Evening star., 1919-03-05

and in the majors Some years ago in
game at Chicago, with Washington
as the opposing team, the w ashing ton
club took the field minus its second
basemaG, who had gone to the dress
ing-room to receive some medical at
tention. No one noticed his absence
The first Intimati0n any one hau that
he was missing, was when the pitchef
delivered the ball, and the batsmah
HIT it right through the spot vacated ny
the second ba seman. Then the umpire,
triiie EN- barrassed, ordered the bats
man, who had reached second on the
drive to return TO the plate ana mt
over.
Several years ago in a National
League game the umpire rendered a
ruling at third which failed TO please
the guardian of that base. The third
saeker kicked SO long and leuo the
umpire finally gave him the gate. sore
because he had been put out OF the
game, he threw down the ball IN
disgust, and Immediately the runner
on third raced for home with the win
ming run. The umpire, however, re-
fused TO stand for any such acton,
deciding the moment he put the player
out of the game, any chance for fur-
ther action ceased.
When is a ball foul or fair? That
sounds like a foolish question, yet L
know of no feature of play that
causes more arguments or creates
more discussion, There are four or
five angles to the question, and THESE
l will try to straighten out.
During the last month l have re-
ceived a half dozen letters relating to
one angle OF the fair and foul tangle.
Here is the query. If a ball first hits
considerable distance foul and then
rolls into fair territory, and finally
settles on fair territory between home
and first, Is the ball foul or fair?
A great many people have the i'm
preston if a ball hits foul territory
first there is no chance for 1t to be
come fair ball That is true OF balls
of third or first base. Regardless of
whether they stay in foul territory or
not, they are foul balls.
On the other hand. if batter hits
bali that strikes the ground, say.
twenty feet from the plate and six
feet in foul territory there is always
a chance such ball may become fair,
Regardless of where the ball first hit.
if it rolls into fair territory before
fielder or batsman comes into contact
with it while it is in foul territory,
and finally settles on fair territory
between home and first or home and
third. it is a fair ball.
That the ball first strikes in foul
territory has nothing to do with the
final status of the ball If one would
figure along that line of reasoning it
would be just as possible to argue
that ball that first hit fair would
still remain fair even though it finally
settled on foul territory.
Players never should fail to run
out such hits, and an umpire cannot
be too careful in calling such plays,
Experience has taught me that les
son. A number of years ago in a
game at Philadelphia, Il Washington
player, George Mcbride, hit a ball
down the f1rst-base line, which hug
eed the ground about two yards foul
for about thirty feet.
Mcbride continued to run the ball
out. and the runner on third crossed
the plate. ] finally decided there
wasn't chance for the ball to roll
into fair territory, and yelled foul
ball, which caused Mcbride to stop
and turn back toward the plate. Al
most at the moment ! yelled, the ball
struck something and rolled into fair
territory. The ball was tielded by
the pitcher and thrown to first and
an out claimed.
There was no question about that