Umps Get Warning

Baseball warned the bickering umpires not to harass each other as the infighting over their failed mass resignation plan got nastier and more emotional.

One of the game’s most respected umpires broke down in tears as he was interviewed on television before Saturday’s “Game of the Week.”

“I’m not going to give up my job of 25 years and sit down,” said Richie Garcia, one of the 22 umpires whose resignations were accepted, effective Sept. 2.

“I’m not going to let people that have been in baseball 15 years or 10 years or five years or three years take my job. I love this game,” Garcia said on Fox’s broadcast, wiping tears from his eyes and cutting the interview short.

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As the president of the Cleveland NAACP looked on, owner Richard Jacobs of the Cleveland Indians donned a makeshift white hood and made fun of an upcoming Ku Klux Klan rally in Cleveland.

George L. Forbes, president of the Cleveland chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, said he was not offended by Jacobs’ prank, which took place as Jacobs was flying a group to the July 13 All-Star Game at Boston.

Forbes has been publicly feuding with Mayor Michael R. White over the city’s plans for a KKK rally in the city scheduled for Aug. 21. And as the plane headed for Boston, Jacobs put on the white hood as a joke, the Plain Dealer reported.

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Cuban outfielder Josue Perez, whose contract with the Dodgers was voided by the commissioner’s office June 25, signed with the Philadelphia Phillies. Perez agreed to a one-year, $850,000 contract that includes an invitation to the Phillies’ major-league camp next spring. . . . Michigan quarterback Drew Henson wrapped up the baseball portion of his year and will return to college football after an impressive stay with the New York Yankees’ Class-A team at Tampa. “Being exposed to this level of pitching has been beyond anything I’ve seen before,” said Henson, who entered Saturday’s game hitting .271 with 36 RBIs and a team-best 13 home runs in 67 games. . . . Hall of Famer George Brett was feted in a midtown parade in Kansas City that drew thousands of fans.