Umpires Out: Is It Lockout or a Strike?

For the sixth time in 21 years, major league umpires are off the job, their action Saturday called a strike by baseball’s owners and a lockout by the Major League Umpires Assn.

At issue is their contract, which ran out Dec. 31. Negotiations have been ongoing but apparently are stalled over an issue of salary. Association President Richie Phillips said that $750,000 per year over a four-year contract is at stake. Management negotiator Robert Kheel said the amount was twice that.

“All indications were that a deal would be done,” Phillips said Saturday. “All of a sudden, as things were moving to a deal, they shut it down. I was quite surprised and disappointed.”

Under the expired four-year contract, umpires were paid from $41,000 to $105,000 per season, depending on seniority. The leagues said they had offered to increase the minimum to $57,500 and the maximum to $155,000.

“The leagues made what we believe to be a fair and equitable offer,” Kheel said. “He articulated certain demands that were presented to us in a manner that led us to believe we would not be able to reach agreement at this time.”

After a marathon bargaining session that ended at 2:30 a.m. EST Saturday, Phillips said the umpires walked out after management had told them they would be locked out starting Monday.

“They told me even if we were willing to work the beginning of the season, they would not allow us to work until we were willing to sign an agreement that we would not strike for the entire 1991 season,” Phillips said. “We were not willing to sign such an agreement.”

Kheel disputed that, saying a lockout had not been decided.

The owners had planned for a job action, and those plans immediately were implemented.

At Chicago’s Wrigley Field, a crew of four Big Ten umpires worked the game between Milwaukee and the Chicago Cubs. The Brewers won, 3-2, and the day ended when Joe Girardi was called out on strikes by Dave Slickenmeyer with runners on second and third.

“The ball was a foot outside,” Girardi said. “But otherwise, they did a good job.”

Dutch Rennert and Bruce Froemming of the National League and Larry Young of the American League were scheduled to work.

Instead, substitute umpires arrived at the ballpark about 45 minutes before the game. They were Slickenmeyer, 42, a manufacturer’s representative for a binder company; Dick Cavenaugh, 58, also a manufacturer’s representative; Joe Maher, 47, a teacher; and Kevin Lefevre, 30, a parks and recreation supervisor.

Though it was not official yet, Cub General Manager Jim Frey said he thought the same umpires would work Chicago’s regular-season opener Tuesday at home against St. Louis if the strike was not settled.

In Washington, D.C., four members of the Mason-Dixon Umpires Assn., who normally work college games in the Baltimore area, handled the Boston Red Sox-Orioles exhibition.

At Shea Stadium in New York, four former minor league umpires officiated.

Phillips said the major league umpires would meet Monday in Chicago to discuss the situation, and then would set up informational pickets at ballparks.

Umpires struck for the opening game of the 1970 playoffs; for one day in 1978; for spring training and the first 45 days of the 1979 season and for seven games during the 1984 playoffs. Last year, they boycotted the first week of exhibition games after the end of the lockout against players.