145-141

BallNine has always looked at baseball a little differently than the average fan. We know the sport encompasses so much more than what we see on the field or what the latest hot stove rumors are. One group of folks we like to champion for are the umpires who have worked in the game.

No, we’re not about to defend Angel Hernandez and his general awfulness or stand up for Joe West when people call him an asshole, but we will say that umpiring is such a difficult job and vast majority of umpire do that job extremely well.

They also have the absolute best stories. You can read Spitballin’ with Al Clark or Dale Scott, watch Totally Baseless with Ted Barrett and Chris Vitali or check out this fantastic profile Kevin Kernan did with Phil Cuzzi.

On this week’s installment of The Stud 400, we’re focusing on two umpires who have long since left us – but were pioneers in many ways. We’re talking about Bill Klem and Tom Connolly, who were the first two umpires to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. They both were enshrined in 1953 alongside legends Dizzy Dean, Al Simmons and Chief Bender.

Klem and Connolly were two fine choices as the first umpires to be enshrined, but there has been a serious dearth since. It took 20 years after they were inducted for the next one, Billy Evans, to follow in 1973. Cal Hubbard and Jocko Conlan were also inducted in the 1970s and the ‘80s saw only Al Barlick join them. Over the past 35 years, only Hank O’Day, Bill McGowan, Nestor Chylak and Doug Harvey have been enshrined.

That’s it. Just 10 umpires in over 150 years of Major League Baseball have been inducted in Cooperstown and six of them were born in the 1800s. Harvey is the inductee who worked most recently, but his retirement came over 30 years ago.

That means no Bruce Froemming, Harry Wendlestadt, Cy Rigler, Bill Haller, Bill Dinneen or Jim Honochick among so many other deserving candidates.

We’d love to see more umpires get their due, but for this week’s installment of The Stud 400, we’ll check in on the first two arbitrators to earn their due in Cooperstown.

Before we move on to this week’s edition of The Stud 400, here’s a look at the last five entries as we count down the 400 greatest moments in Major League Baseball history:

150: Mark Fidrych on Monday Night Baseball (1976)

149: Jim Bouton writes Ball Four (1970)

148: Fernando Tatis hits two grand slams in one inning (1999)

147: William Taft throws out first pitch (1910)

146: Inaugural Mets lose 120 (1962)

And now, here’s Episode LIX of The Stud 400.

145. First televised MLB game (1939)

The first televised Major League Baseball game was between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds at Ebbets Field on August 26, 1939. The television had just drawn massive attention at the 1939 World’s Fair and experimental station W2XBS—later WNBC—wanted to try its hand at broadcasting professional sports.

The two major concerns were that only about 400 people had televisions in the New York City area at the time and that if baseball became popular on television, owners thought fans would stop coming to the ballpark. Nevertheless, the broadcast went on. The legendary Red Barber was on the call and there were just two fixed cameras to show the action. One camera was on the third base side to film throws across the diamond and another was stationed behind home plate to be able to capture the whole field.

The experiment of baseball on TV grew slowly along with television ownership in America. In 1946, it was estimated that 140 million Americans had access to radio while only about 17,000 could watch a TV. By the mid-1950’s, about 10,000 televisions were being sold daily. With the boom in visual media in full swing, televised baseball took a huge leap forward after World War II. WPIX and WOR in New York were the first to put cameras on the field for close ups and in 1951, WGN in Chicago invented the centerfield view. Color TV baseball began in 1951 and the split screen debuted at the 1952 World Series. Baseball broadcasts keep evolving—or devolving in the case of Apple TV—but the origin of every innovation in televised baseball can be traced back to that day on August 26, 1939.

144. “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon” published (1910)

There have been countless pieces of literature written about the baseball over the past 150 years. Out of all the volumes written about the sport, one of the most enduring creations is just eight lines of text, with one of the lines repeated three times. It’s a grand total of 50 words and it may be at least partially responsible for three men gaining enshrinement in the Hall of Fame.

We’re talking about the poem you probably know as “Tinker to Evers to Chance,” although it was never published under that title. Written by Franklin Pierce Adams for the New York Evening Mail on July 12, 1910, the poem laments the Cubs infielders snuffing out a New York Giants rally the day before. Originally written under the title “That Double Play Again,” the poem was picked up by The Chicago Tribune and published under the title “Gotham’s Woe.” The poem was such an immediate hit that the New York Evening Mail published it again on July 18, 1910 under the title that has stuck for over 100 years, “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon.”

The poem itself may have been intended as a lament on the Cubs-Giants game played on July 11, 1910, but it grew into an enduring tribute to Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and Frank Chance. Tinker, Evers and Chance were all retired by 1917 and when the very first Baseball Hall of Fame ballot happened in 1936, Evers and Chance were included – but had minimal support on the stacked ballot. All three appeared on the 1937 ballot with Chance (24.4%) and Evers (21.9%) receiving decent support considering this was just the second ever Hall of Fame ballot and there was a decades-long backlog of players. The trio was inducted together in 1946.

Although the poem itself didn’t lead to their eventual induction, it certainly didn’t hurt. The poem kept the three in the public consciousness long after their retirement and considering that the Hall of Fame wasn’t established until 20 years or more after their last games, it helped keep them from being lost in the shuffle. Again, this is all the result of 50 words spread over eight lines of poetry. For good measure, here’s the full poem:

“Baseball’s Sad Lexicon”

Franklin Pierce Adams

These are the saddest of possible words:

“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”

Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,

Tinker and Evers and Chance.

Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,

Making a Giant hit into a double—

Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:

“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”

143. Lyman Bostock murdered (1978)

Baseball is unfortunately full of tragic tales and one of the more senseless tragedies in recent decades is the case of Lyman Bostock. Bostock came up through the Twins system and was a budding star in the late 1970s.

In his second and third seasons, Bostock teamed with Rod Carew to give Minnesota two of the best pure hitters in the game. In 1976 and ’77 combined, Bostock hit .330 over 1,117 plate appearances. He received MVP votes in both seasons and going into the ’76 offseason, Bostock was one of the coveted players of the early days of free agency. He signed one of the first big free agent deals with the Angels in the offseason and when he got off to a slow start in 1978, he approached Angels General Manager Buzzy Bavasi about giving back some of his salary due to underperformance. Bavasi refused and eventually Bostock righted the ship. Over the months of June, July and August, Bostock hit .339 and looked like the player the Angels signed up for. The events of September 23, 1978 would change that.

The Angels were in Chicago to take on the White Sox in a day game on that date. Bostock batted third in a lineup that also featured Bobby Grich, Carney Lansford, Joe Rudi and Don Baylor and went 2-4 with a double, run and walk in a 4-2 Angels win.

Bostock, who was from nearby Gary, Indiana, went to visit his uncle after the game, just as he always did when he was in town. After dinner, Bostock’s uncle drove two women home and Bostock rode along as a passenger. One of the women was estranged from her husband. The ex-husband was stalking the woman and happened to see the four driving together that night. He assumed that his ex-wife was involved romantically with Bostock, but the truth was that Bostock had never met the woman before that night. The man followed the vehicle carrying Bostock and pulled up alongside their car. He saw his ex-wife in the back seat with Bostock, pulled out a gun and fired one shot into the vehicle, striking Bostock in the temple. He died two hours later, tragically cutting short the life of one of the rising stars in the game and a player beloved by teammates and fans alike.

142. Luis Gonzalez beats Mariano Rivera (2001)

In 2001, the Diamondbacks were in just their fourth year of existence, so it’s easy to have underestimated them. They had gone 85-77 the year before, a solid season for sure, but nothing that had anyone pumping them as a World Series contender. They went on to 92 wins and a National League West title in 2001 on the strength of a rotation led by Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. They survived a five-game series with the Cardinals in the NLDS then rolled past the Braves in the NLCS to earn a showdown with the powerful Yankees in the World Series. The Yankees were big favorites, but the home team won each of the first six games, setting up a decisive Game 7 in Arizona.

Roger Clemens and Schilling hooked up for a classic pitchers’ duel and the game went to the eighth inning tied 1-1. On the third pitch of the inning, Alfonso Soriano took Schilling deep and gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead. When you have peak Mariano Rivera available, that’s usually all you’d need. Rivera got through the eighth unscathed and was one strike away from nailing down the Yankees fourth World Series in a row. However, a Tony Womack double to right scored pinch runner Midre Cummings to tie things up. Rivera hit Craig Counsell with a pitch to bring up Luis Gonzalez with two outs and a tied Game 7. Rivera got a pitch in on Gonzalez’s hands like he planned, but he was strong enough to fist a dying quail over a drawn-in infield to give the World Series title to the Diamondbacks.

141. Umpires Bill Klem, Tom Connolly inducted into HOF (1953)

This entry in The Stud 400 covers multiple things regarding Klem and Connolly.

Yes, the #141 moment in The Stud 400 is about their enshrinement into Cooperstown, but their impact on the game goes well beyond that.

Klem umpired from 1905-1940 and then stayed in baseball until 1950. According to his Hall of Fame plaque, he is responsible for introducing hand and arm signals to the game. Klem worked a record 18 World Series, and no other umpire has worked more than 10. During his career, every single MLB team that made a World Series played in at least one that Klem worked. He holds the record for most ejections with 279 with a record 26 in one season. Klem worked five no-hitters and had the longest umpiring career at 37 years. He is also credited as one of the first to wear an inside chest protector and successfully petitioned the National League adopt it. He is also considered the first to straddle the foul lines when on the bases and set up slightly off center from the catcher to get a better perspective on a pitch.

Along with Klem, Connolly is the only other umpire to call games in five decades, working from 1898-1931. When Ban Johnson established the American League in 1901, he signed Connolly in order to help give his league legitimacy. Umpires in general in the American League were given more power and support. Back then, umpires generally worked games alone and Connolly did just that in the very first game in American League history. He also umpired the first games ever played at Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, Comiskey Park and Shibe Park. He was the only American League umpire chosen to work the first World Series in 1903 and worked eight Fall Classics in total. Connolly also served as the league’s first supervisor of umpires beginning in 1931. He was among the first to be vocal about the idea that umpires shouldn’t have “rabbit ears” and also not be the center of attention. Although he wasn’t known to eject players at the rate of some others, Connolly was the last umpire to eject Babe Ruth from a game. When he retired, Connolly had umpired the most games in Major League history and still stands in fifth place on that list.

Stay tuned for next week’s episode of The Stud 400 when perhaps the biggest era of all eras comes to an end. We’re back in the courtroom to stand trial and Major League Baseball is going to come away from it with a huge black eye. We’re also establishing who the original 1-1-1 was and chasing down The Big Train with a trio of Hall of Famers. We like our no-hitters so much on The Stud 400 that we’re doubling up on one entry next week. Tune in to find out which two hurlers get their due on the next Stud 400.