THE DIRTY BLUE

Author

Matthew Garringer
March 12, 2024

Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The baseball newsletter that floats into your inbox like a Tim Wakefield knuckleball.

Let’s dive in.

Today’s story is about the only umpire in baseball history to receive a lifetime ban.

By all accounts, Richard "Dick" Higham should be considered one of the pioneers of our game, but he rarely ever gets mentioned.

He began playing professionally in 1870, when the game was still called “base ball” and it had just become openly professional.

Throughout his 10+ year career, Higham captained and/or managed several teams; he also had a lifetime career batting average of .307.

In 1881, he became a National League umpire.

That boy was workin'.

To become an umpire, he had to be voted in by all of the team owners, and ultimately placed 3rd out of 24 candidates appointed in total.

At this time, umpires were assigned to specific teams but could be moved throughout the season.

When the ‘81 season opened, Higham was with Providence, then moved to Detroit, then on to Troy and ultimately finished back with Detroit.

That first year, he umpired fifty-eight National League games.

In ‘82 he was reappointed for another season, one of six to be brought back for another season.

I say all this to point out the fact that Dick was well respected around the league.

So what happened next was a shock to everyone.

That same season, Higham was permanently banned from baseball.

Word on the street was that Dick was fixing games in Detroit.

It’s worth mentioning that he never confessed to any wrongdoing, and denied all accusations against him.

But here’s how it supposedly went down:

William G Thompson, owner of the Detroit Wolverines (and mayor of D-town) got suspicious about some of the calls Higham made against his team.

Thompson apparently hired a private detective, who claimed to have turned up several letters between Higham and a well-known gambler named James Todd.

There was a simple code - if the gambler received a telegram from Higham saying "buy all the lumber you can", then he was to bet on Detroit.

No telegram was the signal to bet on their opponent.

On May 24, there was a hearing to determine the validity of these allegations.

Dick did not have any legal counsel present.

Thompson, an attorney by profession, presented the incriminating letters to the panel.

He also got three bank examiners - experts in handwriting analysis - to testify that the writing was "identical" to another letter that was written by Higham.

That was the only known evidence presented.

The meeting ended with the Board of Directors voting unanimously that the charges against Dick were "fully sustained" and that he be "forever disqualified" from officiating National League games.

And boom…

Just like that, over a decade of hard work, respect, and reputation were blown to oblivion over a half season of officiating.

The case was never revisited, and to this day Higham remains the only umpire every to be banned from the game.

RIDICULOUS STATS

BASEBALL TRIVIA

STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

Posey’s full name was Cumberland.

This is really a valuable lesson for everyone: some names just don’t need to be shortened into nicknames.

But in all seriousness, Posey is one of the few people in the world to be inducted into both the NBA and MLB Hall of Fame.

He was instrumental in the success of the Homestead Grays, and served as the team owner in ‘31 - when they had arguably one of the greatest teams of all time.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

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