Professional baseball players, like everyone else in the world, make their share of mistakes. Some players make more than their share. One such player was Floyd “Babe” Herman, who played for the old Brooklyn Dodgers.
Herman was the sort of player known as “good hit, no field.” Many power hitters have been poor fielders. But not only was Babe exceptionally bad, but he almost took pride in his poor performance. He played for the Dodgers during the 1920s and 1930s. At that time the team was known for its zaniness, and Babe Herman was the zaniest Dodger of them all.
When he had been in the minor leagues Babe had once been thrown off a team. This happened after the team owner saw him get hit on the head while trying to catch a simple fly ball.
The team manager objected. “I can’t fire him. He’s leading the league in hitting with four-sixteen.”
“I don’t care if he’s hitting four thousand,” said the owner. “I’m not going to have players who field the ball with their skulls.”
Herman made it to the majors anyway, where he regularly hit over .300. But his fielding hadn’t improved a bit. He led the league in outfield errors three straight years. Four other years he came close.
In addition to being a poor fielder, Herman was also a clown. The sports reporters loved him. He was a lot of fun to write about. One year one of the reporters offered to bet Herman that he would be hit on the head by a fly ball before the season ended. Herman acted as if his dignity was offended. “I’m not as bad a fielder as you guys think,” he said. “I’ll take the bet.”
As the reporter and the baseball player were shaking on the bet Herman had second thoughts. “On the shoulder don’t count,” he said.
The fans loved Babe Herman too. In fact, they loved the whole Brooklyn team. And it took some co-operation from his teammates to allow Babe Herman to pull off his famous classic mistake.
If Babe Herman’s fielding was bad, his base running was even worse. He would run head-down, paying no attention to what might be happening anywhere else.
The situation was this: The bases were full of Dodgers. Hank DeBerry, the catcher, was on third. Dazzy Vance, a blazing fastball pitcher, and a zany in his own right, was on second. Chick Fewster, an out-fielder, was on first. There was one out and Babe Herman stepped up to bat.
He hit a tremendous blast against the outfield wall. It was an easy double, perhaps even a triple. DeBerry scored without any trouble. Vance didn’t like to run very much. He thought the ball might be caught and the running would be wasted effort. So he hesitated between second and third. When the ball hit the wall he ran past third, but then figured he couldn’t score so headed back. Fewster, who had been right behind Vance, now turned around and ran back toward second.
Herman, who had made the hit, was unaware of what was going on with his teammates. He was running in his usual head-down fashion. He rounded second and passed Fewster, who was running back to base. If one runner passes another on the base paths, he is automatically out. But that happens so rarely that no one, except the umpire, seemed aware of it. He motioned that Herman was out. Herman didn’t see the umpire’s sign and slid into third, just as Vance was sliding in from the opposite direction.
The ball arrived at about the same time. The third basemen didn’t know what to do. He tagged Herman, who was already out, and then tagged Vance, who was standing safely on the base.
Fewster should have run back to second, where he would have been safe. But somehow being passed by Herman seemed to confuse him. He just stood there and watched the drama at third.
Finally the third basemen discovered that there were still only two Brooklyn outs. There was Fewster standing between second and third. The third basemen decided to run him down. Fewster ran back to second. But instead of stopping there, where he would have been safe, he kept right on running. The third basemen finally caught up with him in the outfield, and tagged him for the third out. And that’s how Babe Herman tripled into a double play. No professional baseball player has ever duplicated that feat.
The only man who ever came close was Babe Herman himself. In a somewhat similar situation Herman came up to bat with a man on first. He hit a hard line smash and headed head-down for first. The man on first headed for second. But then he feared that the ball was going to be caught and he would be out. So he stopped and ran back toward first. In the meantime, Herman had already reached first and was on his way to second. The two teammates passed each other on the base paths.
That sort of base running led to a classic baseball story. A Brooklyn fan was late for a game. He was hurrying up the ramp at old Ebbets Field. He yelled up to somebody in the grandstand, “What’s happening?”
The man replied, “The Brooks got three on.”
“Yeah,” said the latecomer, “which base.”