The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-07-11
Seeing Big League
BASEBALL
By BILLY EVANS
Sportswriter, Big League Umpire
and General Manager OF the
Cleveland Indians

An umpire's job at best is color
less one, though sometimes made more
spectacular and less drab by the
color of the individual. "Silk"
OLoughlin with his immortal Strike
Tub! had lots of color" There
have been and still are others,
but he is perhaps our best example.
We have had an abundance of color
full players in recent years-Ty Cobb,
Babe Ruth, Iris Speaker, Frank
Frisch, Hack Wilson, Stanley Harris
dozens of others. But few umpires
are what can be called spectacular.
There is little enough of the dramatic
in calling balls and strikes and way
ing them out or calling them safe.
The ball players can shine in the
field, at the bat and on the base paths.
They have their batting averages, their
fielding averages, pitching averages
and stolen base records. They may
win pennants and world series, hit
home runs with the bases loaded and
pitch no-hit games. They often be-
come heroes and national idols over
night-as in the case of Stanley Har-
ris, the hoy manager" who won a
worlds championship his first year as
manager
But the umpire. Who gives hang
about the umpire? All he does is see
that the game is played and played
according to the rules. Isn't that
right? Did you ever hear anybody
cheer for an umpire? SO Walsh, ia
nous pitcher who tried umpiring after
he was through as a pitcher, objected
to the job, because as he said. lit was
all jeers and no cheers" He had been
used to cheers.
No, alongside the player, the umpire
IS quite a humdrum individual. And
yet | liked the job. I'm proud to feel
that am still part of our great ma
tional game And, l, tool say it not
boastfully-can feel a little pride in
my own record, my own averages" in
other words Besides, as Jack Sheri-
dan told me- and Tim Hurst has more
than once jokingly remarked, you
can't beat the hours"
No, you can't beat the hours-three
TO five-although my own hours off the
field were not leisure hours but were
spent in pounding the old typewriter
turning out sport copy for the news
papers.
And back of it all get feeling Of
immense satisfaction that l am part
of this great institution of baseball,
and have seen it grow from compare
lively feeble proportions to its giant
present-day status. And have learned
quite a lot in my twenty-five years in
the big leagues. l have learned lot
about human nature and mob psy-
cholOgy and that sort of thing. And
1 have learned lot about baseball.
Perhaps an experience as lengthy as
mine entities a man to some opinion.
Perhaps you will agree that, although
i don't play baseball, my constant con-
tact with it and with the players gives
me an opportunity. even greater than
the active players, to judge baseball
ability. Does it sound illogical when
/ say that perhaps am in a better
position to judge the merits of par
ticular star than one of his teammates
or one of his opponents is?
For this reason if for no other: As
an umpire, my work was pretty evenly
divided among the eight teams in the
American league. An active player
can judge an opponent only on that
opponents performance against him.
AS umpire. have had the opportunity
of seeing how John Smith performs
against seven clubs. Each team plays
each of the other teams about twenty
two games in the course Of an ordi-
nary season. So that the Washington
club, let us say, has twenty-five Oppor-
tunities during the year of watching
Babe Ruth play. / may have more or
less games than that to umpire with
New York as one of the teams, but I
have the opportunity of seeing how
Babe Ruth hits in every ball park in
the league.
/ want to make this clear, because
later on l am going to name my all
time, all-star baseball team. And then
j am going to give my own conception
of the ideal baseball player. 1t may
be argued that my job in the American
league prevented my seeing many Ma
tional leaguers in action. But at va
rious times | have seen them all, both
in and out Of world series. And this,
combined with the figures in the old
record books, ought to qualify me in
some respect as a competent judge.
&c. 1880. Bell Syndicate,