“Bottom of the Sixth”

WHEN NORMAN ROCKWELL PAINTS sporting events he seldom deals with the excitement of the athletic contest itself. In this instance he selected the exact moment at which a ball game is brought to a premature conclusion by inclement weather.

The delight of the Brooklyn manager, who can be glimpsed behind the umpires assembled in the foreground, is prompted by the fact that his opponents, the Pittsburgh Pirates, are ahead by one run, but his score will not go into the record books unless Brooklyn gets another opportunity to bat in the bottom half of the inning. The Pittsburgh fielders are already in position, waiting for the Dodger batters to come to the plate.

The rain is on the Dodgers' side. By selecting an eye level at about the height of the pitcher's mound, Rockwell transforms the three umpires into a monumental, though faintly comical, group and at the same time focuses attention on the sky, from which the rain is beginning to fall.

The painting now hangs in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The Brooklyn manager is the former catcher, Clyde Sukeforth; the Pittsburgh manager is Billy Meyer. Dixie Walker is at bottom left. And the umpires, left to right, are Larry Gaetz, Beans Reardon and Lou Jorda.

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