Ep. 33 Averill v. Luttrell: "The Hit Heard 'Round The State"

Baseball is full of surprises. You never know when you walk into a ballpark if you might see a perfect game, a runner caught in a pickle, a measuring-tape home run…or an historic legal precedent! On August 20th, 1955, Earl Averill, Jr of the Nashville Vols punched Lyle Luttrell of the Chattanooga Lookouts in an on-field skirmish. Luttrell ended up with a broken jaw, Averill ended up with a lawsuit, and both wound up in the history books for setting a legal precedent that shocked both sports and the courts, and shaped both sports and employment law for decades to come. Join host Dave Stripling of Tennessee Court Talk, and guests Judge Andy Bennett of the Tennessee Court of Appeals and Randy Averill for the star-studded tale of “The Hit Heard Round The State!”

Produced by David Stripling, Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts




MUSIC ATTRIBUTION:

Jumpin Boogie Woogie by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Artist: http://audionautix.com/

Happy Bee Surf by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1300015

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Last Kiss Goodnight by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100611

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Transcript

00;00;02;18 - 00;00;23;16
Host
In the Tennessee Supreme Court building in downtown Nashville. Part of the old law library has been turned into a museum. The Tennessee Judiciary Museum managed by Judge Andy Bennett of the Tennessee Court of Appeals. Once you're in the museum, among other famous landmarks of Tennessee, law history is an oddity. A glass display full of baseball cards and memorabilia.

00;00;23;20 - 00;00;30;09
Host
But it fits right in next to exhibits involving the rights of slaves and the reapportionment of voting districts.

00;00;30;10 - 00;00;53;03
Judge Bennett
Not only is it an important case in the scope of employment area, but it's the first case in which a professional athlete sued another professional athlete for something that happened on the field. It's a fun case. It has little twists and turns and names of people you you'll recognize. And, it's, it's just a lot of fun.

00;00;53;05 - 00;01;22;23
Host
The case is Averill versus Luttrell, and it came to be known as the hit heard round the state. I'm Dave Stripling, and this is Tennessee Court Talk. To get the full story about this rather unique case that set a precedent that shocked both the sports world and the legal world. I sat down with Judge Andy Bennett of the modern day Tennessee Court of Appeals and via zoom, Randy Averill, son of Earl Averill Jr, the Nashville catcher that landed the hit heard round the state.

00;01;22;26 - 00;01;26;20
Host
Judge Bennett, you've said this is one of your favorite cases in the whole museum.

00;01;26;21 - 00;01;27;18
Judge Bennett
Absolutely.

00;01;27;21 - 00;01;29;07
Host
What makes it stand out for you?

00;01;29;09 - 00;01;36;10
Judge Bennett
It's I love baseball. It's a case that involves baseball and law. Two of my favorite things that intersect.

00;01;36;12 - 00;01;46;09
Host
So, Judge Bennett, take us back to that night. August 20th, 1955. Engel Stadium, Chattanooga.

00;01;46;12 - 00;01;55;02
Judge Bennett
It was a warm evening. It was still about 90 degrees at game time.

00;01;55;04 - 00;02;07;15
Judge Bennett
The attendance wasn't so great that night. It was about 1200. One of the newspaper columnist said it must have been a good TV night, but, it was a good night for baseball is most nights are.

00;02;07;22 - 00;02;15;11
Host
Long before Nashville had the sounds, the Music City's minor league baseball club for many decades was called the Vols.

00;02;15;13 - 00;02;34;26
Judge Bennett
The Vols were playing the Chattanooga Lookouts. The lookouts were affiliated with the Washington Senators and the Nashville Vols were affiliated with what were then known as the Cincinnati Red legs. They went with red legs in the middle 50s to distinguish themselves from the Communist reds.

00;02;34;29 - 00;02;51;23
Host
Earl Averill Jr, the son of Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Earl Averill Senior, had signed with the Cleveland Indians out of the University of Oregon in 1952 and then began his professional baseball career. By 1955, he had advanced to the Double A team in Nashville.

