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In a span of eight months, umpire Emmett Ashford experienced the indignation of being assaulted by a player and the satisfaction of breaking down a racial barrier.

During a winter league playoff game in the Dominican Republic in January 1965, Ashford was punched by Julian Javier, who went into a rage because of the way the umpire called him out on strikes. Javier was the second baseman for the Cardinals during the major league season.

The year got a lot better for Ashford after that. An umpire in the minors for 15 seasons, Ashford was informed in September 1965 that his contract was being purchased by the American League for the 1966 season. Ashford became the first African-American umpire in the major leagues.

Skill and style

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Ashford went to Jefferson High School. He became the school’s first black student body president and also was the first black editor of a Los Angeles high school newspaper, according to the Los Angeles Times. He was a member of the school’s baseball and track teams, too.

After attending Chapman College, Ashford got a job as a postal clerk. He served in the Navy during World War II. Afterward, he resumed his job at the post office and began umpiring semipro games on weekends in Los Angeles.

In 1951, Ashford, 36, pursued umpiring fulltime. He worked games in the Southwest International League, becoming the first black umpire in the minors. He advanced to the Arizona-Texas League (1952), Western International League (1953) and Pacific Coast League (1954-65).

Displaying a “flamboyant style and distinctive motion for calling balls and strikes,” Ashford had “both skill and crowd appeal,” The Sporting News noted. 

When calling a pitch a strike, Ashford “lets fly with an ebullient ‘Stee-rike-ah’ that carries into the bleachers,” the New York Times reported.

In describing Ashford’s strike call, Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times wrote, “His feet leave the ground at right angles in a semi-entrechat, his right arm shoots out, and in a voice that brings bull moose crashing out of the woods for miles around, he shouts, ‘Yes! Yes!’ or sometimes ‘Ste-ee-rike.’ “

Murray concluded, “They accuse him of being a showboat. In a game that too often resembles a slow boat, you’d think that would be desirable.”

Tropical heat

During winters, Ashford often refereed college basketball games in the United States or umpired baseball games in the Caribbean.

In January 1965, he was behind the plate for Game 1 of the Dominican Republic championship series between Leones del Escogido and Aguilas Cibaenas before a capacity crowd in Santo Domingo.

Julian Javier, a National League all-star in 1963 and the second baseman for the World Series champion Cardinals in 1964, played for Aguilas Cibaenas. Born and raised in the Dominican Republic, “Javier is a national hero,” wrote Jim Murray.

In the third inning, Javier was batting against Larry Miller, who played in the majors for the Dodgers. After throwing a strike on his first pitch to Javier, Miller delivered a slider on the outside corner at the knee.

“Javier couldn’t hit it with a butter paddle,” Murray wrote. “So he did the next best thing: he let it go by and hoped the umpire would mistake it for a ball.”

Ashford called it strike two.

Javier whirled around to face Ashford and argued the call.

In a 1977 interview with author Larry Gerlach, Ashford recalled Javier saying, “Why are you calling that pitch on me? You know I don’t like that pitch.”

Ashford said the discussion deteriorated into a “nonsensical argument.”

“I knew I had a powder keg on my hands,” Ashford said.

“As Javier’s invective rose in decibel and malevolence,” Murray wrote, “Ashford curtly instructed him to get back in the box.”

Ashford warned Javier if he didn’t immediately resume the at-bat he would, as the rules allowed him to do, order Miller to throw a pitch and would call it strike three.

Ashford said Javier leaned on his bat, crossed his legs and replied, “I dare you.”

Ashford motioned for Miller to throw. According to Murray, Javier was 10 feet away from the plate and had his back turned when Miller delivered his pitch.

“Strike three,” barked Ashford.

Losing control

Ashford lifted his mask to remonstrate. According to The Sporting News, Javier stepped around the catcher and punched Ashford twice in the face.

Javier “landed a left to the cheekbone and a right to the jaw,” Murray wrote. “It was a picture book one-two, but Ashford didn’t go down.”

Ashford reeled back, his mouth bleeding, and then counterattacked, using his iron mask to strike Javier before other players intervened and separated them.

A hush fell over the ballpark, Ashford said. He said he asked for a towel and ice, pressed it to his mouth between innings and continued working the game.

Ashford told author Larry Gerlach that when he returned to his hotel room after the game, “Javier called, crying.”

Ashford told Sid Ziff of the Los Angeles Times that Javier was in a bad mood when the game started because he had received a contract proposal from the Cardinals for the 1965 season and it was for less than he made in 1964.

For attacking Ashford, the Latin American Baseball Federation initially gave Javier an indefinite suspension, but soon the punishment was reduced to a three-day suspension and $50 fine.

“Politics took over,” Ashford told Gerlach.

A lighter sentence was imposed on Javier “because he is a popular figure at home,” The Sporting News reported.

Outraged, Ashford resigned, saying the punishment wasn’t severe enough “for the serious action committed by Javier.”

A short time later, according to The Sporting News, Ashford was persuaded to change his mind and work the remainder of the playoff series “after Javier apologized.”

When Javier was eligible to return to the lineup in the playoffs, it was a home game for Aguilas Cibaenas before a big crowd in Santiago de los Caballeros.

As Javier came to bat for the first time in the game, he “comes straight to me and sticks out his hand,” Ashford told Gerlach.

“Well, what could I do? I couldn’t be a lesser man. So I shook hands with him and the house went crazy.”

Sticking it out

After the Dominican Republic playoffs ended, Ashford returned to the United States to work his 12th season in the Pacific Coast League. Three years earlier, he’d been named umpire-in-chief for the league. He was wondering what more he needed to do to prove he belonged in the big leagues. 

“I was completely discouraged,” Ashford told the Los Angeles Times. “I had always clung to the hope I could make the big leagues, but as the years went by they picked up a lot of our umpires, but not me.”

Ashford was preparing to attend real estate school after the 1965 baseball season, he told columnist Melvin Durslag of The Sporting News. He canceled that plan on Sept. 15, 1965, when American League president Joe Cronin said Ashford had been hired for the 1966 season and would become the first black umpire in the majors. Video

Ashford, 51, worked spring training home games of the Angels and Indians in Arizona in 1966. His first regular-season assignment in the majors was the American League opener between the Indians and Senators at Washington, D.C., on April 11, 1966. Boxscore

After five seasons in the majors, Ashford retired in December 1970, two months after he worked the World Series and one month after he turned 56.

Two years later, in September 1972, Art Williams became the first black umpire in the National League.