Deep Dive into Umpire Ejections & Attacks

Jomboy is looking back on some baseball history for Jimmy's Three Things this week

0:00 Intro
01:25:56 How to annoy an umpire
11:13:15 Ump quits after protested call
20:14:37 umpire attacks

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to Jimmy's Three Things. Thank you very
much for joining today. I went down a historical rabbit
hole the other day about this article about how to
treat umpires, and then that led to some crazy stories
of umpires in the past, umpire quitting because they said
he was gambling, umpire getting jumped by people, umpires jumping people,

(00:23):
and just kind of the decorum of how to be
an umpire. So it's a little bit different of an episode.
If you've tuned in before, you know this. If you're
found us last week and now you're just tuning in.
It's kind of a stream of consciousness show where I
have some half baked research and then I sit down
and we finished the research together, and then you guys

(00:44):
fix all my mistakes and bumblings in the comments, and
it's a nice community effort to find what we're looking for.
This one's a bit different because it's not current baseball stuff.
But I do like history. I like reading old baseball
digests and finding articles, and then from there I have
to google every player in every instance that they're talking about.
So that's what we're doing. If this is of interest

(01:05):
to you, I can do these you know, once a
month or something like that, and then do topical the
rest of the time. You guys, let me know. I
appreciate the comments and the feedback, and I appreciate Dan
Patrick's show. This is a show on their network. If
you're looking for the audio only feed, the podcast feed.
We did migrate it to its own show because we
are part of the Dan Patrick Network. Here Jimmy's three things. Okay,

(01:26):
so let's get into it. First topic is just this
article how to Annoy an Umpire by Stanley Frank from
nineteen forty six, originally posted in Colliers, and then they
took it and they repurposed it in Baseball Digest. I'm
not going to do the whole thing, obviously. I kind
of went through it and found the stuff I thought
was interesting, like this part that gives the technique of

(01:47):
how to annoy an umpire without getting ejected. That's what
they're talking about here. And he says the technique of
telling an umpire to take a flying jump for himself
is as delicate as court protocol and as well defined
as the no smoking ordinances in public carriers. Briefly and broadly,

(02:07):
in beefing to an umpire, the player or a manager
must not use profane language that can be heard by
the spectators. It's a gentleman sport. Don't let the crowd
hear us talking with such speak. Two. Incite the crowd
with inflammatory gestures. That's still true. You don't want you

(02:27):
don't want to show up the yump you know. Three
make the umpire appear ridiculous. I don't really know what
that means. It seems like that's the same thing as two.
Four question out loud the umpire's integrity or impartiality. Yeah,
I think if you say you're biased or you know
you're biased choosing one side over the other, you're not

(02:50):
being partial. You're gonna get run. Any crack tending to
undermine the authority of an umpire is caused for instant banishment.
The rule of thumb applies when no one but the
umpire here's it. Okay, So there you go. That's that.
There's a little story here about doing a sale of

(03:12):
a dog. I don't know if I should tell us.
Huey Kritz two hundred hitter stepped up to the plate.
He says, tell me you've got some mighty fine. They
tell me you've got some mighty fine bird dogs. That's
what he said to the ump because the ump breeded
bird dogs. How much you asking the pitcher wound up
one hundred and fifty dollars ball one. That's a power.

(03:36):
I'm not gonna do this. They are negotiating a dog
sail during it, and afterwards the catcher's like, well, fuck
yo me now, and they're like, that's fine. Now this
catcher gets to complain. There's some fun stories Frankie Fresh
and du Rotia, and if for some visuals, here's our guy,
Pirates manager Frankie Fresh in the dugout, just look and

(04:00):
joyous as ever, making people laugh. I think he's got
a player up here, smiling, laughing. And I really appreciated
this man right here because that is living the hat,
the jacket off, the vest that looks like the scene
and seabiscuit that I like. Uh and then uh okay.

