Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-03
LET UMPlKtS SIGNAL
GEN. BURT's VIEWS ON A MUCH.
DISCUSSED TOPIC.

Gen. Andrew s. Burt. u. s. A.. retired.
VINO is thirty-third degree base ball fan.
writes as follows to The Star:
note that your article on umpIres sig.
iiaiihs palls and strikes has been conn
mented on quite generally by ball scribes.
ne uhplres, L understand, are raising m
hoier against any addition to their pres-
eht troubles as Hank O'Day puts II. That
was expected when this movement wa.
started The answer to that is that tba
ufnpires Of their own free will and accora
ana convenience instituted the practice of
signaling safe and out. Now, why should
.hey not give the base ball spectators n RIM
want?
Hank claims that he will have soma.
lining else TO think about when occupied by
dlnicult play than to be making a wind
mill of himself The windmill refers 70
raising the right hand for strikes and the
left hand for balls. 1 do not see that a
VIII require the expenditure of more erav
matter to accomplish this than 1t does to
make those signals safe and 'out'-as a
rule not as much. for when the umpire
is behind the plate. watching the pitchers
delivery OF the ball. there is a subdued
expectancy on the part Of everybody OH tho
ground, players and audience
The argument that an umpire has to hold
up MS chest protector is answered in two
ways. First. the few American League
ulnpires mat use that kind of a protector
can change to the style of protector leay-
Ing both arms free. If the expense of this
cnange 10 made an objection, | will guar
antee to raise by subscription from among
US fans who are frantic over knowing def
nitely decision on strikes when called
money enough to buy new protector for
the one-arm-free umpire. Second, IL this
oner Is not satisfactory eve will be satisfied
with a half loaf II we cannot get a who'd
one) let the one-arm- free umpire raise his
arm for strikes and we can guess the rest
This electric board device as a substi-
tute is essentially rotten. Who Is to work
the button-the umpire? Where and how?
II II Will be confusing matter las O'Day
cialms) to raise the arm to show us his de-
clslon, how about hunting around for tho
fellow will work IT. That is Just what wa
are claiming. There is no one that can all
ways hear what the decision certainly is.
l cannot, and l usually sit on front seat
pire In every game 1 hear all around me
What was that-strike or ball? In addi-
ton TO the great expense of putting I'm and
maintaining an electric device connecting
a score to display a decision at the plato
the mechanism would be sure to get out of
order at a critical time in the play Then
there would be the same old roar, What
was TIA strike or barl?' 1t has been tried
to record runs in that way and was u
failure.
'Oh, WELL there is one thing certain
the fans all over the country are In favor
of the umpres signaling strikes and balls
when called There Is not wiser ruler
in the base ball world than Ban john
son, and no one will see quicker than la
what the spectators want and Johnson
Will order the umpires to signal ball and
strike decisions. 1t will not require any
change in the rules. The umpire adopted
the signals safe and out of their own ac-
cord, and so IT will be by President john
sons order on strikes and balls.
when Connolly began to umpire he used
to signal on his decision for strikes and
balls, but L suppose because the other UNI
pires did not do so, not wishing to ba
singular, he was a new man, he dropped
the practice 1t was foolish move, for il
he had continued the practice he would
have been SO popular with the fans that
all the umpires would have followed his
lead, even Stumpy Tim, who is more OBJ
stinate than the hind leg of a Texas bay
mule, as Buffalo Bill would put IT.