The Washington herald., 1910-06-19

oreo traditlOns A1tef al
these years is it possible
that the umpire IS going TO IVin the
RICH. to hold his head up and say. Be
hold desirable cltizen?"
Yep! silk OLoughlin says so.
According to SAX. old chap. the time
is not far of when an umpires Job
won't be any more hazardous than
playing with dynamite bIr. OLough-
lin has delivered himself of the opin-
ion that within two or three years the
life Of the arbitrator viii be all to the
merry. He bases his forecast on not
ing the improvement OF the past few
years.
when I broke into the game as an
umpire" said his nibs. the Silk one.
the other day, the life of an umpire
was the concentrated essence Of what
General Sherman said war was.
About the eighth inning Of every
game the happy little umpire would
begin figuring out which means Of es-
cape would be most likely to land him
IN shelter. And that first escape
wasn't ALL About every other game
would be protested, and. like as not.
the whole scene would have to be en-
acted again.
mot much like that now / have
long since ceased to expect to be the
special feature OF a tar and feather
party after a game. Mind you. don't
say that the whole change which the
umpires hope for has already been
brought about Oh, no. There Is still
a lot OF prejudice for the umpires 10
overcome. Not yet is their life all
sunshine and roses, but the transition
is well under way. and 1t Is reason
able to suppose that in the not too
distant future the position Of an UNI
pire will be regarded as one Of honor
and dignity which, according 10 Will
Irwin in Golfers, was the case IN the
very early days Of the game"
The other veteran umpires OF major
and minor leagues share the views of
O'Loughlin, and they attribute the
pleasant change in their business to
two causes:
First the strong backing given them
by the league presidents: second. the
wishing up OF the public 70 the fine
points of the game so that patrons be-
came able TO judge for themselves in
a dispute between player and Official
as to whether the latter was a rob
Der. etc"
Before President Johnson Of the
American league started the reform In
the umpires' behalf it took a lot of
nerve and moral courage to handle an
indicator in any league. Players were
in the habit OF riding roughshod over
umpires, and the spineless league ex-
ecutives allowed them 10 get away
with that sort of thing. The players
ran things pretty much as they
pleased. and the umpire was the goat
all the time.
The fans always sided with the
players. right OF wrong, and there was
merry war all the while. The umpire
was the common enemy of peace. sort
Of a necessary evil. but needed to be
very rugged to last till the first pay
day. Many Of them didn't care to re-
main after that
The umpire's standing about ten
years ago. let's say, has often been we'll
illustrated by that story told on Joe
Cantillon when he was an umpire
and. by the way, one of the greatest
that ever lived. Joe asked Comiskey
for couple OF passes one day, saying
he wanted them for some friends.
''Friends!" roared the old Roman. |
well. II you or any other umpire has
the nerve to tell me you have any
friends you can have all the passes I've
got"
But President Johnson set his UNI
ptres up on a high standard and back !
ed them up so fearlessly that the plane |
has been getting higher all the while.
''Clean ball" was the American
leagues trademark when IL expanded
and fought for existence with the Ma
tional league. But the National. as
soon as Pulliam got squared away as
chief executive, adopted the same slo- |
gan, and since then all other league /
presidents have discovered that in
reality the easiest way TO run their
leagues is TO lay down hard and fast
rules governing the conduct OF players /
and give their umpires full power to |
enforce them to the letter.
Purifying the sport brought tremen-
doIs popularity to the game from peo-
pie who naturally hadn't seen fit to I
patronize the leagues in the days when !