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Show UlllllllllllKIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIU By ROBERT McSHANE f tslsaud by Wsitsrn Ntwipopw Union nllllllllllllllllllllllllllllluilllllliiMi, DROOF of James J. Dykes' wide-1 wide-1 spread popularity came not long ago when the fiery manager of the Chicago White Sox was cooped up in the American league doghouse for bulldozing umpires and using high pressure language on the playine field. President Will Harridge of the American league placed Dykes ir baseball's St. Helena when Jimmj took slightly profane exception to ai umpire's ruling durint! a eam with Cleveland. Jimmy, who refuses t hide his sincere dislike of the boys, in blue, drew an "indefinite" sus j pension for his brash outbreak. Hi-exile Hi-exile lasted one week. Shortly after Harridge announced the suspension of Dykes, a C'hicagc newspaper conducted a survey ti I determine whether or not Jimmy 1 "offensive" to fans and owner around the American league circuit At least two club presidents and six ' out of seven topnotch baseball writ ers declared themselves sympathet i Ic with James. The seventh write. ' admitted that Jimmy was popular ' but remarked that his protests dc ' get a bit tiresome, largely because of their frequency. As you've probably forgotten, Har ridge's suspension statement read: "For his conduct and use of ob scene and abusive language to Um j pire Steve Basil in the game played in Chicago . . . while protesting the ; decision of Umpire Harry Geiscl on! a fly ball hit to right field in the ninth inning, Manager Dykes has! been indefinitely suspended. j 'Very Offensive I "... His tactics in delaying our( games, attempting to bulldoze and browbeat umpires while filing protests pro-tests which have no basis in fact or j justification In the rules, has be-, come very offensive, not only to the' spectators in other cities throughout the circuit, but to our entire organisation." organi-sation." Harridge also stated that Dykes would remain suspended until "he j can satisfy the league office that in ml m ' j1 JIMMY DYKES j the future he will fall in line with the seven other managers of our, league in conducting himself and his ball club on the field." i i. 1 i In our opinion the incident was I tar from well handled. Dykes Is an i aggressive, peppery manager, al-j s ways willing to fight for a cause he considers just. He packs more color j s than any other manager in the league. His players like him. White, I Sox officials including Mrs. Comis- t key back him up all the way, and Chicago's south side fans swear by 4 him. In short, Jimmy is not only the best manager in the American league but he has done as much or more than any other person to keep the league on its toes. When Harridge lifted the suspension, suspen-sion, he remarked: "Our office has always praised Jim's handling of players. We credit him with doing wonders for ballplayers ball-players other people have given up on. But the American league will eliminate rowdyism and abusive language. lan-guage. Once in a while we have to step on somebody's toes in this regard, re-gard, but that's just too bad. We've got to do it." i There should be no argument on one particular the elimination of abusive language. Profanity is ob-; jectionable to the fans and particularly particu-larly offensive to women patrons. , Umpires, contrary to Dykes, are hu- j man and deserve at least a minimum mini-mum of civility. Roivdyism But "rowdyism" is too general a; term. One player, guilty of an of-1 fense, might be considered a rowdy while another, committing the same, act, might be termed colorful. J Where is the dividing line? It's exceedingly ex-ceedingly trite, but circumstances do alter cases. Then, too, baseball isn't a parlor! game. Players are more than autom- i atons. trained to obey a stated set of rules. A good ball player-or, manager is one who does his best to j win ball games. He does everything he can. without forfeiting sports-: manship, to beat an opponent. Officials are smart enough to real-( ize that color is an Indispensable, part f baseball. Without it the garni j would be little more than a median j leal exhibition of ability. And pa I Ing cus;omers would become as rar-as rar-as Brilis-h tourists in Eerl.n. |