This article was published in the NY Daily News this morning. It recieved some attention on the local sports talk radio around 11am. I'm curious if anyone knows how accurate this might be....

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/ba...p-305438c.html

I'm always amused by any quote that starts out, "One source says...". I usually quit reading about that time...

JJ

Obviously the source has a bias. But that doesn't mean that the general gist isn't accurate. These complaints have leaked out before, both with and without the strong anti-Pulli sentiments.

Frank Pulli is the last person I would want evalutating the umpires. He had the absoulute worst ball/strike timing
of any umpire I have ever seen. I wonder what Questec would have shown about his zone?

I don't know of any legitimate reason to have kept Mike Winters off the Series crew, and as far a Froemming's weight goes, hey, he'll challenge you to a 40 yard dash anytime, ol' Bruce can motor. I don't remember too many folks getting on Big John about his weight.

Tim McClelland just worked the LCS, so he can't do the series anyway, so why was his name even mentioned?

West is scary left unchecked? What's scary, I don't get it? Can someone fill me in on how that sentiment came about? Like Jerry Layne can somehow keep Joe in line. Ha!

Some of this does seem to be cronyism on Pulli's part, with payback as a motivation. JMHO

I thought it was odd when I saw the ALCS assignments that three umps with no previous LCS experience were picked (Barrett, Kulpa & the infamous Eddings). I was particulary surprised with Doug, because it seems that he has so many incidents throughout the year.

It seems this year that the old model of assigning DS crews with 2 crew chiefs and LCS crews with at least 2 but sometimes 3 cc's and WS crews with 3 cc's went away this year.

Something tells me it can't be possible for Pulli to have such unilateral power over this kind of thing, but then again, you never know. I had wondered why guys like Froemming and Winters were missing this year. In Froemming's case, it's been a couple years. And it raises questions about why a few other umps that I thought were among the best have been absent in the postseason for some time (Tschida comes to mind right away). It also makes me wonder why Hirschbeck hasn't done a WS when it would seem as a crew chief he should.

While I can certainly see where you're coming from I wouldn't automatically dismiss a report that cites only "anonymous" sources. Speaking as a journalist, I can certainly say that this tactic is used extensively where someone talks to you "off the record" - in other words you can quote them but can't attribute the quote. So you end up using phrases such as "an unnamed source said", "sources close to the situation said" and the like. While your story loses a little in terms of its strength, the fact the sources are anonymous doesn't necessarily mean you're making it up.

In this case, it's clear there is no way they could get a source to speak on the record. Think about it - a major league umpire putting his name to these kinds of sentiments would effectively be signing his own death warrant. Whereas if the source speaks off the record the story gets out but the source is safe (well, until the journalist gets subpoenaed, anyway... ha ha).

In this case, Froemming or Winters may well have given an anonymous interview, so the story, while probably a little overdone, probably still rings true. In fact, rereading the piece it sounds almost certain that is was Froemming and Winters that gave this interview, which quotes "two sources familiar with the process" and then goes on to talk about Froemming and Winters as two umpires who allegedly got screwed in the WS selection process. Coincidence?

The strage things to me are these: why the feud between Froemming and Pulli? Both were staunch Richie Phillips suporters; it was merely the fact Pulli's resignation was accepted while Froemming's was not. Why does Pulli a) support the use of Questec and b) allegedly base all his decisions on it? Given the fact that he was an extremely respected umpire in his day it would seem obvious that he realises the farce behind the Questec system. Why has Pulli become such a stooge of the commissioner's office? After all, these people "took away his job"!! And finally, Angel Hernandez is back in the WS. Again. There's got to be more to this.

Jacob

Frank?
 

This may be off topic...But this story about Frank Pulli coming during the same post-season where "instant replay" has been talked about to death...reminded me that: Frank Pulli is the only umpire to use instant replay during a game. In 1999, in a game at Florida, Cliff Floyd hit a ball off the wall that was ruled a double (the umpire ruled it hit below the yellow line). The Marlins argued and the umps reversed. The Cardinals argued and Frank decided to take things into his own hands: he went over to the TV camera pit and looked at a monitor and ruled that it was a double.

Guess Frank missed the Commish's edict on there being no replay in baseball. Maybe Frank does like to do things his way or the highway?

This "politicking" could be the explanation for John Hirschbeck not getting a WS, Joe Brinkman getting few playoff assignments, Tim Welke not getting a lot, and Jerry Crawford getting them every year.

Well, the fact politics exists in umpire selection shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has had even the slightest involvement in umpiring.

But the argument doesn't really follow, or if it does, I can't see how. Hirschbeck and Brinkman were both anti-Phillips and in favour of the new union - so why are they allegedly being squeezed out now? Meanwhile, both Crawford and Froemming were strongly pro-Phillips. So there's no pattern. If there is a feud it's either about something else or has to do with the way the battle lines were redrawn following the union split.

We'll have to wait and see if Froemming gives anonymous briefings to any other newspapers.

Jacob

Frank Pulli was very pro-Phillips and in fact was one of the 22 umps who was not taken back in 1999 after the resignations were recinded. It makes sense if Pulli has an agenda against Hirshbeck and Brinkman, but (if this article is to be believed) I don't get why he would have a bee in his bonnet against Froemming.

I'm sure there are feuds between umpires that go for decades that don't make the papers.

Maybe Frank doesn't like Bruce's umpiring philosophy?

Bruce's philosophy, you ask? (As told to all the assembled students immediately after being introduced for the first time on the first day of the 1997 session of the Brinkman/Froemming umpire school): "You haven't umpired, until you can umpire drunk."

Next time I saw Bruce, nearly six weeks had passed and he showed up for the class picture. With that piece of advice, I'm guessing I didn't miss too much from him not being there to teach us the other five weeks or so.

Wow. So I've been wrong to deny my assignor when he catches me at a 5PM Friday Happy Hour asking to do a 7:00pm game??? :)

only if its Little League ;)