COMMENTARY : The Umpires Strike Back

Joe West is a major league baseball umpire famous for his voice raised either in country song or in simple sentences such as, “You’re outta here!” He has a manager’s fuse and rassler’s body, which explains how he once came to bear-hug a Mets pitcher before dropping the mischief maker on his haircut.

No surprise this spring, then, when Joe West looked through his mask and saw something he didn’t like, he reacted. West saw Montreal Expos pitcher Carlos Perez doing that thing he does.

When Perez throws what he believes to be strike three past a hitter, he brings his right knee up quickly as he brings his right fist down. It’s his look-at-me version of an umpire’s strikeout call.

Just the other day he rang up a hitter that way--only to hear West call the pitch a ball.

There came scowls and dagger-like glares before Perez ended the inning. Then West trundled over to speak to Perez.

You, dear reader of infinite imagination, are invited to complete Joe West’s five-word speech. It began, “Perez, cut out that . . . “

Ah, the smell of sweet scatology, a sure sign of spring and a certain suggestion that baseball umpires, the elephants of arbiters, have not forgotten the events of last September when Baltimore Orioles second baseman Roberto Alomar mistook umpire John Hirschbeck’s face for a spittoon.

Nor should they forget. Nor should they suffer in silence the blather of Peter Angelos, who owns the Orioles and has demanded that Hirschbeck apologize to Alomar. For that matter, as long as we’re taking sides, the umpires should not cut any slack for baseball’s spineless leaders, who not only allowed Alomar to play in the 1996 postseason but, by their silence, have given Angelos license to spread his tripe.

Hirschbeck apologize? For what, getting his face in the way of Alomar’s spit? Angelos says Hirschbeck provoked the incident. Wrong. Alomar first questioned a strike-three call. Besides, whatever happened, Alomar ended it with a vile action for which only one apology is necessary. His.

There are better ways for umpires to make their point than by picking fights. Yet can you blame them if they stand up for themselves when no one else will?

Too bad it has come to this. Last fall, umpires held the high moral ground. But now they have put into writing the belligerence that they so long and so belligerently have denied is part of their job description.

Last week, the umpires’ union announced a “Get Tough” policy. And not just as a spring experiment. It will continue in the regular season. “Oh, absolutely,” says Richie Phillips, the umpires’ union general counsel.

Rules will be “rigidly enforced,” a press release says. That means the 20-second rule for hitters and pitchers as well as the two-minute rule between innings. Any objection will lead to ejection. Get Tough is also Quick Thumb.

The umpires are critical of network television. They say an overhead camera produces a distorted view of pitches and leads to mistaken second-guessing of calls. And too many times, Phillips says, announcers accuse umpires of misinterpreting rules “when 100 times out of 100, the umpire gets the rule right.” He says acting Commissioner Bud Selig has been ineffective in dealing with the networks on those issues.

The umpires want baseball to deliver stern punishment to players who misbehave. Phillips: “Selig should say, ‘We have the finest umpires in the world, and we’re going to protect them and deter players from abusing them, especially physically.’ ”

A summit meeting of players, umpires and baseball leaders--prompted by Alomar--was twice postponed and then adjourned with nothing accomplished. And umpires felt betrayed when Angelos promised to pay Alomar’s salary during the five-game suspension that begins this season.

“We had an agreement with the commissioner’s office not to engage in public rhetoric,” Phillips says. “Next thing we know, Angelos is saying he’ll pay Alomar even if he’s not compelled to.

“On top of all this, the straw that broke the camel’s back was Angelos saying John Hirschbeck should apologize to Alomar. Selig again did nothing, even though people in baseball urged him to act. A substantial fine should have been imposed on Angelos.

“So umpires feel no support. That’s why they feel a need now for self-protection.”

Unhappily, Phillips is mostly right. A real commissioner could have fined Angelos. Or at least said, “Mr. Angelos is a blathering fool for whom I have one piece of advice: Shaddup!”

But Selig is a club owner himself and thus a business partner of Angelos. So he cannot even fake impartiality. As a moral force, he is impotent. And baseball suffers because of it.

In the Alomar incident, the game suffered first because Alomar was not suspended immediately. Had swift punishment been handed down by a commissioner who had earned public support and knew how to use that power, we would not now hear Angelos whining.

And we would not have the foolishness now being implemented by umpires with itchy ejection thumbs.

Seattle Mariners Manager Lou Piniella says he was thrown out of a spring game for asking umpire Ted Hendry to quit talking to shortstop Andy Sheets.

Piniella says, “I told (Hendry), ‘Leave him alone. Let him concentrate.’ (Hendry) thought I was getting on him.”

There is an attitude at work, too. Atlanta Braves pitcher Antone Brooks uncorked a wild pitch that bounced off umpire Ken Kaiser. Rather than routinely toss a ball back to the rookie, Kaiser threw him a ground ball.

So I ask Joe West, “How will the ‘Get Tough’ policy change the way you umpire?”

West chuckles. “A catcher said to me the other day, ‘You already umpire that way. Come to think of it, you are famous for it.’ ”

He says, “Going to be a whole lot of people famous for it before this is over. Not just Joe West.”