“Despite all the nasty things I have said about umpires, I think they’re one-hundred percent honest, but I can’t for the life of me figure out how they arrive at some of their decisions.”
-A’s manager Jimmy Dykes
“What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order.”
-Mystery writer Phyllis Dorothy “P.D.” James
On October 12, 1997, the Braves and Marlins were in the midst of hotly-contested National League Championship Series, each team having won two games in the best-of-seven series. The Braves, the then-reigning NL champs, were the class of the league with a 101-61 record, nine games better than the next NL team, and had won a division title in six of the previous seven years. The Marlins possessed the second-best record in the league (92-70), and were expansion upstarts who had backed into the playoffs as the league’s wild card just five years into their existence as a major league team.
What seemingly made the mismatch worse was that the Braves were starting four-time Cy Young winner Greg Maddux, while the Marlins started rookie Livan Hernandez, who had just 17 career starts to that point. Despite a 9-3 record and a 3.18 ERA, Hernandez was being used out of the bullpen up to that point in the playoffs. In fact, Hernandez had pitched 1 2/3 innings in relief two days earlier, coming in for Tony Saunders to help out in a 5-2 Marlins win in Game Three.
The game was a pitcher’s duel that ended with Hernandez striking out Brave cleanup hitter Fred McGriff for the third time in the game on a called third strike, delivering a 2-1 win while striking out 15. Two days later the Marlins went into Turner Field, scored four runs in the first inning off Tom Glavine, and cruised to a series-clinching 7-4 win. The Marlins then edged the Indians in seven games to win their first World Series. Hernandez was named the MVP of both series.
Of course, what is best remembered from Hernandez’s performance was the last strike to McGriff, but not because it reflected a great performance. It is remembered as the ultimate symbol of bad strike-zone judgment from behind the plate. The ubiquitous replays clearly showed that the pitch was well off the plate-some said by as much as a foot-before umpire Eric Gregg punched the final strike call that left McGriff incredulous. That call is now emblematic for all ludicrously bad calls on outside pitches. To go with the 15 strikeouts for Hernandez, Gregg called ten for the Braves pitchers (nine for Maddux and one for Mike Cather) in that same game. To that point, there had been just 33 nine-inning games in baseball history (and another 33 exactly since) in which both teams struck out at least ten and in which at least 25 in total were struck out.
At the time, baseball was just entering a period of umpiring upheaval. The strike zone had just been redefined the previous year, moving from the top of the knees to the bottom of the knees. In 2001, MLB reasserted the strike zone to match what is defined in rulebook (how novel!). They began to have their worked checked electronically by QuesTec. In 1999, Gregg was part of the Richie Phillips-led mass seppuku that ruined the old umpire’s union, and wasn’t fully resolved until this past offseason. The old umpires union, the Major League Umpires Association, was replaced by the World Umpires Association. In 2000, Major League Baseball reorganized the umpiring crews into a single pool for all games as opposed to assigning them to each league.
The Hernandez example reflects the extent to which an umpire or the umpires can change a game. How often do we hear hitters sour-grape after a tough loss, claiming that the pitcher had nothing but they lost anyway because of bad calls? It may be quite often just bluster, but we all know that there are times that a pitcher can be aided by the man behind the plate calling balls and strikes. Can this effect be quantified? Can we separate out the occasional bad call from certain idiosyncratic leanings for a given ump? And if we can do these things, how much of an effect does it have on what we see on the field? Does it even out, or does the home team profit disproportionately by it? Do these tendencies lessen as an umpire matures or do they become more pronounced?
Unfortunately, we cannot readily look up historical umpiring statistics, and if we could, how could we compare them over time without a context? Strikeouts and walks as well as batting ratios are much higher than they were thirty or forty years ago. I tried to rectify this situation with the help of Retrosheet game logs. Looking at the strikeouts and walks called in a ballgame for both teams combined, summing them over a season per home plate umpire, and then adjusting them for era, we can determine if the home plate ump has more of a pitcher-friendly or a hitter-friendly leaning on how he calls the zone. Similarly, batting ratios for the players that come to the plate while the ump is behind it can be calculated and adjusted for era and park producing the umpire’s adjusted batting average, on-base, slugging, and OPS. The same can be done for catcher’s interference and balk calls, the only remaining stats that are directly derived from home plate umpire decisions.
