From Blue to Bronze

BY JON CAROULIS

The Devil approaches God and says, why don’t we play a baseball game, my kingdom against yours. God says, I’ve got Jackie Robinson, Lou Gehrig, Christy Mathewson, Henry Aaron, Stan Musial and a bunch of other greats. How do you think you can win?

The Devil says, “I have the umpires.”

If you receive a letter or email asking for contributions for the Living Umpires in the Baseball Hall of Fame Assistance Society, get rid of it. It’s a scam: there are none.

Ten umpires have been voted into the Hall of Fame, and all ten are deceased. Only five of the 10 were alive when they were inducted. The last member of the group to pass away was Harold Douglas (Doug) Harvey, who was inducted in 2010 and died in 2018. The most recent umpire to be inducted was Henry O’Day, in 2013; he’d been dead for 78 years before being honored.

John Rossi, a retired college professor and baseball historian who has written four books and many articles on the game, said, “It is surprising none are alive. I wonder if it means baseball really does take (umpire Hall of Fame inductions) seriously. When I was young (he’s 89) you knew the names of some of the umpires because there didn’t seem to be that many (only 32 when there were 16 franchises; now there are 76) and that didn’t change. I looked forward to Al Barlick or Jocko Conlan because they were a vital part of the game, the way they umpired. Barlick called balls and strikes the way it was done in the movie about Queen Elizabeth visiting America (Leslie Nielsen playing umpire Enrico Palazzo in The Naked Gun). I knew Barlick and Conlan or Doug Harvey by sight. Would you know any umpires today?”

Courtesy of MLB.com, here are the Hall of Fame umpires with some background:

1. Albert Joseph (Al) Barlick – Elected: 1989 | Born: 4/2/1915, Springfield, IL | Died: 12/27/1995, Springfield, IL

Barlick was a professional umpire for five decades, including 27 seasons working in the National League. He reached the Majors at the age of 25 in 1940 and retired in 1971.

2. Nestor L. Chylak Jr. – Elected: 1999 | Born: 5/11/1922, Olyphant, PA | Died: 2/17/1982, Dunmore, PA

Chylak, who received both the Silver Star and Purple Heart after being seriously wounded in the Battle of the Bulge, joined the American League in 1954 and umpired for 25 seasons until a mild stroke forced him to retire in 1978. He was at first base for Bill Mazeroski’s home run that ended the 1960 World Series.

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3. John Bertrand (Jocko) Conlan – Elected: 1974 | Born: 12/6/1899, Chicago, IL | Died: 4/1/1989, Scottsdale, AZ

Conlan became a professional umpire by accident. During a 1935 White Sox–Browns game, Conlan, a White Sox outfielder, was asked to fill in for Red Ormsby, who was overcome by heat. The next year he began his career in umpiring. Conlan joined the National League in 1941 and retired in 1964.

4. Thomas Henry (Tom) Connolly – Elected: 1953 | Born: 12/31/1870, Manchester, England | Died: 4/28/1961, Natick, MA

Connolly, one of the first two umpires to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame, originally worked in the National League from 1898-1900, before moving over to the American League in 1901. He worked the AL’s first game on April 24, 1901, in Chicago and upon his retirement in 1931 Connolly was appointed the league’s first umpire-in-chief by William Harridge. He served in that capacity until 1954.

5. William George (Billy) Evans – Elected: 1973 | Born: 2/10/1884, Chicago, IL | Died: 1/23/1956, Miami, FL

Evans became the youngest umpire in Major League history when he worked for the American League in 1906 at the age of 22. He umpired through 1927 and then went on to be an executive for various clubs.

6. Harold Douglas (Doug) Harvey – Elected: 2010 | Born: 3/13/1930, South Gate, CA | Died: 1/13/20

Harvey, a National League crew chief in 18 of his 31 seasons who worked 4,673 games, stressed the importance of timing and mentored a generation of younger umpires. Known for his firm control over the games he worked, Doug was behind the plate for Kirk Gibson’s pinch-hit home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.

7. Robert Calvin (Cal) Hubbard – Elected: 1976 | Born: 10/31/1900, Keytesville, MO | Died: 12/17/1977, St. Petersburg, FL

Hubbard reached the American League in 1936 after eight seasons in the Minor Leagues and worked until a hunting accident forced him to an early retirement in 1951. He went on to become the first person ever inducted into three national sports shrines, having been previously honored by the College and Professional Football Halls of Fame.

