OCR Text |
Show UMPIRE EILL EVANS KNOWS WHY FANS EECOIE WHO Hl "TOW 1 know how It feels to see a de- H - cision go against one's favorite. 1 Now I know why the baseball fan aats B llko a wild man." said Umpire BUI B Evans during ono of the tvorld's scries H games. Hh "i nover understood until now the H sensations endured by tho spectators H at a ball game, I don't bolleve I have B had a headache for ten years until this K series, H "It's funny what a difference thero 1b H between tho views of an umpire and a H spectator. On the ball field I feel no Hj thrills. It is a cold blooded mechanical H affair from that point of view. I have H no preference. It is no trouble belnc H Impartial. In the world'tt series in H which 1 was an umpire I felt no dlffer- eht from the way I felt during any game of tho regular American league season. "But what a difference thero Is to a ball gamo when ono becomes a spectator specta-tor and a fan. It's a vastly changed game then, a thing of beauty, of skill. a garao which thrills and Inspires." Bill was thrilled. He had never looked at an Important contest from the fans' point of view beforo. Ho was one of the wildest fans Ho shouted and howled when Baker's home runs turned the tide of the second and thjrd games. He groaned when tho Giants scored the winning run of the fifth gama and when Murphy's error let the Giants score tho flr3t run of tho final game. , v. , t He watched every action of players and umpires. He passed opinions on the decisions of tho arbitrators like any rabid fan, never falling to express disapproval dis-approval uhen he thought tho decisions against tho Athletics. For the firxt tlmo In hl3 life ho knew the feelings which mako of tho aver-ago aver-ago mild Individual a raving maniac when once the real baseball fovcr hits him. Bill's Ideas have changed vastly. "This has tho umpire's Job beaten a mllo," ho declared after the Athlqtlcs had settled, the championship beyond doubt and he had wiped away the perspiration per-spiration which had gathered during the early exciting periods of that decisive de-cisive contest. ,' ' j |