News: Baseball to rehire nine of the "22"

[Patrick Szalapski]

This from AP. P-Sz
===================

NEW YORK – Nine of the 22 umpires terminated by baseball two years ago following a failed mass resignation were given their jobs back Friday by an arbitrator.

Major league baseball was ordered to rehire Drew Coble, Gary Darling, Bill Hohn, Greg Kosc, Larry Poncino, Larry Vanover and Joe West.


In addition, arbitrator Alan Symonette ordered baseball to take back two umpires who have said they intend to retire: Frank Pulli and Terry Tata.


Left out were 13 umpires, including well-known faces such as Richie Garcia and Eric Gregg.

The 10 who would have been rehired in the majors under the offer, according to two lawyers speaking on the condition they not be identified, were Coble, Darling, Bob Davidson, Bruce Dreckman, Jim Evans, Garcia, Tom Hallion, Ed Hickox, Hohn, Sam Holbrook, Paul Nauert, Poncino and Vanover.


Dale Ford, Ken Kaiser, Larry McCoy, Pulli and Tata would have retired; and Gregg, Mark Johnson, Kosc and West would have been given buyouts.


At the behest of Phillips, umpires submitted mass resignations in July 1999, pushing for an early start to negotiations to replace the labor contract than ran through that December.


Most AL umps either quickly withdrew their resignations or failed to resign, causing the strategy to collapse. By then, owners had hired 25 new umps from the minor leagues and got rid of the 22. Phillips' union agreed to the arbitration as part of the settlement of a federal lawsuit that followed.


The umps opposed to Phillips formed a new union, won a federally supervised vote, and replaced the MLUA in February 2000. They agreed to a new labor contract Aug. 31 that allowed owners to merge the AL and NL umps into a unified staff.

[bluezebra]

I think this decision is a travesty. The clowns resigned, QUIT, hoping to force MLB to give in through coercion. Instead of suing baseball, they should sue Phillips for selling them down the river. Now what happens to the guys hired to replace these crybabies?

Bob

[Patrick Szalapski]

Originally posted by bluezebra
I think this decision is a travesty. The clowns resigned, QUIT, hoping to force MLB to give in through coercion. Instead of suing baseball, they should sue Phillips for selling them down the river. Now what happens to the guys hired to replace these crybabies?

Bob

I'd imagine MLB will find a way to keep them all in The Show, whether they use five-man crews as suggested last year or some other scheme. Hirschbeck will not like it if any of the "new guys" get sent down.

P-Sz

[senior]

I also feel it is a miscarriage of justice for those "quitters" to have to be rehired. Richie Phillips should have to pay them, it was his advice they followed that got them into their mess in the first place. They failed to realize how fortunate they were, (just like most of the players) and blindly followed bad advice. I can't see where MLB owes them a thing from their fiasco.