00;02;51;26 - 00;02;56;07
Judge Bennett
He was up and coming. People had their eyes on him. He had some pop in his bat.

00;02;56;08 - 00;03;12;17
Host
Lyle Luttrell was a standout at Illinois Wesleyan University and signed with the Washington Senators in 1951. After playing baseball for the United States Navy during the Korean conflict and various minor league stops, Luttrell had landed with the 1955 lookouts.

00;03;12;18 - 00;03;22;17
Judge Bennett
Luttrell and Averill had no relationship, good or bad. You know, they knew who each other were but that was it. But there was a rivalry.

00;03;22;19 - 00;03;44;11
Host
In a city rivalry that transcended baseball or any sport. Nashville and Chattanooga newspapers played up the Vols Lookouts series as us versus them. On July 7th, Earl Averill hit three home runs and two doubles for 16 total bases, which broke a Southern League record that had stood for a quarter of a century. The lookouts were ready to get revenge on the visiting Vols.

00;03;44;11 - 00;04;10;01
Judge Bennett
Its complicated a little more. Earl Averill the catcher. His contract was owned by the Cleveland Indians, and he was on loan to the Cincinnati organization that night. The pitcher was Jerry Lane. Lane had been in the majors in Cincinnati, and he had been sit down. It wasn't known then, but he would never see the majors again. He was known as a guy who wouldn't mind throwing at you a little bit.

00;04;10;03 - 00;04;32;29
Judge Bennett
He was way behind. It was 6 to 1 in the fifth inning, and he was pitching to shortstop Lyle Luttrell for the lookouts, and Luttrell was in a hot streak. He was hitting 400 in the month of August and had a 13 game hitting streak. Earlier in the season, he had been hit in the face with a baseball and his jaw had been broken, but it was mended.

00;04;32;29 - 00;04;55;15
Judge Bennett
Now he was back playing and it seemed to have had no effect on him. He was hitting very well the first time he had batted against Lane. Lane had thrown outside pitches exclusively to him, so Luttrell decided he would step up in the batter's box as the pitch was being thrown. Interestingly, the first pitch was actually a little inside and when Lutrell stepped up.

00;04;55;15 - 00;05;21;04
Judge Bennett
He had to dodge it. Lane didn't like him stepping up in the batter's box and said so something like, I don't like that. Don't do it again or I'll stick it in your ear. That was Lutrell’s testimony and the testimony of the manager said he heard it too. Averill said he didn't hear that, so who knows. The second pitch, he stepped up and as well it was the inside again.

00;05;21;04 - 00;05;44;12
Judge Bennett
And he had to dodge it. The third pitch was also inside. So here we are, three balls and no strikes. And what happens? But Lane throws a pitch. It hits Luttrell. Now it didn't hit him hard. He nicked him somewhere in the thigh area. It wasn’t terribly painful, but Luttrell was frustrated about the whole deal and he tossed the bat into the infield.

00;05;44;15 - 00;06;05;16
Judge Bennett
Earl Averill took offense to that he thought he was throwing the bat at his pitcher. It probably didn't go anywhere near most of the testimony of the witnesses was the bat went to the shortstop third base area. Lane testified that he had to jump to get out of the way, but that didn't go over well. Nobody really believed it.

00;06;05;20 - 00;06;27;23
Judge Bennett
I think he was just trying to help his buddy. But in Earl's mind's eye, as he remembers it. He said that he thought it was going at the pitcher, and he stood up and he let Luttrell have it. And, you know, Luttrell was looking at the pitcher. So Averill’s fist hit Luttrell just above and behind the right ear. So it was kind of a sucker punch.

00;06;27;25 - 00;06;48;09
Judge Bennett
You know, he wasn't looking. The testimony was that he went down like a tree felled by an ax. Just fell straight down. He was unconscious before he hit the ground. When he hit the ground, his feet were still in the batter's box. He had no chance to defend himself, and he landed face forward. And so he re-broke his jaw.

