Baseball Rehires Three Umpires

Three more umpires will be rehired by Major League Baseball, and six more will split $2.3 million in severance pay as part of a settlement of the dispute that cost 22 umpires their jobs in 1999.

The umpires will be brought back as part of a five-year labor contract that was agreed to Wednesday, a deal that also settles the 1 1/2 -year-old grievance umpires filed over a computer system baseball has used to evaluate plate umps.

Bob Davidson, an 18-year major league veteran, will get the next big league opening. Davidson, 52, umpired last season in the Class-A Midwest League and worked behind the plate in 77 games. He made $13,000 in the minors, but would get a $274,993 salary if he is back in the majors before opening day, which is likely.

Tom Hallion and Ed Hickox will get two of the first five vacancies. That would raise the number of rehired umpires to 11, half the total who lost their jobs when a mass resignation strategy backfired.

Six umpires will receive severance pay and health benefits for themselves and their families under the deal. Jim Evans, Dale Ford, Eric Gregg, Ken Kaiser and Larry McCoy will get $400,000 each, and Mark Johnson, who had less service time, will get $325,000.

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Jason Varitek doesn’t expect to hit the way Carl Yastrzemski or Jim Rice did. When it comes to clubhouse leadership, though, he is every bit their equal.

The Boston Red Sox appointed Varitek their third captain since 1923 after giving the longtime catcher a $40-million, four-year contract.

Varitek did not know of the honor until he was presented with home and road jerseys bearing a red “C” on Friday to formalize the leadership role he has grown into since joining the team in 1997.

“It’s not every day you’re lucky enough to sign a player who embodies everything you want your franchise to be,” General Manager Theo Epstein said. “When you have that player, you don’t let him get away.”

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Javier Vazquez says the New York Yankees would be making a mistake if they traded him. A proposed three-team, 10-player deal that would have sent the right-hander to the Dodgers, Randy Johnson from Arizona to the Yankees and Shawn Green from the Dodgers to the Diamondbacks collapsed this week when the Dodgers dropped out.

“I’m disappointed that the Yankees are talking about trading me for having only a bad second half to the season,” Vazquez was quoted as saying in a Puerto Rican newspaper.

“I’ve had four consistent seasons in the major leagues, and for one bad second half it’s unfair that they want to trade me,” Vazquez said. “I still trust in my abilities, and if the Yankees trade me, they will regret it.”

Vazquez was 14-9 with a 4.75 earned-run average. Although he made the All-Star team for the first time, he won only one of his last nine regular-season starts.

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Outfielder Shane Spencer signed with Japan’s Hanshin Tigers after a seven-year career in the majors in which he played on two championship teams with the Yankees.

Miscellany

Copa Libertadores winning Coach Luis Fernando Montoya has suffered irreversible paralysis from the neck down after being shot twice, doctors said, while investigators in Bogota, Colombia, said the pistol used in the attack belonged to a police officer.

Montoya, who led Once Caldas to the South American club championship this year, underwent further surgery Thursday to try to ease his breathing, but he remains on a ventilator and can’t move his body, doctors said in a brief statement Friday.

Montoya, 47, was shot twice this week as he tried to protect his wife from robbers outside their home in the northwestern city of Caldas.

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Ryan Van Dyke, the leading quarterback in NFL Europe last season, has signed a three-year contract with the Avengers. He will be an Arena Football League rookie next season. Van Dyke played for the Cologne Centurions during the 2004 NFL Europe season, completing 174 of 280 passes for a league-leading 2,003 yards and 16 touchdowns.