Bud Lally

Behind the scenes maneuvering resulted in Bud Lally being added to the National League’s staff of umpires for the second half of the 1896 season. In an era of rough and tumble baseball, Lally’s experience as a professional boxer was thought to be an asset. But his lack of knowledge and experience soon became apparent, and he was involved in several altercations with players. When one of his detractors started a rumor that he was drunk on the job during a game in Baltimore, that was all league president Nick Young needed to dump him at the end of the season. Ironically Lally’s half-season as an ump may have been one of the more peaceful periods of his life. Off the field Lally was accused of domestic violence by his wife, arrested several times, involved in at least two knife fights, and was once brought up on a charge of manslaughter.

John B.1 Lally was born February 16, 18702, in Cincinnati to John and Margaret (Bohanon) Lally. John’s mother was born in Ireland, and his father, a native of New York, served with the 5th Ohio Infantry during the Civil War. John was the fourth of seven children born to the Lallys, growing up with sisters Grace, Jenny, Lizzie, and Mary; and brothers Edward and William. When or how he picked up the nickname “Bud” is not known.

Nothing is known of Lally’s early childhood, but during his teenage years, there were several reports of a John Lally, almost assuredly Bud, who had various run-ins with Cincinnati police for petty crimes. Lally also developed a reputation as an excellent shortstop in local amateur leagues.3 By his late teens, however, he was mostly known as a boxer and later held the lightweight championship in his hometown of Cincinnati. In 1889 Lally was involved in the first of many violent episodes that would mark most of his life. He was involved in what was described as a “drunken brawl” in a local saloon and used a knife to stab three antagonists. He was not arrested at the scene but later charged with assault and battery and fined court costs.4

Lally married Maggie Hammann in January 1889, but their marriage became one of arguments and separations. In February 1892 Lally caught his estranged wife in bed with another man, Fred Stuber, and he attacked both. During this struggle Lally produced a pocket-knife that he used to cut Stuber’s throat “from ear to ear.” Lally was about to attack Maggie when police arrived and subdued him.1 Lally was jailed, but the charge of “cutting to kill” was later dropped.5

While continuing to box locally, Lally began to referee important local bouts and umpire area baseball games. The first report of Lally umpiring came from late 1895 when he worked an amateur game in Cincinnati. In October of that year he officiated a postseason exhibition game between the Cincinnati Reds and a local nine called the Gyms, the game account noting, “Bud Lally umpired as fairly as anybody could umpire.”6 Lally had gotten to know Cincinnati business manager Frank Bancroft and several Reds players, including Buck Ewing, so based on their recommendation, Henry Powers, president of the Southern League, hired Lally as one of his circuit’s umpires for the 1896 season.7

The season was barely a month old when the inexperienced Lally began receiving criticism, being called “totally incapable” and said that he “does not know the game.”8 By late May after protests from Birmingham, Atlanta, and Mobile, he was fired by Powers.9 In early June it was reported that Lally was hired as an umpire in the Virginia League,10 but there is no evidence that he ever worked in that league. By mid-June Lally was back in Cincinnati umping amateur games and working as a park policeman (security) at Reds home games. In July Lally ran into National League umpire Tom Lynch at the ballpark and expressed an interest in joining the NL staff. Lynch encouraged him to submit an application to league President Young,11 himself a former National Association umpire.

Lally was in attendance at League Park in Cincinnati on July 25 for a Reds doubleheader against Boston. In the third inning of the first game, umpire Horace McFarlan made an unpopular call, and fans began rushing the field. McFarlan, who had been hired by the NL earlier that month and was working his first game in Cincinnati after 14 consecutive assignments in Louisville, fled the scene and quit on the spot.12 When order was restored, Reds captain Buck Ewing suggested his friend Lally finish the game. Boston captain Hugh Duffy13 initially objected, but when Ewing insisted the rules allowed him to appoint a substitute umpire and that Lally was an applicant for an open umpiring position in the league, Duffy reluctantly agreed.14 Thus, Lally made his debut as a National League umpire and shortly thereafter was permanently named to the NL staff by President Young.15

John T. Brush, who had come over from Indianapolis for the game, said it was one of the best umpired games he had seen that season. Cleveland manager Patsy Tebeau said, “Of course, you can’t judge a man by one game. From what I saw of Lally this afternoon, I think he has the makings of a great umpire. Anyhow, the game he umpired this afternoon was one of the best umpired games we have had this season. I don’t want better umpiring that he did today.”16

