Jon Miller on Minor League Umpires
 

After Rob Drake ejected Piniella on Sunday Night Baseball, Miller just had to mention that Drake and Fairchild are minor league umpires called up etc.

In the last 4 years Drake has umpired more games in the majors than any other major league umpire.

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/D/Pdrakr901.htm

Something messed up with a system where a guy who has worked almost 1000 (and will hit 1000 this season, probably) games isn't considered full-time.

Jon Miller is a myopic San Francisco Giant homer who pretends he knows a lot. He probably had that statistic given to him from the truck into his headset.

What the heck does that have to do with this post? I mean the San Francisco Giants homer part. ;)

Peace

Nothing. Just an observation and a factoid.

From a *HUGE* Padres fan.......................;)

I always say the same thing about Hawk Harrelson. Anytime (and it's often) he says something stupid, it's because he's a Sox homer.


Tim.

That is what producers are for, to supply information when the situation warrants it.

More interesting to me than Millers team loyalties and Drakes employment status is this whole ejection process.
Pinnella came out to talk/yell at Fairchild, doesn't look like he said a word to Drake.
Fairchild put up the stop sign and Pinnella obeyed, Pinnella is walking back to dugout when Drake gave him the heave ho.

Why would Drake step in on Fairchild's battle?
I'm not questioning whether Pinnella should or shouldn't have been ejected, just wondering why it was Drake that did it.
Fairchild is a big boy, why did Drake need to step on him like that?

My question is, why would MLB assign two minor league umpires to the same game? I realize that Drake logs as many or more MLB games as a full-time ump, but common sense says that you spread out the "part-timers" amongst several crews so that they have the "full-timers" to help them out.

Because Fairchild didn't.

Why does it matter? If MLB thinks you're qualified to work MLB games, you can do it no matter what. Are you saying if Tim Welke (or any other "full-timer") was at first base there's no way that situation happens? Piniella's a rat, always has been, and I'm sure Rob and Chad can both defend their actions well.

I just think it was chicken s**t to heave him with his backed turned. Be a man and at least wait for him to turn around and look in his eyes when you dump him.

I'm not saying that at all. The same situation could have occurred with anyone on the game.

What I'm saying is, why not mix in the so-called "lesser umps" with the "more experienced" umps. It's makes sense as a means of mentoring the up and comers.

If you were scheduling 2 varsity HS games with 2-man crews, would it make sense to put 2 up and coming umps on the same game, and 2 veterans on the other game? It might work out that way, but it makes more sense to pair 1 vet with 1 new guy, and the other vet with the other new guy.

Baseball had 15 games yesterday. Surely they could spread out the "minor" umps throughout baseball, instead of putting them together.

Would the outcome have been different? Probably not. Should Lou have been tossed? Absolutely. Should it come from the guy behind his back, that he isn't talking to? I've seen some say yes, but personally, I want to take care of my own business, and if I don't choose to lower the boom, I should live with the consequences.

You don't seem to understand the "fill-in" situation. Some of these Minor Leaguers you refer to as "lesser umpires" have been working MLB games for ten years or longer. Guccione, a "lesser umpire" to you, worked the most plate games of ANY umpire in MLB last season.

Only by the stubborness and cheapness of MLB management are they still fill-ins and not full time contracted MLB umpires.

Injuries, vacations, etc. happen. That's the bottom line.

Without the benefit of full-time employment by MLB, these MiLB guys just do whatever the heck they have to, in order to try and get to the aforementioned level.

The whole '99 situation certainly screwed some of these guys over, no doubt about it. I can only suppose several spots would've opened up from guys that were let go (and not subsequently re-hired) from that nasty situation.