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Minor League Umpires Agree to Background Checks With Conditions

September 7, 2007, Andover, Massachusetts --- The Association of Minor League Umpires (AMLU), the labor union representing over 200 minor league baseball umpires, including minor league umpires employed by Major League Baseball (MLB) to perform regular and off-season MLB umpiring assignments, announced that its members agreed to sign MLB releases for background checks after obtaining an agreement from MLB regarding the use of any background information obtained by MLB.

Umpire Winters Suspended by MLB
September 26, 2007

Umpires Union Won't Fight Winters' Suspension for Profanity Aimed at Bradley

NEW YORK - The union for baseball umpires will not contest the season-ending suspension given to Mike Winters for using a profanity aimed at San Diego's Milton Bradley last weekend.

The World Umpires Association issued a contrite statement Thursday and union spokesman Lamell McMorris said the WUA would not challenge the penalty handed down by Major League Baseball a day earlier.

"I've spoken with Mike Winters, and he sincerely regrets what happened on the field that day," McMorris said. "Sometimes, regrettable situations just come out of nowhere and spiral out of control, and everyone involved later wishes that the entire thing can be undone and everyone can go back to the beginning and start over. Unfortunately, this is not one of those situations. But we wish the Padres well on the remainder of their season, and we look forward to having Mike back on the field next year."

McMorris said Winters does not plan to telephone Bradley, who tore a knee ligament when Padres manager Bud Black spun him to the ground to keep him from going after the umpire during Sunday's 7-3 loss to Colorado in San Diego.

Bradley had knee surgery Thursday in Cincinnati to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in his right knee.

Winters will not work during the post-season, a baseball official said. He umpired during last year's World Series and would have been in line to work a league championship series this season.

San Diego claimed Winters baited Bradley, who has had a volatile temper in the past, into the confrontation.

Baseball: Finding of Umpire Bias is Small but Unsettling

Minor League Umps, MLB Clash Over Checks
Refusal to sign release could mean official won't be promoted

Aug 10, 2007

NEW YORK - If a minor league umpire refuses to allow Major League Baseball to perform credit checks, it might cost him a job in the big leagues.

Minor league umpires, just like their big league colleagues, are clashing over expanded background checks that the baseball commissioner’s office wants to perform in the wake of the NBA’s referee betting scandal.

Members of the Association of Minor League Umpires are employed by the Professional Baseball Umpire Corp., an offshoot of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues.

“An AMLU member may decline our request that he sign the release and authorization, but MLB is free to consider such refusal when deciding which umpires to select to perform temporary services for MLB and which umpires to hire for permanent employment once a position opens at the major league level,” MLB senior vice president Frank Coonelly wrote in a letter to the umpires’ lawyer on Wednesday.

Coonelly said the umps will be treated “just as we do with any other applicant or contractor.”

Minor league umps claim MLB won’t meet with them.

“We have not refused to go along with the so-called background checks, but MLB has not been very forthcoming with the details of their plan; in fact, they’ve flat-out refused to talk to us, much less answer our questions,” AMLU president Shaun Francis said in a statement Friday.

Francis added in an e-mail to umps: “Will a bounced check or a college bar fight be sufficient grounds for the MLB denying you employment? We really don’t know the answer because MLB won’t talk to us.”

Coonelly wrote Wednesday to umpires’ lawyer Robert Weaver and said he is willing to discuss the matter. Coonelly said Weaver failed to call him and wrote another letter Friday inviting Weaver to call.

Longtime NL umpire Shag Crawford dead at age 90

Longtime major league umpire Shag Crawford, patriarch of a family of prominent sports officials, died Wednesday. He was 90.
Jerry Crawford became a big league umpire in the mid-1970s, around the time his brother, Joey, became an NBA official.
Born Henry Charles Crawford, Shag called more than 3,000 games as a National League umpire from 1956-75. He worked the World Series three times, the NL championship series twice and handled three All-Star games.
Crawford, one of the founders of the umpires' union, ended his active career in 1975 after getting into a dispute with baseball over the rotation of umpires in the World Series.
Crawford, who raised his family in the Philadelphia area, worked the first game at Veterans Stadium in 1971. He stood with son Jerry at home plate when the lineup cards were presented before the final game at the ballpark in 2003.
Jerry Crawford said his father died at an assisted living facility in suburban Philadelphia. "For someone who was going to be 91 in August, he was in pretty good health for a long time," Crawford said by telephone.  "When we were young, my brothers and my sister would go watch my dad work," Jerry Crawford said. "I'm sure that had something to do with what we did."

My Trip to The Show (Part II)

Two springs after his cameo as a Blue Jays outfielder, SI's Tom Verducci was back in the bigs, this time as an umpire for an Orioles-Red Sox game. All he had to be was perfect. (And what manager, player or fan would ever believe that?)

"You're expected to be perfect the day you start, and then improve."
-- Ed Vargo, NL umpire supervisor, 1985

By Tom Verducci
March 28, 2007

Embarrassment. Injury. Blunt force trauma. Estate planning. The mind quickly accelerates the possibility and the amplitude of catastrophe when you are standing on the infield grass, as I am, 75 feet in front of Boston Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez while he bats with a runner on first base. No infielder ever would be so foolish to put himself this close to the potential harm of a Ramirez line drive, not even armed with world-class hand-eye coordination, a fielder's glove and a protective cup -- all of which, as I am most acutely aware, I do not possess at this moment.

I am a major league umpire -- for one day anyway, March 23, working a spring training matinee between the Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles in Fort Myers, Fla. Leaving the observational safety of sportswriting, I have been granted permission by Major League Baseball to experience the pressure, the difficulty and the thanklessness of risking life, limb and public humiliation in front of thousands of people conditioned to dislike you. I am assigned the same spring rotation as my full-time brethren:three innings at third base, followed by three at second and three at first.

The baseball we hold dear is a benign, leisurely sport, a "noncontact" pursuit in which we cherish its sweetly proportioned empty spaces. The interlude between pitches. The flanks in the alignment of fielders. The 90 feet between bases. The flight of a thrown or batted baseball offers elegant interruption to the spatial symmetry.

