Steve O's Baseball Umpire Resources

Steve 's Baseball Umpire Resources
As featured in Referee magazine

SteveO 2008

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On a fly to short center, the runner attempts to score from third. The throw beats him by several feet. The runner slides around the catcher and avoids the tag and also misses the plate. Hoping to get away with it, the runner starts to casually walk toward the dugout, but the catcher starts to chase him. To avoid him, the runner circles around while trying to get back to the plate.

Who is the only hall of fame player wearing a Montreal Expos cap on his hall plaque?

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Q: Bases loaded, one out and a 1 and 1 count. The runner on third gets a good jump and tries to steal home. As he slides over the plate, the pitch hits him in the strike zone and bounces a few feet away. The catcher recovers in time to nail the runner from second trying for third. Your ruling?

A: The pitch is strike 2, the ball is dead, the runner from 3rd scores and the other runners are entitled to advance only one base without liability to be put out. (2.00-Strike, 5.09h)

Q: Who was the only player to win the batting title in his first 2 full seasons?

**Baseball** **Calendar**
07-14-2009	2009 All-Star Game (St. Louis, MO)
07-26-2009	Hall of Fame Induction Day
07-31-2000	Non-Waiver Trade Deadline
08-15-2000	Last Day to Sign '09 1st Yr. Draft Players Who Have Not Exhausted College Eligibility
09-01-2009	Rosters Expand from 25 to 40 players
12-07-2009	Winter Meetings Begin (Indianapolis)

"Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many men on the field?" Jim Bouton

"Umpires are not perfect. Nobody is. It's another beautifully flawed part of the game. If you don't have pitching or hitting issues to argue, you can always question an umpire's call. Quite frankly, I have nothing but admiration for umpires. I can't think of any group of people, outside of military personnel, who do their jobs in a hostile environment 'round the clock. Nobody like the umpires. Not the players. Not the fans. The only time you are even aware of an umpire is when you believe he made a bad call. And the you are mad at him." Evan Grant, baseball writer for the Dallas Morning News

"But it is not true that cameras positioned around a ballpark can answer every question, or even be more definitive than are baseball's remarkably skilled umpires, who render judgments close to a play. And even if cameras could deliver certainty, it is foolish to think that all other values should be sacrificed to that one.." George F. Will

"You can't argue anymore. You know what's amazing is, umpires make mistakes at times, and when you question them, you end up paying the consequences." Lou Piniella, following an ejection for arguing a checked-swing call

"After I hit a home run I had a habit of running the bases with my head down. I figured the pitcher already felt bad enough without me showing him up rounding the bases" - Mickey Mantle View more of The Mick.

"The thing that surprised me most in baseball is the amount of integrity that most umpires have. It actually took me a while to believe what a good game they'd give you the next night after a blow-up." Earl Weaver- View more of Earl's Pearls.

I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or miss big. I like to live as big as I can." Babe Ruth

"I'm beginning to see Brooks (Robinson) in my sleep. If I dropped a paper plate, he'd pick it up on one hop and throw me out at first." Sparky Anderson

"Not true at all. Vaseline is manufactured right here in the United States." Don Sutton, about the rumors that he uses a foreign substance on the ball

Hall of Fame Manager Casey Stengel actually become so enraged that he laid on the ground and continued yelling at umpire Beans Reardon — who after a few moments laid next to Stengel and yelled back. Stengel recalled the incident, "When I peeked out of one eye and saw Reardon on the ground too, I knew I was licked." Casey Stengel - More of Casey

1865: Overhand pitching legalized
1876: National League organized
1901: American League organized
1903: World Series began
1919: Chicago "Black Sox" scandal
1920: Live Ball era; Spitball banned
1927: Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs in a season
1932: Leagues adopt common baseballs
1935: Night baseball began
1941: Joe DiMaggio hits safely in 56 consecutive games
1947: Jackie Robinson plays for the Brooklyn Dodgers (NL)
1947: Larry Doby plays for the Cleveland Indians (AL)
1961: Roger Maris breaks Ruth's home run record
1966 - Emmett Ashford becomes the first black umpire in MLB when he reached the AL after 14 seasons in the minors
1971: Cowhide substituted for horsehide on baseball
1973: First American League Designated Hitter, Ron Bloomberg, bats
1973: Art Williams becomes the first black umpire to reach the NL staff
1976: Dan Driessen becomes the first Designated Hitter from an NL team
1995: Cal Ripken breaks Gehrig's consecutive game record
1998: Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire break Maris' home run record
2000: Leagues use common umpires

In 2008, 83 MLB umpires worked at least one game behind the plate - 66 active full-time and 17 vacation/injury fill-in umpires. Jim Hoye called the most pitches at 11,625. Jim, Chris Guccione and Rob Drake (all fill-in umpires) tied for the most plate games worked at 37.

At the end of 2008, Ed Montague had the most years in MLB at 33. He is 60 years old.

I had my first triple play in a few years, and it was a bit unusual. Runner on 2nd, no outs. A ball is hit to the shortstop, who fields it. For some reason the runner on second stops dead before reaching the shortstop, who flips to the 2nd baseman for one, and then he throw on to 1st for the 2nd out. The original runner now decides to run to 3rd and was easily tagged out. Horrible base running, especially coming from the team ranked #7 in NJ.

In 2008 2,428 MLB games were played. 4,878 Home Runs were hit, for a per game average of 2.01. In the 1st year of divisional play in 1969, the per game average was 1.60.

In 1878, the first paid umpires were in the National League, where the home teams were instructed to pay the umpires $5/game

Albert Pujols has won the 2003 NL batting title over Todd Helton by the closest margin in league history, the third tightest in ML history. The final stat was .35871 to .35849, or a .00022 difference. The tightest race ever was in 1945 when the Yankees' Snuffy Stirnweiss beat Tony Cuccinello of the White Sox by .00009. In 1949, Detroit's George Kell edged Boston's Ted Williams by .00016. Check out ML's All-Time Leaders.

Umpire signals were first used in the late 1800's to help a deaf mute player from that time understand what was going on in the game. His name was Dummy Hoy, and he was a major league outfielder from 1888 to 1902. See Umpire Communications for additional information.

The shortest game in ML history was played on September 28, 1919 when the NY Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-1 in a game that took 51 minutes.

The longest 9-inning game in ML history took place on August 18, 2006 between New York (14 runs) & Boston (11 runs) and lasted 4:45. Jim Wolf was the plate umpire and called 437 pitches. It was the second game of a Day-Night DH. The first game lasted 3:55, with NY winning 12-4. Tony Randazzo was behind the plate for game one.

The second longest 9-inning game in ML history took place on October 5, 2001 between Los Angeles & San Francisco and lasted 4:27. Jerry Layne was the plate umpire and called 361 pitches.

The longest game in ML history featured Milwaukee at Chicago in 1984, required 25 innings and took 8:06.

Strikes since 2/14/99:

SteveO


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