Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-06-12
THE DIAMOND
BAD PLAYING AND UMPIRE
Those Were the Causes of Our Defeat Yesterday = Results of
 All Other Games.

we are lucllueu IO tue UcilCl IhoI 1t was Dan O'Neil who maue the state- ment within the last few weeks, that Umpire 'Shamokin" Kelly was T home umpire and always rubbed it in to the visitors. Dan OSeil owes an apology to Mir Kelly, and while he is making that apology, he might present him with a box of the best cigars in recognition of the fact thar Springfield was given victory yesterday over Waterbury through the kindness and blindness of the said Kelly. That was the principal reason that we lost, but another very potent facto. in the loss of the game was the lamentable fact that some of our players had piIi- wheels in their noodles and they buzzed with .unerripg accuracy Just when a little head work would have saved the day. Brain storms and mollycoddles were the prevailing is- sues and the umpire became infected from too close contact with the play CTS.
 Seldom has such a scene been wit messed on a ball field as that which took place in the last half of the sixth inning. The score stood to 3 in favor of Springfield when La chance, the first man ul for our side, slammed cut a pretty hit to left Swander hammered another to the same territory and the fans began to let themselves loose. Nichols smashed one to the pitcher which was too hot for him to handle. and Jimmy Burns, who took it on the rebound from the pitchers glove. dallied and fumbled with the little sphere long enougl, to place Nichols on the first station, Swander at the second waiting place. and Lachance at the home plate, with the score to 4. Then the wheels got busy. Schincel hit the ball and 1t touched the ground back of the plate and bounded into safe territory. Be- fore it could hit the ground Paddy O'Connor had gobbled It and the um- plre, who stood behind the pitcher, believed the ball had struck on falr ground. Everybody was. calling foul with the exception or the visitors and Mir Kelly. Schinccl never even tried for first bag, while Nichols and Swander remained where they were at first and second respectively. O'Connor was onto the situation like a flash and hurled the ball to Curtiss at third, who touched the bag and the umpire called Swander out, being forced. The ball was quickly sent to Bill Luby at first and Schincel was called out for not running to that place. Nichols realized in the mean time that the umpire had pronounced the ball fair and he reached second In safety. Into the field swarmed the Waterbury players, and Nichols. los- ing his usually good sense. made Il rush to join the protestants. Like a shot went the ball from l.uby to Kee- nan, who was covering second and Nichols, who tried to return to the bag was touched out, and the most peculiar triple play ever seen on n base ball diamond was accomplished, while the Springhelds danced in glee. Here Captain Nichols, incensed at tbe unjust decision, and perhaps chagrln- ed at his own thoughtlessness, rushed once more at the umpire, and, stepping on his foot. bumped up against him with every nerve tingl!ng with anger. Kelly was obdurate, however, and placed fine of s on Nichols for his attack upon him and waved the play CTS to their places. It was bad de- cislon, and coming just when Water bury was winning the game, certainly would make even the most reserved ball player and fan feel like doing something. Captain Nichols lost his head, there Is no doubt of that, but there Is some little excuse for it. when you stop to consider that the home team had been robbed of the game right there. And that was not the only unjust decision of the um- pire either, for in the fourth inning SchinceI hurled the ball to McADdrews at third, who caught Jimmy Burns mapping at that station. hut the um- pire said nay, nay, and Burns came fin later with another run for the visitors, In balls and strikes be was guilty to both sides.
 Waterbury looked Ike a winner In the very first inning when, with only one single Init by Nichols. and errors, two of them by Keenan and one by Mclaughlin in the box, we scored three times. The score was tied in the fourth on McAndrew's error and sim gles by Standard. Burns and Waite. one of which should have been taken by McEnroe. but that worthy shirked it. as he did another in the eighth inning. The umpire's decision on third in this inning also helped the scoring The springhelds took the lead jn the sixth on Luby''s smash which Yerkes could not handle. Rising sacrifice. Standards punky hit. which be beat to first and Waite's two sack CT. which netted two runs. We tried hard to score in the ninth after one was out. when Nichols hammered out a two bagger which Rising tried hard to ret. but Schincel and BronkIa fled out to the outfield. It was zhe mos unsatisfactory game that has been played on the local diamond and Kelly was abused on all sides. The srdre.