Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-05-06
SAYS NATIONALS
PLAY DIRTY BALL
Tim Murname Scores EIber-
field and SChaefer for Tricks
in Boston Series.
THINKS BAN JOHNSON
SHOULD TAKE ACTION
Veteran Critic Calls Conduct
Worst He Has Ever Seen
on Ball Field.

Tim Murnane. the veteran critic. who
was in Washington during the recent
| Boston series, in letter to Sporting News,
char acteriZes the work of Elberfeld and
Schaefer as dirty base ball and calls at
tention that President Johnson will have
to resort to drastic measures to purify
base ball in the American League. Muir
names roast of the locals follows:
! Il find, after visit to this city. that
President Ban johnson has much work
ahead before he has purified the Ameri-
can League. 1 saw more dirty ball play
ing by the Washington players here last
week, with Egan and Evans umpiring,
than I have seen in any one game before
/ in the last ten years.
"Eiberfeld and Schaefer were the princi-
pal offenders, and as queer as it may APP
pear, the only man that was put off the
| field was Manager Donovan Of the Boston
club. who called Umpire Evans attention
to a little inside work by Schaefer, who
threw his bat past Carrigan as he was
! going after a foul fly. The ball was muff-
ed, and, while l cannot blame Schaefer
for the misplay, he certainly violated all
rules of fairness when he threw his bat
along the ground in front of the Boston
catcher.
Il believe that the Boston manager was
absolutely within his rights when he
| called the umpire's attention to the act.
Later in the game Elberfeld held Speaker
| a. third, saving run and eventually
the game. Had the trick been turned in
a clever way, 1t might have been over
looked, but in this case Speaker barely
| escaped bad injury. The exact play was
thus: Speaker was at FIRST when Stahl hit
| safely to center. Speaker went around
! sliding into third. Milan made a Door
| throw, and Eiberfeld, finding that the
ball had passed him, dropped down on
| the base runner, who was up and about
| to start for home. Elberfeld grabbed him
| by the leg and pulled him down. Speaker
fearing that his leg might be hurt twist
| ed his body in such a way that he could
| bend his knee. So the second time Ell
berfeld pulled Speaker back he sat hard
on the Boston payer. In the meantime
| the pitcher had gone to the bleacher fence
and picked up the ball.
Boston Mulcted of a Run.
] CAS- a result. Boston failed to score, but
| that was not the worst part of it. Evans,
| after seeing the ball pass third, turned
| and ran to the plate, figuring that the
! next play would be made there, and was
surprised on looking back to find Speak
| er still lying on the ground. Egan, who
was umpiring on the bases, was less than
ten yards away, but refused to give a de-
cision. and one of the most barefaced
pieces of dirty ball playing went without
even a reprimand. My description is not
exaggerated, as any of the Warrington
scribes will testify.
I'm the next inning Schaefer prevented
Stahl from throwing the ball to second
and a man on second was given out. This
time Umpire Evans took the matter into
his own hands and did the work Egan
should have attended to. Speaker was
well worked up, as he blamed Eiberfeld
for trying to injure his leg and to put am
out of business All the players had long
since classed Schaefer as a man who
VIZ fI1,.yl rio IL
get away.
The very next day Speaker worked
through the game, complaining of sore
groin as the result of slipping, or from
some other cause for which he could not
account. If some of these heightened
jumps would pay strict attention to their
own end of the game and not go looking
| for trouble the game would run much
more smoothly. Tryants may force issues
simply because they have the power. l
don't think an umpire's decisions on plays
should be questioned. but when it comes
to violating the written laws, then all
managers should have the right to APP
peal.
After writing the foregoing, I saw one
more cowardly act by this same Schaefer.
1t was the last play in the game. Schae-
fer hit grounder to Lord and was
thrown out at first. The play was rather
close and Jake had to hold his foot on
the bag and make one-hand catch.
Schaefer took pains to jump on StahPs
heet anu nCft MN quite DaQIy. Stahl
turned and said something to Schaefer
and could plainly hear Schaefers an
swer: Yes, and i will do it every chance
can get One thing is sure-I am not
sentitive, but L will cut the Capital CITY
out of my tours for the rest of the sea-
son. Empires are good, bad and indiffer-
ent, but nearly all the major league boys
have q chip on their shoulders-wrich is
the one feature of base ball for which
good spOrtsmen have no use.
Washington Fans Roasting"
ALREADY they are roasting the local
ball players. Jake Stahl was a mark for
the fans while here, they yelled out,
/ THE same old Jake every time StahI