8. William J. (Bill) Klem – Elected: 1953 | Born: 2/22/1874 – Rochester, NY | Died: 9/1/1951, Miami, FL

Known as “The Old Arbitrator,” Klem umpired in the National League for 37 years before retiring in 1941. He spent his first 16 seasons as an umpire working exclusively behind the plate because of his superior ability to call balls and strikes. Upon his retirement, Klem became the NL’s first modern chief of umpires.

9. William Aloysius (Bill) McGowan – Elected: 1992 | Born: 1/18/1896, Wilmington, DE | Died: 12/9/1954, Silver Spring, MD

McGowan reached the American League in 1925 and his colorful style of umpiring never waned over his 30-year career. An iron man among umpires, McGowan once went 16 years without missing an inning (2,541 consecutive games).

10. Henry M. (Hank) O’Day – Elected: 2013 | Born: 7/8/1862, Chicago, IL | Died: 7/2/1935, Chicago, IL | Nicknamed “The Reverend”

O’Day is the only person to have served in the Majors as a player, manager, umpire and scout, working in the National League for 40 years, 30 years calling games. O’Day was at the plate for no-hitters in four decades and was behind the plate for both the famous “Merkle’s Boner” play in 1908 as well as the only unassisted triple play in World Series history, in 1920. He umpired in 10 World Series, including the first Fall Classic, in 1903.

The Hall of Fame announced its first class of inductees in 1936. The first umpires were not selected until 1953, possibly because no one thought they could or should be members.

Umpires were, however, eligible from the first Hall of Fame elections. Since the Hall of Fame began, the only four categories of eligible candidates have been players, managers, umpires and executives, said Craig Muder, Director of Communications for the Hall of Fame. He said the Era Committees (formerly the Veterans Committee) are the only bodies that can elect umpires, just as they are the only bodies that can elect managers and executives. There are three Era Committees total — Contemporary Players, Contemporary Managers/Umpires/Executives and Classic. Muder said umpires must have worked 10 or more big league seasons, been retired for at least five years (or, if age 65 or older, retired for at least six months), and not be on MLB’s Ineligible List to be considered.

The Classic Baseball Era Committee is reconstituted each time it meets, so the committee will not be named until the fall of 2027. Committee members in the fall of 2024 were: Paul Molitor, Eddie Murray, Tony Pérez, Lee Smith, Ozzie Smith and Joe Torre; major league executives Sandy Alderson, Terry McGuirk, Dayton Moore, Arte Moreno and Brian Sabean; and veteran media members/historians Bob Elliott, Leslie Heaphy, Steve Hirdt, Dick Kaegel and Larry Lester.

Since 2020, only two umpires have been on the Era Committee ballot, Joe West and Ed Montague, who were both on the Contemporary Era Committee managers/umpires/executives ballot in the fall of 2023. Neither received the three-quarters vote for induction.

In the 89 years since the Hall’s founding, why only 10 umpires? “I can’t speak to the nomination/voting procedures of the Hall of Fame, which have changed over time,” said John Thorn, the official historian of Major League Baseball. “Umpires with longevity attached to their tenures were once legendary figures; maybe the advent of television has diminished them in fans’ eyes.”

Dan Bellino, an MLB umpire, said, “It’s way, way under than what the numbers should be. There’s no question. I mean, I’m a little biased, but for baseball being around over 100 years and only having 10, it does seem a little out of whack.” He added, “It’s because fans, and baseball, take it for granted, take the umpires for granted. You know, I think (being inducted to) the Hall of Fame (is) such a difficult process.”

“The next guy who should go in is Joe West. He should be a no-brainer. He’s worked the most games in the history of Major League Baseball. He’s a no-brainer Hall of Famer, but, you know, they’ll, they’ll probably wait until it’s posthumously as well,” said Bellino. Bellino became a professional umpire in 2003, and reached the major leagues in 2009.

