Umpires

Florence was awarded a 1-0 forfeit victory over Pitman yesterday in their South Jersey Group 1 baseball playoff when umpires Dave Perry and George Lay ordered play ended in the top of the sixth inning due to repeated incidents on the field and in the stands. Pitman coach Joe Lang, who also is the school's athletic director, said last night that he would protest the decision to the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association on Monday. Florence, The Inquirer's No. 1 team and the defending state Group 1 champion, was leading the game, 4-0, when Perry cleared the field at Florence.

It's a mystery. Arthur Conan Doyle might have called it The Strange Case of the Arrogant Arbiters. Last week, 22 men in blue disappeared from Major League Baseball diamonds. It's hard to understand why only those 22 went poof - or how they let things go so far foul. These 22, many of them with decades in the game, were the umpires Major League Baseball decided to toss after a boneheaded tactic by their union gave the sport an opening to weed its workforce. On July 14, the umpires in the National and American Leagues - operating under a mass delusion fueled by their leader, Philadelphia lawyer Richie Phillips - jointly submitted their resignations, effective last week.

Baseball 1999 is playing its final innings. As this century's exploits become part of the sport's history, let's reflect on how one vital aspect of baseball can be improved for the season - and millennium - now on deck. Umpiring surely merits a review. For one thing, several important games in the recent playoffs were marred by pretty bad calls, including at least two games in the Yankees-Red Sox playoffs. For another, there's simply no recourse. When an umpire's decision is questioned, it is allowed to stand - no official review, no one looking at a replay, no nothing, save for the hopeless bleats of offended players, managers and fans.

Three umpires stranded for several hours by weather-related problems in Atlanta finally showed up for work in the fifth inning of last night's game between the Padres and Cardinals in St. Louis. Philadelphian Eric Gregg, who took an earlier flight, was the only umpire who made it in time and was behind the plate. The Cardinals filled in the other three umpiring spots with college-level umps from the St. Louis area. The equipment for crew chief Bruce Froemming, Larry Vanover and Mark Hirschbeck arrived at Busch Stadium about a half hour before the game started.

It was Wednesday morning, and Newtown's Al Clark had just returned home to Bucks County after a long, long season. "I'm usually home much earlier than this," said the 14-year American League umpire, back from the 1989 World Series. "I'm not relaxed at all yet. . . . It takes about two to three weeks to come down after being on the road for 7 1/2 months. " The baseball season is always a grind for umpires, who have no home games. From spring training in March to the pennant races in late September, umpires criss-cross the country in groups of four, and can go months at a time without touching home plate.

College students go to Florida every March. Dave Perry of Morrisville just wishes he could have gone this year. Not for sun and surf, mind you. To be an umpire at spring training for major-league baseball. Perry umpires college games for the Atlantic 10, the Big East and the ECAC. When it looked as if the major-league umpires were going to go on strike this spring, the major leagues scrambled to make contingency plans. About three weeks before spring training began, Link Braude, who works for the American League, got in touch with Pete DeFlesko, who umpires with Perry.

Bill Butler wanted to protect his field. Instead, a tarpaulin dispute turned heated and he became part of baseball lore - a groundskeeper who got ejected. "It was a little bit shocking," Butler said yesterday. "I couldn't really believe it. " Players and managers are regularly tossed from ball games, and even mascots and broadcasters have been thrown out. But there was no apparent record of anything like this. The episode happened Friday night in Lakewood, N.J., where the BlueClaws were playing Kannapolis in the single-A South Atlantic League.

After the Phillies finish playing the Giants this weekend, they will resume play at Veterans Stadium with a game against the Dodgers Tuesday night. Harry Wendelstedt's crew is scheduled to work the series. Which means Joe West also should be there. Which means the Phillies' beef with National League umpires in general and West in particular won't go away any time soon. General manager Lee Thomas spoke to NL president Bill White on the phone yesterday. It wasn't the first time this year he's called to complain about West.

