Ump President John Hirschbeck angry at MLB questions about Ku Klux Klan membership

[molitor fan]

One thing I noted in the 2007 season is that many umpires were giving me the impression that they hated the sport, and that it was simply a job to get a paycheck, which was a claim made by both former umps Tom Gorman and Ron Lusiano in their books decades earlier. Given the comments by Hirschbeck in this article, where he is livid that MLB is asking rather pointed questions of his neighbors, I have to postulate was again that there is a great schism occuring between the umpires and the entity of baseball as a whole.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Amx_bsNG4IR8Wa9JugiY7UE5nYcB?slug=ap-umpires-backgroundchecks&prov=ap&type=lgns

[TooLiveBrew]

Great... just what MLB needs - umpires that care even less.

 

http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/eyes.gif

 

For all the good Bud's done, there have been many PR gaffes under his tenure. Add another one to the list.

[Invader3K]

Well, I'm still mad about the blatantly wrong calls against the Brewers towards the end of the '07 season, and I don't think anything has ever been done about that.

[1992casey]

TooLive, the synapses in my brain aren't making the connection you are... questions about the KKK relating to umps caring less. Are you saying that stuff like this from the MLB office could potentially contribute to poorer job performance?

[dadofandrew]

I think very extensive background checks should be done on all umps and MLB personnel. If they don't want to be under such scrutiny, there's the door, Johnny.

[TooLiveBrew]

Are you saying that stuff like this from the MLB office could potentially contribute to poorer job performance?

 

Yes... perhaps it's a stretch. However, the umps already appear to feel overscrutinized, and now Bud's asking their neighbors if they're growing weed. Which is totally connected to the NBA ref gambling ... ? ... I think Bud has many strengths, but tact simply ain't one of 'em.

[dadofandrew]

The Biz of Baseball feels an ump is a member of the KKK, based solely on the weak and oddly worded press release by the union.

 

As with many issues the player's union fought for and later said "who cares", I have no doubt if there is an ump being protected, the others will be so furious that the union will back down soon. Unions are, by definition, only in business to serve its members. If they start worrying about a minority instead of the vast majority, it will become worthless ASAP.

[1992casey]

The Biz of Baseball feels an ump is a member of the KKK...

Like my question to TooLive above, my synapses didn't make that connection. The closest I see was the mention of not offering a denial:

One notes that there is no denial of said umpire being a member of the Klan, but instead Lamell McMorris states, "One has to ask, what does the KKK have to do with being a major league umpire?"

[homer]

I have felt for a long time that MLB umps are the least professional of all the major sports officials. It seems as if they take pleasure in arguing with managers and players and relish the idea of throwing guys out of games. NFL officials don't seem to have the ego problem that baseball umps (and to a lesser degree NBA refs) do.

[sbrylski]

Just a sidenote:

 

Study - Are Umpire's Racist?

In this study a few things are clear:

• There is no discernable bias that we can see from white umpires to any race of pitcher. The majority if not all of the difference in call rates can be explained by the fact that white pitchers record more strikes than non-white pitchers. Also the historically contentious white/black interaction shows no evidence of bias.
• There may actually be racial bias but if there is then we can't detect it in the data. For example, in reality it might be the case that white pitchers are worse than non-white pitchers at hitting the strike zone but that all umpires are biased towards white pitchers. If this is the case this study will not detect it.
• There may be some small bias from Hispanic umpires. However, there are only two to three Hispanic umpires in the bigs so it is impossible to draw broad brush conclusions.
• The Questec data is more or less meaningless because we start to hit small sample size issues particularly regarding the quality of pitchers in Questec parks when non-white umpires are adjudicating.
• That race of the batters had no impact on the umpires' calls is more evidence that bias probably doesn't exist.

 

It'd be interesting to run this study on an umpire to umpire basis however.

[pete]

Sounds more like a tactic to intimidate than a search for information. If they were racist, the results would show on the field. If they were taking bribes, growing pot plants isn't a good indicator. Really, what would pot plants or police activity at the home tell you?

 

IMO there as absolutely no question that they should be able to investigate them financially. Maybe its an ill thought out attempt to get the umpire's union to agree.

[Mr QL]

Robot umpires don't need background checks...

[xisxisxis]

I have felt for a long time that MLB umps are the least professional of all the major sports officials. It seems as if they take pleasure in arguing with managers and players and relish the idea of throwing guys out of games. NFL officials don't seem to have the ego problem that baseball umps (and to a lesser degree NBA refs) do.

 

I think that is a perception based on MLB rules than with the Umps. Baseball has a long history of allowing managers and players to argue with the umps. They also have no penalty other than throwing a guy out of the game when a player/manager crosses a pretty extreme line. If an ump could throw a flag or signal a technical foul on a player/manager and either take away or add an out, I bet you'd see a lot less childish arguments from managers and players. If you allow them to do almost anything before tossing them you encourage excess behavior which the NBA, NFL and NHL deal with by lesser penalties than tossing from a game.

