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From the Lighter Side!
There’s No Crying—Or Sleeping!—In Baseball!
Don’t believe me? You could have asked Hall-of-Famer Edd Rousch! (if he was still around).
A recent article in Baseball Digest had some interesting information about baseball ejections. For instance, it mentioned that Earl Weaver was once tossed from a game during the playing of the National Anthem! I know that’s hard to believe but the irascible Orioles’ manager was still burned up by a call at first base the night before made by umpire Dale Ford. So the next night, while at home plate during the anthem, he unwisely decided to continue the “discussion” by further unloading on Ford with this gem: “What are you going to (bleep) up tonight, Ford?”
Needless to say, Ford was not amused, and replied, “Whatever it is, you’re not going to be watching because as soon as the last note is done, you’re gone.”
Haha! That’s a good one!
But my favorite incident from the article occurred back on June 8, 1920, one hundred four years ago today, in front of 12,000 fans in a game played at the Polo Grounds between the Reds and the Giants. Here’s the scene:
Giants’ left fielder George Burns hit a shot down the left-field line and legged out a double. Apparently, there was some dispute about whether it was fair or foul, and home plate umpire Barry McCormack called it fair. That brought Reds’ manager Pat Moran out of the dugout to protest the call. During the extended argument, Reds’ centerfielder Edd Roush [see above in featured photo] decided to “put his glove on the ground and take a nap.”
Sure enough, according to the article, he fell fast asleep; and teammate Heine Groh’s attempt to “rouse Rousch” failed. When the game resumed, umpire McCormack got tired of waiting for the slumbering future Hall of Famer to return to his position, and so ejected him for “delay of game.” Greasy Neale, who would later go on to fame in the NFL, replaced Rousch in center. The Giants went on to win the game, 5-4.
This whole thing sounded a little fishy to me, so I decided to check out the box score on Retrosheet. There I found a few more details. The incident occurred in the bottom of the eighth, and on the same play, Reds’ catcher Ivy Wingo was also ejected by McCormack. This is how the Rousch incident was described in the box score: ”Rousch lay down to protest the fair call and was ejected by McCormack for delay of game.”
So was Rousch actually “laying down” on the job (so to speak)? Or was he just protesting the call in a rather unusual way? That’s a bit of a different take than actually falling asleep on the field. I guess we’ll never really know for sure, but I sort of like the version described above.
And so, thanks to Edd Rousch, Barry McCormack, and Heine Groh, we can safely conclude that there’s “No crying—or sleeping!—in baseball!” Also in the game that day were future Hall of Famers Ross Youngs, Dave Bancroft, and George “Highpockets” Kelly.
If you can think of any more unusual ejections, please send them my way. I think we can have a lot of fun with this!
Gary Livacari
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1. I have never seen a picture of Edd Rousch, whether on a baseball card or not, where he was smiling. Just a dour man, I suppose.
2. I loved — and hated — the Weaver anecdote. His strategic and tactical acumen brought as much as an extra four wins per season to the team. His colorful personality delighted us Orioles fans.
But Weaver’s obvious and public dislike for certain umpires cost games, as well, though I couldn’t say how many. His tirades showed them up in front of everyone in the ballpark. So the umpires, as human and fallible as the rest of us, sometimes retaliated against him. I attended two games, three years apart, where an umpire’s call was obviously wrong against Weaver and the Orioles.
In one game at Baltimore, with Ron Luciano umpiring 1B, the Rangers had a runner on 1B with either no outs or one out. The batter hit an ordinary bouncer to 1B. Tony Muser, playing there, caught the ball, straddled 1B, and dragged his back foot across it while throwing crisply to 2B, where the SS tagged out the runner. The batter was out by 30 or 40 feet. But the instant that the ball left Muser’s hand, Luciano began forcefully jabbing toward 1B. He said Muser hadn’t touched 1B while having the ball, and so the batter was safe. The Rangers went on to score six runs that inning, and won, 10-6. I was sitting in the upper deck directly above 1B, my favored location, and so saw the play clearly.
In another game at Texas, The Rangers scored the winning run with the bases loaded when Orioles SS Tim Nordbrook fielded a grounder and threw home, where the umpire called the runner safe. In reality, he was out by four feet. I was sitting near HP and had a good view of the play.
So Weaver gave games to the Orioles, but also took them away.
Thanks David…that’s some good personal insight there!Like Edd Rousch, another guy you’ll never see smiling is Charlie Gehringer. As a matter of fact, they sort of look alike!