The Official Touch : Rodman, Van Exel and Magic Incidents Put the Spotlight on Contact, but Some Say It’s an Aberration, Not a Trend

It is an hour before a recent game between the Angels and Detroit Tigers at Anaheim Stadium.

In the umpires’ dressing room, Davey Phillips is getting a rubdown from Angel trainer Rick Smith, trying to loosen spasms in his lower back.

Phillips, a crew chief and American League umpire for 26 years, will be working the plate, a demanding physical and mental exercise compounded by the knowledge that he will receive some abuse from batters, pitchers, players in the dugouts and fans, no matter how efficient he is.

And like officials in all sports now, Phillips goes to work knowing the line of authority has been breached by the recent series of NBA incidents in which Dennis Rodman of the Chicago Bulls butted referee Ted Bernhardt, Nick Van Exel of the Lakers sent referee Ron Garretson flying with a forearm shiver, and goodwill ambassador Magic Johnson of the Lakers put a shoulder into referee Scott Foster.

Reflective of a pattern or simply a rare siege of isolated events?

An inspection of recent blotters shows that contact between officials and players, managers or coaches in each of the pro sports is neither up nor down. It is reasonably consistent at two or three incidents of incidental contact a year. There is nothing to suggest that the severity of the Rodman and Van Exel events is becoming common.

In baseball, unburdened by a clock, there is more latitude for debate. Those snapshots of Leo Durocher kicking dirt, of Earl Weaver snapping the bill of his cap into the face of Ron Luciano, are featured pages in the baseball scrapbook.

“We don’t like confrontations any more than anyone else, but we accept it as part of the game as long as it doesn’t become obnoxious or unruly,” said Phillips. “We don’t have a warning device such as [basketball’s] technical foul or [football’s] yellow flag. There’s no in-between. We either accept a certain amount of confrontation or we end it with an ejection.

“There are 60 or so umpires. Some may be more tolerant than others, and managers pride themselves on knowing how far they can go or can’t go.”

In the American League, there were no suspensions in 1995 or 1993. But in 1994, Ron Karkovice of the Chicago White Sox and Tony Phillips of the Detroit Tigers drew three-game suspensions for contact with an umpire. There were 55 ejections last year, 40 in ’94 and 93 in the last full season of 1993, most for bad language, fighting, throwing equipment or simply refusing to end the debate.

The National League last year issued four-game suspensions to Carlos Perez of the Montreal Expos and Terry Pendleton of the Florida Marlins for umpire contact, a three-game suspension to Doug Brocail of the Houston Astros and a two-game suspension to Brian McRae of the Chicago Cubs. There were 80 ejections in the NL last year and 95 the year before.

Phillips said that the 30-day suspension dealt by then-National League president Bart Giamatti to then-Cincinnati Red manager Pete Rose for contact with umpire Dave Pallone on April 30, 1988, the longest suspension for a manager involving an on-field incident, has served as a deterrent.

He added, however, that the modest fines--a couple of hundred dollars for most ejections--are meaningless when weighed against escalating salaries.

“I’m not saying that there needs to be a death sentence, but I applaud the NBA for implementing a level of fines that might cause a player to think twice,” Phillips said.

He also said that in his third decade as a major league umpire, in a career spanning often volatile relationships with firebrand managers such as Billy Martin, Dick Williams and Weaver, he believes there is a new breed--more patient, tolerant and communicative because of the force-feeding of younger players, which translates to more patience and tolerance with umpires.

Perhaps, but many managers, players and coaches think that’s a one-way street now. They argue that umpires, with tenure and job security protected by their labor agreement, assume they have no one to answer to and are the ones who initiate and prolong many of the loudest debates.

Called out on strikes recently, Eric Davis of the Reds said that when he reacted, umpire Joe West jerked off his mask and said:

“I’m not the one taking pitches, swing the bat.”

Said Davis: “Those guys aren’t perfect. I accept that, but they don’t need to be making comments. They don’t need to yank off their masks and question my manhood in front of the fans. I’m no kid. I’ve been around long enough that I should be able to ask the umpire a question. I pride myself on my relationship over the years with umpires. This is not to say they are all like that, but some definitely have chips on their shoulders.”