Working from the interior of the infield, however, reveals the power and speed of the game. It's the difference between observing a funnel cloud from a safe distance on the ground and flying a research plane into the vortex of a tornado. "I tell all the young umpires that come up from the minors, 'Expect a close play every time,'" says Tim Tschida, 46, my crew chief who is working home plate this game. "[The play's] only routine here after it's over. That ball three steps to the right of the shortstop? They don't get to that ball in the minors and here they might throw the guy out. Middle infielders get to more balls up the middle that minor leaguers would never get to -- and not only get to them, but turn them into double plays. I tell the young guys, 'Don't give up on anything.'"

My proximity to Ramirez, who is poised in that familiar asplike, coiled stance, is gripping, but the responsibilities of the job rattle around in my head, like marbles tumbling in a dryer. I've got to keep watch on the Orioles' pitcher, Erik Bedard, for a possible balk, the Sasquatch of rules violations for its difficulty to observe. (I've already missed one by Boston starter Curt Schilling, but so, too, did the rest of the crew.) I must make all calls at second base, which is over my right shoulder (including a stolen base attempt or a force play, which is the most commonly missed call by umpires), and possibly at third base if the umpire there, Brian O'Nora, leaves his post to track a ball hit to the outfield.

I must also know the rule book and the grounds rules with absolute certainty, a weakness of mine exposed during a mild argument the previous half inning with Boston rightfielder J.D. Drew (who had no clue he was pleading his case to a sportswriter until I told him the next day). And one more thought -- the mother of all marbles. Being an umpire is like being a jet pilot, a skydiver or a sword swallower: You're expected to be perfect every time, and if you do screw up it's obvious to everyone. Nothing less than flawless is acceptable. I must get it right.

"God knows if you don't have the mental aptitude for this, you'd ask, 'What are you doing?'" says Fieldin Culbreth, another crew member. "If you're right, nobody's coming in and patting you on the back. If there are 10 close plays and you get 10 exactly right, they're booing you anyway. The only people who will say, 'Good job' are the other three guys in the [locker] room with you. The teams aren't going to say, 'Hell of a job.' ESPN's not going to say, 'Watch this umpire!' Here's the difference: The players are trying to make a play to get on SportsCenter. We're trying our damnedest to stay off it."

I trained long (O.K., two days with Tschida and Culbreth) and hard (kicking back watching games in the Florida sun) for this gig. Ominously, the most important advice given to me by the umpires was to avoid utter disaster. My Umpire 101 syllabus looked like this:

1. Don't blow out the knee of Baltimore shortstop Miguel Tejada by watching the flight of a pop-up near the third base line.

The fielder, who is also looking up, is likely to plow into the umpire, whose proper course of action is to first look for and avoid the fielders. "You getting hurt is one thing," Culbreth says. "The player getting hurt? Now there's a problem."

2. Beware of balls that explode.

That's umpire terminology for what happens when you try to track a ball as it passes directly over your head, causing you to lose sight of it.

3. Don't chase down a batted or thrown ball; that's the players' job.

Don't laugh; it's happened. Former major leaguer Ron LeFlore flunked umpire school in 1988 for his instinctive reaction to play the ball like the outfielder he once was rather than getting into proper position.

4. Don't get spun around by line drives hit directly at you; you'll fall on your butt or, worse, get pegged there.

Culbreth recalls the time that no sooner had he remarked that he had never seen Jeromy Burnitz hit a line drive than Burnitz nailed first base umpire Terry Craft in the posterior. "It went up one side of his [butt] and down the other," Culbreth says.

5. Make sure your fly is zipped.

Basically, the job comes down to this: If I can quit worrying long enough about wiping out Tejada, about baseballs that either explode, tempt me to field them or put me on my can, and about keeping my pants on properly, then all I need to do is nail every single call. Great.

"Umpiring is a gift," says ump Tim Timmons, 39, who also assisted in my training, "like the hitter who has the skill to hit that 90-mph slider or the pitcher who can do things with a baseball no human being should be able to do. Those are real gifts, and so is umpiring. You can't teach instincts."

Major league umpires are, in fact, closer to perfect than you might imagine. There were 167,341 at bats last season over 2,429 games. According to the 2006 "Umpiring Year in Review," a report put together by MLB officials, the men in blue made only 100 incorrect calls, excluding balls and strikes (and in that discipline they were judged to be 94.9% accurate). Not once did a club protest a game. (A protest can be filed only if a team believes umpires misapplied the rules.)

For the privilege of having to be perfect, umpires spend about 200 days a year on the road, hear the same lousy jokes in every ballpark about their eyesight or familial heritage, and routinely get second-guessed by critics watching repeated superslow, frame-by-frame replays in high definition from multiple camera angles. Yet major league umpiring jobs (of which there are 68) open up these days about as infrequently as those on the Supreme Court. What kind of person would love a job in which you get noticed only for your mistakes?

"I've always said there's no player, no fan, no manager and no umpire who could ever be as hard on me as I'll be," says Culbreth. "The fans can boo and throw stuff, and managers can scream and holler and get ejected, and they'll never get to me like I will. The part that bothers me the most is people think we miss a call, change our clothes, get in a station wagon, go have a cheeseburger and go home. That's just not how it is. If people knew how much we cared ... they wouldn't be able to comprehend how much it bothers us to find out that we are wrong."

Schilling and bedard are throwing so well that my three innings at third base pass without incident. The best action I get is a conversation with Boston third baseman Mike Lowell about April weather, and a Manny-being-Manny moment when, as Ramirez runs to leftfield, he looks at me with wild-eyed glee and chortles, "Heeeey! Que pasa?!" I get no appeal calls on check swings by lefthanded batters, an especially tricky call for umpires because the rule book is not explicit about what exactly constitutes a swing.

Says Culbreth, laughing, "Just remember, if it's David Ortiz, he didn't [swing]. Trust me. After you say he did, he'll tell you. He'll faint. If I could hit with his check swings I might have gotten drafted."

According to Major League Baseball's review, in 2006 umpires missed a call in the field only once every 12.2 games. Force plays (43 mistakes), tag plays (14) and steals (12) were the only categories in which umpires missed 10 or more calls the entire season. Video replay, however, is just around baseball's corner, at least in a limited scope. Baseball is studying the possibility of using it to assist in making home run calls -- fair or foul, and whether or not the ball cleared the wall or designated home run line. Such calls have been made more difficult by modern ballpark designs, which put fans, architectural elements and billboards closer to the action.