Bob Walk, a retired pitcher who is now a broadcaster for the Pittsburgh Pirates, said his favorite umpire was Frank Pulli. “I really enjoyed him. I thought he was approachable, you could talk to him, but he would, if he got mad, or if he was upset, stay away from him, don’t look at him. Don’t do anything like that. Like if you thought he missed a pitch early in the ballgame, you just kept your mouth shut about it and go about your business. And then if a player happened to yap at him later, well, now you got your big strike zone (when) you need it. So I really enjoyed Frank back there a lot,” said Walk.

Rule changes, and policies such as having calls reviewed (but not balls and strikes… yet), have changed the perception of umpires. I told Bellino how back in the 1970s, the Phillies ball girls would bring cupcakes and beverages to the umpires between innings. That won’t be done anymore by any home team.

“I think we’d get in trouble. I’d be getting phone calls, you know, the union would be getting phone calls on that one. I know there were stories of guys putting hot dogs on bases and, you know, it was funny back then, but now everything’s on TV and nationally televised. It’s just a little bit of a different standard that we’re held to now,” he said.

Walk said, “A lot of the umpires back then, I mean they were like the Supreme Court, you had the job for life. You ran the game, you were kind of untouchable. You could expand the strike zone, shrink it down, whatever you wanted to do to have the game maybe move along, stuff like that.”

According to Thorn, the major-league game originally featured only one umpire. Two came in for 1890, in the Players’ League. By 1898 two were used for certain — maybe most — games in the National League. They were called the Umpire-in-Chief and the Field Umpire.

In March 2000, MLB announced that umpiring crews in the American League and National League would be merged, and that former National League umpires would call games in the American League, and vice versa. “I’ll bet sharing in both leagues was meant to (a) save money and (b) make calls uniform. Remember for a long time NL umps wore the modern chest protector while the AL wore the balloon ones,” said Rossi. Bellino said the joining of the umpire crews was done for logistical reasons, as having all umpires work both leagues made travel and hotel accommodations easier.

Walk laments that “a little bit that’s missing from the game nowadays [is] the characters that were umpires, the personalities you had. It’s become very, ‘oh we gotta get this exact call right because somebody’s foot might have been off the bag by three millimeters.’ I mean that’s ridiculous. I don’t care for that part of the game anymore — it’s very tiring to me. I miss having a lot more personalities and characters in the game.”

Maybe that lack of characters is why there is a lack of umpires in the Baseball Hall of Fame. And as Professor Rossi said, “It’s time for people to pay attention to what is a vital part of the game.”

I did a non-scientific survey of retired major league players about the best umpire they saw in the major leagues and why. This is what they said:

Johnny Damon, OF: “Joe West was a legend, he was fair, things didn’t always go your way, but he can also explain to you why not. Ted Barrett was also a guy that was just always good. I had him in the minor leagues and (he was) a former boxer who sparred with some of the legends, so never wanted to argue with that guy; never had to because he was so good.” Elroy Face, P: “Augie Donatelli. Never made a mistake.” Doug Clemens, OF: “Shag Crawford. Very decisive, great knowledge, knew the game and was well respected by the managers.”

Kevin Stocker, INF: “Not sure about the best in regard to balls and strikes but I did like John McSherry’s honesty. I remember being at the plate hitting one time with John umpiring behind the plate. This was John against me on one of the pitches, ‘STRIKE, oh shit, I think I missed that one. Sorry.’ It was a ball, but I had no response to the honesty and effort he was displaying. He would call a ball and ask the catcher if it was a strike and if the catcher disagreed, he would apologize or get mad at himself. I appreciated the effort.”

Rollie Fingers, P: “Some of the best umpires that I had behind the plate in the big leagues were Nestor Chylak, Doug Harvey, Paul Runge. All three of them called very good games behind the plate, knew the strike zone. If I was to pick one, I’d probably go with Doug Harvey.”

Jim Sundberg, C: “Davey Phillips — his consistency and respect.”

Rick Cerone, C: “Steve Palermo.”

Wilbur Wood, P: “Oh, I mean they’re all pretty good. It’s difficult to come down and say who the best was because they were here today and they were someplace else tomorrow. It wasn’t that you saw them day in and day out – and being a pitcher you’re only pitching every four or five days or whatever the rotation used to be. And so you just didn’t see the same ones.”

Sam “Sudden Sam” McDowell, P: “National League, Doug Harvey. American League, Nestor Chylak.”