Umpires Told to Use Stopwatches to Time Breaks Between Innings

In their battle with television, the umpires’ decision wasn’t final.

Baseball umpires have been ordered by an arbitrator to use stopwatches between innings to ensure that pitches aren’t thrown before television is back on the air from commercial breaks.

Umpires balked last spring at using stopwatches to make sure breaks were 2 minutes 25 seconds for nationally televised Saturday afternoon and Sunday night games and 2:05 for other regular-season games. The American and National leagues filed a grievance, and the baseball owners won.

Umpires argued that timing the breaks wasn’t covered by their collective bargaining agreement. “We are not going to serve as lackeys for the TV networks,” Pat Campbell, one of the umpires’ lawyers, said after the case was argued.

After listening to testimony from both league presidents and representatives of the umpires on Aug. 7, arbitrator James Jordan ruled for the leagues on Nov. 14 in a 25-page decision obtained Monday by the Associated Press.

Jordan wrote that the umpires refusal to time breaks “is a clear violation of the collective bargaining agreement.”