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Baseball “Babes,” Part Six:

Ballplayer-Turned-Umpire, Babe Pinelli!

“Kill the SOB, Carl! Kill ’em!”- Umpire Babe Pinelli yelling to Dodger Carl Furillo, who had Giants’ manager Leo Durocher in a chokehold during an on-field melee  

In the sixth, and probably the last, installment of “Baseball Babes,” I’d like to feature ballplayer-turned-umpire Babe Pinelli. The 5’9″ 165-pound third baseman played eight seasons in the majors (1918-1927) for the White Sox, Tigers, and Reds. Over his career, he hit .276, with five homers and 298 RBIs. Probably his most notable achievement was leading the league in games played (156) in 1922.

I’ve got a couple interesting stories to share about Pinelli in this post, so I hope you’ll read to the end. One of them, involving Dodger Carl Furillo and Giants’ manager Leo Durocher (from which the above quote was taken) remains one of my favorite scenes in baseball history.

Of course, after a rather lackluster playing career, Pinelli really left his mark on the game as a highly regarded National League umpire from 1935 to 1956. Highlights include officiating in six World Series, four All-Star games, and the three-game National League playoff series in 1946.

His most memorable moment as an umpire came in the historic 1956 World Series in which he was behind the plate for Game Five, the Don Larsen Perfect Game. To this day, it’s the only Perfect Game ever recorded in the Fall Classic, even if his last call: “Strike three! You’re out!” to pinch-hitter Dale Mitchell

remains somewhat questionable. Most people think this was Pinelli’s last game, but that’s not entirely accurate—it was his last game as a home plate umpire. He was in the outfield for the last two games of the series.

Interesting Babe Pinelli Stories

• In 1935, Pinelli’s first year as an arbiter and Babe Ruth’s last as a player, he was supposedly told not to call a strike on the Bambino. Pinelli didn’t see it that way. On a close pitch in which Ruth didn’t swing, Pinelli thought it was a strike and called it so. According to the story, Ruth turned to him as said: “There’s forty thousand people in this park that know that was a ball, tomato-head!” Not one easily intimidated, even by the game’s biggest star, Pinelli kept his composure and calmly replied: “Perhaps—but mine is the only opinion that counts.”
• Gil Hodges once told the story of how when he and some fellow Dodgers were dressing for a game, they were debating which umpire was least likely to toss a player from a game. PeeWee Reese voted for Babe Pinelli. And—you guessed it!—Pee Wee was tossed that day…by Pinelli!

My Favorite Babe Pinelli Story: His Role in the Carl Furillo vs. Leo Durocher Brawl!

In a game between the pennant-bound Dodgers and the Giants, played on September 6, 1953, Preacher Roe was on the mound for the Dodgers, seeking his tenth straight win. They were looking for a sweep of the three-game series and their 10th straight win over the Giants. So there was already tension in the air. At the time, Carl Furillo was the National League’s leading hitter with a .344

average. In the second inning, Giant pitcher Ruben Gomez hit Furillo on the wrist. Furillo had to be restrained by umpire Dusty Boggess from charging Gomez on the mound as the benches cleared. After order was restored, the hot-headed Furillo carried his resentment with him as he took first base. Needless to say, he blamed it all on his nemesis, Durocher.

The still-fuming Furillo started taunting Durocher from first base, yelling and pointing at Leo as he sat in the Giants’ dugout. Never one to back down from a challenge, and egged on by coach Herman Franks (“He’s pointing at you Leo! Are you going to just sit

there?”), Durocher took the bait and hollered back. Suddenly Carl sprinted toward the dugout, making a beeline right for Durocher. Leo leaped out of his seat and the two met head-on. All the players jumped in as the benches and bullpens cleared for a second time. Punches were thrown, but apparently, none landed. Monte Irvin of the Giants and Gil Hodges of the Dodgers acted as peacemakers and attempted to separate the two brawlers.

Kill that SOB, Carl! Kill Him!

Author Lawrence Baldassaro, in his book Beyond DiMaggio did a great job in describing the incident:

Other accounts have Furillo clamping Durocher in a headlock as they grappled on the ground while others tried to separate them. One observer who did not try to break up the fight, according to Duke Snider, was umpire Babe Pinelli, who reportedly yelled, ‘Kill him, Carl, kill him! [Italics added]. Fifty-three years later Dodger pitcher Carl Erskine confirmed Snider’s assertion: ‘Furillo had Leo on the ground and was choking him. I was on the perimeter as was Babe Pinelli. He was exclaiming “Kill that SOB, kill him.” He then saw that I had heard him, so he went on, “I mean it. That no good low life. I mean it.”

Just try to imagine the scene: The powerful Carl Furillo has the diminutive 5’7” Durocher in a choke-hold headlock and wrestles him to the ground, trying unsuccessfully to land a few punches. Then, to add insult to injury, umpire Babe Pinelli, who had been putting up with Durocher’s umpire-baiting antics for over 19 years, instead of trying to break up the fight, is actually egging Furillo on!

Both Furillo and Durocher were ejected from the game.  After the game, both participants gave their accounts of the brawl. “That guy had it coming for a long time,” said Furillo, “and he’s going to get it, too. I’d have given a thousand dollars to have hit his ugly mug just once, and I’m going to do it, too. I’m sorry I really never landed a punch.”

Upon hearing these words, Durocher, never at a loss for words, and with his uncanny ability to make a bad situation worse, fired back: “I don’t know what got into him. Nobody was throwing at him and nobody told anyone to throw at him. I’ve got news for Furillo. If he doesn’t hurt me any more than he did this time, I’m not worried. Besides, it’s no disgrace to lose a fight. And for an old guy of 50, I might be able to land a few punches myself before he cuts loose.”

Haha! I love that story. 

It’s not often that we turn our baseball spotlight on an umpire, but I’m glad to do it today, as we salute baseball lifer, Babe Pinelli, who passed away on October 22, 1984, aged 89 in Daly City, California. He was posthumously elected to the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in 2000.

Ed. note: I hope you enjoyed my series on “Baseball Babes.” If you missed some, go back and check out the recent essays on Babe Ruth, Babe Dahlgren, Babe Herman, Babe Adams, Babe Phelps, to go along with today’s essay on Babe Pinelli. -GL

Gary Livacari 

Information: Quotes edited from Lawrence Baldassero’s book, Beyond DiMaggio https://amzn.to/2URNR6y;  and from the Babe Pinelli Wikipedia page.