When I Lost Respect for Authority (Another Episode)

We were playing punchball on the PS 217 "big court." It must have been during school hours because Mrs. McGowan (a fifth grade teacher) was the umpire and the players included the entire population of the class, not just the regulars. Michael Lurie, the least athletic student in the grade, and perhaps in the entire borough, was told  to play third base, and obviously unfamiliar with the game and with Billy Cox, stationed both feet directly on the white-painted base. Someone hit (punched) the spaldeen toward him and he froze, but the ball landed precisely in his crotch, and lodged, and after a bit he found it there and held it up. We all knew that the batter was out, but Mrs. McGowan, as ignorant as Michael Lurie, shouted, "he caught it illegally" and awarded first base to the batter. I remember that several of us protested, but Mrs. Mc Gowan was adamant.
 
It was a miscarriage of justice. A violation of the rules. The umpire was incompetent. How could I ever trust authority again? 

Comments

[joyce stillman ps 217 class of 56]

Mrs. McGowan , on the other had, was the only teacher of my six teachers that treated me fairly, without fat, or add prejudice. In my case she was elevated to sixth grade. Mrs Horenstein (sp) was my undoing in fifth..

[Richard Mothpan]

Actually, recent research in nineteenth-century baseball history provides some justification for Mrs. McGowan's call. On July 16, 1876, during the Pioneer League season, the “crotch catch” was executed by Ed “Moaner” Sonnenfeldt (also a third-baseman). According to contemporaneous accounts, the catch was made exactly as you describe, and the ball was held by the fielder in such manner for a prolonged period. The umpire ruled that the ball had thus been rendered “malodorous and unfit for further use,” and that Sonnenfeldt's spectacular play was therefore “not a fair catch.” Sonnenfeldt's professional baseball career was short (that one line drive was just about it) but curiously, years later he re-emerges in the world of baroque music, singing countertenor roles with the New York Pro Musica.