"If we don't address this, there will be a major controversy and that's how replay gets in the door," Tschida says. "Last year our crew in the first month had five home run calls where we had to get together [to discuss them]. I was thinking, Are we snakebit? So I started keeping track. We had 43 home runs where the ball came back on the field. It's not supposed to happen, but it happens when nonbaseball people are designing fields."

I have the pleasure of calling a clean, no-doubt home run by Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek in the fifth, but it's during those middle innings, when I am stationed at second base, that the inner game of umpiring becomes dangerous. The second base umpire is the lead dancer of the four-man ballet. I must run into the outfield on balls hit from gap to gap with nobody on base, with the third base umpire rotating to second and the home plate ump rotating to third. "Once you leave, don't stop," Culbreth instructs.

However, in the fourth, I am positioned in the interior infield because there's a runner at first base -- "Once in, always in" is the rule with runners on -- and I make the mistake of chasing a ball hit into the right centerfield gap by the Orioles' Jay Gibbons. It's a blunder most fans would never notice, but understanding the umpires' pursuit of perfection, it rankles me. Indeed, I'm later told that umpire supervisor Marty Springstead, watching the game from the press box, exclaimed, "Uh-oh, too many umpires in the outfield."

The next batter, Kevin Millar, also drives a double into the same gap. The ball rolls to a stop at the bottom of the fence and is returned to the infield by centerfielder Wily Mo Peña. That play will prompt Drew, after the inning ends, to stop next to me on his way to the dugout.

Drew lifts his arms out to his sides and says to me, "Hey, what's the rule on the ball that wedges under the fence?"

I can tell he's very serious and mistakes me for an actual umpire. This is not good.

"Uh, did it go under the fence at all?" I ask in an attempt to avoid his question. "Because if it goes under the fence it's a dead ball even if he fishes it out."

"No," Drew says, more impassioned this time. "The ball got stuck between the bottom of the fence and the ground. What's the ruling?"

"The ball's in play unless it goes completely under the fence," I reply, in full filibuster mode as I return to the under-the-fence diversion.

"No, not under the fence," Drew says again, more confused than annoyed about not getting a direct answer from an umpire. "What's the ground rule here on a ball stuck under the fence?"

I've tap-danced long enough for Culbreth to rescue me as he joins us from his station at first base. I haven't been this happy to see an umpire since Leslie Nielsen in The Naked Gun. Culbreth explains that the ball's in play as long as Peña chooses to play it; if the ball's wedged, Peña can raise his hand to signal a stuck ball. Then the ruling is an automatic double and two bases to any base runner.

"Yeah," I say to Drew, suddenly summoning an authoritative tone with a straight face. "Tell him next time to just raise his hand and we'll stop the play."

I made sure to find Drew the next morning at a Red Sox workout.

"That was you?" he says in amazement. "I came back into the dugout after that and looked at the list [of umpires]. I knew the other three guys, but they didn't have you on it. So I figured you were some Double A umpire they called up to replace somebody."

There's more trouble in the fifth, the same kind of trouble, like the undertow of the ocean, that mostly goes unseen. Baltimore's Corey Patterson whistles a line drive at Culbreth, the kind of missile that can put an umpire embarrassingly on his butt or whack him there.

Any hitter will tell you that late-breaking pitches are hardest to hit because it is impossible for the eyes to track a thrown ball and see it the last four or five feet. Culbreth is challenged by the same limitation. He can track the ball -- it's heading right for his ankles -- but because of its speed and proximity to his body he can't see it just as it hits the ground. He's got to make a call. Quickly.

"Fair ball!" he shouts, and signals so, deftly staying off his butt. Patterson races into second with a double as the runner at first, Paul Bako, advances to third.

Schilling pitches out of the jam, but only after he gets away with his covert balk. Stepping off the mound to get a new signal from Varitek, Schilling, a righthander, moved his left foot slightly back, which technically begins his delivery. Tschida sees something amiss, but in the moment he processes the information, he grants a request for time from Varitek. ("Oh, I balked," Schilling will say the next day.)

After the inning, Culbreth still is thinking about Patterson's line drive. "That one I don't feel great about," he tells me. (Amazingly, according to the MLB report, umpires missed a total of three fair-foul calls all of last season.) "I think I got it right, but sometimes you feel less than great about it."

"I thought you had it right," I tell him. "Was there chalk?"

"No, it didn't hit chalk," he says, "but here's the thing: If you ever have some doubt in your mind, you're better off calling it fair than foul. That's because, if another umpire had a better look and comes in and says, 'No, I had it foul,' then you can just return the base runner and the batter continues to hit. But once you call it foul, everybody stops; so if another umpire has it fair, what can you do? You can't just make up where everybody goes."

"You had it right," I tell him.

Says Schilling, "It was foul by three or four feet. Wasn't even close."

"We're looking right down the line from the dugout," reliever Mike Timlin says. "It was foul."

Culbreth gets another adventure straight out of the Umpiring 101 syllabus: a foul pop-up into a swirling wind that confuses Millar, the Orioles' first baseman. Culbreth is trying to stay out of the way of Millar, who is circling wildly, as if dizzy. Culbreth is doing his best to zig whenever Millar zags. It's a comedic and ungraceful pas de deux, the punch line coming when the ball plops on the warning track closer to Culbreth than to Millar. Second baseman Brian Roberts looks at me and we both are laughing. So, too, is Tejada, who yells, "Hey, Kevin, I can't wait to see that on bloopers!" Millar, who otherwise spends his time at first base yelling mock insults to his former Red Sox teammates as they hit, or trying to bait me into making appeal calls from second base on ridiculously meager check swings, has to laugh himself.

Here it comes: a close call I will have to make at first base that will impact the game. Boston, trailing 2-1, has runners at first and second with no outs in the seventh when Lowell hits a grounder to second base. Baltimore will try to turn a double play, so I position myself for the call. The throw from Tejada to Millar bounces into the first baseman's glove. It's a close play, but I have Lowell out, the bang of the ball hitting the glove barely preceding the bang of the foot upon the bag. (The umpires' adage is that a blind man could umpire at first base.) The rally is virtually snuffed by the call. Suddenly there's this swell of noise from the Red Sox crowd, a strange mix of excitement and apoplexy.

