Tim Ellsworth

Joe Cantillon served as manager of the Washington Senators from 1907-1909, where he had the privilege to manage the great Walter Johnson for three years. But Cantillon excelled more as an umpire than as a manager, and the following is a story about one episode from Cantillon’s umpiring days:

Normally it took the most drastic kind of provocation for Cantillon to toss a player out of a game; he preferred putting them in their place with devastating repartee and other methods.

Clark Griffith told about the time Cantillon achieved this by relaxing the balk rule: A batter (John McGraw, according to one version of the story), after complaining nonstop about Cantillon’s decisions, singled. As the only umpire in the game, Cantillon moved behind the pitcher — Griffith — as the runner continued bombarding him with curses and epithets from first base.

Suddenly Griffith was surprised to hear a voice whisper in his ear, “Go ahead, Griff, pick him off.” Drawing the runner off base with a motion toward the plate, he quickly wheeled and rifled the ball to the first baseman instead. The baffled runner was quickly trapped and tagged and Cantillon waved him out, the indignant player screaming all the while “Balk! Balk! Everybody saw Griffith make a balk!” to no avail.

– From “Walter Johnson: Baseball’s Big Train,” by Henry W. Thomas