The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-12-28

|by Harry
|trays0n

Miami Beach The browning
point of Bill Klem's new home
overlooking the calm waters OF
Biscayne Bay is weather vane.
Christy Mathewson's arm and
Klem's appraised thumb indicate
which direction the wind Is blowing
and how the dean of active major
league umpires' thoughts run back
through IS years.
The weather vane was designed
from q painting by Fletcher Gran
som, which hung in the National
League Offices for 20 years before
being transplanted to the KLEIN
living room.
The immortal Mathewson has
Just hurled the ball to the plate,
where Chief Meyers tags Honus
Wagner, as the peerless Pirate hits
the dirt, determination written on
his face. KLEIN thumbs Wagner
out. In the portrait John McGraw
stands at the right, plainly quite
satisfied.
Klem's only regret is that he
couldn't get McGraw into the
weather vane. Perhaps this Is be-
cause things seldom were so tran
gull during the earlier years OF
McGraw's managerial career, but
there is no mistaking the admira-
ton the daddy of arbiters has for
the great Giant leader.
John McGraw-rest his Soult-
would try just as hard to win an
exhibition game from Squeedunk as
he would a championship one from
the Cubs" unused KLEIN.
Umpire KLEIN Likes
Aggressive Players
Baseball shouldn't be turned
into sissy's game. I'm in favor
of aggressiveness as much as any
manager or player. But there's a
sharp distinction between agrees
siyeness and rowdyism. When row.
dysim breaks out when I'm in
charge, off they're waved to the
showers.
Some of the toughest players
and managers were real, fine men
off the field. They just allowed
their enthusiasm to run away with
them"
Like practically everybody else
who saw Mathewson, KLEIN calls
Big Six the finest pitcher who ever
lived.
'.Dizzy Dean and Carl Hubbell
are splendid, but they can't equal
Matty." Bland Bill is as positive
on that point as he is on a deci-
sion. and for years he held that he
had never called one wrong.
Naturally the game has i'm
proved since I started in it," he
said. "As a player, l couldn't get
past the minors, and maybe It's
Just as well. But as an umpire,
feel that I've been part OF the
game, and have improved with It,
Night baseball arouses only a
mild interest in KLEIN.
cts all right as novelty,
suppose, seven games a season as
it is handled in Cincinnati" he
went on. But baseball is a day
time sport, and 1t cannot be made
otherwise.
1T umpired the first major league
night game in Cincinnati. 1t isn't
any harder to follow the ball and
plays under the arcs than it is in
the afternoon. The players / no.
ticed. seem little uneasy at the
plate. and hit at more bad balls
than they do in daylight"
World Series Play
Is More Accurate
KLEIN, who has been in II world
series, beginning with the one
between the Cubs and Tigers, in
1903. finds handling them easier
than games Of the regular sched-
ule.
"The play is more accurate" he
explained.
Klem's new home embodies a
dream that the veteran has slept
over countless times while making
the rounds of the baseball circuits.
First in the Connecticut League,
later in the New York State and
American Association, and then to
the National to become the Oldest
and best Judge of balls and strikes.
A rose arbor fashioned over a
gateway provides the most strik-
ing contrast between basebalPs ex-
element and Bills home comfort.
It was hard to picture the mild
hammered, nearly bald, contented
man. pausing in this gateway with
his sweet-faced wife, as the man
in blue who has a way of his own
Of putting raging ball players in
their places.
It Is difficult to imagine Umpire
Bin KLEIN safe at home, with a
garden and everything.