Ueberroth Says Umpire’s Call Was Bad : But Human Error Is ‘Part of the Game,’ Commissioner Insists

The ninth-inning call that helped the Kansas City Royals win Game 6 of the World Series and eventually take baseball’s championship was a bad one, Commissioner Peter Ueberroth said Thursday.

Ueberroth also said he was considering a rule change that would allow the designated hitter to be used in every World Series, rather than every other year, but only when the American League team is the home team. He said such a change could come as early as next year, when the DH is scheduled to be used in all World Series games.

Ueberroth, discussing last week’s controversial World Series call in an appearance on NBC’s “Donahue” show, defended American League umpire Don Denkinger as one of baseball’s best and said human errors are “part of the game.”

The Royals won Game 6, 2-1, on Saturday night, then beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 11-0, on Sunday to win the World Series, four games to three.

During the show, Ueberroth viewed videotapes in which Denkinger called Jorge Orta safe at first base after he hit a slow bouncer wide of the bag. The tapes show Jack Clark fielding the ball and flipping it to pitcher Todd Worrell on the bag, apparently before Orta touched base.

“I think he may have missed it. . . . I think he missed the call,” Ueberroth told host Phil Donahue. “In all of sports, sometimes there’s a fumble and they reshow it and, sure enough, the guy fumbled before he was on the ground. And you watch basketball and somebody bumped somebody and the referee misses it.

“It’s part of the game. Umpires are not perfect. They make mistakes.”

Cardinal Manager Whitey Herzog has blamed Denkinger’s call for his team losing the Series and suggested that umpires who make inept calls should be suspended.

“This happens to be a very good umpire,” Ueberroth said. “One of the top five umpires in the entire league, and he may have missed one. . . . This umpire happens to be a darn good umpire. Both leagues would agree with that, and the managers would agree with that--all of them, including St. Louis.”

Ueberroth told Donahue he doesn’t like the split system under which the American League uses the designated hitter and the National does not, but that the fans, and not he, should decide whether pitchers hit.

However, the commissioner said he might change the current rule under which the designated hitter is used in the World Series one year but not the next. Instead, he said, he might have the game played under American League rules in the AL park and National League rules in the NL park.

“I may do something for the next World Series,” Ueberroth said. “It doesn’t seem fair that the American League plays all year long with it and then they go into the World Series and put aside the thing forever every other year.”

The commissioner also said he disliked having former President Richard Nixon as the arbitrator in the umpires’ salary dispute.

The team owners and the umpires’ union chose Nixon to decide how much the umpires would be paid for the two games added to this year’s league playoffs.

“I was totally against that,” Ueberroth said. “I don’t think a tiny dispute that I wouldn’t even get involved in should involve the former head of this country. And it dredges up all the problems Richard Nixon faced. I didn’t want to do that.”

But, Ueberroth said, “I didn’t slam the table,” and the two sides decided not to take his advice.

“Then they said they were going to come and have the hearings on the first day of the World Series. Then I did slam the table,” Ueberroth said. “I said, ‘No. You go someplace and you get it done, and I don’t want to hear about it again.’ ”

He said the owners and the umpires were only about $90,000 apart when they decided to arbitrate, and “the legal fees were probably more than the total amount disputed.”

How much was Nixon paid? “I don’t know. That’s a good question, and we ought to find out.”