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Show Seeing .Big Leacf&se Baseball Z By BILLY EVANS PT w v Sportswriter, Big League Umpire and General Manager of the Cleveland Indian! " " Altogether I have worked in six world series during my big league career. ca-reer. My next after 1909 was the famous fa-mous series of 1912 between the New York Giants and the Boston Red Sox, and marked by a muff of a fly by Snod-grass, Snod-grass, New York outfielder, that just about cost the Giants the series. I umpired the series of 1915 between be-tween the Boston Red Sox and Phil- tJ Babe Ruth. adelphia Nationals; the 1917 games between the Chicago White Sox and the Giants;, the famous "scandal series" se-ries" of 1919, between Cincinnati and the White Sox, and the 1923 meeting of the New York Y'ankees and Giants. In passing, I might say that if ever a man was fooled In that 1919 series it was L Of course, I thought Chi- 1 cago the better club. But never for a moment, during all those games, did I entertain the slightest suspicion that any of the White Sox players had been "fixed." That series was one of the most unfortunate things that ever happened hap-pened in baseball. In addition to wrecking one ball club, It put a bad taste in the mouths of baseball fans the country over. It gave rise to all sorts of skepticism. Fans said, "Aw, you can't tell me baseball's on the level. They have It all fixed at the beginning of the season sea-son who's going to win the pennant. Just look at that 1919 world series." This sort of thing was hard to counteract. count-eract. Today I am sure baseball is more firmly established than ever in the confidence of the country's fans. The scandal happened in 1919 and along came Babe Ruth In 1920 to make the fans forget scandal and revel in his feats of slugging. Undoubtedly Ruth was the one greatest factor in helping to erase the stigma under which baseball was temporarily placed by tVie unpleasant series of 1919. The ever suspicious always Insist that sport events are promoted for the money rather than the thrills produced by the spectacle. Every time a world series goes six or seven games before a decision is reached, they are quick to point the finger of scorn. They are dormant when it requires only four games to reach a decision, as, in 1927 and 1928 as well as the five-game series se-ries in 1929. Really, only the players profited in those series, the club owners own-ers being forced to turn back 'a half million dollars in each instance, because be-cause of the abbreviated series. But the 1919 world series was a real black eye. Think of the Chicago fans alone ! Their great ball club ruined, their faith in the men, who were idols in their eyes, shaken to the very foundation. I offer no defense, de-fense, I wish to say no word in mitigation miti-gation of the offense committed by those players, but I do wish to remind you that they were approached and bribed by men who had nothing to do with baseball professional gamblers and "fixers." Skeptics, who say that the pennant races are "fixed" each year, of course, don't know what they're talking about. And proof that public confidence in baseball gains each year instead of decreases is found in the constantly Increasing attendance. Look at the world series of 1923, when all records of crowds and "gate" were broken. This series would be incomplete without an account of Cleveland's first Sunday baseball game. That was the game that ended In the worst riot I ever figured in. Alongside it the memorable mem-orable riot at Nlles, Ohio, in which I was literally chased into the big leagues, was a quiet Sunday school picnic. Fists flew that day In Cleveland, Cleve-land, and they flew thick and fast. I was hit and I hit back. There were a hundred or so different fights. Police reserves had to be rushed out. In other oth-er words, as they say In the country correspondeuce columns, a good time was had by all. g). 1331. Doll Syndicate.) WNU Service. |