Beans Reardon
Encyclopedia
John Edward "Beans" Reardon (November 23, 1897 — July 31, 1984) was an American
umpire
in Major League Baseball
who worked in the National League
from 1926 to 1949.
, Reardon's family moved to Los Angeles
when he was 14, and he acquired his nickname as a youth due to his Boston-area origins. Having no chance at a career playing baseball due to a throwing arm ruined by overexertion in sandlot ball, he began umpiring amateur games as a teenager. He got his professional start with a copper miners' league in Arizona
in 1919, but after arriving for duty and learning that his contract required him to work in the mines, he resigned after one day's work, followed by a doubleheader he umpired singlehandedly.
, where he made his reputation in Edmonton by refusing a police escort out of a park after a particularly contentious game before a hostile crowd, saying "I didn't sneak in and I won't sneak out." He then worked in the Pacific Coast League
for four seasons before reaching the major leagues.
He was known for his many arguments on the field, and for the fact that he relished the opportunity to match the players in his use of off-color language; he came to refer to himself as "the last of the cussin' umpires", and rarely ejected players from games, reportedly because he enjoyed trading insults. At one point in his career, NL president Ford Frick
issued a memo to all field personnel requiring them to reduce their use of profanity, a thinly veiled move directed primarily at Reardon.
Reardon had a difficult relationship with longtime NL umpire Bill Klem
, the dean of the league staff; the younger umpire insisted upon wearing the outside chest protector used by American League
umpires, rather than the inside protector favored by Klem. Reardon also regularly conversed during games with spectators in the stands, another annoyance to Klem. Reardon would note that he perhaps stayed as long as he did in the league only because Klem was promoted to a non-field position in 1941. Ever outspoken, upon accepting an award named for Klem from Houston
sportswriters in the 1960s, Reardon offhandedly remarked that he and Klem hated one another.
He officiated in 5 World Series
: 1930
, 1934
, 1939
, 1943
and 1949
. He also umpired in 3 All-Star Games
(1936
, 1940, 1948), calling balls and strikes in all three contests; and he was one of the umpires for the 3-game series to determine the NL champion in 1946
. He was the plate umpire when Babe Ruth
hit his 714th and final home run in 1935, and also for Clyde Shoun
's no-hitter
on May 15, 1944. http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1944/B05150CIN1944.htm
He was notably the basis for the central figure, the home plate umpire, in Norman Rockwell
's famous painting Bottom of the Sixth http://web.archive.org/web/20091027154008/http://geocities.com/ladybug3349/baseball.html, flanked by umpires Larry Goetz
and Lou Jorda
. Reardon is largely identifiable because, despite the depicted game being in the National League, the umpire is using the outside chest protector.
Reardon retired following the 1949 World Series; although by the late 1940s he was the highest-paid umpire in the league, he was earning three times as much from his offseason business as an Anheuser-Busch
beer distributor. He eventually sold the distributorship to Frank Sinatra
for over half a million dollars in 1967, although he continued to do public relations work for the brewery.
Reardon suffered two strokes late in his life, and died at age 86 in Long Beach, California
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
umpire
Umpire (baseball)
In baseball, the umpire is the person charged with officiating the game, including beginning and ending the game, enforcing the rules of the game and the grounds, making judgment calls on plays, and handling the disciplinary actions. The term is often shortened to the colloquial form ump...
in Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
who worked in the National League
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...
from 1926 to 1949.
Early life and career
Born in Taunton, MassachusettsTaunton, Massachusetts
Taunton is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the seat of Bristol County and the hub of the Greater Taunton Area. The city is located south of Boston, east of Providence, north of Fall River and west of Plymouth. The City of Taunton is situated on the Taunton River...
, Reardon's family moved to Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
when he was 14, and he acquired his nickname as a youth due to his Boston-area origins. Having no chance at a career playing baseball due to a throwing arm ruined by overexertion in sandlot ball, he began umpiring amateur games as a teenager. He got his professional start with a copper miners' league in Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
in 1919, but after arriving for duty and learning that his contract required him to work in the mines, he resigned after one day's work, followed by a doubleheader he umpired singlehandedly.
Career
In 1920-1921 he umpired in the Western Canada LeagueWestern Canada League
The Western Canada League was the name of three different baseball circuits in Minor league baseball which operated between and .The first was a Class-D league that played only in 1907 with four teams sponsored by four cities. The second was also classified as D league and ran from 1909 through...
, where he made his reputation in Edmonton by refusing a police escort out of a park after a particularly contentious game before a hostile crowd, saying "I didn't sneak in and I won't sneak out." He then worked in the Pacific Coast League
Pacific Coast League
The Pacific Coast League is a minor-league baseball league operating in the Western, Midwestern and Southeastern United States. Along with the International League and the Mexican League, it is one of three leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one step below Major League Baseball.The...
for four seasons before reaching the major leagues.
He was known for his many arguments on the field, and for the fact that he relished the opportunity to match the players in his use of off-color language; he came to refer to himself as "the last of the cussin' umpires", and rarely ejected players from games, reportedly because he enjoyed trading insults. At one point in his career, NL president Ford Frick
Ford Frick
Ford Christopher Frick was an American sportswriter and executive who served as president of the National League from to and as the third Commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1951 to . He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1970...
issued a memo to all field personnel requiring them to reduce their use of profanity, a thinly veiled move directed primarily at Reardon.