Is it directed at Lowell? At me? I thought I had it right, but for one anxious moment, I'm not sure. Did I blow it that badly? No, wait. I flush the doubt. Lowell was out. I'm pretty sure of it. That plaintive groan is the sound of disappointed partisanship. Major league umps are tone deaf to such noise.

"They're biased," Culbreth says of fans. "The only time you might hear something is if it's really original, which almost never happens. I still remember one time when I was in Double A. There was this middle-aged lady. She must have been in her 50s, pushing 60. She gets up and she yells at me, 'Why don't you pull down your pants, bend over and try your good eye.' Nothing's original. But that was."

Says Tschida, "There was one time years ago when I bought a patent leather belt and thought it looked just great. Well, I wear it in Yankee Stadium for the first time, and those people know how to wait so that you can hear them. This one guy, a real New Yorker, gets up and yells, 'Hey, Tschida. How can you make a call like dat wearin' a patent leathah belt like dat? And hey, what accessories came with dat?' As soon as the game was over, I go in the locker room, rip off the belt and throw it in the garbage."

Boston ties the game in the last of the eighth. It is only spring training, but I'm struck by the buzz in the crowd, the effort by both teams to win the game -- to preserve the tie, Baltimore intentionally walks Ortiz, who spits epithets all the way to first -- and it hits me smack in the gut: I am umpiring first base in a game in which the Red Sox and the Orioles are tied at 2 headed to the ninth. Good Lord, if this is Fort Myers, what must the late innings of a World Series game feel like?

The real umpires want the responsibility of the big call. It's what drove them through one of the two feeder umpire schools to professional baseball (94% of the students don't even graduate to the next step, a recommendation to an evaluation course), through the minor leagues (earning between $1,800 and $3,400 a month) and earning that big league job with the $87,859 starting salary, the first-class air travel, the four weeks of in-season vacation and the $363.48 per diem for food and lodging. Me? I'm praying neither the baseball nor my head explodes.

"This is my 22nd year," Tschida says. "When I'm 55 that will be my 30th, and if I feel good I'll keep going. I'll do it as long as I can. Few people in this job just retire when retirement age hits. Mostly, we do it until it becomes physically difficult to do it. Until we can't."

I know, especially deployed at first base, I could very well be involved in the outcome of a big league game. "If it goes extra innings," O'Nora tells me, "we don't rotate. You stay at first."

I remind myself of what O'Nora told me in the middle innings, when I was so eager to make a call I'd give the out signal as quickly as a fly ball thwacked into an outfielder's glove: Don't hurry. It's nothing until you call it. Even a big league outfielder might drop a ball, and you wouldn't look too sharp with your fist in the air and the ball on the ground. Slow down the game. It's exactly what the better players do as the tension builds.

It's the bottom of the ninth, and Boston's Alex Ochoa lifts a routine fly ball to centerfield. Just as I sneak a peek to watch the catch before I make sure Ochoa touches first base, Orioles centerfielder Adam Stern, fighting wind and sun, flat drops the ball. O'Nora, cooly patient, gives the no-catch call. Ochoa reaches second base. He advances to third on a groundout to second base -- my last call, an easy one -- and scores the winning run on a single by Kevin Cash through a drawn-in infield.

The four of us, the umpires, depart the field through the same tunnel as the Orioles at the far end of the visiting dugout. It's been a good day. I did not disable any ballplayers. I stayed off my butt. My fly is up. Our dressing room is on the right, the Orioles' clubhouse directly across the narrow hallway on the left. As I walk into our room I hear a short, loud crash from the Baltimore clubhouse, followed by an even louder shout of "F---!"

Not two seconds later, the first words out of Tschida's mouth are these, softly: "I think Schilling balked." His face is riddled with disappointment. "We get paid to see that," he says. "I didn't see that. We will Opening Day."

Tomorrow is another day, another game. Tomorrow they'll be perfect.

MLB, Union Announce New Labor Deal

10/25/2006
By Barry M. Bloom
ST. LOUIS -- Call it the golden age of the sport. Call it economic parity. Call it what you will, but call it labor peace for Major League Baseball for the next five years.

Reflecting the health of the sport and unprecedented partnership between the sides, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and players association head Don Fehr jointly announced Tuesday one of the longest labor contracts in baseball history, a five-year deal through 2011.

The agreement, signed late Monday night and announced Tuesday during a press conference at Busch Stadium in the hours before Game 3 of the World Series between the Cardinals and Tigers, must be ratified by the owners and the players. That is considered a formality.

The deal includes adjusted formulas for revenue sharing, a higher threshold for the competitive balance tax, a revamped draft for amateur players, changes in draft-pick compensation for free agents and the elimination of long-standing deadline dates for Major League free agents, giving teams added flexibility in re-signing their players.

It also extends the current drug policy, amended for the second time last year, from the end of the 2008 season to the length of the new agreement.

"This is the golden era in every way," Selig said. "The economics of our sport have improved dramatically, and that's good. The last agreement produced stunning growth and revenue. I believe that five years from now people will be stunned at how well we grew the sport. This agreement encourages that, and I'm very confident that it will produce the same results that we're all concerned about and that I certainly am -- not only economic growth, but parity."

Baseball is seemingly already there. When this World Series is over, the Fall Classic will have produced seven different champions since 2000, an unprecedented run in major sports. Gross revenue has increased to $5.2 billion this season from $1.2 billion in 1992, the first year Selig took over as Commissioner. The average player salary has increased to $2.8 million this season from about $1 million in 1992. Both are records.

The lack of acrimony in the talks also signaled what both sides said is a new era in labor peace. The agreement was completed two months before the Dec. 19 deadline and was marked by a virtual news blackout as the sides negotiated in private, and without rancor.

"What was really different this time was that the approach to bargaining, while it had its difficult moments, was very workmanlike, very pragmatic, very day‑by‑day," Fehr said. "There was a shared desire to see if we could resolve this well ahead of time and if we could get it done by about the time of the World Series, before the free agency declaration period began."

The 2002 talks in New York went right to the edge of an Aug. 30 strike deadline called by the players, and for months beforehand the two sides were conducting independent conference calls and press conferences. But four years ago, the contract was settled for the first time without a strike or lockout. There had been eight such work stoppages from 1972 to the strike that wiped out 1994 postseason and delayed the opening of the following season.

