Clipping:Umpire wages too low; a call for a salaried umpire corps; crowd control
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| Date | Sunday, August 13, 1882 |
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| Text | it can...be hardly expected that a good umpire can be secured for $5 a game. Many of those who have been called upon to officiate in that position this season are broken-down players, with anything but a savory reputation, and whose integrity is regarded with considerable doubt, and competent, gentlemanly umpires suffer from association with such men. Ten dollars or $15 is not too much to pay an umpire. The sum now paid by the league is ridiculously small, and can call into service, with such rare exceptions as McLean, Doscher and men of that class, only men of small caliber. Now that there is an unusually large interest in base ball in the country, and probably will be next season, and the game has been brought to an honest, scientific basis, the next step to be taken to to make a complete change in the present league umpire system. It would be a good plan for the league to engage a number of umpires at a stated salary for the season. Boston Herald August 13, 1882 [from a letter to the editor by “Umpire”] Surely the fee paid an umpire will not correct [the problem], no matter how large that fee may be. There are competent men who will not bear the fault-findings, the jeers, insults and chaffings of a crowd for any amount of money7, but who will umpire, with pleasure, too, if this everlasting jibing of an audience can be stopped. Now, if the league managers wish to correct the “umpire evil,” they can nearly do it; not wholly, for the best men will sometimes err in judgment. How? Make rules that will assure competent men that their decisions will be respected. Make rules that will expel any spectator from the grounds who insults an umpire. Who thinks of insulting a performer in the theatre or in the circus? Why not insist that players and umpires shall not be ins8ulted on the ball field? It can be done, for 99 out of every 100 who patronize the ball field will aid the league officers in such efforts. Let the applause be hearty, but let the disapproval of wrong decisions and plays be free from insult, and the interest of the game will be promoted. Boston Herald August 17, 1882 |
| Source | Boston Herald |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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