Reardon had a difficult relationship with longtime NL umpire Bill Klem
Bill Klem
William Joseph Klem, born William Joseph Klimm , known as the "father of baseball umpires", was a National League umpire in Major League Baseball from 1905 to 1941...
, the dean of the league staff; the younger umpire insisted upon wearing the outside chest protector used by American League
American League
The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League , is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, which eventually aspired to major...
umpires, rather than the inside protector favored by Klem. Reardon also regularly conversed during games with spectators in the stands, another annoyance to Klem. Reardon would note that he perhaps stayed as long as he did in the league only because Klem was promoted to a non-field position in 1941. Ever outspoken, upon accepting an award named for Klem from Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
sportswriters in the 1960s, Reardon offhandedly remarked that he and Klem hated one another.
He officiated in 5 World Series
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...
: 1930
1930 World Series
In the 1930 World Series, the Philadelphia Athletics defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in six games, 4–2. Philadelphia's pitching ace Lefty Grove won two games.The St...
, 1934
1934 World Series
The 1934 World Series matched the St. Louis Cardinals against the Detroit Tigers, with the Cardinals' "Gashouse Gang" winning in seven games for their third championship in nine years....
, 1939
1939 World Series
The 1939 World Series featured the three-time defending champion New York Yankees against the Cincinnati Reds, who were making their first Series appearance since the scandal-tainted 1919 World Series. The Yankees swept the Series in four games for the second time in a row, winning their record...
, 1943
1943 World Series
The 1943 World Series matched the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals against the New York Yankees, in a rematch of the 1942 Series. The Yankees won the Series in five games for their tenth championship in 21 seasons. It was Yankees' manager Joe McCarthy's final Series win...
and 1949
1949 World Series
The 1949 World Series featured the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers, with the Yankees winning in five games for their second defeat of the Dodgers in three years, and the twelfth championship in team history...
. He also umpired in 3 All-Star Games
Major League Baseball All-Star Game
The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual baseball game between players from the National League and the American League, currently selected by a combination of fans, players, coaches, and managers...
(1936
1936 Major League Baseball All-Star Game
The 1936 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 4th playing of the mid-summer classic between the all-stars of the American League and National League , the two leagues comprising Major League Baseball. The game was held on July 7, 1936 at Braves Field in Boston, Massachusetts, the home of...
, 1940, 1948), calling balls and strikes in all three contests; and he was one of the umpires for the 3-game series to determine the NL champion in 1946
1946 in baseball
-Major League Baseball:*World Series: St. Louis Cardinals over Boston Red Sox *All-Star Game, July 9 at Fenway Park: American League, 12–0-Other champions:*Negro League World Series: Newark Eagles over Kansas City Monarchs...
. He was the plate umpire when Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...
hit his 714th and final home run in 1935, and also for Clyde Shoun
Clyde Shoun
Clyde Mitchell Shoun was an American professional baseball player. A left-handed pitcher, he was born in Mountain City, Tennessee, and known as "Hardrock", due to his fastball....
's no-hitter
No-hitter
A no-hitter is a baseball game in which one team has no hits. In Major League Baseball, the team must be without hits during the entire game, and the game must be at least nine innings. A pitcher who prevents the opposing team from achieving a hit is said to have "thrown a no-hitter"...
on May 15, 1944. http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1944/B05150CIN1944.htm
He was notably the basis for the central figure, the home plate umpire, in Norman Rockwell
Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...
's famous painting Bottom of the Sixth http://web.archive.org/web/20091027154008/http://geocities.com/ladybug3349/baseball.html, flanked by umpires Larry Goetz
Larry Goetz
Lawrence John Goetz was a professional baseball umpire. Goetz started umpiring in the Blue Grass League from 1920 to 1922. He also umpired in the Western Ohio League, Piedmont League, and the American Association. He then became a successful National League umpire from 1936 to 1957...
and Lou Jorda
Lou Jorda
Louis Delarond Jorda was a professional baseball umpire who worked in the National League from 1927 to 1952.Ormsby begame his baseball career in as a catcher for the Gadsden Steel Makers of the Georgia-Alabama League. He played in the minor leagues until 1916. In , Ormsby started his umpiring...
. Reardon is largely identifiable because, despite the depicted game being in the National League, the umpire is using the outside chest protector.
Reardon retired following the 1949 World Series; although by the late 1940s he was the highest-paid umpire in the league, he was earning three times as much from his offseason business as an Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. , is an American brewing company. The company operates 12 breweries in the United States and 18 in other countries. It was, until December 2009, also one of America's largest theme park operators; operating ten theme parks across the United States through the...
beer distributor. He eventually sold the distributorship to Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
for over half a million dollars in 1967, although he continued to do public relations work for the brewery.
Reardon suffered two strokes late in his life, and died at age 86 in Long Beach, California
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
.
External links
- Retrosheet
- BaseballLibrary.com - career highlights and list of articles