"They were without the usual rancor. They were without the usual dueling press conferences. They were without the usual leaks," Selig said. "In other words, these negotiations were conducted professionally, with dignity and with results. These negotiations were emblematic of the new spirit of cooperation and trust that now exists between the clubs and the players."

The success of this year's World Baseball Classic, a joint venture that will be staged again in 2009 and every four years thereafter, was also credited with laying the foundation for teamwork between the sides.

"That was the first really dramatic foray we made and we made it together," Selig said. "We made it as partners. They were wonderfully cooperative and it produced an event that exceeded everybody's finest expectations. So I would say that it was a great precursor to what happened here."

Much of the new agreement mirrors the old agreement. Revenue sharing was slightly modified. The competitive balance tax was altered with the threshold rising from $136.5 million this year to $178 million in 2011. The winning league in the All-Star Game will continue to get home-field advantage in the World Series. The debt-service rule, in which clubs cannot borrow to pay existing debt, remains the same. The Commissioner's discretionary fund stayed at $10 million a year.

But there were new facets to the deal.

The Dec. 7 and Jan. 8 deadlines for free agents to re-sign with their former teams were eliminated, allowing clubs more flexibility to retain their players. Additionally, any player traded in the middle of a multi-year contract can no longer demand a trade.

Clubs that can't sign early-round picks in the First-Year Player Draft will be compensated with comparable selections in the subsequent year's draft. Teams will also face a much shorter deadline to sign draftees, with all picks other than college seniors required to be signed by Aug. 15.

Players will see the MLB minimum salary rise from its current $327,000 -- plus cost of living -- to $380,000 next year. After that it goes to $390,000 for 2008, $400,000 for 2009 and 2010, and $400,000 plus cost of living adjustments for 2011.

And while the current drug-testing rules will be extended through the 2011 season, both sides said they would consider testing for the synthetic hormone, HGH (human growth hormone).

"If a urine test is developed and scientifically validated and all the `i's' are dotted and 't's' are crossed, there is an understanding that we will adopt that test," Fehr said. "Blood tests we will talk about when one is validated. But as far as I know, and we check fairly frequently on this, there is not that testing available yet."

Current Minor League Umpires Situation

Minor league Umps Reach Agreement, End Strike

TENSION OVER UMPIRING ESCALATES

May 8, 2006

The Birmingham Barons, Double A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, were pulled off the field by manager Chris Cron during the eighth inning of Saturday night’s game against the visiting Jacksonville Suns after the teams’ benches cleared three times. In the stands was David Wilder, director of player personnel for the White Sox. Wilder was quoted as saying he would complain to Southern League commissioner Don Mincher about the umpiring. “This has gotten out of control”, Wilder told the Birmingham News.

The events in Birmingham are just the latest in a series that have sparked comments from minor league officials about the quality of officiating being provided by replacement umpires hired to fill in for minor league baseball’s striking umpires. Following his ejection from a May 1 AAA International League game in Ottawa, Ottawa Lynx manager Dave Trembley described the umpiring as the “worst officiating I’ve ever seen in 20 years of professional baseball”, and “an embarrassment to the International League and an embarrassment to me.” Trembley was also quoted as saying that he warned International League President Randy Mobley about the replacement umpires last month. One day later, Bill Masse, manager of the AA Trenton Thunder, described the umpiring of a May 2
game with the Reading Phillies as “an absolute joke.” Masse was also quoted as saying that “Major League Baseball should be absolutely ashamed of themselves for letting this happen over freakin’ nickels.” On April 27 Tampa Bay Devil Rays prospect Delmon Young was suspended indefinitely by the International League for throwing a bat at a replacement umpire in a game the night before.

“Unfortunately for the managers, players and fans of minor league baseball, what we expected to happen is coming to pass”, said Andy Roberts, president of the striking Association of Minor League Umpires. “The replacement umpires don’t have the training and experience to work at this level of professional baseball, and it’s taking its toll.”

“We don’t condone fighting, and we certainly don’t condone anybody throwing a bat”, added Roberts, “but these incidents shouldn’t have happened. Professional umpires have the knowledge and experience to control things on the field. We also travel from city to city in every league, so a visiting team doesn’t have to worry about the effects of using home-town umpires.”

The Association of Minor League Umpires represents the approximately 220 umpires employed in 16 minor leagues across the United States and Canada. The umpires have been on strike since the start of the minor league season

UMPIRES REJECT CONTRACT PROPOSAL

Tuesday, May 2, 2006

Members of the Association of Minor League Umpires (AMLU) rejected a proposed contract which would have ended their three-week old strike against minor league baseball. “The membership has spoken, and they have the final say”, said AMLU President Andy Roberts. “The negotiating committee and the leadership are ready to do what we have to do to win this struggle for the umpires.”

By a 2-to-1 margin, the umpires rejected the tentative proposal reached by negotiators for the two sides in talks facilitated by a federal mediator last week in Cincinnati. The proposed deal called for a single $100 per month salary increase for umpires, and a $2 per day increase in per diem in the 2006 season, with further increases in per diem spread over a six year contract term. Umpire pay currently starts at $1800 per month for the 2 1?2 month Rookie League season, and reaches a maximum of $3400 per month for the most senior umpire in a 5 month AAA season. Per diem ranges from $20 per day at the low levels to $25 per day at AAA. The salary and per diem have been unchanged since 1998.

Minor League baseball continues to use replacement umpires in the wake of the membership’s rejection of the proposed contract. No further negotiations are scheduled between the parties at this time. In a AAA International League game last night in Ottawa, Ottawa Lynx manager Dave Trembley spoke out about the quality of the replacement umpires after he was ejected. According to a report published in today’s Ottawa Sun, Trembley described the umpiring as the “worst officiating I’ve ever seen in 20 years of professional baseball”, and “an embarrassment to the International League and an embarrassment to me.” Trembley is also quoted as saying that he warned International League President Randy Mobley about the replacement umpires last month. Mobley is a member of minor league baseball’s negotiating committee. Lynx field coach Dallas Williams was quoted by the Sun as saying “those guys should be reffing hockey.”

Minor-League Umps Set to Reverse their Strike Call

BUFFALO — Minor-league umpires are expected to be calling strikes rather than be on strike in the near future.

