Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 159, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1916 — ONCE HANK O’DAY WAS RIGHT [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ONCE HANK O’DAY WAS RIGHT

Advocated Rule Preventing Catcher From Squatting Between Plato and Base Runner. Hank O’Day has been in wrong several times in his long career. But once he was right. That was when he advocated, recently, a condition which would prevent the baseball backstop from squatting between the

runner and the plate, while the ball speeds toward him, making it imposBible for the player to reach the coveted scoring pan, writes Ed Wray in St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The general public has rather exalted the catcher who pulls such stunts, on the theory that any player showing such devotion to his team that he is willing to incur injury, if k® can halt the enemy, deserves a reward. On the same theory, the boy that robs a bank to help a starving brother ought to be exalted. In the instance of the backstop not new rule is really necessary, if offl-l cials would enforce the existence of regulations against interference. For interfering is precisely what Mr. DeadGame backstop is doing, when he in: terposes his body, without the ball in his possession, ready for a bonaflde attempt to tag an opponent. The rules should entitle the runner to a chance to touch the plate dr the base; any condition which prevents this Is illegal.

Umpire Hank O’Day.