Edward Lee Ballanfant (December 27, 1895 – July 15, 1987) was an American

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French , , and , : (as evidenced in cricke ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB). He was a player-manager in minor league baseball before his MLB umpiring career. As an umpire, he worked four World Series and four All-Star Games. After his umpiring days, Ballanfant spent many years as a major league scout.

Career

Ballanfant was a minor league infielder from 1915 to 1925. In 1925 he served as player-manager for the

Greenville Hunters The Greenville Hunters were a Texas League (1906), North Texas League (1907) and East Texas League (1924-1926) baseball team based in Greenville, Texas Greenville ( ) is the county seat of and the most populous city in Hunt County, Texas, Unit ...

for part of the season. He suffered a career-ending leg injury that season. Ballanfant began umpiring in the

Lone Star League The Lone Star League was the name of three American minor professional baseball leagues located in the state of Texas during the 20th century. The leagues operated from 1927–1929 (as a Class D circuit), 1947–1948 (Class C) and 1977 (Class A) ...

in 1927–1928, then moved on to the

Texas League The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...

from 1929 to 1935. Ballanfant made his major league umpiring debut in 1936 in the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

(NL), where he stayed for 22 years. He umpired the

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, events related to World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January *Janu ...

1946 1946 (Roman numerals, MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1946th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 946th year of the 2nd millennium, the 46th year of the 20th centur ...

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the Uni ...

, and

1955 World Series The 1955 World Series was the World Series, championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1955 Major League Baseball season, 1955 season. The 52nd edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff that matched the National Leagu ...

.Retrosheet
/ref> Upon his retirement from major league umpiring in 1957, Ballanfant was the NL's senior umpire.

Notable games

In a 1939 Reds-Giants matchup, Ballanfant made a fair-foul ruling that went against the Giants and set them in an uproar. Ballanfant was merely pushed by the Giants catcher, but Ballanfant's partner

George Magerkurth George Levi Magerkurth ( ;Billy Jurges William Frederick Jurges (May 9, 1908 – March 3, 1997) was an American shortstop, third baseman, manager, coach and scout in Major League Baseball. He was born in the Bronx, New York. During the 1930s, he was central to three (, and ) Nationa ...

. Both Magerkurth and Jurges received fines and brief suspensions.

Post-umpiring days

After retiring from umpiring, Ballanfant was hired as a scout for the Chicago Cubs. Ballanfant also served as a scout for the

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. They are one of two major leag ...

from 1961 to 1970 and the Texas Rangers from 1972 to 1981. He was inducted into the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980. He died in 1987. Ballanfant was posthumously inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Texas League Hall of Fame in 2009.

Personal life

A World War I U.S. Army veteran, Ballanfant is known to have taught courses in marksmanship in the spring before the 1942 season. In Larry R. Gerlach's book of interviews with umpires, ''The Men in Blue'', Ballanfant said, "I can truthfully say I never did like umpiring. I stayed with it because I had to eat."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ballanfant, Lee 1895 births 1987 deaths Major League Baseball umpires Minor league baseball umpires National League umpires Chicago Cubs scouts Houston Astros scouts Texas Rangers scouts

Career

Notable games

Post-umpiring days

Personal life

See also

References