Striking minor league umpires reached a tentative agreement with management on a six-year contract and could be back by May 8 if the deal is ratified. More than 200 members of the Association of Minor League Umpires have been on strike since the start of the 2006 season.

The minor-league umps wanted an increase in their rather meager salaries. Last season, the average salary was $15,000 in Triple-A, $12,000 in Double-A, $10,000 in full-season Class A and $5,500 in short-season rookie leagues. The per-diem (meal money) was $25 in Triple-A, $22 in Double-A and $20 at all other levels.

Umpires who work in leagues that play full seasons receive health insurance for the entire year. Their lodging during the season and travel are also paid for by Minor League Baseball.

While the minor-league umpires are on strike, the minors have been using replacement umpires. The names of the umpires weren’t released to the media in an attempt to protect their identity and safety.

Pat O’Conner, chief operating officer for Minor League Baseball, said striking umpires have tried to intimidate replacement umpires through tactics such has harassing them during games and taking their pictures, putting them up on the AMLU’s Web site and identifying them as “scabs.” Some replacement umpires have even received death threats, O’Conner said.

“I am greatly disappointed,” O’Conner said. “Some of these tactics to me are beyond necessary. I hope everyone that does something illegal gets what they deserve.”

There were no major on-field disputes with the umpires until last week when Durham’s Delmon Young threw a bat that hit a replacement umpire in the chest after being called out on strikes in an International League game at Pawtucket. Young, who flung his bat end over end, said he did not intend to hit the umpire. Young, a top prospect of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays apologized Thursday after the International League suspended him indefinitely.

Buffalo manager Torey Lovullo said such an incident should never happen, replacement umps or not.

“It doesn’t matter who’s umpiring, that’s unacceptable,” Lovullo said. “Those guys (the umpires) aren’t try to do anything out of the norm, just give them the benefit of the doubt. But players get on edge, and when they do, they’re liable to do anything at any moment.”

Lovullo refrained from criticizing the umpires, although he did say there were some questionable calls when the Bisons played in Pawtucket.

“They’ve been very consistent,” he said of the replacements. “We came in with some very raw expectations, and they’ve been outstanding. For what level of baseball they’ve been umpiring they’ve given us their best effort.

“I don’t want to say anything negative about them because the games would not go on if they weren’t out here giving us their best effort as they have been.”

Jason Stein, a 31-year-old umpire in the Double-A Texas League, said he isn’t bothered so much by the quality of the umpiring. Rather, he thinks back to all of the hardships he has endured since he dropped out of college, borrowed $3,000 and went to umpiring school. “They didn’t earn the right to be here,” Stein said. “That’s what gets me.”
As of next week, it appears that the regular umpires will tell the replacements that they’re outta here.

Below are Letters that were Penned by Several of the Current Minor League Umpires.
March, 2006 

Gentlemen,

I would like to ask you for a few minutes of your time to update or inform you on the Association of Minor League Umpires (AMLU) and our current negotiations with Minor League Baseball (MiLB) and Professional Baseball Umpire Corporation (PBUC).

As some of you may have already heard, our contract and collective bargaining agreement has expired and we have been in negotiations with MiLB/PBUC for the past three months. We are asking for better wages and living conditions for the umpires of today, and for those who will follow in our paths. To date, MiLB/PBUC and the AMLU have been unsuccessful on agreeing to a new contract. With that being said, the AMLU has made a decision not to attend spring training this year.

In a nutshell, minor league umpires have not had a pay raise in over TEN years. In fact, seven years ago there was actually a DECREASE in pay and a wage freeze put in place. Five years ago the minor league umpires formed an association and signed their first contract ever. It was believed to be a major step in the right direction, but as it turned out it gave MiLB almost deity-like power over the umpires. They have pushed us around for five years, and have treated us like dirt. It has come time for things to change, and this is the year for it to happen.

We are not asking baseball to make minor league umpires rich, but we are asking them to come up to level that will allow us to follow our career paths with affordable means - right now, the wages are not livable. The top AAA umpires currently make $14,000/season (give or take). Our per diem is $25/day at the highest level while the government allows for a MINIMUM of $40/day, with many of the MiLB cities listed closer to $50.

Some of you may be approached to either work games in spring training or even the regular season, as this has been happening recently in minor league cities throughout the country. As my fellow brothers on the field, and also as friends with whom I have had the pleasure of working with and getting to know over the past few years, I would ask that you take our situation into consideration if you are contacted. MiLB believes that they have a broad pool of talent to choose from to replace us in spring, and also in the event of a work stoppage. By agreeing to work in our stead, you would be denying us any hope of leverage in negotiations.

If you have not already read the numerous articles about our situation, you can visit the AMLU website (www.amlu.org) and view some of the articles there. Also, doing a Google search about minor league umpires and contracts or negotiations will produce a multitude of results. If, for whatever reason, you can’t find these articles and would like to read them, please feel free to contact me and I will forward them to you.

I hope this information helps and each of you better understand what we are trying to accomplish and that you will seriously consider standing behind our effort. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for umpires in the minor leagues. If we don't make a stand now, MiLB will never have to take us seriously and we will be pushed around forever.

If anyone has questions, comments, concerns or any information about contact that has been made by MLB or MiLB that they would like to share, I ask you please do not hesitate to get in touch with me, or with any of the other guys I will list at the end of this letter.

I can’t thank you all enough for taking the time to read through this and for any and all support that you can give.

Nick Nolde Escanaba, MI
906-280-2854

nnolde@hotmail.com

Carolina League

A quick note on some of the other things that we are asking for and are being steadfastly denied…

- MiLB has hired international umpires. They are now saying that they will NO LONGER PAY FOR THEM TO TRAVEL to their assignments. That means that four Australian guys and two Japanese guys that are in short season (making approximately $5,400 for the season) will have to pay out of their pockets to get here from their home, which we all know costs no less than $1,000.

- We are asking MiLB to include ALL umpires in the health plan. Currently only umpires in full season leagues are covered, meaning that in the first couple of years umpires have NO HEALTH COVERAGE unless they pay for it out of their own pocket.

- We are asking for a scaled pay increase that is heavier at the upper levels. It would give rookie umpires a whopping $300/mo raise. We’re not asking for the world, yet MiLB is UNWILLING to budge.

