Steve O's Baseball Umpire Resources

As featured in Referee magazine

Welcome! April has concluded and the 2012 season well on its way.  Please note that the menus have been re-organized & simplified as well as some of the site. Enjoy your visit and have a great season!

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NFHS-Pro Rule Differences / Umpiring Tips
MLB Payrolls / 2012 MiLB Umpires / 2012 ML Umpire Crews
 Writing Ejection Reports /  Site Map / Properly Scoring Runs

Question of the Month!

No one on, no out.  Batter hits a fair line drive that strikes the base umpire in the A position behind first.  The batted ball bounds upward and is caught by the 1st baseman without touching the ground.

What is your ruling? Is the ball live - is it a catch?

Extra Credit

WIn 2011, Justin Verlander was the third Detroit pitcher to win both the MVP and Cy Young awards in the same year.

Who were the other two, and in what years?

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April Answer

Q: Two out, bases loaded.  The batter hits a home run but misses 2nd base.  The defense properly appeals and the batter-runner is declared out at 2nd.
Do any runs score?  If so, how many?

A: Three runs score on the 4-base award. 

Extra Credit

Q: Who was the only player in ML history to lead the league in hitting, win a gold glove and the World Series in the same year?

A: NY Yankee Bernie Williams in 1998.  He hit .339.

Previous Questions of the Month!

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Baseball Facts

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Of the 199 MLB ejections in 2011, Jerry Layne and crewmates Bob Davidson, Hunter Wendelstedt and Brian Knight accounted for 26, or 13 percent: 8 for Davidson, 8 for Wendelstedt, 6 for Knight and 4 for Layne. With 17 umpire crews, the average crew administered just 11-12 ejections, meaning Layne's crew ejected twice as much as the average crew. By comparison, Joe West's crew barely scratched the 20 ejection mark.

Did you know that prior to 1947, a 4-man (or less in the early days) crew was used for the World Series?  In 1947, MLB went to a 6-man crew.  However, from 1947-1963, the two outfield umpires stayed in their position for the entire series and did not rotate.  Only the four infield umpires rotated for the series.  In 1964, MLB went to the current system of rotating all six umpires.

MLB has 30 teams, 17 umpire crews and 2,430 games.  Umpire scheduling protocol is that an umpire crew does not see the same team sooner than every 18 days and no more than 4 times in a season.

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 had 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 edge 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 ML outfielder from 1888 to 1902.  See Umpire Communications for umpire signal 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.

Run Scoring Leap
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What an Umpire Should Never Do
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Milestones in Baseball History

  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
1939: First game televised (Cincinnati Reds vs. Brooklyn Dodgers)
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)
1951: First game televised in color (Boston Braves vs. Brooklyn Dodgers)
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 Blomberg, 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
2008: Limited replay approved
2010: First game televised in 3D (NY Yankees vs. Seattle Mariners)

Quotes

"He hits from both sides of the plate. He's amphibious." Yogi Berra- More Yogisms

"The strain on Roger (Maris) was unbelievable. After I dropped out the reporters only had one guy to go to. They surrounded him everywhere he went. He had big clumps of hair falling out. That he went ahead and did it was unbelievable." Mickey Mantle

"If they did get a machine to replace us, you know what would happen to it?  They'd clobber it with a bat" Harry Wendelstadt

"Umpire's Heaven is a place were he works third base every game.  Home is where the heartache is." Ron Luciano

"Ideally, the umpire should have the integrity of a Supreme Court judge, the physical agility of an acrobat, the endurance of Job and the imperturbability of Buddha." Time Magzine - 8/25/61

"In the olden days, the umpire didn't have to take any courses in mind reading. The pitcher told you he was going to throw at you."  Leo Durocher - More Quotes from Leo

It gets late early out there."Bob Uecker

"An umpire is a loner.  The restraints of his trade impose problems not normally endured by players, coaches, management, press and others connected with organized baseball.  He is a friend to none.  More often he is considered an enemy by all around him - including the fans in the stands who threaten his life."Art Rosenbaum in The San Francisco Chronicle (1965)

"My favorite umpire is a dead one."  Hall of Fame infielder Johnny Evers

"I've never questioned the integrity of an umpire.  Their eyesight, yes." Leo Durocher

"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts."Earl Weaver - View more of Earl's Pearls

"Why certainly I'd like to have that fellow who hits a home run every time at bat, who strikes out every opposing batter when he's pitching, who throws strikes to any base or the plate when he's playing outfield and  who's always thinking about two innings ahead just what he'll do to baffle the other team.  Any manager would want a guy like that playing for him.  The only trouble is to get him to put down his cup of beer and come down out of the stands and do those things."  Danny Murtaugh

"See that fella over there? He's 20 years old. In 10 years, he's got a chance to be a star. Now that fella over there, he's 20 years old, too. In 10 years he's got a chance to be 30."Casey Stengel - More of Casey

2011 NCAA Post-Season Game Times

The advent of the new NCAA timing and BBCOR bat rules resulted in a significant reduction in post-season game times in 2011:
2010 / Level / 2011
3:03 / Regionals / 2:44
3:16 / Super Regionals / 2:55
3:24 / World Series / 3:10
3:07 / Average / 2:48

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