir
one.
Hi, there. Dave" lie yelled at the bats
man, Dave FultZ, you can look out for a
wild one. now It's pipe that this one
is going to be over the top of the stand
That pitchers pin-headed maverick. Yee-
ow. look out for that wild ONE
And Mullin a sudden pallor OF rage ap-
pearing on his features he delivered the
ball, did pitch a wild one that came near
going into the grandstand. and two men
scored on the msplay. Mullin told me af-
ter the game that he tried his mlghtiest to
get the ball over that time If only for the
purpose of showing Griffith up and making
him look foolish. but that It simply wasn't
in him. 1t was a plain case OF great pitch
err tossing bad one through suggestion.
But to get back to these sudden growis
between umpires and players. Silk O'Lough-
lin says that he likes the hot-tempered
player a whole lot better than the slow
burning, reSentful chap who will put In a
long night thinking up some peculiarly Bit
ing thing to say to an umpire the next day.
THE fellow who flames up like a pinch
OF stage powder and gets rid of 1t instanter
Is the boy for mine says Silk, land I
never melted out any kind of punishment
to fellow of that sort, providing he didn't
make his cracks loud enough to show
me up to the people watching the game
But the player who, after the incident
about which there Is a chaw has really
passed Its first heat. slams at me in slow
way some crack that he has studied out like
a girl studies her arithmetic lesson while
chewing her pencil-thaFs the kind of
ball player who makes me feel rosy up
around the larynx."
Most umpires have the same general view
as to this matter. They don't particularly
mind the quick stabs obviously proceeding
from uncomfortable temper but they resent
| these cunning, carefully aimed javelins and
assegais hurled at them from the secreting
brush by players who possess a sort of
virtuosos knowledge of the kind of thing
that IS going to hurt and cut and poison the
most.
The ball rules read that the team captain
Is allowed TO have a word with the umpire
solely with respect to matters that come
up respecting the fundamental elements of
the game. Every fan knows that this rule
| is clearly OyerSteDDad and W dicra-