One last thought to ponder. MiLB stated in the rounds of negotiations, “It’s not that we don’t have the money to give you, we just don’t want to.”

If you would like to email some of the other minor league umpires, these guys have offered to answer any questions that you may have.

Darren Hyman AAA Pacific Coast League dhyman4@msn.com
Brent Persinger AAA International League BPersinger@netscape.com

(original letter by Tom Clarke)

A Response

Minor League Umpires Seek Better Conditions

Written by Doug Segrest
November 13, 2005

You love your job. It has perks. Most notably, it allows you to be part of the game you grew up with as a kid.

So you're willing to do almost anything - 11-hour, all-night road trips, minimal pay, absence from your family for five months at a time - to chase a dream.

You just want a little equity. Maybe a hint of respect.

If you're former Birmingham-Southern College baseball players Andy Roberts and Brian Hale, you want more.

Roberts, 31, is the president of the Association of Minor League Umpires, the coalition of men in blue who umpire professional games from Rookie League to Triple-A.

Hale, 32, is the vice president. He's no longer on the job as an ump - the clock ran out on him in October. But he hasn't given up the fight.

``We're not trying to get rich," said Hale, the son of Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Hale. ``But given the travel, the pay, we just want it to be livable."

Right now, under the radar of ESPN, beyond the notice of most newspapers, a battle is under way.

Roberts, Hale and Birmingham attorney Robert M. Weaver are negotiating with Minor League Baseball officials to improve the collective bargaining agreement that ended with the 2005 season.

The AMLU, headquartered in Birmingham, isn't making pie-in-the-sky demands. But the union is fighting tooth-and-nail on issues that hit close to home to anyone who lives paycheck to paycheck:

Salaries - The pay scale is the same as it was 10 years ago with one exception. First-year umpires in rookie ball make less than their 1996 predecessors. Umps are paid for five months and make, on average, a whopping $10,000 annually.

Commuting - Baseball wants umpires to travel as a group and stay in the same hotel. But that means an umpire who lives in Cullman and works Southern League games in Birmingham or Huntsville must get permission to spend a few nights at home and commute to the games.

Travel - The union wants to be involved in scheduling umpire rotations to cut down on needless road trips. One time last year, in the Triple-A International League, Roberts' crew worked a series in Ottawa and Hale's crew worked in Toledo. After all-night van trips, Hale's crew showed up the next night to work a series in Ottawa while Roberts' crew reported to - where else? - Toledo.

Guidelines for on-field contact - Suspensions and penalties for players and managers who make physical contact with umpires vary from league to league. Umpires want concrete guidelines that outline sanctions up front.

A database of managers and players who cross the line - Leagues could act with more impunity against repeat violators. Umpires would have more warning, as well.

An increase in off days - Minor league men in blue get 8-10 offdays an entire season. Only three (the Major League All-Star break) are consecutive. By contrast, big-league umps get five weeks.

Roberts' goal of becoming a Major League umpire remains alive. But right now, his vision is more narrowly defined.

Like Hale, all he wants is a little respect for the men in blue.

Umpires Turn Down $1.9M in Back Pay

By RONALD BLUM 
Nov 16, 2005

NEW YORK - Baseball tried to give five umpires more than $1.9 million in back pay Tuesday, but they instructed their banks to refuse the payments, according to their lawyer.

More than six years after a failed mass resignation led to a lawsuit that went all the way to the Supreme Court, the umpires and the commissioner's office are still fighting over an additional $718,817 in interest.

Major League Baseball attempted to pay $525,607 to Joe West, $439,248 to Bill Hohn, $379,095 to Gary Darling, $301,453 to Larry Poncino and $297,162 to Larry Vanover, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. The money was to cover lost salary and bonuses for 1999, 2000 and 2001 plus medical expenses, with a credit taken by management for $122,072 in estimated earnings by the five during that period.

Management also made a $47,422 pension contribution for Poncino and a $42,368 contribution for Vanover.

"These guys are going to get what they are entitled to, which is the back pay and interest," said Pat Campbell, the lawyer for the Major League Umpires Association. "That was a cheap move by baseball."

The refused electronic payments are part of a nasty legal battle that initially cost 22 umpires their jobs.

"It is regrettable that the MLUA's refusal to provide the information necessary to calculate the umpires' back pay for the last 10 months, after repeated requests that it do so, prevented the umpires from receiving their back pay earlier," management lawyer Frank Coonelly said. "Even after 10 months, the MLUA has provided only a small subset of the necessary information and, as a result, payments were made to umpires based on estimates. Our decision to make payments without the necessary information probably resulted in an overpayment to the umpires but we could not wait any longer for the MLUA to do its part."

The Supreme Court on Jan. 10 declined to hear an appeal of the original case, but that didn't end the arguing.

"They did not pay me what they owe me, and they did not pay Darling, Hohn, Poncino, or Vanover what they owed them," West said in an e-mail.

In documents filed in federal court in Philadelphia on Oct. 27, the MLUA asked that commissioner Bud Selig and Major League Baseball be held in contempt. While the union claimed in its memorandum that "allowance for prejudgment interest is indisputable," management said "the MLUA did not seek prejudgment interest in arbitration and this court cannot resolve a remedial question that was not submitted to the arbitrator."

The five umpires were rehired as part of a partial settlement in February 2002, an agreement that left courts to decide the issue of back pay.

Six other umpires were rehired by baseball. Bruce Dreckman, Sam Holbrook and Paul Nauert gave up back pay when they were brought back in August 2002, and Bob Davidson, Tom Hallion and Ed Hickox agreed to drop claims under a deal this year.

 Five Big League Umps Win Back Pay

01/10/2005

The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling, largely ending nearly 5 1/2 years of litigation resulting from the resignation by 22 umpires late in the 1999 season.

Gary Darling, Bill Hohn, Larry Poncino, Larry Vanover and Joe West will receive back pay for September 1999 and the 2000 and 2001 seasons. The five were rehired as part of a partial settlement of their suit in February 2002, a deal that left the issue of back pay to be decided by the courts.

Six of the other umpires have been rehired by baseball. Bruce Dreckman, Sam Holbrook and Paul Nauert gave up their right to back pay when they were rehired in August 2002, and Bob Davidson, Tom Hallion and Ed Hickox will be brought back under an agreement reached last month in which they agreed to drop any claims.

