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Hall of Famer Edd Roush Photo Gallery
Another Edition of:
“From the Lighter Side…”
There’s No Crying—Or Sleeping! —In Baseball!
Don’t believe me? You could have asked Hall of Famer Edd Roush! (if he was still around).
A recent article in Baseball Digest had some interesting information about baseball ejections. For instance, it mentioned that Earl Weaver was once tossed from a game during the playing of the National Anthem! I know that’s hard to believe but the irascible Orioles’ manager was still burned up by a call at first base the night before made by umpire Dale Ford. So the next night, while at home plate during the anthem, he unwisely decided to continue the “discussion” by further unloading on Ford with this gem: “What are you going to (bleep) up tonight, Ford?”
Needless to say, Ford was not amused, and replied, “Whatever it is, you’re not going to be watching because as soon as the last note is done, you’re gone.” Haha! That’s a good one!
But my favorite incident from the article occurred on June 8, 1920, 105 years ago tomorrow, in a game played at the Polo Grounds between the Reds and the Giants. Here’s the scene:
Giants’ left fielder George Burns hit a shot down the left-field line and legged out a double. Apparently, there was some dispute as to whether it was fair or foul, and home plate umpire Barry McCormack called it fair. That brought Reds’ manager Pat Moran out of the dugout to protest the call. During the extended argument, Reds’ centerfielder Edd Roush decided to “put his glove on the ground and take a nap.”
Sure enough, according to the article, he fell fast asleep, and teammate Heine Groh’s attempt to “rouse Roush” failed. When the game resumed, umpire McCormack got tired of waiting for the slumbering future Hall of Famer to return to his position and so ejected him for “delay of game.” Greasy Neale, who would later go on to fame in the NFL, replaced Rousch in center.
(In the featured photo, we see a beautiful colorization of Edd Roush by our resident baseball artist, Don Stokes)
This whole thing sounded a little fishy to me, so I decided to check out the box score on Retrosheet. There I found a few more details. The incident occurred in the bottom of the eighth, and on the same play, Reds’ catcher Ivy Wingo was also ejected by McCormack. This is how the Roush incident was described in the box score: ”Roush lay down to protest the fair call and was ejected by McCormack for delay of game.”
So was Roush actually “laying down” on the job (so to speak)? Or was he just protesting the call in a rather unusual way? That’s a bit of a different take than actually falling asleep on the field. I guess we’ll never really know for sure, but I sort of like the version described above. And so, thanks to Ed Roush, Barry McCormack, and Heine Groh, we can safely conclude that there’s “No crying—or sleeping!—in baseball.
In further checking out the boxscore for this game, I found it was played in front of 12,000 fans, with the Giants winning 5-4. Despite Edd Roush’s “delay of game,” it was still played in a snappy 2:00. In addition to Rousch, there were three other future Hall of Famers on the field that day: Giants Ross Youngs, George “Highpockets” Kelly, and Dave Bancroft, plus Giants’ manager, John McCraw. The Reds’ lineup included stars Jake Daubert and Heine Groh. The Reds, managed by Pat Moran – just one year removed from their World Series championship in 1919 – went on to finish third in the National League (82-71-1), 10.5 games behind the pennant-winning Brooklyn Robins. McGraw’s Giants (86-68-1) finished second, seven games back.
…And if you can find a photo of Edd Roush smiling, I’d like to see it!
Gary Livacari
We’d love to hear what you think about this or any other related baseball history topic…please leave comments below.
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Information: Excerpts edited from article in Baseball Digest
The team photo of the Dodgers is definitely not 1953. It appears to be a spring training photo. I place it 1958. This would be the Dodgers first year training at Vero Beach, Florida and Don Newcombe is still with the team. He would be traded during the season. It is the Los Angeles Dodgers as the banner in the picture shows and the LA on the players caps. It would be their first year in LA.
Thanks…I think you’re right. I was thinking 1953 because it looked like Charlie Dressen in the center front. Maybe that’s not him. Should have seen the LA on the caps! I’ll update.
I’ll be darned! It is Charlie Drerssen. He was a coach on that 1958 team!
Is that Newcombe, second from right, front row? And is that Joe Becker to the left of Charlie Dressen? Becker, a catcher of little note, but the Dodger pitching coach, gets little public credit for the Dodgers great pitching 1955-1965; Koufax, Podres, Drysdale, Larry Sherry, Perranoski, all who Becker molded into stardom.
I’ve got Newcombe on the right a couple rows up between Duke Snider and (I think) Junior Gilliam. Yeah that’s Becker next to Dressen. Becker, in addition to the players you mentioned, also is remembered for teaching Bruce Sutter the fork ball (I think it was) when he was pitching coach for the Cubs. That’s how I remember him, as a Cub coach.
There’s a bunch of other guys I can pick out in the pic.
It would be nice to know the idenity of the plaers. I am not very good at faces. I can recognize Snider, Hodges and maybe Podres. Can’t seem to find Koufax.
On my Old TIme Baseball Photos Facebook page, follower Mark Roush left this interesting comment:
“I have never found a direct link to Edd in my immediate family although we have family mentioned through out a Roush family book and my wife says the grumpy, no smile seems to be a family trait. My family has always been a baseball family admiring the history of Edd Roush. My father played, and I pitched college (university of Cincinnati) and was drafted by the Atlanta Braves. I spent some brief time in Bradenton playing minor league and regretted never looking up Edd who lived there. Edd often took in minor league games there. Rumor is that when he was at a game and had a medical issue, when they were transporting him in an ambulance through center field, he passed away.”