Similarly, we can evaluate second base umps by looking at what their tendencies are in calling ground-ball double plays and safe/out calls on stolen base attempts. First base umps can be reviewed by looking at their balk calls, ground-ball double play calls (i.e., for the second out at first), and their tendencies calling pick-off attempts (via caught stealing frequency). We will finally take a look at how corner umpires at first and third base call doubles and triples down the line. We’ll get to these areas of umpiring in future articles-today, we’re keeping the focus on home plate.
However, before we delve into the individual stats, an explanation is needed as to how umpires have been used in the past. First, we should note that the current number of four umpires per game-at each of the bases-was not always the norm. In only about 55% of all games have there been four umps, and even then, not necessarily in the current configuration-in 1919, there was a game played with an umpire behind the plate, at first, and in left and right fields.
Here are the breakdowns of games by number of umpires:
#Umps Games % Last G 0 1,097 0.6% 7/12/1979 1 23,751 12.6% 7/11/1923 2 30,318 16.0% 5/10/1979 3 28,904 15.3% 8/24/2006 4 104,746 55.4% 10/01/2006 5 185 0.1% 6/14/1993 6 6 0.0% 10/04/1999 Total 189,001 100.0%
Note that there were most probably umpires used in the 1097 games listed without umpires (or maybe the honor system was used), and we just do not know their identities as yet. Also, aside from nine games called by unidentified “scab” umps during their 1979 strike, all umpires from 1939 until today have been identified. Finally, the numbers reported upon here are complete through 2006, as are all of the statistics throughout this piece.
Now, here these numbers are broken down further to show the various configurations used given the number of umpires employed. Note that only one configuration has been used when just a single umpire is employed-home plate ump. However, there was a configuration used for two (second and third only) and three umps (first, second, and third) in which a man was not assigned to work behind the plate (unless the home plate umpire for these strike-era games are just unknown):
Scenarios #Umps HP 1B 2B 3B LF RF Num Gs % Last G 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1,097 0.6% 7/12/1979 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 23,751 12.6% 7/11/1923 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 30,315 16.0% 9/26/1959 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0.0% 5/09/1979 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.0% 5/08/1979 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.0% 5/10/1979 3 1 1 0 1 0 0 28,903 15.3% 8/24/2006 3 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0.0% 5/15/1979 4 1 1 1 1 0 0 104,745 55.4% 10/01/2006 4 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0.0% 8/03/1919 5 1 1 1 1 1 0 185 0.1% 6/14/1993 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 0.0% 10/04/1999 Total 189,001 100.0%
The Home Plate Umpire
“Umpire’s heaven is a place where he works third base every game. Home is where the heartache is.”
-Umpire Ron Luciano
“Whenever you have a tight situation and there’s a close pitch, the umpire gets a squawk no matter how he calls it.”
-Red Barber
The home plate ump is the rock star of the umpiring crew. He gets by far the most airtime on TV and has by far the most calls to make during the game. As the rules state, he is the “umpire-in-chief” and “[h]is duties shall be to [t]ake full charge of, and be responsible for, the proper conduct of the game” (Rule 9.04 (a)(1)). He is solely responsible for calling balls and strikes (9.04 (a)(2)), making “all decisions on the batter” (9.04 (a)(4)), declaring forfeits (9.04 (a)(6)), and conveying to the official scorer the batting order at the start of the game and any changes to the lineups throughout the game (9.04 (a)(8)), announcing ground rules (9.04 (a)(9)), calling and presiding over umpire conferences to resolve differences among the umpiring crew (9.04 (c)), and making all decisions that do not pertain to a specific field ump (9.04 (a)(5)).