00;06;48;09 - 00;06;55;17
Judge Bennett
He had dirt and material in one of his eyes, and he had a concussion.

00;06;55;19 - 00;07;04;15
Host
Earl's wife, Pat, was back at their apartment in Nashville with her two young children, terrified by what she heard on the broadcast. Their son, Randy Averill.

00;07;04;19 - 00;07;21;17
Randy Averill
She was listening to the game on the radio, and the Nashville announcer kept repeating. He hasn't moved. He's not getting up. He hasn't moved. And her thought was, oh my God, he's killed the guy. What am I going to do? I got two little kids.

00;07;21;19 - 00;07;30;04
Judge Bennett
Luttrell didn't wake up until he got to the hospital. They tried ammonia capsules on him at the baseball park and it didn't work. He was out.

00;07;30;08 - 00;07;37;16
Randy Averill
It was forever before there was any report that Lyle Luttrell that regained movement on the ground, let alone recovery.

00;07;37;17 - 00;07;40;02
Judge Bennett
When he woke up, he thought he was in Nashville.

00;07;40;05 - 00;07;48;11
Host
Luttrell still in Chattanooga, regained consciousness a half hour later with a concussion, two missing teeth, and once again, a busted jaw.

00;07;48;13 - 00;07;53;07
Judge Bennett
Then, as one of the sportswriters said, all heck broke loose.

00;07;53;10 - 00;07;58;15
Host
Ingle Stadium erupted into bedlam. The dugouts cleared. Fans spilled onto the field.

00;07;58;19 - 00;08;26;10
Judge Bennett
Fights broke out. The manager of the lookouts, Cal Ermer, went and jumped on the back of Earl Averill, and the manager of the Nashville Vols, Joe Schultz, jumped on top of Ermer. So there was a POW at home play. The team trainer and one of the other ballplayers were trying to protect the unconscious Luttrell, laying on the ground there from getting stepped on by players who were pushing and fighting.

00;08;26;15 - 00;08;28;27
Judge Bennett
It was described as a near riot.

00;08;28;28 - 00;08;40;04
Randy Averill
One of the biggest things that came out was that the Chattanooga Chief of Police was in the audience at the ball game and was down on the field, said, he's going to jail like a good politician.

00;08;40;07 - 00;08;44;25
Judge Bennett
He ordered his policeman out onto the field to restore order.

00;08;45;02 - 00;08;46;15
Randy Averill
Dad spent the night in jail.

00;08;46;15 - 00;08;55;06
Judge Bennett
And nothing became of that. But he was arrested. It must have been quite a, a crazy scene.

00;08;55;08 - 00;09;02;04
Host
The owner of the lookouts and namesake of the stadium was Joe Engle, one of the most colorful characters in the history of baseball.

00;09;02;06 - 00;09;21;08
Judge Bennett
Well, you know Joe Engel, Joe Engel’s fascinating. He was known as the Barnum of the bush leagues. He would have all kinds of promotions. He once traded a ballplayer for a turkey. He said the turkey was having a better year. Engel wanted a lawsuit filed at right then, right then.

00;09;21;11 - 00;09;27;07
Host
Engel stormed up to the press box, and soon an announcement followed. Is there a lawyer in the house?

00;09;27;07 - 00;09;57;04
Judge Bennett
And funny enough, there was. Sitting on the third base side of the stadium was future Justice Ray Brock, Supreme Court Justice. But he was just a lawyer then, and he answered the call and met with Joe Engel. He said Engel was the maddest man he had ever met at that moment. So he went back into his office and wrote up a complaint, went to the clerk's house, and filed it with the clerk at the clerk's house.

00;09;57;07 - 00;10;09;24
Judge Bennett
You could actually do that back then. If you could find the clerk, you could file something. Then he went back to the hospital where Luttrell had been taken, and Luttrell retroactively okayed everything.

00;10;09;26 - 00;10;22;26
Host
Luttrell filed a civil suit for $50,000 against both Earl Averill and the Nashville Vols. Soon, Averill was called up to finish his season in Triple-A Indianapolis as the wheels of justice slowly turned.

