Judge Orders Baseball to Rehire Nine Umpires

A federal judge ordered major league baseball to rehire nine of the 22 umpires who lost their jobs after a failed mass resignation two years ago.

U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III upheld most of the decision made by an arbitrator in May and also left open the possibility that three other umpires could get their jobs back, ordering that their cases be reheard by a different arbitrator.

Bartle agreed with nearly all of a May 11 decision by arbitrator Alan Symonette and ordered baseball to rehire Drew Coble, Gary Darling, Bill Hohn, Greg Kosc, Larry Poncino, Larry Vanover and Joe West. Bartle also upheld Symonette’s decision that baseball must take back two umpires who intended to retire: Frank Pulli and Terry Tata.

Bartle ordered new arbitration hearings for Paul Nauert, Bruce Dreckman and Sam Holbrook. He upheld 10 terminations: Bob Davidson, Tom Hallion, Jim Evans, Dale Ford, Richie Garcia, Eric Gregg, Ed Hickox, Mark Johnson, Ken Kaiser and Larry McCoy.