Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-26
NO WAY TO CHECK ROWDYISM AND h
UMPIRE BATTING EXCEPT TO GIVE
OFFICIALS ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY
No Other Sport Tolerates Abuse and Batting Of
Arbiters-Great Players Attend to Their Knit
ing and Cut Out the Rough Stuff
Nv GRANTLAND RICE
THERE is only one safe, sane way

THERE is only one safe. sane way to
l. handle the umpring situation.
That is TO make a steel-shod rule that no
ball player or manager can speak to an
umpire on the field and that no umpire In
turn, can speak to ball player.
In other phrases, make the umpire an au-
tomaton, just as II some machine was out
there registering the balls and strikes and
putouts.
One of the main reasons for poor umpir-
ing is the abuse and nagging which officials
receive on the field, where their judgment
is bound to be warped and upset
II this abuse and nagging were stopped
the umplrng would improve Immediately
and the official could see with far clearer
vision.
In Other Games
Joe villa brought out a vital point day
or two ago when he mentioned the fact that
no other sport tolerates the abuse ana
nagging of its officials,
Take the racing game In a certain race
thousands of dollars are wagered. Al the
finish the two leading horses are hardly
on eyelash apart.
Many bettors are confident their horse
has won But when the verdict is given
by the Judges no one NnlnkS OF questioihs
or assaiing the decision. 1t stands as
part of the game.
An umpire should be treated In the same
way. If he becomes incompetent and the
league president refuses to remove him,
then the vote Of majority of the club
owners or of six of the eight should settle
his case.
A majority of the club owners are not
going to vote to oust a competent official
One or two or three clubs might go after
his scalp for certain games, but If his work
was along good average lines there would
be no question as to his fate.
Aggressiveness and Such
You can put it down as pure bunk that
abusing umpires constitutes aggressiveness,
We have heard 1t stated more than once
that If the players refused to kick on close
plays the game would look dead.
In other words, If nine men and crowd
of 10000 in the stands refuse to go after
one man they look like cutters? If this
philosophy is correct then baseball should
be abolished as a sport
The players can show all the aggressive
ness that any fan desires by fighting the
rival club, by hustling at top speed and by
running out every play.
The biggest drawing cards of baseball
have been Cobb, Mathewson, Wagner, John
son. Speaker and Alexander
Yet these rarely have a word to say
dDOuL Ine uInplTlIB. II baseball popularity
depends upon umpire batting then baseball
is the poorest game that was ever known.
Only baseballs popularity depends upon
no such thing
The Help
If the players would quit kicking at UNI
pires, then the crowd would soon follow
the same lead and the officials would have
a chance to repder decisions with much bet
ter balanced judgment.
Kicking never changes a decision. It
merely leads TO the expulsion of good play
ers and a world of additional trouble.
AS for the Umpire
With the umpire placed as an automaton,
there would be no longer any excuse for
arrogance or show of authority.
The umpiring this season, in several SPOTS
has been incredibly atrocious. An arro-
CANT disposition and overadvertising have
wrecked Bill Byron, who at one time gave
promise Of being a good official.
But with the new rule there would be no
occasion for league presidents to back up
incompetent officials in order to maintain
discipline. As It is now, no matter how
incompetent, arrogant, unfair or unbalanced
an umpire becomes, he is backed to the
limit and his faults overlooked.
If an umpire is incompetent he should
be fired at once. For a poor umpire can
wreck a ball game quicker than any other
factor Club owners have a right to pro-
tect their industry, and under a changed
situation they could watch the work Of