Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-07
HOW UMP|RES FEEL
TOWARD PLAYERS
Sheridan, 0'LoughIin and Con-
molly Tell of Their Attitude
on the Diamond.
By Clarence L. Cullen.

ow-creasing smile when that question
was put to him here while back.
That's like asking why Is a cow or
when is hen. for the answer never can
lead anywhere" he replied. Most UNI
pires are near human. l suppose I've
known resentful umpires. I'm a resent
full umpire myself. occasionally. But l
don't cultivate the faculty OF memory.
Umpires can't afford to be memory
sharps. I've the quickest forgotten you
ever saw. I've found that most of the
affairs of this life are best forgotten. 1t
has taken me a good many years to do it.
but I've trained myself to brush out Of
my mind. after doffing the spangles and
quitting the park. ALI recollection of
grouchy incidents that have taken place
on the lot during the afternoon. Ii an
umpire were to sit around his hotel after
ball games and MUNICH and humble over
In his mind the crusts OF all the uupleas-
ant occurrences that have taken place,
with himself a figure in them. in the
course OF the afternoon 1t wouldn't be
long before he'd be making those funny
motions with his hands. whirling around
like pinwheel and catapulting himself
toward the nearest foolish house at
canter.
Forget 'em. That's the system They're
pened. They always will happen. Then
why should a man whose business re-
Quires him to be around when they're
happening-why should he work himself
Into a lather over them? Does an en-
gineer who has a cylinder head blow out
on him conceive a Crouch against his
machinery for that reason? Does he
make up his mind to get hunk with
that cylinder head2 Not so that you could
observe it. He takes the thing as part of
the game. And that's about the way |
view the frotherino incidents OF ball
lot Most players are. figuratively speak
inst ,,lt
to blow out and mess things up upon the
slightest prOvOcation. The man who is on
the lot for the purpose of handling such
incidents has no right to take their
breakouts to heart. It's the surest thing
You know that l never take the &C ollec-
ton of such occurrences to bed with me.
Life is too sweet-it gets sweeter, son. as
the years project onward-and slumber
is too good to let such little trivialities
disturb you.
ITO be perfectly frank. there are some
fellows playing ball that l don't like
quite number Of them. Their number.
it Is true. Is small in proportion to the
total number of players I come into con-
tact with. but there are enough of them
to make them a factor in the game. Well
don't dislike them for any mollycoddlish
reasons, but because. after sizing them
up for a long time I've discovered to my
own satisfaction that they are not good
fellows; that they are not fair: that
they've got yellow in them: that they
haven't the giZzards and good gravies of
fair fellowship in them: that they are
selfish and mean at heart, because they
constantly want and demand the best of
the break: that they take pleasure in try
ing to make other men writhe.
Have l got the steel loving knife out for
these chaps? Do 1 lie low and await my
chance to hand something to them?
What a mark I'd be-even considering
the thing from the point Of view of policy
alone-to do any such thing. Common
Jtyv r,n1 hn lno - lob,
any normal man takes in doing his work
correctly and decently would prevent an
umpire from doing anything of that kind.
in the first place. But policy itself would
bar him from doing it. if there were no
other motive. These fellows knew when an
umpire actually disikes them. The umpire
doesn't have to tell them that-no umpire,
as a matter of the simplest and most com
nonsense fact, ever does tell ball player
any such a thing; but they know it; they
feel it. Well. they are, for that very rea-
son, perpetually waiting for the umpire to
take slice out of them. They view the
matter from their own angle, and they
feel that it's the certainest&cinch ever that
the umpire who dts!ikes them is just ma
turally bound to poke something into them
and then turn it around They are in mo-
mentary expectation of 1t during every
game when that umpire is officiating
We'll. they're the fellows l like to fool
am as keen timber wolf to give just
those fellows every jot and little of what
Is coming to them-nary bit less and no
more. And It's amusing to notice how sur
prsed they are when they are treated fair
ly. They can't understand 1t. It's beyond
them. It's outside the range of their I'M
Outstanding. Having no sense of justice
themselves. they can't figure it out how
man they've given cause to diStruSt, not to
say to dislike, them can show any justice
toward them. I've seen that puzzled ex-
preston creep into their eyes when they've
been given something perfectly fair and
rir tng hox but rx,Iy Oh, IAx,
had 1t framed up in their own minds would
be denied them by an umpire who had it
in for them on the ball field as they
imagined But such chaps-let me repeat
1t. they are comparatively few in num-
ber-never have any gratitude for be-
ing treated fairly They look upon the UNI
pire who does go right on, year in and
year out, treating them fairly, in spite of
mark and a softly. pure and simple. They'll
even get the idea into their foolish noodles
that such an umpire is afraid of them
that they've got him buffaloed. There are.
am told, certain sorts of savages who, If
you have the conscience to treat them
justly and generously arrive at the prompt
conclusion that you're afraid of them-and
there's the parallel
mo. life is too short to mooch about.
cuddling revenge There's an old maxim
to the effect that Life is a warfare but
don't believe it. It's only a warfare for
those who want 1t to be. I've never let 1t
take that shape with me. There's too
much fun to be had by navigating along
the paths of peace, and those paths are
broad enough.
$50 that | haven't got 1t in for any ball
players as the saying goes. l may not be
crazy over all of them. But the job | hold
Is one that takes no account of my likes
or dislikes. and I've got the old-fas hioned
notion that the good steward is, the boy
who at least tries to deliver the merchan-
disc intrusted to him. That's ALL
Silk O'Loughlin's Experience.
Silk OLoughlin's forid phiz likewise ex-
banded into a broad grin when the CUES
ton was put to him.
Jack has 1t right when he SAYS that
there are plenty Of fellows playing ball
who haven't any likeable qualities" he re-
marked. AID umpires are just as sus-
ceptible to their likes and dislikes as other
humans. startling as this may sound.
You'd have your troubles in getting Jack
Sheridan to name any ball player or ball
players that he didn't like. though. You'd
have had to have your wild horses along to
drag any name out Of him in that connec-
ton. And it's about the same with me
and the rest of the arbitrator. We don't
let names cross our lips even In the DOS
oms of our families.
PINT even when an umpire possesses
what YOU might call hold-out OF instinct
i've dislike against ball player who has
clearly shown himself to be the kind of