He Thought Umpires Ought to Be in Pictures : La Mesa’s Nielsen Creates Cards of Your Favorite Men in Blue

You’re sitting in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium under the blazing sun, hot dog in one hand and beverage in the other, and there’s a close play at the plate.

Necks crane, eyes bulge, and the place is full of disbelief. And then, from somewhere behind you, you hear it: “Collect the ump!”

Collect the ump?

For this, you can thank La Mesa’s Tom Nielsen, a 39-year-old building contractor who has produced a 64-card set of umpire trading cards that is being sold throughout the country.

Rodney Dangerfield makes movies. Why shouldn’t umpires have their own trading cards?

“We all think it’s great,” said Oceanside’s John Kibler, 59, who has been a National League umpire for the past 23 years. “We finally have something we can give to friends.”

“I’m charging $2 for signatures on a card,” NL umpire Eric Gregg said with a laugh.

Rookie umpire Mark Hirschbeck shot back: “The reason he has to charge so much is because his card is a little bigger than the rest,” a reference to Gregg’s girth.

There are 60 individual umpires featured, a 1987 All-Star game crew card, a 1987 World Series crew card, a card featuring Jocko Conlan, the only living umpire in the Hall of Fame, and a checklist card. The back of the card contains a biography, date and place of birth, years of service, and even statistics--appearances in League Championship Series, All-Star games and World Series. Each umpire’s height is included, but not his weight.

That’s all right with Nielsen, who thought a set featuring the men in blue was way overdue.

“Umpires are taken for granted by too many people,” Nielsen said. “They’re on the road from the first part of April through the All-Star break. If they have a chance to go home, it’s only for a couple of days. Players are home half of the time.

“They also have to stand for all nine innings. They don’t get to go into the dugout and take a break like the players do. A lot of people think they’re part of the field. They don’t know how hard the umpires work.”

Nielsen first came up with the idea in 1986, after talking with former American League umpire Ed Runge.

Nielsen and Runge, who lives in El Cajon, became friends when both coached Little League. One day Nielsen, a baseball card collector, asked Runge why umpires were never depicted on cards. Runge promptly fished his wallet out of his pocket and pulled out a card of himself that appeared in the 1955 Bowman Gum Co. set.

Nielsen also talked with Ed Runge’s son, Paul, a National League umpire. Paul Runge informed Nielsen that many of the umpires were having postcards made of themselves to meet fans’ requests.

In early 1987, Nielsen presented proposals for umpire cards to the Major League Umpires Assn. and Major League Baseball. It took until February 1988 to get licensed.

“They do an in-depth study of your financial background, and they do character references,” Nielsen said.

The final plans called for Nielsen to produce a “limited edition set.” He had 100,000 printed.

“That seems like a lot, but compared to other baseball cards, of which millions are made, it’s a small quantity,” Nielsen said.

The cards went on sale May 27, and by July 4, Nielsen said 60% to 70% of the sets had been snapped up by dealers. They are going for about $10-$15 each.

Nielsen’s agreement with the umpires stipulates that each of them receives two complete sets, plus 200 cards of themselves.

“I’ve gotten the chance to meet most of the National League umps,” he said. “It’s given me access to go on the field (before games) and meet these guys. And that’s been a lot of fun.

“That’s one of the major reasons I did this. It’s not so much the business it creates, because it’s not what I do for a living. But it gives me access to major league baseball and it generates money for the umpires’ association (which gets a cut from every set Nielsen sells).”

But Nielsen doesn’t have a monopoly on fun from the sets.

“My boys took the master copies (two uncut sheets--one NL sheet and one AL), had them framed and gave them to me for Father’s Day,” Kibler said during a recent stop in San Diego. “They put the American League sheet on a red background, and the National League sheet on a green background. I hung them up on the wall last night.

“I can’t emphasize enough how happy I am about them. I’m about ready to retire--I’ll go one more year and then think about it--and I have these.

“And when you think about it, (former NL umpire) Lee Weyer’s gone and (former NL umpire) Dick Stello is gone, and they’re in the set. It’s really something to have. At least we have something to remember two great guys by.”

Dick Stello died in a car accident during spring training, and Lee Weyer died of a heart attack in San Francisco on July 4. The day before, he was in San Diego, umpiring a Padre-Cardinal game. It was the day Nielsen presented him with his sets.

“He really liked them,” Nielsen said. “He was thrilled. Some of his friends wanted more, so he wanted to order more. He gave me his home address.”