00;10;23;03 - 00;10;47;15
Judge Bennett
The civil suit on behalf of Luttrell proceeded to a Chattanooga jury. They found not only Earl Averill liable. It was hard not to. I mean, you had 1200 witnesses. So what he did that, they also sued the Nashville Baseball Club and it was found liable as well. $5,000 judgment for which both were jointly liable. That means they both had to pay.

00;10;47;15 - 00;11;09;21
Judge Bennett
So if Earl was totally broke, the baseball club could pay it all and then go against a rule for half of it if they wanted to. The baseball club appealed the case at first Averill, and the ball club were represented by the same lawyer. And then it became apparent that their interests were not quite the same. So he dropped out and each of them got lawyers.

00;11;09;23 - 00;11;28;14
Judge Bennett
Now, Earl didn't really know how he got the lawyer he got. He thinks the baseball club just went out and hired him a lawyer. Yeah, they hired him a good one. Jac Chambliss was a fine, fine lawyer in Chattanooga, well known and well respected. And Nashville had Jack Norman as their lawyer.

00;11;28;17 - 00;11;40;01
Host
The Nashville Ball club appealed. But Earl Averill did not. The club was found not liable under the doctrine of respondiot superior and Earl Averill was left owing the entire judgment.

00;11;40;02 - 00;12;14;03
Judge Bennett
The argument that Nashville used was that Earl didn't act within the scope of his employment, claiming that hitting people was not part of baseball, and so the employer should not be held liable. And they won with that. It's kind of funny. Nashville's manager, Joe Schultz, who was quite a character himself, the first and only manager of the Seattle Pilots and immortalized in that ball for Schultz, was quoted by the Nashville paper the next day saying that Earl didn't do anything wrong.

00;12;14;03 - 00;12;36;19
Judge Bennett
He was just protecting his pitcher, and that was the job. You know, if it was his job, then he wasn't outside the scope of employment. But Joe Schultz never testified at that trial, and the only proof for Earl Averill it was put on was Earl Averill’s testimony itself. Of course, he had to admit hitting him. You know, again, 1200 witnesses.

00;12;36;19 - 00;12;49;08
Judge Bennett
It's not something he could really deny. So the baseball club was off the hook, and Earl Averill was left holding the bag for the entire $5,000 civil judgment.

00;12;49;11 - 00;12;57;27
Host
And now, sports fans, it's time for the seventh inning stretch. We'll be back in one minute after this sidebar from Judge Bennett.

00;12;58;03 - 00;13;23;25
Judge Bennett
You know, there are a couple of oddities that I thought were were interesting, was the appeal. Two of the Appellate Judges, one of them had spent some time after World War Two at Nuremberg, is one of the Judges at Nuremberg. Another one had been in the Tennessee National Guard, and he rode with Pershing as they were protecting the Mexican border and chasing uhh Pancho Villa.

00;13;23;28 - 00;13;49;01
Judge Bennett
And then he went to Europe for World War One and was shot and left for dead on the battlefield. And the British found him alive and rescued it. So some very interesting stories have nothing to do with baseball with these these two judges really were fascinating people who already lived fascinating lives when they they did this case. What else is interesting?

00;13;49;01 - 00;14;14;04
Judge Bennett
The umpire behind home plate later went to the major league. He called the last out at Ebbets Field, and he was involved in a strange mishap during a ball game, I believe, in Chicago, where two balls were actually put into play at the same time. After that season, his contract was not renewed.

00;14;14;06 - 00;14;18;25
Host
Lyle Luttrell made it up to the majors, but as a player, he was never really the same.

00;14;18;26 - 00;14;40;02
Judge Bennett
The testimony at the trial was that he continued at that point, which was two years later, having headaches and things, but he made it to the majors. He played a couple of years with the Washington Senators. He was never a star or anything. He went back and spent a few years in the minors before he quit baseball. In fact, he played in Nashville one year.