(04:22):
I tried to find some Frankie Fresh umpire shots and
I just got more of the same of him kind
of like smiling making the crowd laugh. They're all getting
a kick out of this. In the background, oh boy,
double hands the mouth over here. So he seemed like
a jovial manager. That got under your skin, and then
you got lee Leo Durosia, the Dodgers manager, lots of

(04:44):
pictures from us in baseball forever. And if you type
Leo Durosia umpire, just so you can see this, I
mean you got you got pictures of him fighting with
every ump around. You got fighting with that, fighting with that.
It's a lot screaming. So these were the most notorious

(05:05):
umpire braiders. And he said they were great at it.
And he says here that you can putting the blast
on the umpires with fluency and forcefulness without getting their
necks and slings. So you can say something like quote,
I'll be a lousy no good this and that. If

(05:26):
that ball was over the plate, that's fine. The dispute
technically is not insulting the umpire. He is cussing himself,
although even a Cretan who has let a sheltered life
knows he means nobody but the man in blue. But
the sportsman who yelps, you're a dirty name. If the

(05:46):
ball was a strike, You're a dirty name. If that
ball was a strike, promptly winds up talking to himself
in the solitude of the clubhouse. He has made the
grievous mistake of being too explicit. The art of indirection
is as useful in baseball as it is in diplomatic
double talk. Mustn't say the nasty word if it can

(06:09):
be construed to the second person singular, some of whom
are very singular. Indeed, that's the most true words ever
spoken from nineteen forty six until twenty twenty four. If
you say the word you, you know, second person singular,
then you're gonna get ejected. You stink, you miss that.

(06:32):
They don't like that. They don't like that. Umpires don't
like being lit singled out some other fun stuff. I
hear Frish once walked on the field with an open
umbrella to signal a picture from the bullpen when he
thought a game that he was losing, of course, should
have been called on account of rain. Sounds like Frankie
Frish was a fans manager. He was getting people smiley,

(06:57):
they were laughing. He had a lot of fun. Uh,
this was a weird one, just because I did the
breakdown of Boon getting ejected after the fourth pitch or
fifth pitch technically yesterday. Mike Kreevich, at the time leadoff
hitter for the White Sox was thrown out of a
game by Bill McGowan in the first two minutes. Dikes
charged the plate and demanded to know why this man

(07:18):
was bounced for using bad language offensive to a gentleman.
McGowan replied. Dikes walked away, slowly, wondering out loud, what
for goodness sakes was becoming of the game. McGowan turned
suddenly and yelled that Dike's too, was invited to an
early bath. What four Dike's demanded for intimidation, McGowan said, resolutely, intimidation.

(07:42):
You don't even know what it means. It seems to
be using it wrong to me too, and the umpire
smiled in superior fashion. I do so it means delaying
the game. That's you out for intimidation. That sounds a
lot like some of the arguments today. Umpire's just excited
about about it all. And then obviously there's some managers

(08:03):
who just are like that as well. They tell a
story here. There was always trouble when Frish and Deroshia,
another intrinsican intransigent character, are in the same park. Last year,
thirty eight players were rejected from National League games and
thirty two were Pirates and Dodgers. That's crazy. So I

(08:23):
mean those two managers really were running one of people
people were ragging. Tell a story here about how they
were playing a springs training game in Cuba and there
was the ball boy named Pimento who was doing the
translation when they were doing the exchanging of lineups, and
DeRosier and the umpire who they didn't speak the same language,
got into a fight and Pimento the ball boy, had

(08:45):
to translate. That sounds like theater to me, but apparently
it was real spring training game didn't even matter. And
then this one another player that I hadn't really heard of.
His name as Johnny Evers, says, no ballplayer in recent
years has approached the hysteria of Johnny Evers, the old
Cub second baseman who drove everyone crazy with his perpetual griping.

