Steve 's Baseball Umpire Resources

As featured in Referee magazine

The first half of the season is complete and summer is here. The new site features and improved navigation have been completed as the dog days are upon us.  Have a great visit!

NFHS / Pro Rules Differences / NFHS Composite Bat Moratorium

Baseball Calendar / Site Map / 2010 Minor League Umpires / Steve's  Discussion Forum 

Question of the Month!
Pro Rules

With the bases empty, the batter hits a shot in the hole to the short stop.  He fires the ball to 1st after the batter-runner reaches the bag.  However, the runner clearly does not touch the base.

What is your call?

Extra Credit

Who was the last NY Yankees pitcher to hit a homerun?

All-Star Question

What active player has the most All-Star appearances?

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June Answer

Q:  Instead of using the stretch with runners on base, the pitcher simply brings his hands together in front of his body, pauses and delivers.  He varies the time of the pause, sometimes pausing for several seconds and other times pitching almost immediately after bringing his hand together.
Is this legal?

A:  Yes. No stretch is required when pitching from the set position.  However, the pitcher must come to a stop after bringing his hands together or it is a balk. (8.01, 8.05m)

Extra Credit

Q:  Which teams holds the record for most consecutive errorless games?

A: The 2009 Yankees with 18.

Baseball News & Archives / Baseball Milestones / Comments & Observations

Baseball Calendar

Quotes

"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

All pitchers are liars or crybabies." Yogi Berra - More Yogisms

"They can holler at the uniform all they want, but when they holler at the man wearing the uniform, they're in trouble." Joe Brinkman

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

"Not true at all.  Vaseline is manufactured right here in the United States."  Don Sutton, about rumors that he used a foreign substance on the ball

"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

"Fans don't boo nobodies." Reggie Jackson

"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 like." 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

"The thing that surprised me the most in baseball is the amount of integrity that most umpires have.  It actually took me a while to believe what a good game they'd give you the next night after a blow-up." Earl Weaver - View more of Earl's Pearls

Hall of Fame manager Casey Stengel actually became so enraged that he laid on the ground and continued yelling at umpire Beans Reardon, who after a few moments laid next to Stengel and yelled back.  Stengel recalled the incident: "When I peaked out of one eye and saw Reardon on the ground too, I knew I was licked." 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 Bloomberg, 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 Coach Strikes Umpire
See It

What an Umpire Should Never Do
See It

Comments, Observations & Facts

I had my first triple play in 3 or 4 years on 6/1.  1st & 2nd, scorching liner picked by the pitcher, to 2nd, to 1st.  Great way to move a game along.

It's hard to believe sometimes. In 20+ years on the field, I have never ejected a HS player for a jewelry infraction.  Team warning for the 1st offense, coach tells team to remove any remaining jewelry, correct?  Apparently not. This year, I've ejected 2 players.
As odd as that is, on May 15 I ejected a 3rd player for wearing jewelry.

I've had my first "never seen that before" event of the season.  After taking his pitchers' warm-up pitches before the start of an inning, the catcher came out of the crouch to throw to 2nd base.  Somehow his feet got tangled in his leg guards or shoes and he went down like he was shot by a sniper.  Extremely embarrassing. He never did throw to 2nd.

The Yankees 2009 World Series share was $350,030.  The 2006 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 2008, 83 MLB umpires worked at least one game behind the plate - 66 active full-time and 17 vacation/injury fill-in umpires. Jim Hoye called the most pitches at 11,625. Jim, Chris Guccione and Rob Drake (all fill-in umpires) tied for the most plate games worked at 37.

In 2008 2,428 MLB games were played. 4,878 Home Runs were hit, for a per game average of 2.01. In the 1st year of divisional play in 1969, the per game average was 1.60.

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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