On the evening of Oct. 7, while working Game 2 of the American League Championship Series in New York, home plate umpire Ted Hendry incurred the wrath of Yankees fans, players and officials when he failed to make an interference call that resulted in a 12th-inning Cleveland Indians victory. A "blatant . . . terrible call," Yankees Manager Joe Torre said, adding that Hendry's balls and strikes calls also "stunk."
Hendry, a 21-year major league umpiring veteran, was in the spotlight again Tuesday when he seemed to miss a call that cost the Indians three runs and helped propel the Yankees to a 9-5 victory and the AL championship. Saturday night, the Yankees will play the National League champion San Diego Padres in the opening game of the World Series.
In a season of highly publicized missed calls, wildly inconsistent strike zones and allegations that umpires have sold baseball memorabilia, Hendry's apparent blunders focused attention on an issue that is often discussed, albeit quietly, in the sport's inner circles: What to do about umpires who consistently underperform or fail to follow league rules?
Can they be fired?
Most assuredly yes, say officials from the AL and NL, which hire and supervise the 68 major league umpires and assign them to regular and postseason games.
"The league presidents have the absolute right to terminate umpires who they don't feel are meeting the relevant standards," said Robert Kheel, an NL lawyer.
Most assuredly maybe, said Pat Campbell, associate counsel of the Major League Baseball Umpires Association, the umps' union.
Campbell said he can imagine an umpire being terminated only for "some extreme, outrageous" offense. "I mean, if an umpire shot a player on the field, could he be terminated? I guess under those circumstances I would have a tough time saying he couldn't," he said.
Major league umpiring largely remains a job for life. "Yes, there have been umpires whose employment was terminated for competency reasons," Kheel said, refusing to name names. But more often, he said, faltering umps are encouraged to retire. Campbell said he doesn't know of an umpire being terminated since he joined the union almost 10 years ago.
As arbiters of the national pastime, these men in blue work seven months a year and are paid between $95,000 and $245,000, plus generous benefits. They have a grueling schedule, zigzagging the continent from Los Angeles to Montreal to Miami. But they fly first class and get a $250-a-day per diem.
Their pay is based on seniority, not merit. But AL and NL officials said this week they assign umpires to postseason events based largely on merit -- not on seniority, as they once did. Each member of the six-man World Series crew will be paid an additional $17,500.
Union and league officials agree this has been a particularly contentious season.
On July 4, for example, Baltimore Orioles Manager Ray Miller and third-base coach Sam Perlozzo were ejected from a game after third-base umpire Marty Foster apparently missed a call that would have left the Orioles with the bases loaded and none out. The Yankees won the game, 4-3.
On Aug. 4, Detroit Tigers Manager Buddy Bell and two of his players were ejected after complaining about umpire John Hirschbeck's generously wide strike zone, which helped Orioles pitcher Mike Mussina retire the first 23 batters he faced. AL executive director of umpiring Marty Springstead later defended Hirschbeck, saying: "Every umpire has their own strike zone," though the zone is well defined in baseball's rule book.
On Sept. 20, umpire Bruce Davidson made a debatable fan interference call in Milwaukee that turned an apparent home run by St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire into a double. As it turned out, McGwire didn't need the homer to beat out Sammy Sosa for the major league home run record.
That same day in Chicago, the NL's most senior umpire, Harry Wendelstedt, called an apparent foul ball a home run -- a call Wendelstedt vigorously defended because, he said, he had seen the ball "clearly." Wendelstedt, 60, a former University of Maryland baseball and basketball player, recently retired from umpiring after 33 major league seasons and will join a joint AL/NL panel that evaluates umps' performance.
Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said in an interview this week he is "monitoring" umpire performance "very carefully," and in the coming months he will look into complaints about the strike zone.
"I think for the most part the strike zone is very much on target and consistent," said Paul Runge, the NL's administrative director of umpires. "But there are some umpires who seem to be a little wider than they should be, and I think that needs to be addressed."
Selig also expressed concerns about reports some umpires have collected memorabilia, such as autographed balls, from players.
"Whenever there is any potential conflict in any way, shape or form, {the umpires} shouldn't do it," Selig said. The AL is investigating whether umpires were involved in selling balls used in Yankees pitcher David Wells's perfect game this season.
"I don't think it's completely stopped," Runge said of the longstanding practice of umpires soliciting autographs from players. "But I think it will stop. It's like everything else. We've got a lot of people who've been around for a long time and they're used to doing certain things."
League officials say few umpires have been fired or demoted to the minor leagues, where they began their careers, because they are largely competent. And umpires who have deficiencies respond well to remedial training, they note.
"My objective is not to go out and fire people," NL President Len Coleman said. "My objective is if somebody's in a rut . . . to work with them to get them back up."
Baseball officials say terminating umpires has been difficult in recent years because league presidents have not had much reliable data to use in building their cases.
Until 1995, umpires were rated largely through a questionnaire the leagues sent to team managers.
"We had a hard time getting information back from the managers," said Phil Janssen, the AL's coordinator of umpire operations. "We'd send it, but they wouldn't send it back because they were afraid that if they wrote negatively about an umpire that their team or an individual would be punished."
Coleman called the rating system "foolhardy," recalling one questionnaire he received from an NL club. "It said: All the umpires did a good job this season,' " he said with a chuckle.
In 1995 the two leagues formed a panel of five former umpires and players to review umpire performance at more than 500 games each season. Reviewers grade umpires in five categories: Plate work, base work, situation management, professionalism and rules knowledge.
Grades range from 1 ("far below standard") to 5 ("absolutely superior"). They can be used to gauge if an umpire needs remedial training or, ultimately, if he should be terminated, baseball officials said.
"There were some high 2s {marginally below standard}," Runge said of this season's ratings. "But the majority of them fell into the 3s" -- meets standard.
Runge, 57, became the NL's umpire overseer last year after retiring from a 24-season career as a big league ump.
"If an umpire isn't doing his job, he's going to learn to do his job," Runge said by phone one afternoon last week, en route to San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium. "And if he falls into a bad rut, or he gains too much weight or he can't do it any more for some reason, then there's no reason he should stay in the big leagues."
Runge said he is largely pleased with the performance of the NL's 36 umpires.
"Are there some umpires who aren't as good as others? Absolutely. Absolutely!" he said. "Some of them are young and some of them are old. . . . I don't frown on umpires who make mistakes. That just proves that they're human. It's what they do after their mistakes that I think everybody is concerned with.
"I got umpires with weight problems. I got umpires with physical problems. I got some umpires with a little bit of attitude problems. But you take them out on the field and they can umpire. They can all umpire. If you make those adjustments, there's nothing wrong with them."
But there's one more adjustment umps need to make, Runge said: They need to work on their image.
"I don't know that they really perceive that umpires are not looked upon favorably today," he said. "I think umpires are looked upon as being very unagreeable people. Arrogant. I don't believe that perception but it's something that has to be addressed by the umpires.
"There's this perception that umpires just come out of this dark hole and go out and umpire. The truth is, we bring our families to the games. We go to the ballpark and work. We leave and go out and have dinner. We're nice people. Hotel people like us. You know, a lot of people like us. We're not bad people." CAPTION: Indians Manager Mike Hargrove, right, begs to differ with the strike zone of umpire Joe Brinkman in Game 2 of AL first-round playoff series. Hargrove was ejected. ec CAPTION: In ALCS Game 2, Yankees' Chuck Knoblauch complains an interference call was missed. ec