The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-18
DANAHER'S DOCTORED BALL
 CAUSES GENERAL RIOT Umpire Crocker Makes a Memorable Debut With
 Frenzied Fans. GAVE GAME TO PONIES Orators Shut Out Waterbury -WhaIers and Holyoke
 the Other Winners.
GAVE GAME TO PONIES

Umpire Crocker made a memorable debut as State league official yester- day afternoon at the Savin Rock
 grounds by being the cause of one of
 the greatest riots which has ever broken out in this city or in any of the
 other State league cities at baseball
 game. Crocker, who succeeded Mackey as the man behind,n made his first
 appearance in the State league yester- day, and he had all the appearance of making good. The contest was sched- uled between the Ponies and the New
 Haven aggregation, but to all appear
 ancs it was between the fans, the chief
 offenders being Clans" and Umpire
 Crocker. The result of the game be-
 tween the fans and the umpire might
 be called decided victory for the for
 mer, but as they did not gain any ben-
 eft for their trouble, the umpire might
 be termed victorious, for he called the
 game forfeited to Springfield, g to O.
 and no amount of capital punishment
 could have made him change his mind
 The riot came to pass thus: Fitzpat-
 rick was up to the bat for New Haven
 in the last half of the third, and O'Con-
 nor, the Ponies backstop. told Crocker
 in a quiet manner that the ball which
 New Haven furnished was wet and
 slippery, and it ought to be replaced
 by new one. The umpire looked at
 the ball, and, not satisfied, snelled of
 it. His opinion was that there was kerosene on the ball and he told Hay ward to give him good one. Hayward
 tried to explain to Crocker that Nolte used spit ball and that the ball was wet with slippery elm, The umpire persisted that there was kerosene on
 the ball, and rather than cause dis turbance Bill Hayward handed Crock CT a new ball. The umpire called play and instead of throwing a new ball to
 Miller he threw him an old one. Hay
 ward could not see his reason for this and immediately was on the diamond telling Fitzpatrick not to bat until the new ball was used Croeker rose to his dignity and put New Haven's captain off the field, Danaher from the grand- PNoAAV tOiO N<pilllStls WIN Webo tnCA dNl- ing captain, not to play until Crocker put the new ball in play. Sam Ken nedy, another of New Haven's kickers, filled in with hot air the space of time where Cornell was unable to talk for lack of wind. Then Crocker, as cool as a cucumber stepped off from the dia- mond and without taking his watch from his pocket usual custom in such a case, in order to give the New Haven team the allotted time to quiet down, announced to the bewildered audience of about 800 that the game was for feited to Springfield, to o.
 No sooner had these calm words roll- ed from the officials mouth than the entire 800 fans rushed from their seats and started to mob the umpire. Their treatment of this innocent official was entirely beyond imagination. Bats were picked up and used as weapons to teach the umpire his first lesson in the art of umpiring. One ambitious fan caught the misoreant by the neck and held him while others pounded his face and body. The arrival of the blue coats, half dozen in number, com- bined with the baseball players, tried to stop the frenzied mob. After sew eral minutes of the hottest kind of work Crocker, pale as death and suf- fering from all manner of bruises, was escorted by the rescuers, first to the players bench and then to the street.
 Manager Danaher said after the game that he would protest the game and the umpire's right to fine Hayward, | Cornell and Kennedy.
 As to who was right and who was wrong in this fight between the New Haven team and the umpire there are two answers. The right one, however, Is that Danaher was the cause of the | riot by not allowing the game to pro- oeed and his desire to keep ball in play which he knew to be dootored i with kerosene oil. Before the game | 1ne of the Brownies was seen rubbing | oil on the baseball, at the | same time remarlking to another play sr, "We ought to do some good batting .o-day"
 As to the baseball game itself, that s, the two and one-half innings which were played, Springfield seemed to nave the better of the struggle. New Haven scored two runs in the first. Connen walked and scored on Bunyan's single over third. Jack tallied on Ken ledy's pretty two-bagger to the fence n deep right field. Kennedy's hit would have been good for three bases f he had not slipped and fell when the first station.
 The Ponies got five consecutive hits If Nolte in their half of the third, tal- ying a total of three runs. Curtiss ingled to left field and scored on pConnor's two-bagger. Luby drove ut another two-sacker, O'Connor SCOT ng. Rising singled, scoring Luby. 'tankard singled, Rising going to third, The latter player was caught, Sher-
 i