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The reddish-brown mud used by umpires to rub into new baseballs. The tradition began in the 1920s when, after the death of Ray Chapman from an errant pitch, umpires were ordered to keep fresh new balls in play at all times. After pitchers complained of difficulty in gripping the balls, league officials decided to institute a policy of "rubbing down" baseballs to remove the sheen from the leather. Today, umpires use Lena Blackburne's Baseball Rubbing Mud, named after the 1930s-era manager who discovered the secret location in the Delaware River that produced the exact consistency and color of mud to make a ball perfect.
A single defensive play that results in two outs made. It can be a ground
ball that goes shortstop to second base to first, a line drive that doubles
off a runner who has taken too big a lead, a strikeout/caught stealing
on the same pitch, or even the strange play that happened to the Brooklyn
Dodgers on August 15, 1926.
With Hank DeBerry at third, Dazzy Vance on second, Chick Fewster on first,
and one out, Dodger outfielder Babe Herman turned on a fastball and sent
it to the right field wall. DeBerry scored easily. Vance should have too;
instead, he rounded third and retreated to the bag, unaware that Fewster
was racing there as well. Herman, meanwhile, never looked up as he chugged
around second base and headed for now-crowded third base. One can only
imagine the scene as the Boston catcher tagged out every Dodger he could
find, including probably the third base coach. Since only Vance was entitled
to the base, umpires called Fewster and Herman out for perhaps the strangest
double play in history.
There's an old baseball myth saying that Babe Herman tripled into a triple
play -- impossible since there was already one out. He merely doubled
into a double play, which, as writer John Lardner put it, is the next
best thing. Years later, the story goes, a Brooklyn fan shouts out of
his tenement asking for an update of a game. Somebody else shouts, "The
Dodgers have three men on base." The first man's supposed reply:
"Which base?"
A free agent is a player who is not under contract with any team and
is free to negotiate with whoever wants to pay the right money. Free agency
is available to any player with an expired contract who has played six
or more years in the majors. The Major League Baseball Players Association,
led by Marvin Miller, won the right of free agency with the Andy Messersmith-Dave
McNally decision in 1975. Before that, the reserve clause in every player's
standard contract bound a player to his team for as long as the club wanted
him; during salary negotiations, players had absolutely no rights and
had to accept whatever offer the team made or else not play baseball at
all.
Many people argue that free agency has torn apart the game because it
has created a system of rent-a-players and mercenaries who go wherever
the money is. But I like the fact that a favorite team has a chance to
get a great player at any moment; ask Giants fans whether they like free
agency in the wake of the Barry Bonds deal. Sure, free agency has driven
salaries into the stratosphere, and sure, there have been a lot of bad
free agent signings. The key is for teams to be smart when they hand out
their money. In recent years, for example, there have been probably more
good signings than bad ones: Bonds, Greg Maddux, David Cone -- they've
all paid off handsomely for their respective clubs. Is it a coincidence
that the beginning of free agency also marked the beginning of the baseball
attendance boom? There were other factors, to be sure, but I think free
agency has been good for baseball.
A
Whole Different Ballgame
by Marvin Miller
The person on the field who calls balls, stikes, and outs and interprets
the rule book for other plays. Today, four umpires call the plays for
regular season games: a home plate umpire and one at each base. For post-season
and All-Star Games, extra umpires man
the outfield foul lines. In the early days of the sport, only one umpire
called a game, then two. And umpires had a really tough time of it. They
often volunteered for the job, until the National League decided to pay
them five dollars per game. The American Association was the first league
to pay umpires fixed salaries, and the American League, headed by Ban
Johnson, was the first to give its umpires full and unwavering support.
In the 1970s, as baseball players fought for labor equity, the umpires'
union rose to powerful heights. They went on strike at the beginning of
the 1979 season, demanding better pay and better working conditions. The
leagues called up replacement umpires from the minor leagues, but many
games proved farcical when the rookie umps couldn't keep control of the
games; the leagues then settled the dispute.
Today's umpires earn between $60,000 and $160,000 and vacation time in
the middle of the season. But they also have to pay their dues. Like ballplayers,
umpires have to work their way up the minor league ladder, and most never
make it to the big leagues. Pam Postema nearly became the first woman
to umpire in the major leagues, but she never received the call and was
released from Triple-A after 13 years of toiling in the minors. She had
more experience than many of her colleagues who made it to the majors,
and, having endured the constant taunting and sexist remarks by obnoxious
fans and players throughout her career, she had to have more guts. The
fact that the American League refused to hire her showed that they had
less guts than Postema.
The
Men in Blue: Conversations With Umpires
by Larry R. Gerlach