(09:09):
More than once chance. His manager actually choked him on
the field to make him pipe down. Let's take a
look at Johnny Skinny Skinny dude credited with this quote
where he said, my favorite umpire is a dead one.
I don't know if that's a real quote, but wild

(09:33):
that that's what comes up when you google his name,
not like his baseball acumen or his skills, just that
he was real skinny, real skinny. Open image of new tab.
Look at this, Look at that bat. Look how thick
that bat is, and look how big his ears are.
And that glove what a weird sport. Look at that

(09:56):
bat that'd be so heavy it literally looks like the
piece of lumber. Which there's they were this guy good.
Johnny Ever's baseball reference. Tell me he's a Hall of Famer,
And I got people mad at me right now. You
don't know hall of famer, hall of famer, three times
World champ, So maybe I do have people Evers my
bad nickname crab or Trojan Johnny Evers, that's my bad.

(10:19):
So I pissed people off two ways there. How do
you not know about Johnny Evers? You're saying his name wrong,
doing a show about baseball history, and you're such a
pace shit. Whoa guys? MVP in nineteen fourteen, where he
had a seven twenty eight ops one thirteen OPS plus
two seventy nine batting average three ninety on base good
for him. Never led the league in any category besides

(10:42):
MVP votes that one year. Good stuff, Johnny Evers. Sorry
to know your name. Apparently he was a dickhead though tumpires.
The owner of the Cubs, Charlie Murphy, at the peak
of their power, offered Evers a new suit if he
went two weeks without getting the heat from an umpire.
He never even came close. That's kind of crazy. I mean,

(11:05):
there's a lot of weeks in the baseball season. Gonna
go two weeks without getting ejected. Sounds like he sounds
like a temper, sounds like it was a problem, all right.
Story number two that I got from this article topic
number two. Umpire's name is Bill Clem. Looks like this,
which is funny, picture of a guy kind of bug eyed.

(11:28):
And then we got this, which is hilarious. Looks like
the old man from Pleasantville in the TV guy who
talks like that. But his name is Bill Clem, and
apparently one of the best umpires who ever lived. Says here,
the best umpire who ever lived. He resigned. He resigned

(11:49):
due to John J. McGaw McCaw, who was just rude
in this game. So this article said that late in
the season, the Giants lost the game to the Cubs
on a decision by Clem at home, which went against them.
When the Cardinals nosed out the Giants for the pennant,
McGraw needled Charlie Stoneham, his owner, into preferring charges against

(12:13):
Clem on the grounds that he bet on horses. So
they were like, this, dude bet on horses. He probably
bet on the game. He ruined our season. Let's get
let's charge him. And then so the manager was like
fucking pissed, and the owner was about to do it,
but then Landis commissioner was like, shut up, guys, just

(12:38):
shut up. So that kind of got my interest. I
was like, wait, Pau, I'm gonna stop reading this article.
I'm going to go down a rabbit hole and find
this out. I went to the nineteen twenty eight game
logs for the New York Giants and I found a
game against the Cubs at the end of the season,
and then I found this where it's got the end
h and that means they protested this game. So then

(12:58):
Thursday September twenty seventh box score they lost and they
protested it. So I went to the archives, and you
can find articles on it. But I went to the
archives and I wanted to see what they were saying
at that time. So I found the New York Times
newspaper from September twenty eighth, nineteen twenty eight, and so

(13:19):
this is the day after, fresh in everyone's brain, and
let me see how much I can zoom in. It
seems like that's it. Giants protest bitterly. Umpire Clem refused
to honor the claim of interference, and the Giants protested
bitterly that Heartnet, not having the ball, should have stepped
aside and given Reese the right of way. They just

(13:41):
updated this rule in the game today kind of. So
what happened here is the Giants yielded valuable ground. Yesterday nationally,
they lost the doubleheader. The Giants have officially protested the
first game on the ground that umpire Bill Clem should
have ruled interference on the part of Gabby Hartnett. In
a down between third and home and the sixth inning

(14:02):
men were on second and third, there was one out.
The ball was hit right back to the pitcher. He
threw it to third base and they got Reese. The
runner in a rundown. So Reese is running him home
and he's about to throw to the catcher. He's pump faking, maybe,
and the catcher is standing straddling the line up above
waiting for the throw from Reese in the rundown and

