Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-01-30
CULLEN INTERVIEWS
LYNCH ON UMP|RES
Looks Like Kicking Players
Will Be Up Against 1t the
Coming Season.
By Clarence L. Cullen.
-cspondence Of The Star.

special Correspondence or Inc star.
NEW YORK, January %, 1910.
It's about forty to one that long before
the playing season has got we'll under
way the players OF the National League
will be eXuding all kinds OF walls over
the article of discipline which will be
melted out to them by the uInpires this
year. Tom Lynch, the new president of
the National League, is going to be on the
upholdng -umpires job with both ped
ais, and he has some views, framed from
the angle of a man who was a corking
umpire himself, that are calculated to
make the aggressive players sore even
before they begin.
''1 don't believe in the doctrine that
player must say something gross or in
sulting to an umpire before he is put out
of the game says Mr.. Lynch. Il be-
lieve, and l am going to put the belief
into practice, that the instant a player
opens his mouth in protest to an umpire
that should be the signal for the PLAYER
to, be chucked from the game and re-
moved lnconttnently from the ball yard
It's not thing to be twiddled over or
compromised with The umpire is in
charge of the game. or he isn't If he's
In charge. then he's the boss, and what
he says is law. If he isn't in charge
c, d
nuisance to the game.
Umpires have been in the habit of
waiting for a kicking player to lose his
temper and mutter something filthy be-
fore they've taken it on themselves to
put such player out of the game They
are going to be under different instruc-
tons this year. They are going to be
Instructed to put player out of the
game the instant the player says one
word of protest; the instant the PLAYER
makes the slightest manifestation that
he is going To kick. The kicking thing
has got to be stopped and it's going to
he stopped. 1t doesn't do any good. II
makes the public sore Ii is denoraliz
all around it helps to put the skids under
otherwise good umpires-and II has got
to go.
''Henceforth. in this league. the pIayer
Is going to accept the decision of theau,n
pire without word of argument with
out even making it apparent to the crowd
in the stand that he questions the deci-
sion, or he is going to be tossed out Of
the game. The umpires are going to he
instructed to this rigid effect. and / am
going to ne up and down. watching games
everywhere. and seeing to It that the
umpires stick to these Instructions And
the player whom 1t is necessary to nut
out of the game too often is going to be
punished by being conspcuously post ed
as an undesirable ball player 1t is not
unlikely that there will be devised a sys-
tenn of fines to cover certain infractions
OF the umpire-baiting rules
For example, when bunch OF kicking
players. comprising the pitcher and catch
er and all of the members Of the inf1eld,
desert their places and gather around an
umpire in body with their kicks. It
won't be practicable to put the whole lot
of them out of the game, because the
player who forms part Of such kicking
group around an umpire will be subject
to fine. This thing of ball players sur
rounding an umpire and trying to intim-
idate him is going to be stopped It Is a
silly, utterly futile practice in the first
place. for it doesn't get the kickers any,
thing. 1t interrupts the game. disgusts
the fans and brings the game into con-
tempt.
Heretofore players have been allowed
by umpires to say any old thing OF an in
| sulting character to them. so long as they
didn't say it loud enough for the people
in the stands to hear the remarks. Wen,
that is going to be changed. 1t isn't 60
ing to make the slightest difference
whether the bully ball player makes his
remarks loud enough for the fans to hear
him--he Is going to be tossed right out
of the game just as soon as he addresses
the umpire in a derogatory or insulting
manner. even il he only whispers his
remarks. There's nothing to 1t all. ball
players have got to obey the rulings Of
the umpires in this league from now on.
and they've got to obey without any
muttering or growing out OF the corners
of their faces, at that.