Reuben Berman’s Foul Ball

You may be trampled and bruised, but if you catch a foul ball at a major league baseball game, it’s yours. Thanks to the actions of a 31-year-old stockbroker, Reuben Berman, baseball fans can now keep foul balls, which have become the game’s ultimate souvenir.

The story begins on May 16, 1921, in New York’s Polo Grounds. Berman, a Hartford, Connecticut, native living in New York City, went to watch his favorite team, the New York Giants, battle the Cincinnati Reds. The Giants were managed by Hall of Farner John McGraw, and its lineup included two more Hall of Famers, first baseman George “Highpockets” Kelly and second baseman Frankie Frisch, the Fordham Flash. 1921 was an eventful year for the Giants. On February 15, team president Charles A. Stoneham arrived in New York from Cuba, where he and manager John McGraw owned a stable of racehorses. Stoneham was so confident of his team’s chances that he printed programs of an all­ Manhattan world series featuring the Giants and the Yankees. An exhibition game against the Washington Senators on April 4 in Jackson, Tennessee, ended when the Senators refused to continue play as a protest against umpire Bill Brennan. On May 3, Stoneham had the Giants autograph baseballs to benefit the army hospital in New York.

Given the excitement of the new season, few fans paid attention to Giants’ policy that fans must “conduct themselves in a gentlemanly and orderly manner and comply with all reasonable and proper requests, rules and regulations of the Giants.” To Charles Stoneham, that meant foul balls hit into the stands belonged to the Giants, not to lucky spectators. In 1921 major league baseball teams maintained the right to set their own policies on foul balls, and most agreed with the Giants. Chicago Cubs spectators began keeping foul balls in 1916 after a brawl broke out between fans and security staff over a ball during a game with the St. Louis Cardinals. Owner Charles H. Weeghman, who had owned a team in the defunct Federal League, decided it was better business to let fans keep the balls. Charles Stoneham and the other owners did not share that sentiment.

During the game a foul ball sailed Berman’s way and he caught it. Ushers spotted Berman and demanded that he give them the ball or toss it on the field for reuse. Berman refused. As the ushers approached him, Berman tossed the ball backward, where it disappeared into baseball lore. The Giants weren’t amused. Security men took Berman to team offices, where he was interrogated and threatened with arrest. After his questioning Berman was expelled from the ballpark, although his ticket price was refunded.

Giants management thought they had proven their point. Fans would not dare try to keep foul balls again. They did not know Reuben Berman. His grandson, New York City teacher Steven Kronovet, recalls that his grandfather had an independent streak and a keen sense of humor. Berman wasn’t going to tolerate being abused for keeping a foul ball. On August 11, 1921, his attorney, S. Michael Cohen served Giants secretary Joseph D. O’Brien with legal papers. The next day Cohen filed them in New York’s Supreme Court, its trial division despite its grandiose name, charging that the team, officially called the National Exhibition Company, had unlawfully detained, imprisoned, and threatened Berman. He sought $20,000 for humiliation, suffering mental and bodily distress, and loss of reputation. Court records don’t reveal why, but team attorneys failed to respond properly. On December 11, 1922, Justice Edward Gavegan gave them 10 days to answer or face default. Their attorney, William Butler, did so, going to the heart of the dispute. He pointed to the ticket language stating that the team reserved the right to revoke the license granted by the ticket by refunding the purchase price. In his view, so long as the Giants refunded the price, they were free to treat fans any way they chose.

The Giants put a benevolent spin on the incident. Giants ushers had merely asked Berman to throw the ball to them and requested that he leave his box and appear at their offices. Following his interrogation, they again requested that he leave the premises. As a parting shot they charged that if Berman suffered any damages, it was due to his own fault, act, and misconduct. The case was tried and Berman was awarded $100 for his treatment at the Polo Grounds. Court records don’t reveal details of the trial, but Berman told his grandson Steven Kronovet about collecting the $100. Although the monetary judgment was small, Reuben Berman had proven his point. The Giants soon changed their policy and the remaining holdouts followed.

Reuben Berman continued to follow baseball after the incident. Like many Americans he was hit hard by the stock market crash of 1929, but he went on to build the U.S. Ribbon Company and worked well into his final years. His sense of humor remained strong. In the early days of television Maxwell House advertised its coffee as good to the last drop. Berman called the station and asked, what’s wrong with the last drop? With many New York baseball fans he lamented the move of the Giants and Dodgers to California in 1958. Reuben Berman died in 1975. Although he was never officially recognized by major league baseball, his gift to baseball fans endures. The National Baseball Hall of Fame maintains his court records and has contemplated an exhibit if space can be found. Perhaps the ultimate tribute to Reuben Berman came on May 28, 2003. The Milwaukee Brewers offered fans a foul ball night, guaranteeing all spectators a baseball used in the game. Baseball had come a long way from John McGraw’s era.

Berman’s tradition also runs in the family. One night at Boston’s Fenway Park, Reuben Berman’s great-grandson, a Yankees fan no less, caught a foul ball and kept it.

DAVID MANDELL practices law in New London County, Connecticut and is a lifelong Giants fan. He has caught one foul ball, at a Yankees minor league game.