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Show BILLY EVANS SOLVES BASEBALL PROBLEMS S (Written Especially for This Paper by the Famous American f League Umpire.) ; There are some batters who cau lilt equally well from the left or the right side of the fritters box. "Wnlly" Seining, the famous young ', V cateher of the Athletics, is such a batsman. When ' ... southpaws are working against the Athletics, ',' F- '-Nsv Schung hits right handed and vice versa. He pre- fL'ls llitlinS lLft handed, as it renders his speed of , f ; .'-;-- greater value, but he finds that he has much better -I i', I' " i 4.) success against southpaws when he shifts to the ! IV v " . i right side. This by way of preface to the de-scription de-scription of a simple play that caused n big riot, i s" with a well-known International league umpire ns ArlSs the central figure. i This umpire hud been selected to preside over s ( f s a series of games at a big baseball tournament held T s at one of the county fairs in the West, where such 1 tlJLL' , J events are very popular. All the teams were ', 1 heavily loaded for the games with minor league talent, while one team had two big league players in the line up. The ', team with the two big leaguers happened to be one of the teams in the ; final play-off. On the other team was a first baseman who had been . very much in evidence with his hitting. lie bit left handed. Going into the last half of the ninth, the team with the two big ; . leaguers led by n one run margin. With men on second and third and i' two out, it was the turn at bat of the hard-hitting left handed first ; baseman. A southpaw pitcher of considerable minor league reputation i' had been warming up and was rushed into the fray to try to battle the ; left handed hitter. It so happened that this player could bat equally i', well either way. Believing that he was pulling something out of the ', ordinary, he remained in the left side of the box until the pitcher started to wind up, then he shifted to the right side, and, hitting right ! ; handed, singled cleanly to left on the first ball pitched, driving two ;1 . runs across the plate. ; The big leaguers rushed at the umpire ns the crowd rushed ou - the field. Who won the game, nnd what did the umpire do? ; , Answer to Problem. The team with the two big leaguers in its line-up won the gnme, ; ' although the crowd and the team at bat thought to the contrary. The . two runs needed to win, and which had apparently been recorded on ', the hit to left, were rendered void by the actions of the batsman. . Under section 10 of rule 51, the bntsman is out if he steps from one ; ' batsman's box to the other while the pitcher is in his position ready ; ; to pitch. The big leaguers were quick to tnke advantage of this slip i ' ' and protested, and, of course, the umpire was compelled to call out the batter who had singled and not allow the two runs that had nppar- i ently been scored. This made the third out, retiring the side and ; giving the game to the other club by the one-run margin it held when. '. the final inning was started. ; '. (Copyright by the Wheeler Syndicate, Inc.) . |