...Nathan radically rejiggered the DNA of stage reviewing; he is the pit bull of homegrown theater reviewers, an erudite firebrand whose take-no-prisoners approach to stagecraft and the craft of criticism demolished the genteel reviewing style of 19th century performance-fixated scribes like William Winter and J. Ranken Towse. Now that critical gentility — rejuvenated by economic boosterism — has reasserted itself it’s not surprising that Nathan isn’t receiving credit for his resolute deviltry.
    Theater Commentary: George Jean Nathan: The Divine Devil of American Theater Criticism (Bill Marx, May 29, 2008, ArtsFuse)

According to bleacher law, there are three particularly justifiable motives for doing away with umpires. An umpire may be killed, first, if he sees fit to adhere to the rules and make a decision against the home team at a close point in the game. Secondly, an umpire may be killed if he sends a member of the home team to the bench when the player in question has done absolutely nothing but call the umpire names and attempt to bite his ear off—an umpire has no business to be touchy. Thirdly (and this is a perfect defence against the charge of murder), an umpire may be killed if he calls any batter on the home team out on strikes when the player has not even struck at the balls pitched. That the balls go straight over the plate has nothing to do with the case.

It was estimated by a well-known baseball writer at the conclusion of last season that, judging solely from the newspaper records, three hundred and fifty-five umpires in the United States had been molested physically during the period stipulated. That is, three hundred and fifty-five of only the more spectacular instances had found their way into the prints. That the number of actual attempts to do physical injury to umpires was many times in excess of that chronicled cannot be doubted for a moment when it is remembered that there are, in this country, tens of thousands of professional and amateur teams which play a total of hundreds of thousands of games each season. And each game lasts at least nine innings. What a magnificent field of opportunity!