Beans Reardon

John Edward Reardon

• Height 5' 9", Weight 190 lb.

• Born November 23, 1897 in Taunton, MA USA
• Died July 31, 1984 in Long Beach, CA USA

Biographical Information

Beans Reardon began his career in the Western Canada League in 1920-1921 and the Pacific Coast League in 1922-1925. He was a National League umpire from 1926 to 1949. He worked five World Series (1930, 1934, 1939, 1943, 1949) and three All-Star Games (1936, 1940, 1948). All in all, he worked 3,515 regular season games in 24 years.

He is the home plate umpire in Norman Rockwell's famous painting Three Umpires, which was the cover of the Saturday Evening Post on April 23, 1949. Alongside him are the two other members of his umpiring crew at the time, Lou Jorda and Larry Goetz.

He was an auto salesman in the off-season after settling in Long Beach, CA. He died there at the age of 86 in 1984.

Related Sites

• Beans Reardon at the SABR Bio Project
• Beans Reardon at Retrosheet.org
• Sporting News umpire card