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Show Seeing Big League Baseball 7s ol By billy evans r ir W V Sportswriter, Big League Umpire and General Manager of the Cleveland Indians The game which was responsible for my big league career comes back as clearly as though It were played yesterday yes-terday instead of more than twenty years ago. It was between Niles and Youngstown, two great old rivals In those days. Going Into the last half of the ninth inning, Niles was trailing Youngstown by one run. I believe the score was 7-C, although the exact figures are less clear to me now than the more important events of the little drama. For it certainly was a drama! Now, all unknown to ine there was sitting In the stands that day a man whose presence was to alter my whole career. His name was James Mc-Aleer, Mc-Aleer, the famous "Jimmy" McAleer, at that time manager of the St. Louis Browns in the American league. St. Louis, It seemed, was playing at Cleveland, and McAleer had run down to Niles to get a line on a player on the Youngstown club, Charley Starr by name. So there In the grandstand sat McAleer, on a little scouting mission mis-sion for the St. Louis club. And neither neith-er he nor I Imagined for a moment thnt he was to do n little umpire scouting for the American league on the side. That game was one of those close, . hotly fought contests we umpires know as "tough ones." Niles made a great rally In the ninth and filled the bases with nv out. A hit would bring in two runs and win the old ball game. A base on balls would tie the score, and the batter, Billy Thomas, worked Stewart, the Youngstown pitcher, to a "two and three" count. "Bust it out !" shouted the Niles fans. "Bust it out, Billy, or wait it out. A walk's as good as a hit. Make bim put it over." And then Stewart wound up and pitched. Thomas saw the ball coming and let It go by. In fact, he even fell down, as if in the act of avoiding being hit. And then he started to trot to first base and the fans had visions of a tie score. But I had my eye on that ball, too. It was a fast-breaking curve, and it took a lot of nerve to throw a curve in a pinch like that. It was a wide curve, but it bad cut the corner of the plate. Upward I jerked my right thumb. "Strike three !" I bellowed. And then things happened. Those fans, seeing Thomas fall to the ground, by pantomine had taken. It for granted that the last pitcli had been a ball. When I called him out, they firmly believed I was committing robbery and throwing the game to Youngstown. They poured out of their seats and made straight for the plate where I was still standing. They threatened threat-ened me, they called me every name under the sun, they jostled me, pulled at my clothes and probably would have mobbed me right there if It hadn't been fur Charley Crowe, pitcher and manager of the Niles team. If anybody on that ball field had a right to protest my decision it was Charley Crowe. But, being fair minded and realizing my peril, he came to my side to help me. "I'm not kicking, Billy," he told me as he stood beside me and faced the throng of fans. "You called it as you saw it and I'm satisfied, and I'm going go-ing to see that you get safely back to your hotel." I'll never forget that walk back to the little hotel as long as I live. In reality it was but a few short blocks, but to me It seemed as long as a marathon race. The mob followed on my heels. And all the time I was marching straight toward the big leagues and I didn't know it! IS). 1530. Dell Syndicate.) able danger of a collision if both pro-, ceed, then it is his duty to exercise, due care so as to avoid a collision." . . . Minn. Sup. Ct. "Evidence that an automobile drlr-er, drlr-er, while driving about 20 miles "an hour, took his eyes off the road and lowered his head in order to ascertain the time from his wrist watch by the dashboard light was sufficient to warrant war-rant a finding of gross negligence." . . . Mass. Sup. Jud. Ct. "An automobile driver who In blinded blind-ed by the lights from another vehicle so as to be unable to distingush an object in front of him must, in the exercise of reasonable care, stop the automobile in order to avoid injuring pedestrians." . . . Maine Sup. Jud. Ct. "Where pedestrians may appear at any time in the highway the duty of the operator to watch for them is constant, con-stant, and to look too late to avert an accident is to not look at all." . . . Calif. Sup. Ct. |