Commentary : The Day the Scribe Umpired at Second Base

Every time I hear the crowd get all over some football official or baseball umpire, I go back to an experience that proved Disraeli was right when he said it’s much easier to be critical than it is to be correct.

I’m talking about those fans who regard the referee or umpire as some kind of mortal enemy and take delight in booing their decisions. This is supposed to be a very healthy safety valve. It always sounds to me more like some big ship making its way out of the harbor.

The personal experience I have in mind took place in San Bernardino years ago. The St. Louis Browns were doing their spring training there and had an exhibition game scheduled with the Hollywood Stars.

It was customary in those days for only two umpires to work spring games, one behind the plate and the other on the bases, but on this particular day, only one of them, Art Passarella, showed up. The other ump had taken sick.

I happened to be there writing when for some reason I never could understand, they asked me if I’d fill in on the bases. I told them absolutely not, I wasn’t crazy. I’d never umpired in my life.

That didn’t matter, they assured me. It was only an exhibition contest. Nobody was going to report my mistakes to the league office or hold them against me. Oh, no?

Finally, I agreed to work the bases. I remember Marty Marion, one of baseball’s finest shortstops, playing second base that day. He was managing the Browns at the time and wanted to look over some other kid shortstop.

With one out and a runner on first, the Hollywood batter hit a roller to the shortstop. He ferried the ball over to Marion, who pivoted across second base perfectly and fired to first for the double play.

Marion started on his way into the dugout when he heard me holler “safe!”

“What?” he screamed, fit to be tied, and the fans started to boo me.

“You never touched the bag,” I told him.

“So what?” he said. “Name me anybody in the league who does.”

I recall that vividly, but what I remember even better was a close play later at first involving a Hollywood base runner, whom I also called safe. Again, some fans started booing me.

“Pay no attention to them,” Roy Sievers, the Browns’ first baseman, said to me. “He beat the throw. The fans can’t really see it from where they are. They only think they can. You made the right call.”

That always stuck with me. Here I had made a call against Sievers’ team and he was telling me it was the right one and the fans were wrong. Primarily because they weren’t as close to the play and couldn’t possibly have as good a view.

With all the recent flap over calls by both baseball and football officials, it makes me think back to that one and only umpiring experience of mine.

Believe me, 999 times out of 1,000 no one in the stands has a better view or better perspective than any of the officials down there on the field.

Of course, they make occasional mistakes. Who’s perfect? On balance, though, the men who make the calls generally render the right ones and do a far better job than they get credit for. Naturally, they blow one sometimes. But how would you like someone standing over you just waiting to criticize or boo you for any mistake they only think you’ve made?

Both football and baseball game films and instant replays seem to support the officials far more often than they show them up over disputed calls.

Last Sunday, most of the Los Angeles Rams felt they were done in by back judge Tom Kelleher’s fourth-quarter call against them in their 24-19 loss to the New York Giants but the game film tends to support his decision.

Ram receiver Bobby Duckworth was cutting across from left to right in the endzone when he went up in the air to catch Jack Kemp’s pass at almost the same time he was hit by Giants’ strong safety Kenny Hill.

Duckworth came down with only one foot in bounds and Kelleher ruled the pass incomplete. The Rams argued that Hill had knocked Duckworth out of bounds but Kelleher said the Ram receiver’s momentum was such that he couldn’t have possibly landed with both feet inside no matter what.

Just for your information, Kelleher has been officiating 26 years, has seen that same play hundreds of times, worked three Super Bowl games and is considered one of the NFL’s finest officials. One more thing. He interpreted the play strictly according to the rules.

At their league meeting here last month, NFL owners considered whether to use instant replay for the forthcoming playoffs. Sixteen voted in favor of it, eight against it, and four abstained.

As you can see, there is some sentiment for instant play in the NFL and very quietly, the NHL also is studying the feasibility of using it.

I think any sport that substitutes instant replay for its officials or even augments them with the device is losing something. The human element, if nothing else, and I think that’s a plus, not a minus, for any sport. What will the fans do if instant replay is adopted, boo the TV monitor?

“There’ll never have instant replay in baseball,” declares Tom Gorman, who umpired in the National League for 25 years.

“Why? I’ll tell you why. Say the bases are loaded with none out or one out. A ball is hit to the outfield or there’s a close play at first base like that one in the World Series they’re still talking about. Maybe that ball is or isn’t trapped in the outfield. Maybe the other runners aren’t sure what the call is at first base. How do they know whether to tag up or not? They always look for our signal. What are they gonna have to do now, wait for the instant replay? Ridiculous.”