Who Made That Call? Boy Umpire!

Throwing you a bender because I just thought you should know...

Jeter comes up with a runner on first for the Yankees. He rips the first pitch towards the left field corner, right on the line. Crawford races over for the Red Sox, fielding the ball cleanly and firing it into third base attempting to nail the incoming runner. Youkilis takes the throw and applies the tag...in time? No, the umpire signals safe and the Fenway crowd is upset.

Throughout the remainder of the game, they boo every move and call made by the third base umpire. but do they realize why there is a third base umpire AND that they are booing the wrong man?

Billy Evans, boy umpire, is the man to thank for many umpiring innovations. After leaving Cornell Law School in 1904 because of his father's death, Evans returned to Youngstown, Ohio and landed a job as a sports reporter for the newspaper. As has happened a million times in all levels of baseball, Billy was covering a game and asked to fill in for a missing umpire. He did well, enjoyed the pay and was offered a full time position in the Ohio-Pennsylvania League. He also retained his sports reporter job and was quickly referred to the American League. This was an unheard of jump from Class C minor league baseball to the Major Leagues! In addition, he was still only 22 years old.

Based on his education, job experience and never having played professional baseball (rare for an umpire in those days) Billy Evans brought a fresh vantage point to the game and umpiring. During an era in the early 1900's where only two, or even sometimes just one umpire worked a game, he quickly implemented new techniques that became standard practice for umpires to this day.

One such innovation was his habit of running to a base where a play was made so he could call the result more accurately. He was the first to suggest and promote formal training for umpires and that techniques be uniform amongst all league umps.

After a World Series dispute (Evans umpired six World Series) where neither umpire could see where a ball had bounced over a fence to determine if it was a double or home run, Evans developed the idea of having four umpires on the field per game instead of two alternates sitting in the stands.

Despite his being a rare umpire to state that he was not perfect and had missed some calls, Evans "substituted diplomacy for belligerency and proved an arbiter could control a game without threats of physical violence."

He did retain some toughness needed by umpires of that era as well however. When an angry Ty Cobb threatened to "whip him at home plate," Evans invited the Tiger great to the umpires room to fight in private. Players from both teams were reported to have followed them into the room and openly cheered for Evans! Billy was back at work the next day wearing bandages and sprinting to bases to make calls.

Amazingly, Evans also kept his sports writing job the entire time he was umpiring major league games. Imagine an umpire today calling a World Series game, then turning in his story of the contest to the newspaper, all while being 25 years old!

After the 1927 season, Evans retired from umpiring to become the first "general manager" in baseball. He guided the Cleveland Indians from a perennial loser into a first division club. After that stint, he was the head scout for the Red Sox, then even switched sports to become general manager of the Cleveland Rams football team. In moving back to baseball, Evans was named league president of the Southern Association and had that league thriving in attendance during his four year tenure. He finished his executive career as general manager of the Tigers, stepping aside in 1951 to let Tiger legend Charlie Gehringer take over.

He continued to campaign for umpires training, writing numerous articles and two books while being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973.

So because the third base umpire immediately runs down the left field line in order to clearly see the ball land and the home plate umpire sprints to third base in order to cover any resulting action there, the late tag by Youkilis is seen easily. The umpire signals safe, the Fenway faithful erupt in disapproval and very few fans even notice the rotation that has been made while tracking the ball, fielder, and runners. Before the next pitch, the four umps assume their starting positions again, ready to move if necessary, and the fans are left with a perfectly correct call and the wrong umpire to boo! Billy Evans would be proud.

All this because I know more about nothing...