Eddie Joost -- The Good, The Bad and The Funny

Slick-fielding, hard-hitting shortstop Eddie Joost, a favorite among many of the A's fans of the late 40s and 50s, shared a few brief recollections recently for the purpose of a cartoon that will appear in the next issue of "Along the Elephant Trail." His goal was to cover "the good, the bad and the funny" of his career in Philadelphia. What follows is the full text of the conversation.

The Good.

"One of the best days in my career in Philadelphia came on a June fifth -- my birthday -- and all of my sons, David, Dennis, Donald and Dean, were in the ballpark. I hit a home run with the bases loaded in the first game of a double-header and we won the ballgame. The boys came into the clubhouse after the game and there were pictures taken that appeared in the papers locally.

Then there was the time we were playing the St. Louis Browns in Philadelphia with Satchel Paige pitching. I don't recall now if he had started or was in in relief, but he was probably relieving. We were behind two or three runs in the ninth with the bases loaded and two out -- gotta make it dramatically. In so doing, he threw me the pitch and I hit the ball into the upper deck in left-center field for a home run with the bases loaded. Everybody's running around the bases scoring and, of course, we win the ballgame. As I was going around third base I saw Satchel standing on the mound with his back towards home plate patting the rosin bag in his glove. I yelled to him, 'Hey Satch < game's over!' That's all I said to him!"

The Bad.

"It was 1947 the first year I was with the A's. We were playing the Cleveland Indians and Bob Feller was pitching. It was in about the eighth inning and I was gonna lead off the inning. I started to go up to bat with the bat in my hand and Mr. Mack called me back and said, 'Boy, how many times did you strike out today?'

I said, 'Three.'

'Well,' he said, 'I think I'll put in a pinch hitter and keep you from breaking the record.' So, you see, not all my recollections are good ones!"

The Funny.

"A funny thing happened once when we were in Washington at Griffith Stadium. Ed Jones was behind the plate. He wasn't a very good umpire and when he comes up to the plate he says, "Don't take too many pitches." Well, we got into the eighth inning of the ballgame behind a couple of runs and we had men on first and second with nobody out. Bobby Shantz, who was the pitcher that day, was batting and he laid down a perfect bunt down the first base line. Mickey Vernon came in and made a great throw to the catcher, Al Evans, and Ed Jones, with his big old American League umpires mattress in front of him, stood right in front of the catcher. Mickey's great throw hit that mattress and bounced out into right field and we scored two runs. Now the Washington fans are in an uproar. Now I go up to the plate after all this had taken place and nothing is said. Next thing I know there's a tin can of beer being thrown at me or the plate umpire from the upper deck.

I said, "Ed you're on your own!" And I left!

So a couple of more cans of beer came down and they finally made the announcement that you'd be ejected if anything more was thrown. We finished the ballgame and we won. As we were going down to the dressing rooms -- and in those days all the dressing rooms, including the umpires', were down through the first base dugout which was the Washington Senators dugout -- I just happened to be behind Ed Jones. I looked up and there's a guy with a beer bottle and he's getting ready to hit Jones. I just reached up and pushed the fan and knocked him over.

Nothing was said of it and the next time we get to Philadelphia our clubhouse guy comes up to me and says, 'Eddie, Bill McGowan (the umpire) wants to see you in his dressing room.'

I said, 'What's he want?'

'I don't know,' the clubhouse boy said, 'just go over and see him.'

So I went over and he let me in the door there and I said, 'Number one -- what do you want?'

'Sit down,' he said. 'I heard what you did in Washington last week.'

'Oh, hell, anybody would have done that,' I said.

'Yeah, but you did it, didn't you,' he said. 'Let me tell you something. I'll never call you out on a close third strike EVER!"

Another funny umpire story involved Ed Rommell. I was at the plate and the count was three and two. I took the pitch because I knew it was inside by at least a full ball width. Rommell called me out. I turned around and said, 'Are you sure?'

'Yeah, I'm sure, Ed,' he said, 'it got the black part.'

'Oh, the black part,' I laughed, 'Okay.'

So that night we're leaving on the train from Washington to go to Chicago. Wally Moses and I were sitting at the dining table in the dining car and there were a few other seats in there. Well, in comes Rommell with the other umpires. I said, 'Hey, Ed, sit down -- what the hell. There's a few seats here.'

He says, 'Okay, fine.' And he sits down.

Now, I always wore glasses then. Well, after Rommell sits down he picks up the menu and the first thing he does is reach into his pocket and pull out a pair of glasses to read the menu!

I said, 'Why the hell didn't you wear those while you were umpiring?!'"

I coulda talked with him all day.

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