The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-28
Plenty of Pep, But Lay Of
 Umpires, Crackers Policy

An unexpected announcement came out
 from Atlanta Saturday. Charley Frank
 has let his roster know that umpire bait
 ing will not be tolerated in any form and
 that the energy wasted "fussing' with
 the Jumps" will he expended in pep. In
 other words, Charley will have his team
 filled with pep, but none will go to the
 winds.
 This is the first of Charley's proposed
 steps to increase the efficiency of the Crackers over last year. Under Billy Smith. the Crackers were about the big
 gest "beafers" that could be found in the league and Charley has been in base ball long enough to realize picking on de- cisions brings no results. It would pay other teams in the league to sit up and take notice and pass an order of similar nature.
 Innis Brown writes of Frank move as follows in the Atlanta Journal:
 The 1916 Crackers will be no flock of umpire baiters. You can get down a little bet on this proposition. There are two very good reasons why. In the first
 place Manager Frank does not believe in incessant rowing with the arbiters, and in the second place, not a single man of the bunch now in camp at Valdosta Is inclined to chew the rag with the boys l in blue just for the sake of yelping. l But don't take this to mean that there | will be no pep and hustle among the l bunch, neither that they will take any 1 and everything handed them like a bunch
 of cigar store"Indians, if it appears that
 an arbiter is missing em too orten. Man ager Frank knows that a ball player
 ,rvI,% nter yNtr vrvlaaf hn hn- leves that he is being handed raw
 deal isn't worth a great deal to a club
 Also the boys in the squad appreciate
 the fact that there are frequently grounds l for kicks, and they expect to enter a demurrer whenever they think the um- pires are "booting" em.
 1 But there is very wide difference be- | tween kicks against what appear to be 1 bad decisions and tresome ragging with an umpire. The judges of pray rnem- 1 selves realize that they sometimes make l mistakes, and they also appreciate the i fact that they frequently get a different angle on a play from what the player | does. Hence, they are ready to and ex- | pect to stand for a certain amount of protest. But the time has past in this | league when player can alibi himself 1 out of fall down by yapping with the umpire. President Baugh's staff of um- l pires are all experiences men and fully i capable of deciding whether or not a 1 player has kick coming.
 | few nights since in Valdosta several 1 of the boys were talking of umpires. | Two members of the crew stated that they had yet to be put out of a ball game, or to be plastred with a fine by
 an umps. Yet both of these have been playing ball for four or five years. Finis 1 Wilson claims that he has never had a
 real serious run-in with an umpire, while l Frank Thrasher was the other to claim I the above mentioned distinction.
 l Incidentally Wilson says the nearest
 he ever came to having any serious
 rumpus with an umpire was with old Theodore Breitentsein. And the tensity 1 of the situation surely had much to do with beth player and arbiter in this case. It happened in that memorable
 game In Mobile closing athe 1913 season, Wilson was nominated to face the Gulls in that series, and Milton Stock was lead off man for the Gulls. F'inis hooked a curve over for the first strike, but Brett called it ball. The next was a fast | one just above the knees, but again Brett called it a ball. 'Tf those were balls dust