John Hirschbeck

John Francis Hirschbeck (born September 7 1954 in Bridgeport, Connecticut) is an umpire in Major League Baseball who has worked in the American League from 1984 to 1999 and throughout both major leagues since 2000; he is currently a crew chief. On February 28, 2000, Hirschbeck was elected as the first president of the newly certified World Umpires Association. He wears uniform number 17, which was also his number when the leagues maintained separate umpiring staffs.

Hirschbeck has officiated in the All-Star Game twice (1989, 2004), in the Division Series 7 times (AL: 1995, 1998, 1999, 2005; NL: 2001, 2003, 2006), the American League Championship Series 4 times (1990, 1997, 2000 and 2004), and the World Series twice (1995, 2006).

Hirschbeck was the home plate umpire on August 7, 2007 at AT&T Park in San Francisco when the Giants' Barry Bonds hit his record 756th career home run.

His 2006 crew included Wally Bell, C. B. Bucknor, and Mark Carlson. His crew in 2007 included Wally Bell, Laz Diaz and Bill Welke.

The Alomar controversy

Although most umpires stay out of the public eye, Hischbeck came to be widely known for an on-the field incident on September 27, 1996 when Baltimore Oriole Roberto Alomar got into a heated, two-way argument with Hirschbeck over a called third strike that Alomar alleged was outside the strike zone. Alomar spit on Hirschbeck's face, claiming that the umpire had used a degrading ethnic slur against him. Lip readers contend that Hirschbeck called Alomar "a faggot" as Alomar was walking away.Fact|date=August 2007 Alomar, and other players, claimed that Hirschbeck's personality had changed, and that he had been on the edge and extremely bitter since the death of his son from adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), and learning that another son also had it. The day after the incident, after hearing Alomar's remarks, Hirschbeck charged into the Orioles' clubhouse and had to be restrained by a fellow umpire. Alomar was suspended for five games and required to donate $50,000 to ALD research. One week later, on October 5, Hirschbeck said he had forgiven Alomar for the incident.

Alomar and Hirschbeck settled their differences publicly and made apologies to each other on April 22, 1997, standing at home plate and shaking hands in front of the crowd before an Orioles game. "You know, I just wanted to put it behind us," Hirschbeck said on an interview to the "Arizona Republic" in 2005. "I said something to him once and it just flooded out how sorry he was."

Both Hirschbeck and Alomar took the unfortunate incident as an opportunity to join forces and help raise awareness about the disease and raise funds for research. They came to regard each other as friends. When asked about the incident at his retirement in 2005, Alomar said, "That, to me, is over and done. It happened over nine years ago. We are now great friends. We have done some things with charity. God put us maybe in this situation for something". Alomar later made a donation of $252,000 for research on adrenoleukodystrophy.

Further controversy

Hirschbeck attracted further controversy on April 28, 2002. In a close National League game between the San Francisco Giants and the Cincinnati Reds, Reds pitcher Gabe White threw a pitch over the head of slugger Barry Bonds. Acting as union leader, Hirschbeck instructed fellow umpire Mark Carlson not to issue a warning to the Reds pitcher.

Major League Baseball sent Hirschbeck a warning letter on May 10, 2002. Baseball also claimed that Hirschbeck had "a high percentage of missed calls of balls and strikes" on a game on May 4, 2002, which had been evaluated by the QuesTec computerized system looking to standardize the strike zone. The umpires union sued Major League Baseball over the disciplinary warning, but a federal judge tossed out the lawsuit by baseball umpires, ruling that disciplining Hirschbeck was not subject to arbitration under the collective bargaining agreement.

Trivia

* John's brother Mark Hirschbeck served as an umpire from 1988 to 2003, with the pair becoming the first brothers to become major league umpires
* Started umpire career while as a part-time Little League umpire in high school

References

*Reaves, John A. 2005. "Umpire John Hirschbeck has dealt with harshest curves life can throw." "The Arizona Republic". Aug. 10, 2005.
*Blum, Ronald. 2003. "Judge tosses out umpires' lawsuit." Associated Press. January 28, 2003.
*"Baseball looking to discipline Hirschbeck." Associated Press. July 19, 2002.

External links

* [http://www.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/official_info/umpires/bio.jsp?id=2450 Major league profile]
* [http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/_sports/baseball07/umpire/index.html AP story about 2007 crew]