Baseball tolerates a freedom of speech not tolerated in the NFL, for instance. Preseason football guidelines outline the policy against public criticism of officials, as well as financial discipline for physical contact, starting at $7,500 for the first abuse, $10,000 for the second and probable

suspension for the third.

Pittsburgh Steeler Coach Bill Cowher was fined $7,500 for comments about the officiating in a 1995 game against the Minnesota Vikings, even though Cowher was correct in his criticism and two officials in that game were each fined a game check.

Unlike baseball managers, NFL coaches are restricted to the sidelines and face 15-yard penalties for leaving that area. Foul language by coaches and players can result in similar penalties.

According to the NFL, there was only one instance of physical contact between a player and an official last season. Alvin Harper of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers caught a pass in the corner of the end zone for what appeared to be a touchdown against the Washington Redskins. The immediate call was that Harper caught it out of bounds. The protesting Harper leaped up and brushed the official, drawing an immediate ejection.

The call was quickly overruled, and Harper and the Buccaneers were credited with a touchdown. But the ejection stood.

Jerry Seeman, the NFL’s supervisor of officials, said there is an ongoing effort to minimize potential problems by “working with coaches and players to develop mutual respect,” including a meeting between referees and head coaches each May.

In the NHL, despite the physical nature of the game and the frequency of fights, there are few suspensions involving physical problems between players and officials. A player who physically breaks away from an official who is trying to break up a fight automatically draws a three-game suspension. There are three or four of those a season. Eric Lacroix of the Kings tripped referee Mick McGeough from behind while leaving the penalty box last Oct. 12 and drew a three-game suspension.

“There’s a great discrepancy between the potential for trouble and actual trouble,” said Bryan Lewis, the NHL’s supervisor of officials. “I worked more than a thousand games and got punched in the nose by a player once. At the time it was one time too many, but in the context of a thousand games, it was an isolated incident.

“I think we’re in an age, generally, where there’s less respect for authority, whether it’s the policeman on the corner or the teacher in the classroom, but we work hard in training camps to develop rapport and create familiarity with the rules.”

The NHL’s longest suspension was for 20 games against Tom Lysiak of the Chicago Blackhawks for tripping linesman Ron Foyt after Foyt had dismissed him from a faceoff in 1983.

The NHL also has a rule for which baseball umpires yearn: The third man in a fight draws an automatic ejection, and the first player to leave the bench is suspended for 10 games and his team fined $10,000. There is no greater potential for physical contact than in baseball’s frequent beanbrawls. Said umpire Phillips: “All we can do is step back and take names and numbers.”

No one needed replays in the Rodman, Van Exel and Johnson incidents, but Rod Thorn, the NBA’s senior vice president of operations, said they did not constitute a pattern.

“Rodman is in a world of his own, Van Exel has something of a quick trigger, and I can’t explain Magic,” Thorn said. “The league had three major incidents in 49 years and they all came within a two- or three-week period, but I’d be surprised if anything happened again in the near future.”

Which is not to say the NBA has been free of incidents. Among others, Clyde Drexler was suspended for a game in 1994 for incidental contact, and Michael Jordan was suspended for a game in 1993. There is widespread use of the technical foul to control verbalizing by coaches and players.

Said Thorn: “The ambience of baseball is much different than basketball and hockey. We have to get the ball back in play. We don’t have time for a lot of heated debate.”

Yet it goes on.

Scottie Pippen of the Bulls recently blasted NBA referee Hue Hollins, calling him unprofessional and suggesting he has it in for the Bulls.

Some in the NBA say the retirement of officiating giants Mendy Rudolph, Earl Strom and Jake O’Donnell, among others, coupled with the use of three officials a game, has brought in a group of younger, inexperienced officials, lowering the quality and leading to potential confrontations.

Thorn disputed that. He said the percentage of incidents has not risen commensurately with the increase in players through expansion. He said the Rodman, Van Exel and Johnson incidents will prompt the NBA to take a hard look at their penalty standards and, perhaps, write a new rule.

However, like officials in other sports, he said, increased media coverage has led to the perception that there have been more incidents involving officials. Umpire Phillips agreed.

“You see the same event 20 times on ‘SportsCenter’ and begin to think it must be rampant,” he said, finishing his back rub in preparation for his nine rounds, er, innings, behind the plate.