Steve O's Baseball Umpire Resources

Steve 's Baseball Umpire Resources
As featured in Referee magazine

Steve O

Welcome!! New features are still being added while most of the site continues to be upgraded. Have a great 2008 & enjoy your visit!!

Bases loaded, 2 out and a 3-2 count. Runners go and the pitch is ball four. The catcher throws through to 2nd base, where the shortstops tags the runner from 1st who has over-slid the bag for the 3rd out before the runner from 3rd base crosses the plate.

New Yankee & Mets stadiums to open for the 2009 season!!
Click on photos above to see construction pictures.

***Baseball Calendar***
06-xx-2008	Amateur Draft
07-15-2008	2008 All-Star Game in New York
07-27-2008	Hall of Fame Inductions (Cooperstown, N.Y.)
07-31-2008	Non-Waiver Trade Deadline - 4 pm ET
09-01-2008	Active Rosters Expand to 40 Players
09-03-2008	Roberto Clemente Day
09-28-2008	Final Day of the Regular Season
12-08-2008	Winter Meetings - Las Vegas
12-11-2008	Rule V Draft
12-12-2008	Last Day to Tender Contracts for 2009

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Have you written an article on baseball umpiring (mechanics, history, etc)?
Steve is looking for pertinent articles to post.
Email it in for possible inclusion in this site!

Q: The batter hits a deep fly to right. The right fielder gets under the ball at the fence near the foul pole while standing in foul territory. The fielder jumps and touches the ball with his glove while the ball is over fair territory. It defects off his glove and over the fence on the foul side of the foul pole.
What is your ruling?

A: Ground rule double. The ball was fair but traveled over the fence in foul territory.

A: Rafael Palmiero won the 1999 AL Gold Glove for 1st base, despite playing only 28 games at that position.

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
1971: Cowhide substituted for horsehide on baseball
1973: First American League Designated Hitter, Ron Bloomberg, bats
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

People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." Rogers Hornsby

"You look forward to it like a birthday party when you're a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen." Joe DiMaggio, on Opening Day

"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.

"Don't worry, the fans don't start booing until July." 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

"Hitting against Sandy Kofax is like drinking coffee with a fork." Willie Stargell

"He'd fall in a sewer and come up with a gold watch." Casey Stengel on Yogi Berra - More of Casey

It's been a trying early season for me in NJ this year. There were no rain-outs for exactly 3 weeks. For me, that meant 18 games in 18 days before a scheduled day off. One never expects every game to be played.

I've already got my first "never seen that before" observation of 2008. On 3/24/08 during a HS scrimmage, a metal bat split completely in two about 2 feet from the knob. The handle remained in the batter's hand and the barrel flew out by the mound.

Both Mike Reilly and Jerry Crawford have reached the 4,000-game milestone during 2007. That won't happen again for a while. The next one in line is Derryl Cousins, who started the 2007 season with 3,715 games worked.

The 2007 starting salary for a ML umpire is $87,859. They also receive 4 weeks of in-season vacation, $363.48 per diem for food & lodging and first-class air travel.

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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