STL All Sports

Umpires do not often bring down the wrath of league officials on their heads, but when they do it's usually for something that is pretty unusual. Take the case of Bill Summers before he came up to the big time. Bill was handling a series in a hot Eastern League race and the fans were really riding him hard. One of the rabid partisans stuck the name "Jesse James" on the harassed umpire, and it stuck all through the first couple of games of the series. Then, as Summers was coming into the park for the last game, he passed a mounted policeman in center field who was assigned to keep the kids from piling over the fence to see the game for free.

"Hey, officer," said Summers. "Do me a big favor, will you?"

"Sure, Jess - I mean, Bill," answered the cop. "What do you want?" "Lend me your horse for a couple of minutes," said Bill. "I want to try something."

The cop dismounted and Summers' climbed up on the animal's back. As he did so, his spikes caught in the tender hide of the beast, and the startled animal lit out towards home plate at full gallop with Summers hanging on for dear life. The crowd started to roar. When the horse reached the pitcher's mound, he suddenly realized the strangeness of it all and stopped dead in his tracks. Summers, however, kept going. Describing a beautiful arc over his horse's back, Bill sailed through the air and landed kerplunk on his seat at home plate. He rose slowly, brushed himself off, and faced the howling crowd.

"Jesse James has arrived!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs. "Play ball!"

When the game was over, Bill found a telegram waiting for him in the clubhouse. It was from the league president and it read, "Your wonderful entrance, Jesse, costs you exactly fifty bucks!"