Not everyone agreed with Brush and Tebeau’s assessment. Henry Weidenthal, sporting editor of the Cleveland Press said, “The hiring of Lally and the fact that he was urged upon President Young by Cincinnati was dishonest on the part of the Reds’ management. They knew in Cincinnati that Lally is not a competent umpire. He is simply a Cincinnati hanger-on, who knows little or nothing about the game. He knows as well as the Cincinnati management knows that he is not a competent umpire. He was injected into the League race just when Cincinnati needs the most help and for a dishonest purpose.”17

When Lally began umpiring on July 25, the Reds were in first place with a record of 56-26, 1 1/2 games up on Cleveland and 2 1/2 games ahead of Baltimore. The Reds were amid a 28-game homestand (July 5–August 9) in which they went 23-5. Lally worked 11 straight Cincinnati games, with the Reds winning nine of them. After Cincinnati won three of four from Cleveland July 26–29 (with Lally working the three Reds wins), the Spiders went 11-12-3 over the next month (through August 31) and dropped out of the pennant race. This led to accusations from the Cleveland and Baltimore press18 that Lally, whom they called “a friend of the Reds,” made decisions to favor Cincinnati against the Spiders and Orioles. As it turned out Baltimore ran away with the 1896 NL pennant with the record of 90-39. Cleveland finished a distant second, 9 1/2 games back, and the Reds were third, 12 games off the pace.

As the season wore on more controversy followed. On July 31 with Pittsburgh in Cincinnati, Pirate pitcher Frank Killen, who was known to have a short temper, objected to a call by Lally. Killen approached Lally and apparently threw the first punch (accounts differ as to whether it was a punch or a shove), but ex-pugilist Lally “went after Killen hammer and tongs,” delivering a left to Killen’s ribs and a right to the jaw before the combatants were separated by other players and park police. Killen was arrested and escorted off the grounds, while Lally returned to his position behind home plate, and the game resumed.19

Before an August 10 game between Louisville and Cincinnati, Colonel outfielder Ducky Holmes claimed that, while entering the park, he overheard a Cincinnati newspaper reporter tell Lally “that he had better give them [the Reds] the game, and that Lally replied that he would do so.”20 In the eighth inning Lally called Louisville’s Fred Clarke out on a close play at third base. Clarke rushed at Lally and “took hold of his coat collar as if to shake him.” Lally retaliated by taking a swing at Clarke, although his blow missed its mark. They soon were separated, but Clarke was ejected from the game, and he and Lally were taken to police headquarters and charged with disorderly conduct. Cincinnati pitcher Billy Rhines finished the game behind the plate. Due to what the Louisville Courier-Journal said was an overreaction by police on the scene, the charges for both men were dismissed.21

In fairness to Lally this was probably the worst time to be an umpire in baseball history. Umpires were abused regularly by players and fans and targets of writers in the newspapers—there was no safe haven in the major leagues for an arbiter. “Ballplayers—the whole fraternity—seem to think that a new umpire has no right to live. They go on turning out muffs and fumbles themselves, but at the slightest wabble on balls and strikes or close plays on the bases they start at a novice as if they want to throw him off the earth. Lally has the backbone to enforce discipline, and he ought to make another Tom Lynch. In assigning him to the important post at Baltimore President Young has shown that his confidence in his latest selection has not been shattered by the two fistic episodes in which he has figured. Tom Lynch’s early League experiences were almost as stormy as Lally’s have been, and it takes a man of nerve to survive the ceremonials of an initiation which would make a Haymaker, a Prince of the Orient or a Noble of the Mystic Shrine take to the woods.”22

The Baltimore Orioles visited Louisville for a Labor Day tripleheader on September 7. Lally worked the first game and, other than tossing John McGraw in the eighth inning for what Lally considered abusive language, officiated the Orioles 4–3 win. In the ninth inning Lally was hit on his right kneecap by a pitched ball. It began to swell between games, so he consulted a physician, who told him that he could risk permanent damage to his knee if he continued. Lally then telegraphed President Young to inform him that he would be unable to continue for games two and three. Baltimore players Joe Quinn and Jim Donnelly worked behind the plate in the final two games, while Louisville utility man George “Doggie” Miller umped on the bases.