(14:24):
never gets the ball thrown to him. The runner Reese
has to try and go around the catcher who's standing
in the way, slips and falls and then is tagged
out and the umpire says you're out, and they're like, hey,
I think he actually ran into the catcher because they
said there's a They said there was a photo of
the catcher holding the runner, and then they never pro

(14:45):
they never overturned it. So that play and then the
gambling allegations made the best umpire that ever lived, Bill
clem Retire, which is messed up this play. I was like,
this has happened before. This is the exact play in
modern times. If you needed a visual, this is Milwaukee
Brewers Pittsburgh Pirates. Oh, it's just a snap throat to

(15:09):
first because the runner thought was going and then everyone moves. Okay,
So now they have the runner in a rundown. So
this is the same situation and the catcher is waiting
for the ball and it's never it's not getting thrown,
and now the runner has to run around him, which
slows him down and the umpire Joe West says obstruction.
That's a run, and the Diaz the Catcher's like what,

(15:30):
so this happens. So that's the same thing that happened
in nineteen forty six or whatever it was. Yeah, we're
watching history right now. This is just a recreation of history,
although it didn't go the runner's way giant's way back then,
and uh, the runner was out and different. He fell
down because he ran into the catcher, so even more egregious.

(15:52):
So that that story interested me, and I felt bad
for Clem for having to retire, because I mean, look
at him. Hope, that's day much Johnny Evers, look at
them big guys. Silly guy, Hey, is that the same guy?
Younger here? Older here? Such a good picture? Who took
that picture? A great picture? It's like an umpire picture.
So old protest giants who played in that game. Let's

(16:17):
go find the box score and see how many fun
names there are. Gotta be a lot, alright, first names
in this box score between the Giants and the Cubs
in September of nineteen forty six, correct, I have that right.
Twenty eight Jimmy be smarter. The articles from forty six, Woody, Freddy, Kiky, Hack, Rigs, Charlie, Gabby, Clyde,

(16:40):
and Art. Some good names Charlie grim Woody, English, Hack Wilson.
On the New York Giants, you had first names only Jimmy, Andy, Les, Freddy, Shanty, Travis, Bill, Andy, Carl.
Those are pretty common. Those are pretty common. Pitching for
both teams, Art Nef, Carl Hubbell and Jack Scott Umpire

(17:01):
home plate, Bill Clem. Time of game one hour and
forty two minutes. Attendance not given, field condition unknown, start time,
weather unknown, no pickoffs. One hit by pitch, Art hit Shanty.
So that I was a rabbit hole. I went down that.
Now you guys have gone down with me. Okay, Now

(17:23):
this next rabbit hole, if we go back to the
original article, is more fun. But actually I have an aside,
a quick aside before we go to topic three. Uh.
In this little aside in Baseball Digest, they say before
the first game of the nineteen fifty one World Series,
photographers had the opposing managers Leo Durocher and am I

(17:47):
saying de rosia? Is it Drosia like you're from the
East coast? Or was it Durocher to me derocher sounds
real weird, and I keep saying it like that because
it's phonetically correct. Durosia sounds way more better. But is
that an accent thing or reading thing? How much? How
many people am be getting mad here? Of the Giants
and Casey Stengahal just joking, Casey Stangle of the Yankees.

(18:08):
They went through all kinds of gymnastics for these photographers.
Finally they had them hugging each other. Now, roared a
chunky operator holding a very big camera. I want you
to kiss him, Leo, kiss him, kiss him, I tell
you what. So the photographers are trying to get the
two managers of the World series to kiss for photo shoot.

