Evening star., 1919-01-21
BASEBALL ONTH INSIDE
WITH BILLY EVANS
Being His Opinions on Interesting Features and
Sideights of the National Game.
WITH BILLY EVANS

Several years ago, in fact until the
rule was changed, coachers at third
made a practice Of stopping base run
ners by fair means or foul. il they be-
.lieved said runner would be retired
in case he tried to score, often almost
ia foot ball tackle would be necessary
in order to prevent the runner from
carrying out his determination to try
to score In some cases, because the
by the catcher. the runner would have
probably scored had he been allowed
to continue on his way. In most cases.
however, the action of the coacher
saved the runner from being an easy
out.
So strong did the coachers go in
their stopping of runners that the
rule makers decided q drastic penalty
was necessary to prevent such acton
on their part. The rule formulated
stated that II a coacher at third
touched or held a runner at third base.
or touched runner rounding third
base for the plate, the umpire should
Immediately declare such runner out
This was an excellent rule, because 1t
called upon the runner to use his
Judgment. ana forced the coacher at
third to 1t once make up his mind as
to the runners chances, and irnHe-
diately communicate Same by wefd
OF mouth or m0tions OF the arms.
George Hildebrand in the last three
OF four years has had two peculiar
phases Of this play come alp In games
under his jurisdiction. In a game at
New York with Clark Griffth coach
ing At third. Howard Shanks decided
to score from second on base hit. IN
fact did score without much trouble.
even though he stumbled badly in
rounding third base. In swinging
wide Of the bag on his way to the
plate. his spikes caught throwing him
forward in the direction of Griffith,
who was standing in his proper posi-
best efforts, Griffith was unable to
avoid Shanks coming into contact
with him. Ragaining his feet, Shanks
once again started for the plate, and
beat the throw 20 get him by fifteen
feet. Strictly Griffith did not touch
Shanks, literally Shanks did the
touching. Hildebrand decided to play
it safe. and called Shanks out He In
sisted at tho time, however, that he
was ruling contrary to his judgment.
but preferred sticking closely to the
rules.
A few years ago in a game at De-
-troit with the score at tie. George
Burns, then with Detroit, was the drst
man up in the nfnth. Burns hit bail
that eluded Clyde Milan of Washing
ton. and rolled almost to the flag pole
in center heJd. Burns, playing good
base ball. hesitated as he rounded
third. as to try for the plate and be
thrown out, with no one down, would
have been a classical bone" Cobb
threw out his hands at Burns as he
rounded the bag. telling him to keep
on going. His hands came into con-
tact with Burns. but at that particu-
lar time, Milan was still pursuing the
ball. Burns scored before the ball was
gotten back to the infield. Hildebrand
decided to allow the run to score, al
though he knew he was going con-
trary to the rule. He believed that
the spirit OF fair play should super
sede tho rule. Griffith. who had pre-
viousfy been the victim of strict in
depreciation of the rule, protested the
game and won his point
Recently I discussed situations on
the ball field which were unusual and
had Hifdebrand saying, that he be-
feved the proper ruling IN each case
would have been to allow the runs
instead of calling the vJyppers Cnf as