Steve O's Baseball Umpire Resources

As featured in Referee magazine and on National Public Radio
Listed in the May, 2013 issue of Referee as #49 of "105 Websites & Apps Worth Checking Out"

Welcome to my site!  Check out the Referee sites and apps in the link above. The season is well underway as the dog days approach.  Enjoy your visit and have a great season.

 
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Opening Day Payrolls
2013 MLB Ump Crews / 2013 MiBL Ump Rosters
History of Interleague Play / NFHS-Pro Rules Differences
 Writing Ejection Reports / Site Map / Properly Scoring Runs

Question of the Month!

A fly ball is hit to left field which appears to be a can of corn.  The left fielder sees the ball strike a bird, but stays on the ball and catches it.

What  is your ruling?

Extra Credit

Who was the only player to win the Gold Glove award as an infielder and an outfielder?

Two entire NJ teams ejected

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April Answer

Q: Runner on 1st, 1 out. The pitcher throws the pitch to the batter and the ball hits the ground on the way to the plate. The batter swings and makes contact. While swinging, the bat strikes the catcher's mitt. The ensuing line drive hits the runner on 1st in fair territory while he is standing on the bag.
What is your call?

A: The ball hitting the ground is not relevant.  The only thing a bounced pitch can not be is a called strike.  The catcher is guilty of interference, but the play continues.  The 1st base bag does not protect the runner from being hit with a fair batted ball, so he is out and the batter-runner is awarded 1st. The offensive manager now has the choice of taking the interference penalty or the play.  In this case, he would certainly take the penalty.

Extra Credit

Q: Who was the first female owner of a MLB team? 

A: Helene Britton, who owned the St. Louis Cardinals from 1911 to 1916.

Previous Questions of the Month!

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Baseball Facts

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Total Squats by all 2011 Home Plate Umpires:
718,437
Average Squats by Full-Time Major League Umpires:
9,313
The 2011 Squats Leader:
Joe West earned the 2011 squats crown among full-time ML Umpires with 10,914.
West averaged 295 pitches per game in his 37 plate assignments. Jeff Nelson ranked second with 10,584, followed by Dale Scott with 10,577.

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
See It

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
1997: Interleague play begins
1998: Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire break Maris' home run record
2000: Leagues use common umpires
2001: MLB signs contract with Questec to use its pitch tracking system to review umpire performance: eventually used in 11 ballparks
2008: Limited replay approved
2009: MLB's Zone Evaluation system replaces Questec in all ballparks
2010: First game televised in 3D (NY Yankees vs. Seattle Mariners)
2013: Season-long interleague play begins

Quotes

"I wish I had an answer to that, because I'm tired of answering that question." Yogi Berra- More Yogisms

"If I were playing third base and my mother were rounding third with the run that was going to beat us, I'd trip her. Oh, I'd pick her up and brush her off and say, 'Sorry, Mom,' but nobody beats me."  Leo Durocher - More Quotes from Leo

"This ain't a football game, we do this every day." Earl Weaver - View more of Earl's Pearls

"Lefthanders have more enthusiasm for life. They sleep on the wrong side of the bed and their head gets more stagnant on that side." Casey Stengel - More of Casey

"I'm getting smarter, I finally punched something that couldn't sue me." Billy Martin- More from Billy

"If I'd known I was going to live so long I'd have taken better care of myself." Mickey Mantle- Additional Quotes from the Mick

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 On the web since February, 1999