Lally was scheduled to work a Reds-Colonels series beginning September 10 in Louisville, but he failed to show. This time Cincinnati pitcher Red Ehret and Louisville’s Miller filled in. Lally was back behind the plate the next day, but he continued to receive criticism, one report stating, “It is a pity Lally has not shown more backbone”23 and another calling him “faint-hearted.” He also had begun losing the confidence of President Young, who was quoted as saying, “I am afraid Lally is losing his nerve.”24 Lally for his part remained confident. He said, “I have fared a great deal better than I thought I would. I have had no trouble worth speaking about and I like my job very well.”25 However, when an anonymous source suggested that the reason Lally missed the games in the Baltimore-Louisville series was because he was drunk, rather than suffering from and injured knee, Young fired him at season’s end.26

Lally returned to Cincinnati and began refereeing boxing matches. He is credited with refereeing 38 professional bouts between 1896 and 1916,27 the first being a bantamweight match between Dave Richards and Chick Brooker on December 17, 1896, in Cincinnati. His next match, on February 2, 1897, was between William Rogers and Ben Coleman. Coleman died as a result of the fight, and afterward, Rogers, Lally, and one of the fighter’s managers were arrested and charged with manslaughter. The defendant’s attorney cited a recent court ruling “exempting from the punishments of the general statutes participants in a glove contest given by a regularly organized athletic club under a permit issued by the mayor of a city or sheriff of a county.” Since all the conditions were met, the death was ruled accidental, and the charges were dropped.28 Lally continued to referee local professional bouts into the 1920s.

He was not yet finished as an umpire, however. In 1897 Lally worked in both the Interstate and Western Leagues and continued to work in the Interstate League in 1898 and 1899. In the meantime, Lally opened a saloon (he called it a “first class concert hall”) with an unnamed business partner. Lally claimed his umpiring took him away from his business interests, so he resigned from the Interstate League staff in August 1899.

More legal troubles followed for Lally. In 1904 while still married to Maggie, he worked as a “lookout” at a Cincinnati saloon. In November she sued him for divorce, alleging “willful absence and extreme cruelty.” Maggie further claimed Lally “used his fists on her almost daily, was repeatedly faithless, and falsely accused her of infidelity.”29 The divorce was granted the following spring, but after Maggie told the judge that her ex-husband posed as a prize fighter, the presiding judge admonished her by saying, “You ought not have married such a man.”30 Then in 1906 Lally was arrested after a fight in a Cincinnati pool room, but the exact nature of his involvement in the fracas was not reported.31

On June 6, 1906, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Lally had been hired as an umpire in the Cotton States League.32 Lally was on the job only a couple of weeks when a row occurred during a June 25 Meridian-Jackson game. The Meridian Star called Lally “the best umpire that has been seen here this season,”33 but the Jackson Daily News blamed Lally for the incident and added, “Lally is to be submitted to a crucial test as umpire. His next performance with the indicator will be under the watchful and accurate eye of President D. Stacey Compton, and the latter declares that if he finds Lally incompetent or crooked he will fire him on the spot.”34

Unwilling to work under these conditions, Lally failed to appear at his next scheduled assignment in Vicksburg and later quit. His whereabouts over the next month were unknown, but on August 6 Lally “made his first appearance” in the Virginia State League, working a game between Roanoke and Norfolk. He finished the 1906 season in the Virginia State League, and the following February, the Cincinnati Post and Enquirer reported that Lally would again officiate in the Virginia League.35 He began the 1907 season there but quit in May and returned to Cincinnati to attend to his saloon business.”36

Lally apparently lived quietly over the next two decades. At the time of the 1910 US Census, Lally was single, living with his mother in Cincinnati, and working as an inspector with the City Street Department. He married Ella Bernhard in April 1911. In 1920 he was still working for the City of Cincinnati, but by 1930 his occupation was an office clerk, possibly still with the street department.

After a short illness Lally died January 8, 1932, at his home in Cincinnati at the age of 61. He must have mellowed some – his second wife described him as her “dearly beloved husband.”37 Former boxer and trainer John Simco recalled, “Bud Lally was a square shooter. You always knew where Bud stood.”38 His obituary called Lally Cincinnati’s “foremost sports character.”39 Lally was buried at St. Joseph New Cemetery in his hometown. He was survived by his wife and a sister but left no known descendants.

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Bill Lamb and Will Christensen and fact-checked by Paul Proia.

