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Show Seeing Big League 43 By BILLY EVANS TT5 A TT A T3" "ET Sportswriter, Big League Umpire Pf A !Mj l- f J R J and Antral Manager of the ILSS Jt.J L4 ilt JLiiL& Cleveland Indians I was Hitting In tin; Kniri'lsliiml lit ' Yoimslown, Ohio, l;i-k In l'JO.'l, sli'irt-ly sli'irt-ly (iflcr I liittl lici'ontH HuirlH flitor of a YoiniL'.st iivwi ji;iht, sciin; Ituok In my hand uni nil i-cinly fur tin .-inio to Ml u rt. I '.ut tin? aniH 1 1 1 1 J ii t -start. Minutes ()iLS.scil, a cnnsiiltiitinn was lit;lil at tlni home plate anil heads were turned In my illriM-lion, allhon'li I was blithely nneonseloiiM of Iheir si;-iilheanee. si;-iilheanee. And then a delegation from the Iwo teainH Marty Hot;an. lnanu;r of YonnHlown, and Howard Itisher. maiiMKer, and (laplaln MeOIoskey, of Homestead approached me with u proposition that nearly blew me out of my Heat. The regular umpire hadn't shown lip had sent word he was sick and would he unable to olllelate. There was m one around to take his place, and so ttiey had decided on me as u Hiibstltnle. "Nothing fining," said I. "No pop bottles for mine. Not on your life. I don't know n tiling about umpiring uml I don't care to learn. No thanks." "We're up against It, Bill." "f'un't help It," I was adamant. "We can't play without an umpire. T)o it for us as a favor. We'll give you Sin. Otherwise the pune Is oft and Ihe fans will have to beat It." How futile to try to tloiljje Fate! I argued and argued, hut they hung on to me and ar;,-ued right hack, and finally, I hough 1 had absolutely no confidence In my ability to get away with It, I gave in to them. ll'a fnnnv tn run now nu I loolf bnck on that game. 1 felt like the original fish out of water. There I was, Billy Kvans, a young sports writer dragged from the grandstand to umpire a game against my will. And nil the time It wils Old Man Opportunity knocking at the hack door. My attitude toward umpiring was much aS the average small boy's of today. There was something some-thing alluring enough about being a ball player, but who In thunder entertained en-tertained any ambitions of becoming un umpire? Of course, that game had to be a tough one. It went fourteen Innings and was filled with "close" ones, hut somehow I got through all right. In fact, my performance was satisfactory satisfac-tory enough to the two teams to earn for me the request to do the same thing the following day. I accepted again over considerable protest and Inside of a few days I was offered a regular job. Inasmuch as It didn't Interfere too much with my sport writ-lug, writ-lug, I took it. It was toward the end of the season, anyway, and $1'3 a game was not to be sneered at. When the baseball si-hciliile was played through I went back to my d.sk on the Vindicator, satisfied that I was throiiL'h will) umpiring forever. But no. I was offered a contract for the following season, and as there was a lot more money in It than In my newspaper Job at $-U a week, I accept ac-cept oil. How the umpires came and went In that organization ! There were about thirty of us I hat first season. Some of them lasted a week, others less than that. At times I got so disgusted dis-gusted with It all that I was on the verge of quitting myself. In fact, if It hadn't been for that memorable game In Niles L feel sure that my umpiring career would have ended with the close of the 1903 season, for I was to have an offer during the full of more money than I had ever seen before In the newspaper game. After being virtually run out of Niles my Intention to quit was all the slronger. I had no idea that anything would come of Jimmy McAIeer's words, "You'll get to the big leagues yet." I merely put it down as his way of saying something nice to a fellow who was having a tough time of it, and I let it go at that. It seemed ridiculous that any one could see in me, a rank busher, a potential big league umpire. But, at the close of the I'JOo season came an offer from President B. B. Johnson of the American league, and I accepted. ((E). 1930. Bell Syndicate.) |