| Overall UK Wins: 1 | Overall UK Losses: 0 | Win % 100 |
Date of Birth: May 12, 1912
Date of Death: September 9, 1981
Hometown: Chester, PA
For a generalized listing of officials, please consult this page.
| Date | Matchup | W/L | Score | UK Fouls | Opp Fouls | UK FTA | Opp FTA | UK DQ | Opp DQ | Technicals | Officiating Crew |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/8/1962 | Kentucky at Temple | W | 56 - 52 | 17 | 22 | 32 | 22 | 0 | 0 | - | John Stevens and George Conley |
Obituary - Philadelphia Inquirer (September 10, 1981)
John Stevens, Veteran Umpire
John W. Stevens, 69, a veteran American League umpire, died Wednesday at Graduate Hospital. He lived in Sproul Estates, Chester.
His career spanned the full range of baseball, from sandlot to the major leagues. Along the way he umpired four World Series, six All-Star games and several tours of Japan.
He retired from active umpiring in 1967, but continued to work with the league as assistant supervisor of umpires.
Friends said that he lived the life he wanted to live.
A 6-foot, raw-boned, 220-pounder in his younger days, Mr. Stevens grew up on a 15-acre farm in Phoenixville, tossing hay and feeding chickens, pig and goats. But what he wanted to do was play baseball.
"The only way I got to play," he told an interviewer in 1966, "was to do the chores, all the chores. My parents were from the old school. They regarded baseball as time-wasting and frivolous."
A shortstop, he played in comic-face for the Detroit Clowns' barnstorming team and later for standard uniform clubs in the old Philadelphia League.
In 1933, he tried out with the Chicago White Sox, but the White Sox weren't interested. They tried to send him to their Moultrie, Ga., farm club. He wasn't interested.
He umpired in sandlot leagues and worried about his off-the-diamond job and his girl. In 1936, he settled both issues. He went to work for National Carloading Co. and married Ann May Samson.
In 1944, after he had been promoted to superintendent at National Carloading, he was offered a part-time job as an umpire in the Eastern League. Then came a full-time offer.
He was taken off the hook by National's general manager, who told him to "take a chance, take the job." If all fell through, he'd "have a job here," he was told.
Four years later, the American League bought his contract, and he was off and running.
He was assigned to World Series play in 1951, 1954, 1960 and 1967, calling he plays on men such as Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin.
In the off-season, he officiated in Ivy League play for the National Basketball Association and for the National Football League as well.
Play in Madison Square Garden was far rougher than in the Palestra, he found, sometimes rivaling the beer-can and bottle-throwing episode that halted play in St. Louis in 1951.
Basketball was always easier, he recalled in later years. "That's the only game where they always call you Mister and they're not being sarcastic."
Most of his memories were happy. But when he felt a bit too happy with the world, someone would remind him of the day he called a strike on Jimmy Piersall, who was playing for Los Angeles. Piersall flared, and he grabbed Piersall's bat to "calm down" the outfielder.
Piersall promptly let go of the bat, and Mr. Stevens fell to the ground. From then on, that was the "day that Jimmy Piersall flattened an umpire with a ballbat."
Then there was the White Sox-Minnesota game in 1961 that he had to call "because of fog."
Surviving are his wife, Ann Amson Stevens; a son, John Jr.; two daughters, Joan M. Rodgers and Patricia McBride; 10 grandchildren, a brother and two sisters.
A viewing will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday at the Nolan-Kaniefski & Fidale Funeral Home, 2136 Providence Ave., Chester. A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at 10 a.m. Saturday at the St. John Chrysostom Church in Wallingford. Burial will be in SS. Peter & Paul Cemetery, Broomall.
