Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-11
GOOD OFFICIALS
ARE VERY SCARCE
Base Ball Umpires Are Born,
Not Made-CapabIe
Ones Are Few.

Let's start a school for umpires. They
are teaching electricity. mining. short
hand, so-called Journalism and some
fifty or sixty other branches by mail.
Why not develop few umpires by the
same methods?
Year after year base ball magnates lit
orally scour the minor leagues with sew
eral kinds Of brooms searching for ball
players Of fast minor or major league
ability. Every year sleek league presi-
dents send emissar:es hither and yon in
search of men capable Of judging play.
For every dozen good players discovered
ting into the ball park. competent Off
cial is a rare bird. muchly to be sought
and sure Of speedy and lucrative reward
II he can show.
The question Of competent umpires Is
often one that gives league presidents
more trouble than half the other affairs OF
his organization combined. One umpire Of
poor judgment can turn some 30 or loO
games of base ball into a bowling farce
and incite about $1,000 fanatics to near
riot. Nothing will queer an otherwise
pleasing contest quicker than indifferent
work behind the bat or on the bases.
Players may strike out when any KIND
of batted ball would bring the deciding
rum Pitchers can throw high. fast ones
when they should have used curves.
Base runners can tangle themselves into
various sorts Of muddles and run into the
hands of a fielder holding the ball But
all these things can be forgiven by the
fans because the offenders may turn de-
feat into victory tomorrow by clever work
and regain their positions as town heroes.
But the poor umpire. If he makes an
apparently incorrect decision. has no
chance for atonement. He may deliver
decisions with the wisdom of Solomon
in the next fifty games, yet he Is stamped
az "mut." as a ''robber," as thief
and everything else from horse THIEF
down. He never has chance to get
square. Even If he gives the home club
shade the best Of the close ones thereaf-
ter. the very fans whose interests he
seems to be looking after will jump on
him for that. In a word, the umpire must
be 100 per cent efficient all the time to
gain even the reputation of being "a pref
ty good sort of an official"
Therefore, the selection of men to judge
play is a thing Of vast importance. The
decisions Of Umpire Jack Egan. who no
doubt called plays as he saw them. illus
trates this point to perfection. Out IN
| the American Association Egan had a
reputation for being a good umpire. He
| hasn't in Cleveland or Washington, and
| it is a safe bet he never will have, no
| matter what may be his work hereafter.
Umpires Are Born, Not Made.
Umpires seem like hitters, born. not
made. A man either has or has not the
| ability to judge plays quickly and ac-
| curately. In spite Of this fact, nearly all
| the good major league officials became
| umpires by accident. Most of them
played ball. and when their arms went
| bad turned to umpiring as the nearest
| method at hand Of making living.
One American League umpire. however,
| is in direct contrast to the usual order of
| things. He is Billy Evans. When stu
dent at Cornell Evans was a good out
| fielder He could hit and run and cover
ground in the field. Hughey Jennings
was coach at Cornell then and declared
Evans was one of the best college out
| felders he ever saw. Evans dallied with
the foot ball game. and being a person
| without fear. soon dislocated q knee and
had to give UP athletics.
| He was doing newspaper work In
| youngstown when Sam Wright then city
| editor Of the paper on which Evans la
bored. prevailed upon him to umpire
| games played by semi-professional teams
| for the city championship. Evans didn
| think he had 1t In him, but consented to
| try He did so well he was selected as
umpire in the old protective association.
which afterward developed into the o.
and P. league. They had home umpires
in the association and Niles loved Youngs-
town like Washington loves Cleveland.
Then Warren hated Niles in the same
way and there was a three-cornered inter-
| city rivalry which made throwing of
bricks and fence posts a mild form OF
protest.
Evans worked the Niles games at
| Youngstown and was hooted and jeered
| by Niles fans and players until he was
ready to quit in disgust. Wright persuad-