Three Generations of Umps
 

Three Kincade generations umpire first game together | recordonline.com

almost beats the Wendlestadts working a game or two together...

Ive known 'grandpa' a few years, and he has a lot of cool stories about working spring training games.

Anybody else know of something like this?

Wow!

That is a cool story.

Great story!
 

Great read!

I just got my son started this year as a 13-year old. He still plays and was only able to call 7 games. He said he enjoyed it! I heard one mom standing next to me (didn't know I was his dad) say he needs glasses at one of his games. I just kind of chuckled and asked him about it after the game. He said he didn't remember hearing that one. Great start!

It would be awesome if we had a 3-generation game sometime down the road, too!

The Runge's
 

While they never had a chance to work together, it's pretty impressive (at least to me) that 3 generations of Runge made it as ML umpires (Ed, Paul, Brian).

Other impressive officiating families - Crawfords, and several examples of father/son or uncle/nephew (Wendelstedt, DiMuro, Gorman, Carey's in FB [brothers], Welke's, McCauley's (NHL), Devorski's (NHL), probably others although I'm not as familiar with the NBA and NFL rosters.

And there are player-related examples - the 3? Alou's in baseball, 6...count 'em, 6 Sutters in hockey who made it to the NHL.

Not sure if there's an apples to apples comparison here, though, since there are far many jobs for players in any sport than there are for officials.

But impressive nonetheless.

Hopefully I didn't take this too far off-topic.

Hock9

Great brother act from the past: Umpire Bill Haller (the smarter brother), and long time Giants Catcher, Tom Haller.

cool story...thanks for posting

Newer brother act from the present: Umpire Jim Wolf and his brother Randy, a pitcher with the Dodgers. Jim is not allowed to work the plate in any of Randy's games due to a potential conflict of interest.

Bill Haller was an AL umpire and Tom spent most of his career in the NL. However, in 1972 Bill did work the plate behind his brother in one game.

I am personally living one of these now.
My father-in-law was one of the first youth umpires in this area. My wife was an umpire for about 8 years and I have been one for 20. My son took it up over 10 years ago. At one point, before my wife left umpiring, we were able (and did in fact) form a 3 umpire team to do games on several occasions.
Now my son and I can continue on with 2 man teams.

That's great! I bet you've got some great stories! When you met your wife were you both umpires?

Lots of stories. Umpiring started after marriage. Married 32 years. Started umpiring just after my wife. Was umpiring and coaching for quite a while when my son started playing.
Gave up coaching about 9-10 years ago. So much for my life story. Do not want to reveal too much. But many good times umpiring.

I remember Haller (one of my favorite Dodgers ... an extremely nice guy) going to Detroit at the end, and wondering if his brother ever worked one of his games. Broadcasters used to make a big deal about how Haller's umpire brother was in the A.L., so there was never any chance. Today's announcers give equal emphasis to the Wolf edict.

Although I can't conceive of Jim Wolf giving Randy even one pitch, it's a good thing he doesn't have to work with that spectre of a conflict.

Haller caught only 59 games that year behind Bill Freehan. Of the six Detroit games his brother worked that year--all at Detroit--Haller caught four of them. Bill Haller worked the bases in the first three of the six, a series in late May. Then, on July 14, Bill worked the plate and Tom caught all nine innings of a 1-0 loss.

Can you believe that? He had to have a nail-biter!


http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...kguy/Box-1.jpg

And you know this because? I would guess if it his is turn in the rotation to work the plate and his brother is pitching, he will be working the plate.

I would think his integrity would suffice in this case as it does in all the games that he calls.

I know this because it is a fact. He is prohibited from umpiring the plate when his brother pitches. Randy Wolf pitched for the Padres last year, and it was brought up and discussed on TV, radio, fan forums and in Wikipedia. Only Wiki is wrong (in Randy's profile), because it says he can't work any of his games, but I have seen Jim Wolf on the bases while Randy was on the mound. He just can't call his pitches.

In my association, we are not allowed to work games where one of our children is participating. Several umpires face this dilemma every year.

Integrity has little to do with the decision. They just don't want to take the chance, both in MLB and amateur associations alike.

Here is what is written at Wikipedia for Jim Wolf's profile:

"He is the brother of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Randy Wolf, which has caused players to accuse him of having a conflict of interest. In September 2003, Florida Marlins catcher Ivan Rodriguez accused him of skewing calls against the Marlins during one late-season series to help the Philadelphia Phillies, his brother's team at the time, beat the Marlins for the wild card. Pitcher Mark Redman also inferred the same but stopped short of fully accusing him. The Marlins won the wild card that year and went on to win the World Series. If Wolf is ever umpiring a game that his brother pitches, he does not call balls and strikes, although MLB generally avoids assigning him to Randy's games."

It's also important to avoid the appearance of impropriety.

I have heard the same thing about the Wolf brothers. I think it was discussed on the MLB "ask the umpire" site.

I wouldn't want to face the 'wrath of Mom' when little/big brother complained about my zone LOL.

They're from this neighborhood, and I've known them both for years and watched them both come up to the bigs. So I know a little about them. Jim would not give Randy one inch.

And irrespective of rotation, Jim does not work games behind the plate when Randy pitches. So your guess is wrong, and it's really not anything you need to guess about, because it's common knowledge that he doesn't.

people either get it or they don't
 

Haller, Wolf, whatever....

The good officials call them as they are.

They'd ring their own mother up on strikes.

The bad ones couldn't umpire a bake sale.

Simple as that.

If you get it, that's great.

If you don't, so be it.

Hock9

And the 2nd base umpire, Bill Kunkel, a former MLB pitcher, worked in a Spring Training game with his son Jeff who played shortstop for Texas in 1984.

Only in the sport of baseball could something so trivial and non-important actually be so interesting and remembered all these years.

Isn't baseball great? :) An article from Sunday's Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/sp...0trivia&st=cse

Yes, and Haller and Neudecker would end up being supervisors and evaluators for a lot of the old AL MLBU up there right now, and of course Neudecker was the last to wear the balloon.

You've been around long enough to realize that Tyler's challenge to SDS's statement has little to do with that actual substance of the statement and more to do with the fact the SDS said it.

Umped my son's game.
 

A few years ago at my son's game the umpire was a no-show. The parents on the my son's team and the opposing coach all knew I umpired and asked me to step up to the plate. I had my gear in my truck so I obliged. Game went well except when my son tried to score standing up on a play at the plate. I banged him out and he looked at me with huge eyes, "Dad!!".

The following year his team had another umpire no-show at a field about 4 blocks from our house. I didn't want to see them have to play without an umpire so when they asked me again I went home got my gear and called the game. Good close game and a smiling opposing coach shook my hand after the game.

Then, last year, both coaches requested me for a make-up of one of my son's games on a Saturday at the end of the season. My only mistake in that game was when my son lined a shot between F7/F8 for a home run I started to jump up and cheer but caught myself before it looked like anything.

My dad umpired one of my games from behind the mound when the umpire didn't show. He punched me out on strikes once, and when he called strike 3 on this little kid on my team named Joey, Joey took umbrage, started crying and yelled at my dad (complete with finger signals), "F*** you, you're a jiddy ump!" That game was the end of my dad's umpiring days!

Remember it like it was yesterday.

That's hilarious, SDS!!

Sigh. And we were so close to having a reasonable exchange between the two of you.