The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-06
PLAYERS HAVE CONFIDENCE
 IN INTEGRITY OF UMPIRES
Merits Pubc Confidence For Honesty Says WagnCom ODayA Umpire and Promoter of National Game-Has Good Opinion of All Arbiters

1 towards each other off the field is vitally different from that on the field, and there is a common bond of friend ship among them, though they do not fraternize. A touching story along this line was the outcome of an acci- dent to Charley Dooin in St. Louis some years ago.
 Dooin was managing the Phi1lies and was catching the game. During i six innings he jawed and fought with | Umpire Bill Brennan, and twice the | St. Paul Adonis removed his mask and l threatened to remove Dooin from the game. In the seventh inning some thing happened that made Dooin wish Brennan had made good his threat of the inning before. Rebel Oakes, tearing | in with the winning run, crashed into i the blocking Dooin and broke the | Quaker backstop's leg. The Phillies at the time were pennant contenders and | the blow to the club was a serious one
 That night Brennan visited the hos pital. Dooin turned in great pain and seeing his opponet in the scrap of the
 afternoon, he weakly muttered: Hello, you big stiff" Hello, you red-headed crab" replied Brennan cheerfully drawing a chair up to the injured mans bedside. | They shook hands, talked pleasantly about everything excepting the game. and made it a pleasant evening until the nurse threw a hint.
 Mind you, now" laughed Dooin, as Brennan was taking his leave, q say 1 the same thing that Murphy said on his deathbed after he had forgiven Flannigan:
 "'Whin get we'll this bull con stuff 'twixt me an you don't go'." | But it did go, and both were fast friends-excepting on the ball field l One ball player in the National | league is the ideal man with umpires.
 He is owen Wilson, ex-Pirate, now with the Cardinals. He is a game big
 fellow but I never saw him angry
 and I don't ever want to. Wilson never kicked on anything, grub, balls, ! strikes, or decisions on the bases. Once 1 think he gave Hank O'Day an evil 1 look for calling a strike, but that is aoout all.
 Clarke realized that Wilson's won | derful fielding and terrific hitting 1 would have made him one of the great
 est players in the game if he could only develop more of a fighting spirit. One day Clarke grew exasperated at ! Klem and shouted:
 1 "Say, Chief, if you would bawl that
 fellow out just once and show me you 1 can do it, I'll buy you suit of clothes"
 What's that?" asked Chief, putting
 his hand to his ear.
 q say, tell that fellow Klem what you think of him.
 Wilson went to bat. spoke a few
 words to Klem, and singled scoring 1 two runs. He scored himself a moment
 later and as he reached the bench, i Clarke asked him what terrible thing
 he had said to Klem.
 1 "Oh, I just leaned over," replied the l Texan and said, Cap Clarke don't like l you"
 John Titus was the same type of
 player--a great hitter and outfie1der, but quiet and contented, going along without trouble. It is said that Billy Murray, while managing the Phillies, l offered Titus $50 for every time he gave an umpire a "baWling out,' but Titus | seemed to figure that he didn't need 1 the money.
 Contrast Wilson and Titus with
 Johnny Evers when it comes to speak l ing his mind But it is a clean slate
 with the Trojan year after year, and he carries only one grouch in mem- l ory.
 That is against one chap still in | this league" remarked Evers one day | last summer. Late in 1910 l was 1n- jured just before the Cubs entered the worlds series. 1 broke my leg in Gin l cinnati. In the following year I wore 1 a pair of new shoes with the spikes cut almost in half and then flattened and filed down to almost nothing. I did this to protect my leg against a 1 twist What do you think happened? 1 A certain umpire in one of the first games of the season reported to Lynch 1 that had stepped on his feet and cut | clear through the leather with my
 spikes I offered to send Lynch my
 shoes with an affidavit that they were 1 the same spikes that I wore in the game where that umpire said had cut | through his brogans." Jack Miller, now with the Cardinals,
 is one ball player who holds the dis
 tinction of having had a row with an
 umpire in worlds series. Dots" ana i Klem engaged in an argument first over a ground rule on what Miller
 thought was home run and again
 on certain called strike.
 That will cost you $25,' announced
 Klem, when Miller angrily banged
 the plate with his bat.
 Raise you $25," yelled back Miller. "You're on," returned Klem, and I'll
 go you $50 better."
 | Miller gulped down his rage, for here was $100 of worlds series dough in ] the umpiring pot already. But Jack | quit raising the ante, and I think a 1 slice of S25 was all that Klem recom
 mended to the national commission.
 Copyright, 1916, by the Wheeler Syn dicate, Inc.)