Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-03-26
HeydLer Was Smart
When He Sent Klein
on Instruction Trip
NeU Umpire Can Enforce
Rules at Beginning of
Season.
BY JACK vEIOCK.
News abortinr Editor.


international News Sporting Editor.
JEW YORK, March 26.-John Arnold
neydler made a foxy move when he sent
Umpire Bill KLEIN on tour Of the National
Sague training camps to instruct the
pitchers regarding the new rules.
Heydler is a former umpire. He knows
the alphabet of players and their ways
by heart. In fact, he can say 1t back
ward. And he fOresaw that unless the
pitchers were given the lowest OF low.
downs regarding what will be expected OF
them when the season opens there woulu
be plenty of trouble for the umpires; ;,
So Bill KLEIN was sent to Dixleland
thoroughly saturated in the National
leagues official interpretations of new
rules against freak deliveries, and when
the Nationals 1920 campaign gets unoeT
speay alibis on the part of the hurlers VIII
be quite out of order.
NO INFRACTIONs
IN NEW RULES.
The National league intends to live up
to the new rules from the start There
viii be no attractions, not If Heydler ana
his competent staff of arbiters can help
It, and the pitcher who attempts to get
around the letter of the law viii find the
going hard. The splitter alone VIII live
on through the coming season. AFTER
that baseball will be rid of all the freaks
in the art of pitching, unless some OF
the sly singers invent new and camou-
tagged tricks, and that will be difficult TO
do under the new code, which does not
by rubbing it in his glove or on his uni
form.
It has been pointed out by some base
bali critics that the pitchers probably viii
attempt TO substitute the bean ball FOR
the intentional pass. AS far as the Ma
tional league Is concerned they will not
get away with It.
There will be no bean ball pitching in
our league" said President Heydler. IF
the pitchers entertain the idea that any
such thing will be tolerated they had
best get rid of it. Our umpires VIII
start the season with instructions cover
this kind and the National league Will
back up their actions TO the limit
FINE FOR
BEAN BALLERS.
1t may sometimes be difficult for an
umpire TO determine whether a pitcher IS
trying to give a batsman a base on balls
or whether his inaccuracy in pitching is
due to poor control. But any time
pitcher aims the ball at the batsman
several times there viii be no mistake
sbonf wbat he is irving to do. l am
sure that a fine and an indefinite sus-
pension would soon eradicate any such
practice"
visit to every National league training
haunt with the exception of Pasadena,
Cal, where the Cubs hold forth. But
KLEIN will have a chin fest with the Cub
pitchers in Chicago prior to the opening
% the season.
There is much speculation among
baseball fans throughout the country re
garding what effect the new pitching
rules viii have on batting. Many base"
ball critics are inclined TO believe that
the abolition of the freaks will result
in increased hitting. and 1t is our be-
lief that 1t will help the batsmen.
Whether the ruling out of the frea IS
themselves or the knowledge on the part
of the batter that he is not facing a
Ginger with a bagfuI of tricks will
weigh more heavily In favor Of Increased
hitting is a question. But the fact re-
mains that the batsmau VINO has con
fdence in himself is the one who gets
the most hits, and the passing Of the
freaks should lend him confidence.
Hank O'Day, himself veteran pitcher
and umpire, points out that although
the magnates have been making rules
and adopting legislation for years with
a view TO handicapping the pitchers,
the art of hinGing was never more per
feet than it is today. Hank believes the
abolition Of the so-called freaks will
AHuly tend to make the pitchers work
der and in the end force them TO
,h better baseball.
u spite of the many things that
X been done to handicap the pitch
said ODay recently, they still
the edge on the batter, and they
<z - always have it. The more you tr5
hold them down the better they WI
Pitch