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 Umps hope to avoid spotlight this time
Posted: Saturday October 17, 1998 06:49 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- For umpires, the idea is to be inconspicuous, stay out of the line of fire and keep a low profile. But the postseason has been full of controversial calls that put them center stage as the World Series opened Saturday night. Most of the complaints have been over the movable strike zone, which seems to expand and contract, depending on the home plate umpire. Players prefer consistency, but that quality has often been in short supply so far. Rich Garcia, a 24-year veteran, worked the plate for Game 1 as crew chief of the Series umpiring staff. "He's one of the best we have," American League president Gene Budig said. Even so, Garcia is well aware of what can happen in postseason games. He was in right field at Yankee Stadium for Game 1 of the American League championship series in 1996 when a 12-year-old fan reached over the wall to catch a drive by Derek Jeter. Garcia signaled a home run, setting off a major rhubarb. After viewing replays, the ump admitted he had made a mistake. The next day, he was signing autographs for grateful Yankees fans. Garcia will be back in right field Sunday night for Game 2. Ted Hendry's troubles in the American League championship series left some players rolling their eyes and New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner fined $25,000 for suggesting that particular ump might be better off in another line of work. Joe Brinkman had some serious adventures in the division series when he tossed both Cleveland manager Mike Hargrove and starter Dwight Gooden in the first inning of Game 2. Hargrove was thumbed for questioning ball-strike calls, an automatic ejection. Then Gooden, angry over a call at the plate, yelled at Brinkman, saying something approximating "Get in the game!" Brinkman responded by inviting the pitcher to get out of the game. Hendry first was involved in the controversial no-interference call on Travis Fryman's bunt that set Cleveland's winning rally in motion in Game 2. Asked his opinion, Yankees manager Joe Torre said simply, "It stunk." He got away fine-free for that remark.
Ex-ump Steve Palermo, now working as a consultant for the commissioner's office, agreed that Hendry had blown the call. His opinion was not welcomed by ex-colleagues, who always avoid criticizing each other. Then Hendry blew a key call in Game 6, ruling that Cleveland's Omar Vizquel had been pulled off second base on a force play. Derek Jeter followed with a triple that scored two key runs. Finally, Hendry was unable to get out of the way of a shot up the middle that hit him in the backside. Some people thought it was justifiable. "There are umpires and there are umpires," Torre said. "You try to get along with them." Players avoid talking about umpires, hesitant to create feuds that could become problems down the road. Richie Phillips, who heads the Major League Umpires Union, has negotiated a rotation arrangement for umpires, meaning all of them eventually work marquee events like All-Star Games and the World Series. All other sports evaluate officials during the season and assign the ones with the best ratings to championship games. Phillips steadfastly defends his men, often saying, "This is the only profession where you have to be perfect the first day and then keep improving after that." Besides Garcia, the umpiring crew for the Series had Dale Scott and Tim Tschida of the American League and Jerry Crawford, Dana DeMuth and Mark Hirschbeck of the National League. Scott, Tschida and Hirschbeck were all working their first World Series. DeMuth is in his second, Crawford his third and Garcia his fourth.
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