(18:32):
That's out, Leo cried, Leo, that's out. It's that a bounce.
We're not doing that. Okay, then you kiss them, Casey? Okay, Casey,
you kissed Leo? Leo's not gonna kiss you. What's happening here?
The photographer roared, and then he said, we gotta get
something different, We gotta get some different. So the photographers

(18:53):
are like, you're doing the same thing over and over again.
Watch you guys kiss? What's this about? Stangele said? The
commissioner after us you come here, you come up here
and kiss the mug. I'll take your picture. So that
was the weirdest paragraph I read in a while. And
then I went to Getty Images. Do I have this anywhere?
I went to Getty Images because I was like, do

(19:16):
they have that? If they were taking photos, we should
have it. I found this one, which is the scene
they're hugging. Here. It says manager's Casey Stango and Leo
Duosha shown hugging before first game. Cameramon shown in background.
So everyone's laughing and it looks like this is they
were hugging and then they're being told to kiss and

(19:38):
everyone's laughing. What that's out? That's out. We're not kissing. Weird.
Looks like they got closer to kissing after the World
Series in this photo. Yeah, this is closer got what
they wanted. The next part of the main article that
I was like, what I want to know more about that,

(20:00):
which is thing number three today is where did it go?
I missed you? So seems like you being Oh it's
right here, highlighted it in red. Last July nineteenth, at Cincinnati,
a fan sitting in a box devoted the afternoon to

(20:22):
caustic criticism of Major Curth's talents and breeding. Mister Major
Curth is a large man, so that's the umpire George
Major Curth. I think they called a major mag mag Magricurth.
Major Curth two hundred and forty five pounds, six foot four,
and he was a boxer. He had reasonable patience. But

(20:45):
enough was too much. Enough was too much. I've never
seen that enough was enough. I would say, but enough
was too much. They wrote, he went over to the
box and punched the fan's nose. That is that is
something you're not gonna see. I don't think just the
umpire just walked behind home play. There was a doubleheader two,
so this dude was on it for eighteen inh straight.
Just walked to the crowd and just bam right in

(21:06):
the nose. I'm a soacky one boom it presented. It
presently developed in court that in socking one, Thomas J. Longo,
a Dayton restaurant man and former boxing referee, and Major Garth,
was a boxer. Major Garth was in grave embarrassment and error.
He had picked on the wrong man. Longo did not

(21:27):
prefer charges, but Frick find Major Kirth one hundred dollars
for conduct unbecoming a gentleman and or sportsman, two different
things gentlemen and sportsmen, and his conduct wasn't becoming of
either of those. But collections promptly were taken in Dayton
bars with which to pay the fine. We feel the
great injustice has been done to the good old George,
the spokesman for the fair Play, explained, so they were

(21:49):
supporting the Umpire. So that dude was his name, Thomas J. Longo,
a Dayton restaurant man. People wants to hate it, that guy.
The whole town like his town, Dayton. They were like, no,
about time someone punched Longo. Dude sucks. Its restaurant's not
even good. All the pars got together. Maybe there's like

(22:09):
a little bit of a rivalry there. And they paid
the fine. So I had to go look into that
story a little bit, see if there's anything more in
the news article. And I found the news article this
is the Two Lane Times or something like that, and
it doesn't give much more, just says battery. Charge faces
Umpire for fighting heckler George Major Curth Nationally. Gumpire today

(22:30):
faces charge of assault and battery as a result of
an altercation with a spectator last night at the end
of a double header ball game between the Cincinnati Rids
and the Boston Braves. The deputy was there. Longo admitted
heckling Major Curth during the games, charged that the umpire
came after him as soon as the second game was
over and began swinging. Major Carth declined to comment. So

(22:53):
that's all I found there, But by googling Major Kurth
the umpire, I found out about a story where this
picture took place where a fan attacked him. Maybe you've
heard about this pretty nuts And obviously there's been fans
that have run on the field even in recent times
attacked people, but this one's kinda kind of wild. So

(23:13):
there was a play where the guy bobbled it at
second base, and there was originally called this. So then
the umpires got together and asked Major Curth for help,
and he overturned the call, and Derocher was pissed and
he was screaming and yelling and it was a big delay.
And then this guy ran on the field after the
game and he was yelling and screaming at the umpire
and they were giving each other shit and then eventually

(23:36):
he jumped him. His name was Frank Germano, an unemployed
youth of twenty one who lives at one twenty eight
to thirty third Street, Brooklyn. Damn just straight up gave
his address out on the newspaper. That's crazy. He was
arrested after the fight and taking the seventy first precinct Jernano.

