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Show A S THK lid of ;i now baseball sea-son sea-son Is pried olT. it seems to be about time that Ford Frick, president presi-dent of the National league, and Will Harndge. president of the American league, did something about the umpire situation. We are referring to the matter of umpire baiting Including profanity, invective and shouted Insults from too many managers, and too many players, who use umpires as alibis for their own mistakes or dumb ness. We agree 100 per cent with Wilbur Wood, sportswriter, that such actions in the future should be s u p-pressed p-pressed under drastic dras-tic penalties. It has been said that umpire baiting has a big crowd appeal ap-peal and that It is now an accepted addition to the national na-tional game. We B. Southworth don't believe this is true. It mn have its appeal to a few, Inclined to the mucker side, but not to the mass of spectators, who go out to Ret their thrills from a hard fought battle bat-tle on the Held, not to hear a salvo of billingsgate directed at some man in blue. If this has become a tradition, tradi-tion, then It is a tradition that should be ended. Fight and aggressiveness are a big part of the game, but they should be directed against the opposing op-posing team, not against an able arbiter, whose average of ability is too often well above the average aver-age of the ball player's skill. Umpires today are carefully selected se-lected and well trained. Their record rec-ord for honesty in the last 40 years surpasses any other record in sport. Proud of Profession They have an amazing pride in their work, in calling each play as they see it. Pride in their profession profes-sion is something that not all man-1 man-1 agers and ball players have. Many I have but too many do not. Other-j Other-j wise, many more ball players would be in far better physical shape both before and during the baseball ; season. The managerial or player squawk Is usually an alibi, either for lack i of physical skill or a cover-up for j missing brain cylinders. No smart fan ever falls for this corny hokum, j this attempt to shift the blame. The umpire's decision is final. A dozen profane Babels can't change It. Right or wrong, it Is the way he saw It. And the umpire is In the spot to see It better than anyone i else. He is certainly in a far better bet-ter spot than howling fans, 150 to 200 i eel from the play, looking on at deceptive angles. A short while back, we asked several sev-eral National league umpires what , managers and what teams gave ; them the least amount of trouble. The vote came for Billy South-worth, South-worth, formerly of the Cardinals now directing the Braves, and Eddie Ed-die Dyer of the Cardinals. Cardinals Don't Argue Neither Southworth nor Dyer will stand for any such rowdy tactics. And what team has been the most aggressive outfit in baseball for the last 10 years? You know the answer. an-swer. The Cardinals. But they take out their aggressiveness in hustle hus-tle and scrappiness on the field Their opponents are the other teams not the umpires. No umpire ever heard Walter Johnson make any sort of kick. "In a sudden lapse, I called a pitch that almost split the plate a ball against Walter Johnson," Billy Evans told me. "Johnson never even frowned. I apologized later for my mistake. 'Yes, I knew It was a strike,' Johnson said, 'but we all make mistakes.' " I was sitting on the bench with Ted Williams. He went to bat with two on and took a third strike. No squawk. "Was that a good one?" I asked him. "Yes," Ted said, "It cut the outside out-side corner by an inch. It fooled me. It was a swell pitch." That's tiie way baseball should be. The great majority of the big names in the game are that way. They don't have to throw their alibis at the umpire. Cy Young, Mathewson, Alexander, Johnson four of the greatest of all pitchers, never had any umpire trouble. If ball players want to show their aggressiveness, why not score from first on a single to center to win a world series, as Country Slaughter Slaugh-ter did? Or run bases as the Cardinals Cardi-nals run bases? Rare in Other Games What fun can a crowd get from seeing a swarm of players surround some umpire, holding up the game, howling about a decision that won't and can't be changed? They don't see anything like this happen in football, foot-ball, an even more rugged competitive competi-tive sport. They rarely see it in any other game. Umpire baiting Isn't aggressiveness. aggressive-ness. Too often it is cowardice, and this also goes for the stands, where the odds are only 30,000 to 1. The umpire can take care of him- j self. Being human, he will make ; his share of mistakes on split-second I ir split-inch decisions. |
