The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-07-01
OLD TIME UMPIRE
DISPLAYED COURAGE
IN MAKING DECISION
Rx FRANK G. MENkE

bdS0Dd1i WAS a DIT QlH0T6uI III inc
olden days-yes, little bit different"
remarked Wilbert Robinson; lapsing
into a reminiscent mood. And how
| life has changed for an umpire. Now
he's respected, revered citizen. But
once upon time he took his life into
his hands every time he wandered onto
the ball field.
| Through the years I've seen many
exhibitions of courage on the part of
umpires; times when arbitrator took
a chance on being mobbed in the max
| ing Of a ruling which, though perfectly
fair, was against the home team. But
the greatest display I ever witnessed
was back in the eos with the late Tim
Hurst playing the stellar role.
!! THE old Baltimore Orioles, of which
il was a member, jaunted along to
cleveland to play the Spiders 1t was
a toss-up in those days as to which
club was fiercer on a ball field We
had Keller then; McGraw, filled with
peppery, fiery youth; Kid Gleason and
a half dozen others who were born
| battlers. And Cleveland had in its
lineup Patsy Tebeau, Kid Mexican,
/
some other fellows who were as tough
as cast iron.
''On this particular afternoon the
ordinary i'll feeling between the teams
had reached fever pitch. Each of us
fought every inch of the way, snap
ping and snarling at the other, razzing,
riding, and threatening with personal
violence. 1t was all that the umpire
could do to keep the boys from forget
ting baseball temporarily and making
it free-for-all fight
Score Tied
Along came the last half of the
ninth. The score was tied at %. After
two men were out Childs reached first
on huke bounder and then stole Sec
ond. That brought up Tebeau, who,
all day, had been at the mercy of Hof-
fer's slow ball pitching.
Hotter shot up a slow one and it
came along in tantalizing fashion.
Patsy jumped forward and tried to
meet the ball before it reached the
plate. He missed it. Hurst thereupon
cautioned Patsy about jumping out of
the box and Patsy simply cussed back
: some reply. Then it happened-on the
next ball pitched.
AS catcher, signalled to Hoffer to
: send up another one of those slow
) curves to Patsy. The Cleveland lead.
er saw it coming and, with mighty
t leap went about five feet forward met
, the ball and sent it crashing over. the
infield for hit which scored ChiIds
with the winning run-or, at least,
2 with what was supposed to be the vic.
! torious tally.
4 But the minute Patsy hit that ball
4 Hurst chased after him and headed
i him off as he was nearing second.
t You're out he yelled You're out
Tor jumping out of the batter's box.
Saved BY Police
T The most fortunate happening al
g Tim Hurst's life was that the club
officials, anticipating that some sort
OF riot might take place, had stationed
nearly two dozen policement inside the
park. For when Hurst's ruling seepeC
into Tebeau's head, and was passed
along to the other Spiders, and also tc
the crowd which was swarming onto
the field there was a concerted dash
by maddened ball players and frenzieG
rooters for the umpire
Some of our boys formed a Gordon
. around Hurst. The mob was breaking
e through to get at Tim when the police
N-ASA oAl1hCu. II lOOh IlOS0 OTQC6rS
:. nearly 20 minutes to get Hurst to E
place of temporary safety and abou
20 minutes more to clear the field. 1
e seemed a dozen different times as i
r the police would have to use their re
e Yolvers as well as their clubs.
e Finally the field was cleared anC
d the game was renewed We won il
g the twelfth. The Spiders made an eff
fort to tie the score in their half O
S the twelfth, but they failed And whe1
It the last man was out, the crowd lump
e ed out of the stands onto the field,
and made wild rush for Hurst. Hi
o ruling not only had cost the Spider!
n game which meant the possible los
e of the championship, but it had cos
the Cleveland rooters heavily in bets
|, But the police beat the mob t.
Hurst-by an eyelash. With a doubl,
Gordon of officers around him Hurs
l. was escorted off the field and unde
u escort of four policemen was takel
s down town to his hotel because NOR,
than hundred of the fans followed
him out of the park and tried to dea
II out violence to him there.
Those were the days-but not 70
e the umpires!"
e Copyright 1921 ny King Features
d Syndicate. Incl