Sources

Unless otherwise noted, statistics from Lally’s playing career are taken from Baseball-Reference.com, and genealogical and family history was obtained from Ancestry.com. The author also used information from clippings in Lally’s file at the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Notes

1 No middle name is known, but a middle initial of “B.” is shown in 1920 and 1930 US Census records.

2 There is some dispute regarding Lally’s year of birth. Both Baseball-Reference.com and retrosheet.org list 1870, but 1870 and 1880 US Census records indicate he may have been born in 1868. His obituary after his death in 1932 indicated he was age 61, consistent with an 1870 birth year.

3 “Bud Lally Is Counted Out; Umpire and Referee Passes,” Cincinnati Enquirer, January 9, 1932: 15-16.

4 “Ear to Ear,” Cincinnati Enquirer, February 4, 1892: 12.

5 “Bud Lally Dismissed,” Cincinnati Enquirer, February 18, 1892: 12.

6 “Hit Hard,” Cincinnati Enquirer, October 14, 1895: 2.

7 “The Umpires,” Birmingham (AL) News, April 9, 1896: 6.

8 “Talk of the Diamond,” Birmingham News, May 20, 1896: 8.

9 “Umpire Lally Released,” New Orléans Times-Picayune, May 24, 1896: 8.

10 “Baseball Gossip,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 6, 1896: 2.

11 “Baseball Gossip,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 9, 1896: 2.

12 According to Buck Ewing’s SABR biography by David Nemec, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/buck-ewing/, one of the Reds players, thought to be Eddie Burke, anonymously revealed to the press that Ewing actually locked McFarlan in the Cincinnati dressing room before the second game, preventing him from umpiring and necessitating the use of a substitute, Lally. Another source suggested that this was because Ewing had bet heavily on his team to win game two. “A Look Back At 19th Century Superstar Buck Ewing”, https://baseballegg.com/2023/05/30/a-look-back-at-19th-century-superstar-buck-ewing/, accessed April 21, 2024.

13 “Baseball Gossip,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 26, 1896: 2.

14 Bud Lally’s Sporting News contract card https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll3/id/33163/rec/2 erroneously states, “Umpire of National League for four years ending 1894.”

15 Lally’s record in Retrosheet indicated he worked at first base in the July 25 game. Both he and McFarland were listed in the game’s box score, so likely it was assumed that both men umpired, McFarlan at home and Lally at first. Rather Lally replaced McFarlan and umped behind the plate the entire game.

16 “Baseball Gossip,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 27, 1896: 2.

17 “Gave Cleveland Every Close Play,” Atlanta Journal, July 3, 1896: 12.

18 “Why Should They Play,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 18, 1896: 3; and “Outplayed by St. Louis,” Baltimore Sun, August 20, 1896:6.

19 “Baseball Gossip,” Cincinnati Enquirer, August 1, 1896: 2

20 “That Cincinnati Scrap,” Pittsburgh Press, August 11, 1896: 5.

21 “Police Overstepped Themselves,” Louisville (KY) Courier-Journal, August 11, 1896: 8.

22 Ren Mulford Jr., “A Crucial Test,” Kentucky Post (Covington, KY), August 17, 1896: 4.

23 “Stars Among the Umpires,” Washington (DC) Evening Times, September 14, 1896: 4.

24 “His Lost Nerve,” Kentucky Post, September 2, 1896: 7.

25 “Baseball Gossip,” Cincinnati Enquirer, September 21, 1896: 2

26 Francis Richter, “Meeting Echoes,” Sporting Life, November 21, 1896: 3.

27 https://boxrec.com/en/referee/405994.

28 “No Crime,” Cincinnati Post, March 2, 1897: 8

29 “‘Bud’ Lally Sued,” Cincinnati Post, November 19, 1904: 1.

30 “Mrs. Lally Gets Divorce,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 9, 1905: 4.

31 “Violence Threatened by Shannon,” Cincinnati Enquirer, December 22, 1906: 3.

32 “In Record Time,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 6, 1906: 2.

33 “Lally Has Quit,” Jackson (MS) Daily News, July 1, 1906: 15.

34 “The Trouble Settled,” Jackson Daily News, June 29, 1906: 8.

35 “The Old Fan’s Musing,” Cincinnati Post, February 2, 1907: 7.

36 “Richmond Paper Scores Portsmouth Fans,” Portsmouth (VA) Star, May 22, 1907: 5.

37 “Card Of Thanks,” Cincinnati Enquirer, January 24, 1932: 29.

38 “Bud Lally Is Counted Out.”

39 “Bud Lally Is Counted Out.”