This from AP. P-Sz
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NEW YORK - Baseball umpires filed a grievance to keep the commissioner's
office from pressuring them to call more strikes and reduce pitches, saying
management's move ``threatens the integrity of the game.''
The grievance, filed late Saturday, says the commissioner's office violated the
umpires' new labor contract by keeping track of the average number of pitches
in games worked behind the plate by each umpire and ranking each umpire in that
category.
``If you have good pitchers pitching, there will be fewer pitches thrown, but
if the pitchers are struggling, we can't control that,'' umpire Randy Marsh
said. ``If the pitch is a strike, it's a strike, and if it's a ball, it's a
ball.''
Larry Gibson, a lawyer for the umpires, notified baseball of the grievance in a
three-page letter he faxed Saturday to the commissioner's office.
``The union has learned that the office of the commissioner believes the
average to be around 285 pitches in a nine-inning game,'' Gibson and Joel
Smith, another union lawyer, wrote in the letter. ``Umpires are being told that
this number is too high and to `bring your pitch count down' ... to 270 pitches
a game.''
Gibson and Smith wrote that umps have been told to ``call more strikes,'' ``be
aggressive'' and to ``hunt for strikes.''
``The pitch count, whether or not it is coupled with a direct instruction to
call more strikes, interferes with an umpires' duty to exercise independent
judgment on each pitch,'' the letter said. ``Pitch count pressure threatens the
integrity of the game, in that it brings on to the playing field improper
influence on umpire performance.''
The labor contract calls for the sides to meet on the issue. If they can't
resolve it, the case would go to an arbitrator selected from a list provided by
the American Arbitration Association.
``This is the first I've heard of it,'' Sandy Alderson, executive vice
president of baseball operations in the commissioner's office, said Sunday when
told of the grievance by a reporter.
``I'm sure we'll meet with the union to discuss it. I think this has been taken
way out of context by the union. I'm surprised they haven't attempted to
discuss this matter with us privately and have resorted to this more public
approach.''
Baseball and its umpires have been at odds for more than two decades and just
last month, umpire Al Clark was terminated for charging plane tickets for his
wife to a credit card paid for by the commissioner's office.
Larry Barnett, one of baseball's umpire supervisors, retired July 6, partly
because of the pitch-count pressure.
``I just didn't feel I could go that direction,'' said Barnett, whose
retirement was first reported by The New York Times on its Web site Sunday
night.
A major league umpire from 1969-99, Barnett became a supervisor two years ago.
He said his retirement could not be directly attributed to pitch-count pressure
but that but to ``a bunch of things'' but also said he felt uncomfortable with
the decision to push for more strikes, especially when he had to call a young
umpire about it.
``I never even thought about it in all the games I umpired,'' Barnett said.
``If you have two very good pitchers, this is my opinion, you might get a low
pitch count. If you make four or five pitching changes, you might get a high
pitch count.''
Commissioner Bud Selig has been concerned about the lengthening time in takes
to play games in recent years and has pushed, with little success, for the pace
to speed up. The average time of nine-inning games this year is 2 hours, 55
minutes, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, down just two minutes from last
year.
Gibson blamed slow games on the 2:05 allowed between innings for television
commercials, a time increased to 2:25 for nationally televised games.
``Is an umpire to catch up on his average going from one game to the next and
is he to keep that average in mind when making a judgment as to whether a
particular pitch is a strike or a ball?'' the letter said.
Rob Manfred, baseball's executive vice president for labor relations, declined
comment.
``We ought to be able to resolve this,'' Gibson said Sunday. ``We understand
there's actually a chart they developed that ranked all the umpires by pitch
count over eight games. We want to see it. We hope in the future, it doesn't
get created again.''
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