00;14;40;04 - 00;14;55;22
Host
The Averill’s struggled to pay the $5,000 judgment over the next several years, as Earl continued his minor league and quite often, major league career. Years later, Pat Averill recalled feeling rejected and left to fend for themselves. Randy Averill remembers those struggles.

00;14;55;23 - 00;15;12;07
Randy Averill
You know, after that, I think she she and my dad probably both felt abandoned by the team, by both the Nashville team and by the Cleveland Indians, at which he was property slash employee. And they basically said, oh, not our problem. And they offered virtually no help.

00;15;12;09 - 00;15;23;05
Judge Bennett
$5,000. Doesn’t sound like a lot of money to us today But in 1956 and seven, that's a lot of money. That was as much as they made in a year.

00;15;23;05 - 00;15;30;14
Randy Averill
On a minor league salary. It was it, you know, it was a mountain to pay. It wasn't possible for them.

00;15;30;17 - 00;15;39;21
Judge Bennett
He was soon to have first a cup of coffee and then to really get called up. He played seven years in the majors, bits of seven years.

00;15;39;28 - 00;15;51;22
Randy Averill
He was the type of player that every team wanted, and every team was constantly looking to upgrade the position. So there was always a team who wanted to trade for him, and there was always a team that wanted to get rid of him it seems.

00;15;51;24 - 00;15;57;01
Judge Bennett
Wherever he went. They sort of followed him and garnished some of his wages.

00;15;57;08 - 00;16;11;25
Randy Averill
They couldn't get credit for anything, you know, they couldn't buy a car, well unless they saved up and paid cash for it. Buying a house was out of the question, not to mention the fact that he got traded a lot. So buying a house wasn't real wise in first place.

00;16;11;28 - 00;16;23;13
Host
Finally in 1961, with major league expansion came better fortunes for the Averill’s, as Earl became a member of the new Los Angeles Angels, owned by the singing cowboy Gene Autry.

00;16;23;14 - 00;16;31;08
Randy Averill
What eventually happened was when dad ended up with the angels, that Gene Autry called in some favors and got people to pay the fine for him.

00;16;31;08 - 00;16;52;28
Judge Bennett
The Cleveland Indians, who remember, owned Earl's contract back in 55, and the California Angels chipped in the last $3,500 and paid the judgment. Earl always felt like he didn't get much of a raise that year because they used the money to pay off his judgment.

00;16;53;00 - 00;17;01;25
Host
Nearly 70 years have passed since what was called the hit heard around the state. It's been cited in several other notable sports cases.

00;17;01;28 - 00;17;19;14
Judge Bennett
It's the first case in which a professional athlete sued another professional athlete for something that happened on the field. It set that precedent. And there have been lawsuits since then. Major League Baseball Billy Martin hit Cubs pitcher Jim Brewer.

00;17;20;05 - 00;17;20;23
Judge Bennett
and Brewer

00;17;20;23 - 00;17;52;09
Judge Bennett
sued him. They settled out of court. In 65 Juan Marichal hit John Roseboro with the bat during his at bat, and, Roseboro sued him. That settled out of court as well. Pro football. There was a case involving the Minnesota Vikings, Dale Hackford in the NBA, a guy who became more famous as a coach, Rudy Tomjanovich, who was hit in the face with a fist by another basketball player on the court.

00;17;52;10 - 00;17;54;23
Judge Bennett
That's pretty famous in the NBA.

00;17;54;25 - 00;18;05;10
Host
While Averill versus Luttrell became a landmark case in employment and sports law. It also became a taboo topic in the Averill household for the next half century. As Randy Averill remembers.

00;18;05;10 - 00;18;29;04
Randy Averill
Mom there she never wanted to talk about it. It was. There was just. All I know is that if the subject came up, she would tense up and the subject would go away very quickly. She was still very traumatized. It was, you know, I mean, today I would say it was PTSD. I mean, I, I knew somewhere along the lines as a kid, I knew that dad had earned a nickname that, thankfully, was temporary.

