Beans in the Soup

Baseball umpires, unlike tragic heroes and lesser mortals, are presumed to be incapable of errors in judgment. Last week the presumption was put to a severe test.

In the ninth inning at Brooklyn's Ebbets Field, the St. Louis Cardinals were leading the Dodgers, 2-to-0. The Cards' Ron Northey smacked a long drive to center field. As Northey sprinted for third base, Field Umpire John Edward ("Beans") Reardon waved his arm in a circle over his head to indicate an automatic home run and (according to Northey) emphasized his point by shouting: "What are you running for? It's a home run." Plump Ron Northey gratefully slowed to a dogtrot.

But the ball struck a railing in the center-field boxes and bounced back--clearly not an automatic home run. Northey was thrown out at home, retiring the side. Running at full speed, he obviously could have made it. Cardinal Manager Eddie Dyer protested Beans's bum steer, but was overruled by the chief umpire. The Dodgers went on to win the protested game with a three-run rally, 3-2.

After five days of debating the issue of reason v. authority, National League President Ford Frick ruled that Beans had made a mistake and declared the game a 3-to-3 tie.

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