Eleven hundred and seventeen men in baseball history are known to have umpired behind the plate; of those just 423 have umpired at least 25 games as a home plate ump, while 212 men umpired in the majors without ever performing their duties as a home plate umpire. These are the men that umpired the most games behind the plate all time:
Ump Years Period G G@HP Bill Klem 37 1905-41 5366 3543 Hank O'Day 34 1888-1927 3985 2709 Charles Rigler 29 1906-35 4144 2468 Bob Emslie 35 1890-1924 4228 2358 Tom Connolly 34 1898-1931 4767 2315 Bill Dineen 30 1907-37 4218 1926 F. O'Loughlin 17 1902-18 2574 1812 Billy Evans 22 1906-27 3319 1757 Bill McGowan 30 1925-54 4423 1644 Earnest Quigley 25 1906-37 3344 1510
Here are the most among active umpires (note that with more umpires employed, each individual ump sets up behind the plate much less frequently):
Ump Years Period G G@HP Bruce Froemming 36 1971-2007 5029 1267 Joe Brinkman 35 1972-2006 4505 1131 Ed Montague 32 1974-2007 4120 1035 Jerry Crawford 31 1976-2007 3993 999 Michael Reilly 30 1977-2007 3964 992 Derryl Cousins 28 1979-2007 3715 938 Joe West 29 1976-2007 3643 913 Randy Marsh 26 1981-2007 3367 849 Tim McClelland 26 1981-2007 3318 835 Rick Reed 28 1979-2007 3175 805
The bulk of a plate ump’s decisions are in determining strike and ball calls. Even though the strike zone is defined in the rulebook, many umpires are known or have been known for having their own zone. As for evaluating pitch-calling, there are five basic types of home plate umpires that we will address, with most rated by base-100 era-adjusted rates:
- The Pitcher’s Friend: These are umps that call strikeouts more frequently than the average umpire, and call walks less frequently than average.
- The Hitter’s Friend: These umps call more walks than average, and strikeouts less frequently.
- The “Let ‘Em Hit” Ump: The umpires call fewer strikeouts and walks than average.
- “Enrico Palazzo”: These are umps that love hearing themselves make calls and who like to control the game, thereby calling more strikeouts and walks than average (and are, of course, named for Leslie Nielson’s turn as an anthem singer-cum-ump in The Naked Gun).
- “Claude Rains” types: This is not a sandwich containing white- and sablefish. It instead refers to an umpire who appears to be invisible because his strikeout and walk frequencies are as close to average as possible.
The Pitcher’s Friend
“You had to pitch in and out. The zone didn’t belong to the hitters; it belonged to the pitchers…”
-Juan Marichal
Below are the umpires that are the most likely to call a strikeout instead of a walk throughout baseball history. The strikeout and walk rates are cumulative for both teams in every game in which the umpire served behind the plate, and they are adjusted for the umpire’s league and year. The umps are listed in descending order of the adjusted strikeout rate to adjusted walk rate (min. 25 games):
Ump Years Period G G@HP AdjBBRate AdjKRate AdjK/BBRatio D. Eddings 9 1998-2007 1037 264 78.7 112.6 1.43 E. Quigley 25 1906-37 3344 1510 87.6 112.7 1.29 Bill Miller 10 1997-2007 1122 282 85.7 107.0 1.25 Ed Runge 17 1954-70 2638 668 88.9 109.7 1.23 Mal Eason 8 1902-16 991 331 89.6 110.2 1.23 B. McCormick 14 1914-29 1983 939 88.5 106.2 1.20 T. Katzenmeier 3 1999-2001 205 50 89.5 107.4 1.20 Greg Bonin 18 1984-2001 1746 436 90.4 105.6 1.17 Phil Cuzzi 11 1991-2007 1064 272 91.2 106.4 1.17 Al Salerno 8 1961-68 1110 277 90.0 104.9 1.17
Note that the batting stats that are generated with these plate umps is generally far below the league average. Again, ratios are adjusted for ballpark, league, and year:
Ump AdjBA AdjOBP AdjSLG AdjOPS D. Eddings 96.2 93.8 96.2 95.1 E. Quigley 100.4 98.7 101.1 100.0 Bill Miller 99.0 96.7 98.4 97.7 Ed Runge 98.9 97.2 100.6 99.0 Mal Eason 93.1 93.2 90.7 91.9 B. McCormick 100.3 98.5 98.8 98.7 T. Katzenmeier 95.6 95.2 98.0 96.7 Greg Bonin 99.3 97.8 99.5 98.7 Phil Cuzzi 98.7 97.4 98.7 98.1 Al Salerno 98.9 97.5 100.1 98.9
The Hitter’s Friend
“…Today, if you pitch too far inside, the umpire would stop you right there. I don’t think it’s fair.”
