Umpires Receive a Hearty Welcome From the Players : Baseball: Some “credibility” regained as replacement crews go the way of replacement players.

Regular umpires made their return to baseball--and their first visit to new Coors Field--a successful one on Wednesday.

“The reaction from the players was very gratifying,” home plate umpire Bruce Froemming said after the Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres, 12-7. “The first time around (the batting order), when everybody came up, they said, ‘Nice seeing you guys back.”’

Then Froemming added with a laugh, “A couple of days from now they may not be thinking that.”

The game had no disputed calls. Noting the absence of booing directed at the umps, Froemming said, “There’s plenty of time for that.”

Managers and players were unanimous in appreciating the return of the umpires after nearly a nine-month absence.

“I feel baseball is all the way back,” Padres Manager Bruce Bochy said. “We have the best umpires in the world back. You could see the difference. It adds credibility to the game.”

Padres pitcher Andy Benes said the umps “are right 98 percent of the time, and you could see that in slow motion today.”

Right fielder Tony Gwynn said the major problem with replacement umpires was inconsistency in calling balls and strikes.

“It was difficult to assume anything,” Gwynn said. “There were borderline pitches you didn’t know what would be the call. The regular umpires know the zone, and you’re comfortable with it.”

Rockies catcher Joe Girardi hailed Froemming for “doing a tremendous job after not working for nine months. These umps know what the strike zone is. You’ll see more consistency now. You’ll see a lot less arguing and the game should speed up.”

“It was nice being on the field doing the job you’re trained to do,” Froemming said. “I’m happy with the deal we got.”

Some bitterness remains, however, on the part of the umpires who were locked out by owners even after the players’ strike ended.

“I’m not sugar-coating it,” Froemming said. “It (replacement umpiring) was a pathetic display of officiating throughout the country. It made the people we work for appreciate us a little more.

“Bad umpiring by scabs was a trump card for our union. If the replacements had been decent, the lockout would have stretched out longer. You can’t do somebody else’s job.”

First-base umpire Jerry Crawford agreed.

“I’m happy with the deal, it was good for both sides,” Crawford said. “It’s good to be back. Coors Field has some nice angles and will be a good ballpark.”

Crawford said he meticulously avoided baseball during the lockout.

“I didn’t watch one game where a scab worked,” he said. “I wouldn’t watch them for a nickel. I didn’t watch anything or read any accounts.

“In a strike situation, there is a possibility that you may not call somebody a scab in the true sense of the word. But in a lockout situation, where they’re trying to replace you, they are true scabs.

“I wanted the scabs off the field. The replacements were guys who had been fired out of the minor leagues, fired out of the major leagues or were so-called first-class college and high school umpires. That’s who they (baseball management) asked to work, and that’s who they got.”