Last Call for the Umpires : Baseball: Settlement puts 22 out of work, but they will be paid and could be reinstated next season by arbitration.

The 22 umpires whose resignations had been accepted by the American and National leagues in a failed labor strategy by their union will join the ranks of unemployed today. But in a settlement Wednesday between baseball and the Major League Umpires Assn., the 22--about a third of the big league staff--will continue to be paid through the final month of the current season and could be reinstated in 2000 pending an arbitration hearing that has yet to be scheduled.

The complex settlement to a dispute that began on July 14 when 57 of the 68 major league umpires submitted resignations effective today was reached after two days and more than 16 hours of prolonged meetings with U.S. District Court Judge J. Curtis Thayer in Philadelphia.

The union had asked Thayer to issue an injunction preventing the leagues from acting on the resignations, but Thayer urged the sides to reach a resolution on their own.

In agreeing to let the resignations stand pending arbitration, a potentially bitter judgment for the 22 who had supported counsel Richie Phillips’ questionable strategy, the union also agreed to withdraw a federal lawsuit against baseball and a claim of unfair labor practice that had been filed with the National Labor Relations Board.

The union also agreed to abide by the “no strike” provision in the existing collective bargaining agreement, guaranteeing that there will be no wildcat walkout during September or the postseason, and to refrain from harassing or threatening any major league umpire who had not supported the resignation strategy or is one of the 25 minor league umpires hired to replace the 22 whose resignations were accepted.

Baseball, in exchange, agreed to binding arbitration on the issue of its right to accept the resignations. It also agreed to pay the 22 umpires an amount equal to the salary and benefits they would have earned over the last month of the season. However, that amount will constitute an advance on the termination pay that may be due the umpires if the arbitrator rules in favor of baseball, as most legal experts expect.

Many had called Phillips’ resignation strategy--aimed, he said, at getting management to the bargaining table and averting a possible lockout if negotiations over a new collective agreement ultimately stalled--ill conceived and indefensible. They felt that baseball would survive any legal challenge--be it with a court or NLRB--and some expressed surprise that baseball agreed to any form of compromise, minimal or otherwise.

“This was not a matter of the judge ordering baseball to reach an agreement,” said Sandy Alderson, baseball’s executive vice president. “It was a decision based on the best interest of the game. It ensures that there will be no work stoppage, legal or illegal, over the rest of the season, and it ensures that we can go forward with a sufficient number of umpires.”

In addition, Alderson said, by agreeing to maintain the salary and benefits of the 22 unemployed umpires over the rest of the season (although that money may prove to be merely a down payment on termination allowances), baseball was easing their immediate financial concerns.

The leagues, as part of the bargaining agreement with the union, will also continue to pay each of the 68 umpires on the new roster a $20,000 postseason bonus--a total of $1.36 million. The union can distribute as much of that as it wants among the 22 umpires now out of work, a baseball official said.

The 22 run the gamut from experienced crew chiefs such as Terry Tata and Frank Pulli in the National League and Richie Garcia and Jim Evans in the American to first-year umpires such as Paul Nauert in the NL and Ed Hickox in the AL. Some are among the highest rated and some among the lowest rated.

In addition to Tata, Pulli and Nauert, the NL list includes Eric Gregg, Joe West, Tom Hallion, Bob Davidson, Bill Hohn, Larry Poncino, Gary Darling, Bruce Dreckman, Larry Vanover and Sam Holbrook. The AL list, in addition to Garcia, Evans and Hickox, includes Larry McCoy, Dale Ford, Greg Kosc, Drew Coble, Ken Kaiser and Mark Johnson, who attended the meetings in Philadelphia and left in tears.

Said Phillips, their controversial counsel:

“We think that it’s a shame for baseball and that baseball will suffer from the loss of these enormously talented people the commissioner’s office has arbitrarily determined to hurt.”

That, of course, ignores the fact that it was Phillips’ strategy of mass resignations that created the situation after that strategy had unraveled when many AL umpires began to question Phillips’ leadership and a total of 27 in both leagues either failed to resign or quickly rescinded their resignations. The union ultimately rescinded all of the resignations, but baseball contended that the 22 came too late, that it couldn’t take a chance of being caught with an incomplete staff and had already hired the replacement umpires.

“I was as shocked as anyone [by Phillips’ strategy],” Alderson said Wednesday. “But in light of the arrogance and disdain many umpires have shown toward the game, maybe I shouldn’t have been.

“Every one of the 22 has a human story to tell, but most had a direct involvement in the decision to resign and to maintain their resignation for more than a week before we [hired replacements].

“At some point people have to take responsibility for their actions and the actions of others taken on their behalf.”

The resignation strategy, in many ways, was to tempt the tiger. Baseball has long been fed up with Phillips’ confrontational tactics and may have viewed a divided union as an opportunity to grease his departure. The industry has also desired to centralize the umpires under the commissioner’s office--a plan opposed by NL umpires who are the strongest in support of Phillips--and to create a system by which umpires are held to a higher level of accountability. It may be easier to achieve those goals given the state of the currently reeling union.

“Baseball needs a core of well-trained, fairly regulated and adequately supervised umpires who are respected in baseball and throughout sports,” Alderson said. “Right now we don’t have that.”

They’re Out!

The 22 major league umpires who lost their jobs pending arbitration:

AMERICAN LEAGUE

* Drew Coble, Jim Evans, Dale Ford, Rich Garcia, Ed Hickox, Mark Johnson, Ken Kaiser, Greg Kosc, Larry McCoy.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

* Gary Darling, Bob Davidson, Bruce Dreckman, Eric Gregg, Tom Hallion, Bill Hohn, Sam Holbrook, Paul Nauert, Larry Poncino, Frank Pulli, Terry Tata, Larry Vanover, Joe West.