-Juan Marichal
The other end of the spectrum is the hitter-friendly ump. Using the same metrics used above, here are the most hitter-friendly umpires:
Ump Years Period G G@HP AdjBBRate AdjKRate AdjK/BBRatio Edwin Hurley 19 1947-65 2822 741 119.2 89.8 .75 D. Cousins 28 1979-2007 3715 938 113.1 92.2 .82 Scott Higgins 4 2000-03 174 41 115.2 95.2 .83 Matt Hollowell 5 2000-04 517 118 108.3 89.7 .83 Fred Spenn 5 1977-91 360 93 109.8 91.1 .83 Dallas Parks 6 1979-95 446 118 107.4 90.0 .84 James Johnstone 12 1902-15 1736 1244 110.1 93.5 .85 Randy Marsh 26 1981-2007 3367 849 109.7 94.7 .86 Hal Dixon 7 1953-59 984 235 110.5 95.7 .87 Bill Brennan 8 1909-21 1093 645 105.4 91.5 .87 John McSherry 25 1971-96 3396 846 106.7 92.7 .87 Charlie Moran 22 1918-39 3183 1306 112.2 97.7 .87
Generally their calls result in better than average batting stats:
Ump AdjBA AdjOBP AdjSLG AdjOPS Edwin Hurley 99.1 103.2 100.4 101.7 Derryl Cousins 101.0 103.2 101.5 102.3 Scott Higgins 104.7 106.6 105.0 105.7 Matt Hollowell 99.9 100.9 100.6 100.7 Frederick Spenn 103.7 104.6 102.0 103.2 Dallas Parks 101.3 102.5 102.5 102.5 James Johnstone 102.0 103.0 104.9 104.0 Randy Marsh 99.4 101.4 100.1 100.7 Hal Dixon 102.6 103.8 101.6 102.6 Bill Brennan 99.0 99.7 99.4 99.5 John McSherry 101.1 101.9 101.1 101.5 Charlie Moran 99.4 101.2 100.1 100.6
“Let ‘Em Hit”
“Many baseball fans look upon an umpire as a sort of necessary evil to the luxury of baseball, like the odor that follows an automobile.”
-Christy Mathewson
There are umpires that never seem to call that borderline pitch a third strike, or see ball four. Indeed, they seem reluctant to be final arbiter and prefer to allow the players to decide the game on the field. These “Let ‘Em Hit” umpires tend to have fewer strikeout and walk calls than average. Note that they are ranked by weighted sum of the strikeout and walk ratio. I initially merely added the two together, but there were some eccentricities, especially Doug Eddings coming in at number three. Eddings and his 112 adjusted strikeout ratio is not exactly what I had in mind when I envisioned the ideal “Let ‘Em Hit” ump; he just looks the part because of historically low adjusted walk ratio. I chose to weight the strikeout and walk components before adding them. I squared them and divided each by one hundred, the base for each squared. This exaggerated the extremes and shook out the umpires who were truly lower in both categories. However, I have included both columns in case you prefer the more straightforward method. Here are the umpires that fit that bill:
Ump Years Period G G@HP AdjBBRate AdjKRate AdjK/BBRatio AdjK+BBRate AdjSum L. Ballanfant 22 1936-57 3201 969 91.1 96.2 1.06 187.2 1.75 Dick Tremblay 2 1970-79 90 30 89.1 99.1 1.11 188.2 1.78 Jay Klemm 4 2000-03 186 33 93.5 98.4 1.05 191.9 1.84 Wally Bell 15 1992-2007 1837 469 90.3 101.6 1.13 191.9 1.85 Jerry Dale 16 1970-85 1983 499 98.4 94.2 .96 192.6 1.86 L. Barksdale 7 2000-07 855 210 96.5 96.2 1.00 192.7 1.86 J. Linsalata 1 1961-62 166 40 93.1 99.8 1.07 192.9 1.86 Dan Iassogna 8 1999-2007 1031 252 95.3 98.4 1.03 193.7 1.88 Bill Miller 10 1997-2007 1122 282 85.7 106.9 1.25 192.7 1.88 Marty Foster 11 1996-2007 1116 275 95.7 98.2 1.03 193.9 1.88 H. Morgenweck 4 1972-76 623 154 91.1 102.5 1.13 193.6 1.88 Hank O'Day 34 1888-1927 3985 2709 98.5 95.7 .97 194.2 1.89 Doug Eddings 9 1998-2007 1037 264 78.7 112.6 1.43 191.3 1.89 R. Stello 20 1968-87 2761 693 98.0 96.4 .98 194.4 1.89 A. Hernandez 16 1991-2007 1843 468 92.4 101.8 1.10 194.2 1.89 Andrew Olsen 13 1968-81 1860 463 96.7 97.8 1.01 194.4 1.89 Larry Poncino 18 1985-2007 1826 457 99.3 95.2 .96 194.5 1.89 W. Kinnamon 10 1960-69 1227 303 97.9 96.7 .99 194.6 1.89
