Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 165, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1917 — FANS NOW CONCEDE ‘UMPS’ RIGHT TO LIVE, SAYS BYRON [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FANS NOW CONCEDE ‘UMPS’ RIGHT TO LIVE, SAYS BYRON

Baseball Is Getting Better and So Is the Public, in the Opinion of Big League Arbiter. It is seldom that anyone listens to an umpire except the ball players, and they only listen because they have to. Umpire Bill Byron recently said something concerning baseball which shows that umpires are human and can see more good than bad in the game and in the fans. “Baseball is getting better, and so is the public,” he said. “The fans are by no means so unreasonable now as they used to be when I started brushing off the home-plate. In fact, there would be comparatively little trouble In the big league towns If the players were not all the time trying to alibi themselves for poor work by blaming

the umpire. Until a fan sees a player kick on a decision, he usually is satisfied to take the umpire’s verdict without question, but, of course, when one of the home pets makes a roar, that’s something else. “Gradually the fellow who pays to see baseball Is beginning to realize that the umpire cares nothing for the result of the game or a pennant race, and is out there to call them as he sees them. “We all make mistakes, of course, but we aren’t out to rob anybody, you can bet on that. All we ask is that the ball players lay off trying to pass the buck to us every time they strike out or make a bad play, and we will trust to the fans at least to respdct our rights to live.”

Umpire "Bill" Byron.