Clipping:Editorial in favor of the two umpire system
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| Date | Wednesday, June 13, 1888 |
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| Text | [editorial column] The umpire problem is yet unsolved. In the National League there has been one continuous chorus of complaints ever since the season opened, every minor league has had more or less trouble, and even the American Association's notable experiment with an irremovable high-salaried staff, composed of the very pick of skilled, experienced umpires, has not been an unqualified success, and at least three of the staff have had from the start more or less trouble with kicking players, indignant manages and dissatisfied audiences. Even Gaffney's systems, which is being pretty generally tried, although a decided improvement over old methods, has not bee uniformly successful chiefly through physical reasons, not every umpire being possessed of Mr. Gaffney's agility, allied with quick perception. It therefore becomes daily more evident that the double-umpire system is the system which commends itself as the most practicable ye devised and the nearest to perfection that can be perceived, and it is only a question of time... The chief and, indeed, the only objection to the system is the question of increased expense, and that cannot be allowed to weigh. Unsatisfactory umpiring is dear at any price when considered in its bearing upon the public temper and the proper conduct of the game upon the field, and in view of the disreputable scenes and incidents of past season—likely to be repeated despite all checks this year—entailed by poor umpiring, a system which can almost completely ameliorate one of the greatest drawbacks to a proper public enjoyment of the sport is cheap, no matter what the cost. From every quarter the cry for the double system goes up, and it must inevitably supersede the old methods. The Association, owing to the conditions under which the present staff was organized cannot well make any change this season, but there is no bar to action by the National League. It now has an opportunity to offset the progressiveness of the younger body, with its scheduled high-salaried start umpire staff, with a still greater advance upward and onward by the adoption of the popular and proper double-umpire system. If the League fails to profit by the present opportunity the Association will next season surely show the way again by adopting the double system thus forcing the League to follow where it should lead. |
| Source | Sporting Life |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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<comments voting="Plus" />