As it turns out, this approach seems to favor the pitcher. Witness the adjusted batting ratios for the umpires above:
Ump AdjBA AdjOBP AdjSLG AdjOPS Lee Ballanfant 96.8 95.8 97.6 96.8 Dick Tremblay 94.0 93.1 92.3 92.7 Jay Klemm 101.5 99.0 98.0 98.5 Wally Bell 99.0 97.3 99.1 98.3 Jerry Dale 99.1 99.0 97.9 98.4 Lance Barksdale 99.7 99.0 99.7 99.4 Joseph Linsalata 99.5 97.6 101.4 99.7 Dan Iassogna 98.3 97.9 99.1 98.6 Bill Miller 99.0 96.7 98.4 97.7 Marty Foster 102.2 100.7 102.0 101.4 Henry Morgenweck 102.3 100.1 103.3 101.8 Hank O'Day 100.5 99.7 100.7 100.2 Doug Eddings 96.2 93.8 96.2 95.1 Richard Stello 100.5 99.8 99.8 99.8 Angel Hernandez 100.2 98.5 100.0 99.4 Andrew Olsen 100.7 99.7 100.7 100.3 Larry Poncino 101.8 101.0 102.8 102.0 William Kinnamon 99.3 99.1 100.1 99.6
“Enrico Palazzo”
“One of the really wrong theories about officiating is that a good official is one you never notice. The umpire who made that statement was probably a real poor official who tried to get his paycheck and hide behind his partners and stay out of trouble all his life. Control of the ballgame is the difference between umpires that show up for the players and the managers.”
-Umpire Bruce Froemming
There are umps who relish punching out the batter on a called third strike, guys who gesticulate wildly so that even the fans in the nosebleed sections know that the batter is indeed out. Below are the umpires who called the highest adjusted strikeouts and walks; Froemming comes in at #17. They’re ranked by the highest weighted sum of the strikeout and walk ratio that I used with the “Let ‘Em Hit” umps, so these guys are the opposite of the previous list, the ones who want to make the decisions at home plate instead of in the field of play:
Ump Years Period G G@HP AdjBBRate AdjKRate AdjK/BBRatio AdjK+BBRate AdjSum W. Finneran 4 1911-23 582 236 108.9 103.5 .95 212.5 2.26 Scott Higgins 4 2000-03 174 41 115.2 95.2 .83 210.4 2.23 Edwin Hurley 19 1947-65 2822 741 119.2 89.8 .75 209.0 2.23 Charlie Moran 22 1918-39 3183 1306 112.2 97.7 .87 209.9 2.21 A. Marquez 8 1999-2007 973 246 109.3 99.2 .91 208.5 2.18 Rob Drake 8 1999-2006 752 177 104.7 103.6 .99 208.3 2.17 J. O'Donnell 4 1968-71 489 121 103.2 104.7 1.02 207.9 2.16 Greg Gibson 10 1997-2007 1046 266 107.8 99.1 .92 206.9 2.14 R. Rieker 10 1992-2001 1000 252 108.7 97.7 .90 206.4 2.14 Hal Dixon 7 1953-59 984 235 110.5 95.7 .87 206.2 2.14 Mike Fichter 7 1999-2005 555 124 103.6 103.1 1.00 206.7 2.14
Now, the adjusted battings stats for these umps:
Ump AdjBA AdjOBP AdjSLG AdjOPS William Finneran 93.4 97.4 98.2 97.8 Scott Higgins 104.7 106.6 105.0 105.7 Edwin Hurley 99.1 103.2 100.4 101.7 Charlie Moran 99.4 101.2 100.1 100.6 Alfonso Marquez 97.1 100.0 96.5 98.0 Rob Drake 100.8 101.5 101.2 101.3 James O'Donnell 97.0 98.9 98.5 98.7 Greg Gibson 100.4 101.5 100.9 101.2 Richard Rieker 99.5 101.4 99.7 100.4 Hal Dixon 102.6 103.8 101.6 102.6 Mike Fichter 100.7 100.9 102.3 101.7
“Claude Rains” Types
“The whole world’s my hiding place!”