[danzig6767]

I have felt for a long time that MLB umps are the least professional of all the major sports officials. It seems as if they take pleasure in arguing with managers and players and relish the idea of throwing guys out of games. NFL officials don't seem to have the ego problem that baseball umps (and to a lesser degree NBA refs) do.

 

I think that is a perception based on MLB rules than with the Umps. Baseball has a long history of allowing managers and players to argue with the umps. They also have no penalty other than throwing a guy out of the game when a player/manager crosses a pretty extreme line. If an ump could throw a flag or signal a technical foul on a player/manager and either take away or add an out, I bet you'd see a lot less childish arguments from managers and players. If you allow them to do almost anything before tossing them you encourage excess behavior which the NBA, NFL and NHL deal with by lesser penalties than tossing from a game.

I'm with you, managers usually look like idiots charging out on the field to argue a call that won't get reversed anyways.

 

[clancyphile]

OK... how do you want to find out an ump's a KKK member?

 

MLB turns it up on their own, or they get surprised!

[TooLiveBrew]

But if the premise supposedly was, "OMGzzz! That NBA ref gambledz!"... what the hell do the KKK, parties, and growing weed have anything to do with anything?

 

MLB has no right to interfere with their umpires' personal lives in this manner. It's really not as much the questions (which should say a lot - totally strange) as it is the method(s). MLB should be ashamed.

[logan82]

I thought pot was a gateway drug.

[adambr2]

I'm with the MLB on this one. Couple things on that:

- The griping from MLB umps the last few years is getting rather annoying. They're quite priviliged IMO, to have the job they do for the salary they earn. MLB umpiring is, with all respect to the umps, by far the easiest officiating job of the three major sports (baseball, football, basketball). It's the only sport that you could replace one umpire with Joe Blow for one game, and the average fan isn't going to notice. That's not saying it's easy to umpire a 3 hour game multiple times a week, but when you compare it to the fast-paced momentary reaction environment of football and basketball, there really isn't a comparison.

- MLB is just like any business. If I choose to accept a job, I also accept the conditions of that employment. If they don't like the conditions of their employment, they can seek another job.

[TooLiveBrew]

The griping from MLB umps the last few years is getting rather annoying. They're quite priviliged IMO, to have the job they do for the salary they earn. MLB umpiring is, with all respect to the umps, by far the easiest officiating job of the three major sports (baseball, football, basketball). It's the only sport that you could replace one umpire with Joe Blow for one game, and the average fan isn't going to notice.

 

I have to respectfully disagree with that. The task they have to perform is grueling & meticulous.

I'm with the MLB on this one...If I choose to accept a job, I also accept the conditions of that employment. If they don't like the conditions of their employment, they can seek another job

Does your employer unprovokedly accost your neighbors & ask if you're into drugs, partying, hookers, [what have you]? I know mine doesn't.

[logan82]

There was a reporter who umpired at least one spring training game last year. None of the players really noticed.

 

How else do you do background checks without interviewing friends and family?

[adambr2]

The griping from MLB umps the last few years is getting rather annoying. They're quite priviliged IMO, to have the job they do for the salary they earn. MLB umpiring is, with all respect to the umps, by far the easiest officiating job of the three major sports (baseball, football, basketball). It's the only sport that you could replace one umpire with Joe Blow for one game, and the average fan isn't going to notice.

 

I have to respectfully disagree with that. The task they have to perform is grueling & meticulous.

I'm with the MLB on this one...If I choose to accept a job, I also accept the conditions of that employment. If they don't like the conditions of their employment, they can seek another job

Does your employer unprovokedly accost your neighbors & ask if you're into drugs, partying, hookers, [what have you]? I know mine doesn't.

 

Again, I'm not saying their job is easy. But you'd have a hard time convincing me that it isn't easier (at least as far as in-game performance) than being an NFL or NBA official. If you asked me to step in today and put on a uniform and officiate an NFL or NBA game, I'd make an absolute mockery of myself. If you asked me to step in today and umpire an MLB game, I'm pretty certain I could pull it off without really bringing any attention to myself at all, even moreso if I wasn't working home plate.

 

Actually, my employer does do that kind of thing, it's part of the background checks to approve my security clearance. They actually dig deeper than that (credit score, acquaintences, lifestyle, etc).

 

The umpires aren't bound to MLB. They can leave at any time. Like you said, your employer doesn't probe into your personal life. The MLB does. If the umpires don't like it, they're perfectly free to explore opportunities at jobs that won't probe, which, as you mentioned, are definitely out there. That's life. If they value their privacy more than their job, find a job that offers more privacy.

