Steve O's Baseball Umpire Resources

As featured in Referee magazine

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Question of the Month!

The batter is in the box when the pitch breaks sharply inside and hits the batter on his fingers that are naturally wrapped around the bat. The batter's hands are not in the strike zone.

What is your ruling?

Extra Credit

Who was the modern eras' youngest player?

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December Answer

Q: The batter hits a foul ball behind home plate, a row or two into the seats.  The catcher reaches into the crowd to catch the ball.  Just before he  makes the catch, a fan touches the ball but the catcher still catches it.
Is the ball dead or is it a catch?

A: It is  catch.  MLB rules state "No interference shall be allowed when a fielder reaches over a fence, railing , rope or into a stand to catch a ball." See 3.16

Extra Credit

Q: Who was the first public address announcer in 1962 for the Houston Colt 45's and how much was he paid?

A: Dan Rather, who received $10 per game.

Previous Questions of the Month!

Baseball Calendar

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

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)

HS Run Scoring Leap
See It

What an Umpire Should Never Do
See It

Comments, Observations & Facts

If not, you should be placing the ball back in play EVERY time with runners on base both verbally and physically (with a point to the pitcher).  Often a sharp pitcher will immediately throw to 1st as soon as the ball is put back live.  During June at a critical point in the game, I had  a pitcher drop the ball on while on the rubber within a second or two after I had put the ball back in play.  It left no doubt that the ball was live and it was a balk.

From this years never seen that before department.  A runner was going into 2nd base.  The shortstop had the ball in his glove and stuck out his arm to apply the tag.  The runner hurdled over the arm and glove and hit the bag safely.  Note that this was legal, as the runner did not jump over the player, only his glove. A truly unique "slide."

Another first.  In 20+ years I have never had a runner pass a preceding runner until this season.  Runner on 1st is going.  The batter hits a high chop to the shortstop which he leaps for and snags.  Apparently the runner thought it was a pop-up and started to return to 1st.  The batter rounded 1st and the runner was returning and passed him, one out.  The 2nd baseman had the live ball and tagged the runner: double play.

It's hard to believe, but in more than 20 years on the field, last season was the first in which I ejected a HS player for wearing jewelry (after team warning).  This occurred and unbelievable 3 times.  In 2011  it has already happened again.  After the team warning, the head coach clearly instructed his players to remove any jewelry they might have on. Not the brightest bulb.

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.

Two umpires worked their first LDS in 2010 (Rob Drake, Chris Guccione), three umpires worked their first LCS (Dan Iassoga, Tony Randozzo, Jim Reynolds) and two umpires worked their first World Series (Sam Holbrook, Bill Miller).

Jerry Crawford, who announced his retirement during the 2010 season, finished his career in a tie for the most postseason games in a career at 111, the same number as Bruce Froemming.  Had the Yankees not swept the LDS against the Twins, he would have taken the lead.  The current active leader in postseason games worked is Gerry Davis at 99.

I n 2009, 1,530 games were covered by Triple-A umpires (more than 15%). In 2008: 1,443, in 2007: 1,097 and in 2006: 1,244.

The 2010 Giants World Series share was $317,631, while the Rangers received $246,279. The Yankees 2009 World Series share was $350,030.  The 2009 Cardinals received $362,173 & the 2008 Phillies received $351,504.

The first full MLB replay season produced the following results: 56 replays; 7 HR's awarded. 13 HR's taken away and 35.7% of the calls were changed.

During the 2009 season, the most games worked was 156 by Triple-A call-up umpire James Hoye.  Gerry Davis & Dale Scott worked the most for MLB staff umpires at 140.  21 different call-up umpires worked at least 1 MLB game.

Did you know that 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.

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