In May 2001, arbitrator Alan Symonette ordered baseball to rehire Darling, Hohn, Poncino, Vanover and West, as well as Drew Coble, Greg Kosc, Frank Pulli and Terry Tata. Coble, Kosc, Pulli and Tata were allowed to retire with back pay.

The arbitrator's decision largely was upheld in December 2002 by U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Bartle's decision by a 2-1 vote in February 2004.

December's deal gives severance pay to Jim Evans, Dale Ford, Eric Gregg, Mark Johnson, Ken Kaiser and Larry McCoy.

The only remaining suit was filed by Richie Phillips, head of the Major League Umpires Association. Umpires replaced the MLUA with a new union, the World Umpires Association, in late 1999.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press.

Fan Pleads Guilty to Attacking Ump  

By Carrie Muskat
12/04/2003

CHICAGO -- The fan who attacked an umpire at a Chicago White Sox game this year pleaded guilty Thursday and was sentenced to up to 180 days of jail time and 30 months' probation.

Eric Dybas pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated battery in a public way during a hearing before Cook County Judge Joseph Kazmierski. Dybas, 25, of Bolingbrook, could have been sentenced to up to five years in prison.

The incident occurred April 15 when Dybas charged onto the field during a White Sox home game against the Kansas City Royals and tried to tackle umpire Laz Diaz. Dybas was overpowered by Royals players before he could hurt the umpire.

"It sends a message that running on the field of play is not 'I'll pay my fine and be home at night' type of thing. There are penalties," said Scott Reifert, White Sox director of public relations.

"We think today's ruling is fair and it shows how embarrassing the (William) Ligue ruling was," Reifert said.

Ligue Jr., got 30 months' probation when Judge Leo Holt sentenced him in August for the September 2002 attack that resulted in permanent hearing damage to Royals coach Tom Gamboa.

Assistant State's Atty. Rich Keating called Dybas' sentence a fair one.

"It not only sends a message to other would-be field charges but adequately addresses the incident itself," Keating said.

Commissioner's Statement on Drug Testing

11/13/2003
Baseball Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig issued the following statement today regarding the announcement that drug testing for Major League Baseball players will begin next season:

"While I am pleased the results of the survey testing show that there is not widespread steroid use in baseball, I am also pleased that the drug testing program negotiated last year as part of the collective bargaining agreement with the Players Association heightened awareness to the dangers of improper drug use and now has allowed us the means to implement the new more comprehensive drug testing and enforcement program. Hopefully, this will, over time, allow us to completely eradicate the use of performance enhancement substances in baseball."

Program Testing for Major Leaguers for Steroids to Commence in 2004

Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association today announced results of the 2003 testing survey undertaken pursuant to the new Basic Agreement between the Clubs and Players.

In 2003, 1,438 anonymous, unannounced tests were conducted. The number of positives was between five and seven percent, and therefore exceeded the threshold in the Basic Agreement for the institution of program testing. Under program testing, all players, starting March 2, 2004, will be subject to the same testing as occurred in the survey on a random basis, only this time the identity of those tested will be known, and positive test results could lead to discipline, including suspension of the offending player.

All players on the 40-man rosters were randomly selected for testing at unannounced times in 2003. In addition, 240 players, also randomly selected, were tested a second time, again on an unannounced basis. Because of the double-testing of many players, the actual number of players on the 40-man rosters who tested positive (as opposed to the number of tests producing positive results) is not determinable.

In announcing the test results, Rob Manfred, the Clubs' representative on the Health Policy Advisory Committee, which oversees the testing program, said: "We believe that last season's testing helped address the problem of steroid use and that the more vigorous testing and enforcement program next year will be a further step forward on this issue."

Gene Orza, the Association's representative on the Committee, said: "Plainly, many of the widely publicized claims regarding steroid use in the sport turn out to have been grossly uninformed, as do the suggestions that the agreement with the Clubs was designed to avoid a penalty-based testing regimen. That said, we will continue to work with the Clubs in the administration of the new testing program in the same spirit of cooperation that marked the administration of the 2003 survey testing."

QuesTec 'Not Going Away'

By John Schlegel, 11/11/2003
PHOENIX -- Sandy Alderson has a simple statement about the future of QuesTec, the computerized system Major League Baseball used to evaluate umpires this season.  "It's not going away," Alderson said Tuesday while taking a break from the GM meetings at the Arizona Biltmore.

According to Alderson, MLB's executive vice president for operations, the system "has done wonders" and will remain a big part of the evaluation process for umpires. The system, used in 13 stadiums this year, is already doing its job by helping umpires call a uniform strike zone based on the rule book, Alderson said.

"The fact is that I think what we've shown with the data we have is that the umpires are getting better and better at calling the strike zone and it's not getting to be a smaller and smaller strike zone in the sense games are getting longer -- they're not getting longer," Alderson said.

The system has been controversial from the beginning, drawing a grievance from the World Umpires Association and absorbing one beating of a camera by Arizona pitcher Curt Schilling.

Alderson says the more players find out what the system is being used for, the better understanding they have of it and the better appreciation they have for it in general. According to Alderson, data shows there was a higher percentage of strikes thrown in QuesTec parks vs. non-QuesTec parks, and ERAs were lower at QuesTec parks than non-QuesTec parks.

"We're not looking to take away the pitch that's on the black," Alderson said, referring to the edge of the plate. "I think those who have gotten more information about it have come away with an understanding of what we're trying to accomplish."

The system is used essentially as an education device but is also a factor in decisions on postseason assignments and annual evaluations, and could be used to determine crew chiefs.  Alderson sees QuesTec technology being a part of baseball for years.

"In my view, this kind of technology is in its earliest stages of application," said Alderson, who offered other uses including deeper data on the pitches thrown (velocity, trajectory, etc.) for information purposes, as well as potential fantasy and video-game applications.  For now, Alderson will take what it's doing for improving umpiring.

"I think what you'll find X number of years down the road is that you'll see the same degree of accuracy in respect to the strike zone from the use of a QuesTec type of system that we now see on the bases," Alderson said.

Alderson said a full presentation on QuesTec will be made to the GMs later this week.

Umpires Say System Has Them Alter Calls