Sign In COVID-19 apparently has struck Major League Baseball once again. Only this time, an umpire reportedly has tested positive for the coronavirus. The reported positive test triggered a sudden change in two crew assignments in Florida to help fill the gaps, sources told The Associated Press. Tuesday’s Washington Nationals-Tampa Bay Rays game at Tropicana…
COVID-19 apparently has struck Major League Baseball once again.
Only this time, an umpire reportedly has tested positive for the coronavirus.
The reported positive test triggered a sudden change in two crew assignments in Florida to help fill the gaps, sources told The Associated Press.
Tuesday’s Washington Nationals-Tampa Bay Rays game at Tropicana Field began with three umpires, with fill-in Clint Vondrak arriving in the fourth inning.
Roughly 280 miles away, veteran ump Andy Fletcher joined three younger umpires for the Boston Red Sox-Miami Marlins series at Marlins Park.
MLB medical experts don’t think there is a threat of infection to personnel, sources told The AP.
BY BEN WALKER AP BASEBALL WRITER About 10 Major League Baseball umpires have opted out this season, choosing not to work games in the shortened schedule because of concerns over the coronavirus. Two people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press about the decisions on Tuesday. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because […]
The people spoke on condition of anonymity because there was no official announcement.
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher David Price, San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey, and Washington Nationals infielder Ryan Zimmerman are among a dozen or so players who won’t participate this year because of health issues. The 60-game, virus-abbreviated season begins July 23.
There are 76 full-time MLB umpires and more than 20 of them are age 55 or over. Joe West and Gerry Davis are the oldest umps at 67.
Umpires who are deemed at risk — either for their age, health situation, or other issues — and opt-out will continue to get paid. Umps get their salaries over 12 months and have already been paid through April.
A deal between MLB and its umpires reached during the virus shutdown ensured that if even one regular-season game was played this season, the umps were guaranteed 37.5% of their salaries.
Umpires recently began working intrasquad and simulated games at big league camps to sharpen up for the season. Teams are set to start exhibition games this weekend in preparation for opening day.
Minus 10 or more MLB umpires, many Triple-A umps will work the two-month season. Most of them have previously called games in the majors as a fill-in for umpires who have been injured or are on vacation.
“It gives guys an opportunity,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Some younger guys are going to get to be major league umpires for a season. That’ll be fun.”
Just as MLB redrew the schedule amid the virus outbreak, umpires are certain to see a shift, too. Crew assignments, travel arrangements, and schedules were still under review at the start of the week.
The Major League Baseball Umpires Association (MLBUA) released a statement on Thursday, addressing recent comments made about COVID-19 by umpire Joe West. The statement reads:
“Recent public comments about the current Coronavirus pandemic do not in any way reflect the position of the Major League Baseball Umpires Association.
“Our nation, and the world, has suffered greatly from this deadly virus. In the midst of continued suffering umpires are attempting to do our part to bring the great game of baseball back onto the field and into the homes of fans everywhere.
“The MLBUA fully supports the health and safety protocols agreed to by MLB and the MLBPA, and we have agreed to make dramatic changes to our usual working conditions in an effort to navigate this unprecedented season.
“The health of everyone involved in making this season happen is of utmost importance to the MLBUA — ourselves and our families, team personnel and their families, MLB office personnel and their families, as well as countless other “behind the scenes” people that truly make the game what it is. It is an awesome responsibility and one we do not take lightly.
“Regardless of any umpire’s personal views, when we report for a resumed spring training and 2020 season, we will conduct ourselves as professionals and in accordance with the health and safety protocols.
“We look forward to being back on the field soon to play our small role in providing the healing power of baseball to the fans of this wonderful game.”
West, 67, said on Tuesday that while he is someone considered “high risk” during the pandemic, he plans to go to work. He also expressed skepticism about the coronavirus data, saying, “I don’t believe in my heart that all these deaths have been from the coronavirus.”
West doubled down on Thursday, telling Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY, “Those statistics aren’t accurate, I don’t care who’s counting them.” West also espoused a conspiracy theory, saying, “Our system is so messed up they have emptied hospitals because there’s no elective surgery. The government has been giving these hospitals extra money if someone dies of the coronavirus. So everybody that dies is because of coronavirus. I don’t care if you get hit by a car, it’s coronavirus.”