00;18;29;05 - 00;18;53;20
Randy Averill
He was called One Punch for a while. I learned generalities about it, but it was very much a taboo subject. Eventually, some 50 years later, in the early 2000s, he had been listening to Seattle sports talk station, and they were talking about on field fights, and the radio personalities were in agreement that you couldn't be sued for an on field fight, couldn't happen.

00;18;53;23 - 00;19;09;18
Randy Averill
And so dad really couldn't resist calling in to correct them on that. Then he called in and had a nice chat with them and said, you know, not only can it happen. It happened to me. So that was, you know, that was published in the paper. My daughter came down. She saw the paper and she looked at us.

00;19;09;18 - 00;19;29;23
Randy Averill
Says, Grampy, how come I never knew you punched a guy out? And my mom heard her and went, what? And my mom, 50 years later, she was just beside herself. She couldn't believe it. She couldn't believe he had called in. She was fearful of what all her friends would think, because certainly they'd read it in the paper.

00;19;29;25 - 00;19;41;16
Host
But as they say, time heals all wounds. Earl and Pat eventually made peace with the events of 1955. Earl even helped Judge Bennett with the exhibit at the Tennessee Judiciary Museum.

00;19;41;18 - 00;20;01;12
Judge Bennett
I did track him down. I sent him a letter and asked if I could talk to him, and he he emailed me back and made a here come the judge joke. And, I could tell then he was going to be fun guy to talk to. He was very friendly. He was a little sheepish about talking about it at first, but he opened up pretty quickly.

00;20;01;17 - 00;20;15;09
Judge Bennett
I sent him a transcript of the trial a few days later. I hadn't heard from him, and I, emailed him and said, did you get it? And he said, yeah, I got it. But I can't get it away from my wife yet. So I haven’t read it.

00;20;15;12 - 00;20;24;17
Host
Pat Averill eventually made peace with the events as well, and gave a full interview on her husband in the incident to saber the Society of American Baseball Research.

00;20;24;19 - 00;20;39;02
Randy Averill
But she had family around her, had time to process it and put it in perspective. And I think at that time, she'd finally came to realize this is something in the past it happened. It was terrible. But we can put it in the past now.

00;20;39;05 - 00;21;00;14
Judge Bennett
Earl Averill was not a bad guy. He had a bad moment and it followed him the rest of his life. And you have to try and remember that. You know, we saw Earl and Earl was sort of immortalized in this on what might be his worst day. And he was a good guy. And I think that should be remembered.

00;21;00;16 - 00;21;05;03
Judge Bennett
He was he was liked by the fans, liked by his teammates.

00;21;05;06 - 00;21;37;18
Host
Lyle Luttrell left baseball in 1959 and settled in Chattanooga, where he married, had five kids, and passed away in 1984 at the age of 54. He's buried in the Chattanooga National Cemetery. Earl led the angels in home runs in 1961. Then his career bounced around the majors and minors until he retired in 1965. He, Pat and their four children settled in Tacoma, Washington, where, among other things, they ran an upholstery business together and did a lot of fishing.

00;21;37;20 - 00;21;54;17
Host
When Earl passed away in 2015, the Seattle Mariners held a moment of silence in his honor. Both men live on forever in legal history and are enshrined in the Tennessee Judiciary Museum, where you can visit the hit heard round the state exhibit today.

00;21;54;20 - 00;22;21;15
Judge Bennett
You never know. When something's going to happen that matters. You know who who went to this game thinking they would see a legal precedent or the genesis of the legal precedent. Yeah. Who, what ballplayer thought they would possibly ever be involved in something like that? You never know where legal precedent will come from.

00;22;21;17 - 00;22;28;20
Host
For Tennessee court talk. I'm Dave Stripling.

00;22;28;22 - 00;22;51;12
Host
For more information about April versus Luttrell, visit Tennessee Judiciary museum.org. For more Tennessee court talk, visit TN courts.gov. You can also find us on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.

00;22;51;15 - 00;22;51;26
Host