 

Every business is run differently. If I showed up to work an hour late and was fined $500, I'd be absolutely appalled at the severity, but professional sports do it all the time, and every athlete who agrees to participate in their league understands that. I get randomly drug tested at my job, as do many athletes -- for some, that would be very unappealing, and such people probably shouldn't seek employment that requires random drug testing.

[gregmag]

Background checks that relate to a job's duties make sense to me. Certainly financial checks on the umps make sense. But I haven't seen anyone explain what justifies seeking out the sort of personal information reported here, especially information about political activities. (Of course the Klan and its members have broken many, many laws throughout the group's history, but mere membership isn't a crime.) No business, any more than the government, should be digging up personal information without any job-related cause.

 

Greg.

[rickey24]

Again, I'm not saying their job is easy. But you'd have a hard time convincing me that it isn't easier (at least as far as in-game performance) than being an NFL or NBA official. If you asked me to step in today and put on a uniform and officiate an NFL or NBA game, I'd make an absolute mockery of myself. If you asked me to step in today and umpire an MLB game, I'm pretty certain I could pull it off without really bringing any attention to myself at all, even moreso if I wasn't working home plate.

I find it interesting that someone could actually say that MLB Umps have the easiest job of four professional sports. Obviously you believe that being on the road for seven months out of the year living out of a suitcase and having the level of concentration it takes to pay attention to every pitch is the easiest job compared to the NFL, NBA or NHL. I personally couldn't disagree more with that asssesment. Since I know the level of training it takes to get to be a MLB Umpire, the dedication, the strain it puts on your family to spend year after year in the minors working your way through the system (with VERY low pay I might add), I think being an umpire is one of the more difficult jobs out there. You don't hear about NFL refs having one employer, you know that all of them work at their other jobs during the week, lawyer, teacher, accountant etc.

 

Being an official of the NHL, NBA or MLB takes a tremendous amount of dedication in addition to having a passion for the sport they work in. I don't buy the story that guys don't care about their sport, and yes it is a job, but when you start looking at the quality of their work, MLB umpires are the top of the line in terms of getting the call correct. Do they miss a call? Yep you bet, was a pitch over the plate that they missed, sure thing, but when you're watching over 250 pitches a game you are sure to miss a few out there.

 

Funny thing is, when it was announced that an NBA official was caught in a gambling sting, you know what the first question people asked? It was which one was it, not I can't believe that happened to the NBA. You don't hear about conspiracy theories out there for baseball, yet if you turn on sports radio today, you're sure to hear someone feel that one of the other major sports "didn't want" their team to win the game.

 

Rickey

[TooLiveBrew]

Again, I'm not saying their job is easy. But you'd have a hard time convincing me that it isn't easier (at least as far as in-game performance) than being an NFL or NBA official.

 

What does this have to do with the invasion of umpires' privacy?

 

Like you said, your employer doesn't probe into your personal life. The MLB does. If the umpires don't like it, they're perfectly free to explore opportunities at jobs that won't probe, which, as you mentioned, are definitely out there. That's life. If they value their privacy more than their job, find a job that offers more privacy.

 

This is a throwaway argument imo. It's incredibly easy to say in a hypothetical... ignoring the hundreds/thousands of hours of training & work in leagues below MLB to get there. Obviously this work is one for which these men have a passion. To me this is like the 'If you don't like it here in America, then leave!' argument if someone disagrees with domestic policy in some regard.

 

I get randomly drug tested at my job, as do many athletes -- for some, that would be very unappealing, and such people probably shouldn't seek employment that requires random drug testing.

 

If MLB wants to random drug test their umps, you won't hear a peep from me. But gestapo-ing it to their residences to accost their neighbors? Over the line, uncalled for, and inappropriate. And I'd be saying the same thing if this were a discussion about sanitary workers, accountants, teachers, etc. There's a big difference between 'it comes with the territory' and an employer stepping over their bounds.

 

I'd bet that had MLB come away with any 'evidence' from such inquisitions, it would've been nothing short of easy for any ump's lawyer to have a court dismiss it. So then you have to ask, 'what's the point?'

[TooLiveBrew]

But I haven't seen anyone explain what justifies seeking out the sort of personal information reported here, especially information about political activities.

 

Exactly. If they're making sure their umps are maintaining their eyesight, fine. The rest of it is pure 1984.

 

Since I know the level of training it takes to get to be a MLB Umpire, the dedication, the strain it puts on your family to spend year after year in the minors working your way through the system (with VERY low pay I might add), I think being an umpire is one of the more difficult jobs out there. You don't hear about NFL refs having one employer, you know that all of them work at their other jobs during the week, lawyer, teacher, accountant etc.

 

Very well-said... better that I could have.