-Claude Rains, The Invisible Man
Even though Froemming may have disparaged the umpire “you never notice,” here we present the umpires who called strikeouts and walks as close to the league norm as possible; a couple of Hall of Famers make this list. They are ranked by the amount that their strikeout and walk ratios deviate from the norm (100). To quote Geddy Lee, everyone’s got to deviate from the norm-everyone but Frank Wilson. To reward those umps who were more even-handed in doling out strikeouts and walks, I divided that number by the amount that the K-per-BB ratio that we introduced in the “The Hitter’s Friend” section deviates from its norm (one):
Ump Years Period G G@HP AdjBBRate AdjKRate AdjK/BBRatio BB+KfromNorm Frank Wilson 8 1921-28 994 240 100.0 100.0 1.00 .00 J. Neudecker 20 1966-85 3023 756 100.2 100.0 1.00 .23 Terry Tata 27 1973-99 3736 936 100.1 100.5 1.00 .54 Kerwin Danley 15 1992-2007 1185 299 99.8 99.6 1.00 .63 Marvin Hudson 9 1998-2007 1002 244 99.7 100.4 1.00 .71 Frank Dascoli 14 1948-62 2049 543 99.5 100.3 1.01 .74 C. Williams 24 1978-2001 2810 709 100.7 100.4 1.00 1.06 C.B. Bucknor 11 1996-2007 1169 293 100.8 100.5 1.00 1.20 Al Barlick 28 1940-1971 4224 1201 100.7 99.5 .99 1.22 Bill Klem 37 1905-41 5366 3543 99.9 101.2 1.01 1.23
Here are their adjusted batting ratios. Note how close to the norm most are:
Ump AdjBA AdjOBP AdjSLG AdjOPS Frank Wilson 99.2 99.2 99.2 99.2 Jerome Neudecker 100.5 100.3 98.9 99.6 Terry Tata 100.4 100.3 100.2 100.2 Kerwin Danley 101.9 101.0 102.5 101.8 Marvin Hudson 101.0 100.4 100.9 100.7 Frank Dascoli 97.8 98.3 97.0 97.6 Charles Williams 99.0 99.5 99.5 99.5 C.B. Bucknor 101.9 101.3 102.8 102.1 Al Barlick 98.5 98.9 99.6 99.3 Bill Klem 100.1 99.9 99.2 99.5
Nothing to Balk at
“I never called a balk in my life. I didn’t understand the rule.”
-Ron Luciano (He was actually about average.)
As the Giants and Mets displayed on May 29, a balk call can help decide a game. With the Giants ahead 4-3 in the bottom of the twelfth, reliever Armando Benitez was called for a balk twice, the second time scoring the tying run just prior to a Carlos Delgado game-winning home run in the Mets’ 5-4 win. The first balk call of the night was hotly contested by the Giants. It was called by Bob Davidson, who has acquired the nickname “Balkin’ Bob” for his proclivity for calling pitchers for this infraction. Davidson may have the nickname, but I found that there have been eleven other regular plate umpires who made balk calls more often; Davidson’s rate of calling balks clocks in at 164. (In the future, we will look at this more when we get to first base umps.)
Ump Years Period G G@HP AdjBKRate Angel Hernandez 16 1991-2007 1843 468 243.0 Ray DiMuro 5 1996-2000 108 27 229.3 Barry McCormick 14 1914-1929 1983 939 214.8 James Johnstone 12 1902-15 1736 1244 212.4 Joseph Linsalata 1 1961-62 166 40 209.7 Bill Welke 8 1999-2007 995 249 194.2 Chad Fairchild 3 2004-06 143 28 179.5 Ed Runge 17 1954-70 2638 668 179.3 Armando Rodriguez 2 1974-75 318 80 172.1 Charles Rigler 29 1906-35 4144 2468 170.9
Catcher’s Interference
Here are the umps who called the most catcher’s interference calls (adjusted for league and year):
Ump Years Period G G@HP AdjCIRate Ray DiMuro 5 1996-2000 108 27 420.0 Charles Rigler 29 1906-35 4144 2468 384.9 Hal Dixon 7 1953-59 984 235 361.5 Mark Barron 8 1992-2002 310 79 349.2 Scott Higgins 4 2000-03 174 41 311.8 Henry Morgenweck 4 1972-76 623 154 310.8 Frederick Spenn 5 1977-91 360 93 309.8 Charlie Berry 21 1942-62 3079 880 282.2 Mark Carlson 8 1999-2007 987 253 271.9 Dick Tremblay 2 1970-79 90 30 269.7
Mike Carminati is the author of Mike’s Baseball Rants. You can reach Mike by clicking here.
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