It’s good that the MLBUA disavowed West, even if it didn’t mention him by name. That being said, is that enough? If you’re a player, how comfortable will you be playing in a game in which West is working? Do you trust him to call out a player who licked his fingers or coughed into his hand before touching the baseball? Do you trust him not to get in your face when he feels you disrespected him by questioning a call?
In order for this whole thing to work, the players, coaches, umpires, and all other personnel need to have a certain level of trust in each other. Players who are high-risk, or who have high-risk family members, are relying on everyone else to make smart decisions. They’re trusting their teammates, et. al. to wear masks and socially distance, to not to go out to bars and restaurants, to faithfully wash their hands. All it takes is one slip-up for things to go sideways for a player and, thus, the game. This is not a simple difference of opinion; lives and livelihoods are on the line. West, with his dismissive comments, is not engendering any trust.
West, who is 67 years-old, has a history of high blood pressure, and who is overweight, tells Rosenthal that Major League Baseball expected him to opt-out and was “taken aback” and “shocked” when he told them that he would not do so.
Partially it’s because he wants to set the all-time record for games worked. He’s 65 games of Bill Klem’s record and, if he works 2020, he can set the record early next year. Partially it’s because he’s not concerned about his health, telling Rosenthal, “If this game hasn’t gotten me by now, no virus is going to get me.” He says that he’s lost some weight and that his doctor says his heart is “as healthy as a horse’s.”
It’s also, it seems, because West is something of a COVID-19 skeptic:
“I said, ‘Look, most of these people that they’re reporting are dying are not healthy to begin with. I’ve lost 25 pounds over the winter. I’m playing golf every day in the heat. I’m fine. I’m not going to back down now.’
“I don’t believe in my heart that all these deaths have been from the coronavirus. I believe it may have contributed to some of the deaths. I said, ‘I’m not going to opt out. I’m going to work. And I’m going to work until you take me off the field or I get hurt, whatever. I’m working.’”
We’ve spent an awful lot of time talking about how the players will deal with pandemic baseball, but the umpires are affected too. They travel more than the players do, after all. They don’t have a home park. They, also, (a) get people up in their face during arguments; and (b) have to yell and project their voices, which is itself a risky thing to do in the time of COVID-19.
Last night Jesse Rogers of ESPN reported on some of the changes in routine the umps will have to deal with in 2020. Starting with spring training, where groups of three umps each will be embedded with big league camps, will watch bullpen sessions and batting practice and stuff as a means of easing themselves back into game shape, just like the players are.
During the season things will change a good deal too. In normal times umps travel to a new city after every series and are rotated across the league so they are not seeing one team more than others, which could create creeping, unconscious biases or grudges in one direction or another. Now, to limit travel, an umpire crew may stay in a certain city across an entire homestand, for example. And in two-team cities they may just go across town to the other park as opposed to getting on a plane and heading to Cleveland or wherever.
Masks are an issue too. Rogers reports that they will be encouraged for umps but not required. Which seems to be heat/weather driven. The MLB/MLBPA guidelines have already specified that arguments between players and umps should be minimized or eliminated, but human nature may overtake that at times putting players and umps face-to-face in argument. Even if they avoid that, though, I’m wondering how much spit flies from a mask-free ump standing behind a catcher and a batter in the normal course of a game. When you’re bellowing out “strike!” and “out!” scores of times a game, you have to imagine it’s a non-trivial amount.
Just another complicating factor in what will already be a complicated season.
Former umpire Richie Garcia ended a decade of silence over his firing as a Major League Baseball supervisor, telling The Associated Press he kept quiet to protect his son-in-law and daughterBy RONALD BLUM AP Baseball WriterMay 19, 2020, 6:39 AM5 min readNEW YORK — Richie Garcia was among baseball’s best-rated and most popular umpires, and…
NEW YORK — Richie Garcia was among baseball’s best-rated and most popular umpires, and like many umps was known for the ones he missed: the Jeffrey Maier call in the playoffs, the pitch to Tino Martinez in the World Series.
