At least according to one account, his no-hitter against the Cardinals is legendary in baseball. The last batter up in the game hit the ball Eason pitched straight toward the mound where Eason caught it in his bare hand and made the throw out at first base. Earlier that summer, Mal was one of six associated with the Brooklyn and Cincinnati teams arrested mid-game and sent to a police magistrate's hearing in connection with a test of whether the voluntary contributions made by the 12,000 spectators at the game constituted a violation of the ban on Sunday baseball in Brooklyn.

 His nickname was 'Kid' during his baseball years. He was sold to Newark at the end of the 1907 season but an arm injury suffered in 1903 continued to plague him and in 1910 he switched to umpiring in the Southern League, the National League, and the Pacific Coast League until 1922.

 When his baseball career ended, Mal moved to southern Arizona and settled on about 75 acres in the Canelo Hills near the ranch that his older sister, Anna, and her husband Robert Rodgers had homesteaded around 1909 in Turkey Creek Canyon. His older brother H. Ward had moved with his wife Helen Bresee Eason to the Canelo area around 1912. Mal built a house and barn; both still exist. The barn is said to have been the site for a large number of dances and community events over the years. A photo of the barn is on the cover of Betty Barr's Hidden Treasures of Santa Cruz County. He called his property Umpire Ranch, a name it still has. In 1951, Mal was President of the Black Oak Cemetery Association.

Mal made his own headstone in the shape of a mitt & ball.
The story is that he didn't allow any women to be at the graveside
when he was buried. No one is sure why.

written by Linda Roslund and Corbin Smith (Mal's great grand nephew) using family records,
a Tucson Daily Citizen story on May 20, 1950 and a Philadelphia Inquirer story on June 18, 1906.

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SCS, 12/10/24