Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-09

u
he has chosen for himself. depends upon
his being upright and square and utterly
| ant necessarily on the level The fans
| know this-the great majority of fans, 1
| mean. You'll observe, if you watch care
| fully, that the croakers who take the other
| view of 1t are generally fellows whose
| brain pans are not particularly bulgy look
ing to the naked eye. 1t requires the most
ordinary inteligence-and the average of
| men who attend ball games Is away above
the ordinary-to perceive the fact that the
umpire who gains reputation throughout
| a circuit for unfarness. or incompetence,
| or of harboring prejudice against players,
| or of giving any particular club or clubs
| the worst of 1t, has about as much OF
| clutch on a steady job as an office boy
| who shows up an hour or two late every
lsmorning for a week at stretch.
Gets Used to the Howls.
I'm common with other umpres. I am
often condoled with by men Of a some
what sympathetic turn over the trying
character of my Job These men tell me
that they wouldn't do the work of an UNI
| plre for S14 minute, and they ask me
| how l can possibly stand the abuse which
| Is heaped upon me. surely appreciate
! these well-intentioned expressions of SYM
! pathy but. really, they don't In the least
belong, for the perfectly simple and OBJ
| vious reason that I never any more by the
/ least chance, pay the slightest attentlon
| to the knocks from the stand or tne
/
| them at first-which was considerable of a
long time ago--but have got bravely over
| all that It's about this way: Did you ever
! move to a street where there was a noisy
! line of cars passing your door? Yes! wen,
| you'll probably recall, then, how horribly
| the sound of the passing cars disturbed you
| at first. how you noted the Whlrllng ana
| creaking by of every one of them, now you
| got so nervous over it at the outset that
you had to lower the windows, how the
! sound of the cars at first interfered with
1 Eal a.
call that after while you forgot all about
the passing cars; didn't notice them at all
took them quite as matter OF COURSE
accepted them part Of the rather In
teresting din of the town, and, finally, &C
tually grew to like that noise, so that when
you moved again to a neiShborhood where
there was no car line going by the door
you felt strange and lonesome Tor DIT
without actually knowing why-the quiet
of it disturbed and oppressed you: Wen,
that's about the answer. That's the way
base ball umpires take the din of the
croakers. 1t becomes part OF their daily
life, feature of the game. If l were to go
through a straight week, umpiring every
playing day. and during that week did not
have to stand for the noisy wallops OF
some element of the fans, I'd feel lone
some; | wouldn't know what to make of it;
Id get to imagining that there was some
thing wrong somewhere. 1t would seem
unnatural, uncanny, weird. Impossible
Umpires who have been ump-ng for
good many years learn to take the batting
all a matter of course once was
mobbed after the games In Baltimore Tor
six days at a stretch To show you how
habit grows on man-and umpires are
at least made in the semblance of men-do
you know that when the seventh day OF
that stretch of umpiring came along at
Baltimore. and found that wasn't going
to be mobbed at the conclusion or the
seventh game, positively didn't know for
a moment what to make of 1t? l stood
waiting for the bunch of cops to escort me
off the lot. No cops appeared. l was puz-
zled. l couldn't quite dope 1t out Then OF
sudden / remembered that 1 wasn't
going to be mobbed that evening" that the
Baltimore newspapers had cast certain
amount of shame into the Baltimore fans
for having stoned and missiled an umpire
for six straight days, and that was free
to walk off the grounds without any Gordon
of cops surrounding me. 1t surely seemed
unnatural 1 had got into the habit OF
being mobbed; that's all.
Umpires Mortified Over Mistakes.
Permit me to attempt to straighten out,
if can, another little kink with regard to
the umpiring business. A very good Wash
ington friend of mine whom / hadn't met
for a long time asked me blandly the other
day If 1 considered that never made any
mistakes on a ball lot 1 had a bit Of
trouble to hold myself from laughter in the
good chaps face, 1t seemed so ridiculous.
Mistakes? OF course ulnpres make mis-
| takes. They don't make a whole lot of
them, but they make them. They don't
know they are making them at the time
they render their decisions, but later on
they become convinced that they were mis-
taken In certain spots Of game. Can you
mention the trade or craft or profession In
which the follower of it never by any
chance makes any mistakes? Does any
man. doing anything. from manual labor
to head work, get through week or a
month year without piling up a GER
tain number of mistakes? 1 think not. 1
never heard of an umpire arguing for the
N q n
to make mistakes. They bound, too, to
become convinced, after making Them that
they have been in error. And perhaps these
after reflections Of umpires, when they are
| bound to own up to themselves that they
have been wrong, don't hurt! They cut
| deep. l don't know of an umpire in any
| league today who doesn't positively get into
| fume with himself when he comes to the
forced realization that he has made mis-
take in arbitrating a game of ban. When
| Charley ones, that extraordinary fielder of
the Washington team, made that foolish
| and Recommendation him-mun of that
| simple little fly in a game with the New
| Yorks the other day. the general comment
| was that the muff undoubtedly hurt Jones
! a whole lot more than it could possibly
| hurt anybody else. Well, that's the way 1t
goes with umpires. When an umpire boots
| one'-makes an error of judgment, that is
and becomes convinced of 1t later on, he
hands the gait to himself in a way such
| as nobody else could possibly hand 1t to him.
No man likes to fall down at his trade or
profession Every self-respecting man must
| take pride in the work OF his hands or his
| head. And not all of the bowling or batting
| of the croakers at ball game create
within me one-tenth the amount of mental
disturbance as the simple knowledge, gen.
| Grated upon after reflection, that l have
made some kind of a mistake of the eye or
of the judgment at game Of pall.
| The Best Umpires.
How does 1t happen that men of Irish
! extraction make the best umpires and stick
| the longest at the game? Excuse me from
answering that one, please. Do they? Well,
| / suppose 1t must be true, If that Is the
general opinion. Come to think of it. all Of
| the umpires in the American League, except
one are men of Irish antecedents, and there
| may be some significance in that fact. ]
| think / may venture to say, however, in
| answer to the question, that Irishmen, or
| men of Irish extraction, have never been
| regarded anywhere as sensitive plants, SO
| % speak. Umpiring, which means a condi-
ton in life of being eternally on the de-
| fensive, has grown to be sort of second
| nature with me. I've been at 1t ever since
| came of age. l was born In Manchester,
England, of Irish parents, and lived In
| England till my sixteenth year, when 1