He lost his job in the failed labor strategy of mass resignations in 1999 and was welcomed back to Major League Baseball two years later as a supervisor. Then, out of nowhere it seemed, he was fired on the eve of the 2010 season.
Garcia stayed quiet for a decade, not wanting to cause any problems for son-in-law Vic Carapazza, among the top umps of the current group.
Now, at 77, Garcia is fed up. He’s feeling impugned by a former colleague in a lawsuit Garcia has nothing to do with.
“I worked too hard to keep a good reputation in baseball for these people to just come out and say whatever the hell they want, to just say things just out of the clear blue sky,” Garcia said during a series of interviews in the past month with The Associated Press.
“I’ve kept my mouth shut all these years because of my son-in-law. I kept my mouth shut because I’m protecting him and my daughter. And I’m just sick of it,” he said.
A big league umpire from 1975-99 and a supervisor for nine years, Garcia was abruptly dismissed. The commissioner’s office announced his departure two days before opening day. No reason was given.
Garcia never tried to explain.
Then last month, a May 2019 deposition by umpire supervisor Randy Marsh was publicly filed by lawyers for umpire Ángel Hernández, who sued MLB for race discrimination. Marsh alleged Garcia was fired because he attended minor league games involving Carapazza, who worked his first big league game seven days after Garcia’s departure was announced.
“His son-in-law was umpiring in the minor leagues, was in strong consideration for promotion to the major leagues, and he was told not to go watch him work, because of being related to him,” Marsh testified. “He continued to do so. He had been told not to do it, and he continued to do it.”
Marsh told the AP in a telephone interview Monday that he spoke incorrectly during his deposition and he wanted to set the public record straight.
“I had no idea what reasoning they gave him for being fired and had heard from working with Rich Rieker — who was a supervisor during all those times — was that at one point he was told not to go watch his son-in-law umpire,” Marsh said. “I probably mis-worded it when I was deposed. It shouldn’t come out like that.”
Garcia attributed his firing to Rob Manfred, then MLB’s executive vice president for labor relations and now commissioner, and Jimmie Lee Solomon, then executive vice president of baseball operations. Garcia was let go along with fellow supervisors Marty Springstead and Jim McKean, and they were replaced by Marsh and Charlie Reliford.
MLB declined comment on behalf of Rieker and Manfred, who succeeded Bud Selig as commissioner in 2015.
“Nobody had it in for anybody,” said Solomon, who left MLB in 2010. “But there was a desire, a general desire, to upgrade our situation a little bit. The old-school ways we felt were going to end up biting us and we needed to get some new blood in.”
Garcia said his relationship with Manfred became strained when he allowed his photo to be used by ESO, a company launched by former vice president of umpires Ralph Nelson. Garcia said Solomon was upset over Garcia’s decision to terminate a minor league umpire, which Solomon denied.
After reading Marsh’s testimony, Garcia was concerned the allegation might harm Carapazza, who is married to Garcia’s daughter Stephanie.
“I wanted to clear his ability to be a big league umpire and not have people think he got there because of me,” Garcia said.
Garcia, now living in Clearwater, Florida, worked four World Series and was behind the plate for Len Barker’s perfect game in 1981.
He still is criticized for two postseason decisions. He didn’t call fan interference on the 12-year-old Maier and allowed Derek Jeter’s home run over Baltimore right fielder Tony Tarasco in the 1996 AL Championship Series opener.
In Game 1 of the 1998 World Series at Yankee Stadium, Garcia called a ball on a 2-2 pitch by San Diego lefty Mark Langston that appeared to be in the strike zone. Martinez hit the next pitch for a tiebreaking grand slam.
Garcia got a glowing year-end appraisal from then-supervisor Mike Port in 2008 — Garcia said it was the last one he received. “Consistently exceeds goals and competencies,” it read, according to a copy obtained by the AP.
Joe West, head of the umpires’ union at the time of the firing, backed Garcia’s account.
“‘I don’t want to be in a situation where I have a conflict of interest because he’s my son-in-law,‘” West recalled Garcia explaining. “And then he said: `I’m just not going to write a report on him.’”
The view from left field 