(23:56):
That's a different spelling than before. Germano Gernano was held
in five hundred dollars in Brooklyn, Queens after court for
hearing today on simple charge. You gotta wait till you
see the picture of this dude. He blinds out of
the Umpire Mag, as he was affectionately called, was a
former heavyweight boxer. Germano Germano is also lucky that mag

(24:17):
refused the press charges. You know, we don't press charges here.
It's America. Look at this dude. He got to be
five foot nothing. His shirt ripped is that is a
hilarious body of a man twenty one years old. The

(24:41):
accident on him had to be so thick. So I
kept digging into this to see what more there is.
There's some pictures. This is him like on top of them.
This is him. The next day at court and his
in his well guinea t. I mean to be offensive,
but that's what I grew up knowing them ass looking great.
I think he likes the way he looks. There a

(25:02):
whole bunch. Frank Germano was stunned. He knew the runner
was out just as the last Dodgers put out. Frank
stood up on a cell burglar burglar, rushed out on
the field, swung on major curve, tripped him, started the
pummel his face. It's crazy, it's insane. Look at this dude,
twenty one years old, full full of angst. Someone found

(25:28):
this fan the umpire died at seventy seven, and it's
a very thoughtful eulogy. But there's another picture of the
altercation starting where they're standing, which I thought was interesting.
So it started standing up. Then I found an article
from I don't even know when this is posted. It's
in this Archives of Sports Illustrated. Okay, well he was

(25:52):
twenty one, Okay, so it says here that Frankie Germano
is seventy seven. Now, so when did this happen? Just
happened in nineteen forty, so seventy seven minus twenty one.
We can all do that, We're gonna math fifty six
years later forty plus fifty six ninety six. Yeah, okay.

(26:14):
So this article is from nineteen ninety six where they
found Frankie Germano seventy seven, and I wanted to read
this article when I saw so bad. He's hurting. He's
got cancer. Now that's sad stuff. But he's he's hurting,
and but the they have him recount this as a
seventy seven year old man. How's he feel about it? Now?
Right the same way? Basically, he said I was a

(26:40):
real fan, a Dodger fan, and he's talking about I
reverse the call. Major Kurth called the guy safe. Grumano
complains he should have been out. There was a big stink.
It lasted fifteen minutes. Derochia came out, kicking dirt and everything.
I was a Derosia man. Wherever Droshia went, I went.

(27:00):
When he got mad, I got mad. The Rosha gets
thrown out, Cincinnati wins the game. Now I'm mad, I'm burning.
I jumped down to the field and I'm walking out
towards the clubhouse where the Dodgers go. Who walks right
in front of me? The ump I say, hey, George,
why don't you go back to the minor leagues. You're
a bum. He called me a name. I called him

(27:22):
a name. He made like he was gonna push me
out of the way. I thought he was gonna hit me.
I started throwing punches, right hooks, uppercuts. Then I thought, hey,
this guy's too big for me. I'm gonna sit on him.
So I did, and that's just a great story. He
did sit on him. I think this is him sitting
on him here and then punching him. Uh So those

(27:45):
are some rabbit holes I went down, and we'll get
back to topical analysis. But I like history. And if
this picture, if this picture of is his name Frankiejmah,
doesn't make you laugh, I don't know. Maybe you look
like him and now you're mad at me. I'd feel

(28:06):
bad about that. Those Jimmy See things. Leave a comment.
Let me know if you have anything on your team
you want me to look into, stats wise or any
weird things around the league you think you're going on.
Just like put in the comments, like hey, topic, idea
or suggestion. I'll search it and then we'll keep going.
Subscribe to the channel if you haven't and you want to.
That helps us out. Appreciate you, guys, see U, thank you, goodbye,

(28:30):
lud Seelik thumbs up.