Shag Crawford, 90, the square-jawed, hard-nosed umpire who raised two professional sports officials, died Wednesday in the Glen Mills assisted-living facility where he had lived for the last year. Mr. Crawford, who never earned more than $35,000 a year in baseball, worked the first of more than 3,000 National League games in 1956. In 20 seasons, he umpired three World Series, two NL championship series, and three All-Star Games. The West Philadelphia native's nickname and his passionate, no-nonsense style helped him stand out in an era when umpires often were as nondescript as the black uniforms they wore in both cold and heat.

Nine of the 22 umpires terminated by baseball two years ago following a failed mass resignation were given their jobs back yesterday by an arbitrator. Major League Baseball was ordered to rehire Drew Coble, Gary Darling, Bill Hohn, Greg Kosc, Larry Poncino, Larry Vanover and Joe West. In addition, arbitrator Alan Symonette ordered baseball to take back two umpires who have said they intend to retire: Frank Pulli and Terry Tata. Baseball also was ordered to give the nine back pay for the time they missed.

Charlie Manuel wouldn't come out and say he deserved his one-game suspension as a result of his nose-to-nose altercation Tuesday night with umpire Bob Davidson, but the Phillies manager wasn't publicly criticizing the decision, either. As it turns out, both Manuel and Davidson got the night off Friday. Both received one-game suspensions stemming from an on-field incident in the top of the eighth inning of Tuesday's 4-3 Phillies win in 10 innings over the Houston Astros at Citizens Bank Park.

From the miracles-do- happen department: Major League Baseball will not expand the use of its instant-replay system this season. The bosses - who had looked forward to reviewing trapped balls, fair-or-foul rulings, and fan interference - now hope to do so in 2013. This season will be the same as last season: Replay will remain an option only on disputed home run calls. According to the Associated Press, which cited sources familiar with the situation, there were at least two roadblocks to expanding replay reviews: umpires and players.

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL said yesterday that expanded replay is out for this year, with the goal now to put the extra looks in play for 2013. Baseball had sought to increase video reviews this season to include trapped balls, fair-or-foul rulings down the lines and fan interference all over the ballpark. The additional replay required the approval of MLB and the unions representing the umpires and the players. "We weren't able to come up with an acceptable set of agreements between the three parties," Rob Manfred, MLB executive vice president for labor relations, told the Associated Press . "We hope we'll be able to do it in time for the 2013 season.

Harry Wendelstedt, a legendary major-league umpire from 1966 to 1998 who worked five World Series, seven NL championship series and four All-Star Games, and was behind the plate for five no-hitters, died Friday, in Daytona Beach, Fla. He was 73. Wendelstedt's most memorable call came on May 31, 1968, at Dodger Stadium. Don Drysdale, trying for his fifth straight shutout, hit San Francisco's Dick Dietz on the elbow with the bases loaded and no outs in the ninth. Wendelstedt, behind the plate, immediately ruled Dietz didn't try to get out of the way and told him to get back in the box. After the inevitable brouhaha over the call, Drysdale got Dietz on a flyout, escaped the jam, and got his shutout.

ARLINGTON, Texas - Joe Torre, Mr. Integrity, could not believe his ears. The first thing Ron Kulpa asked when he entered the umpires room after Game 3 of the World Series was, "I missed it? Did I miss it?" That wasn't the unbelievable thing Torre heard. Of course, Kulpa would wonder if he blew a tough call that went against the Rangers, and, yes, he did blow it. Kulpa believed first baseman Mike Napoli's tag of Matt Holliday came after Holliday hit the bag in the fourth inning Saturday night.

ST. LOUIS - Tony La Russa is ashamed. He's mortified, actually. He made pointed comments about an umpire during an in-game TV interview on Sunday and was hit with an undisclosed fine. Two things won't be happening, though. He can't take the words back and he won't be giving back the victory that his rant seemed to inspire. La Russa was so upset with what he perceived as Jerry Meals' inconsistent calls behind the plate that he told the TBS crew, "We are pitching to two different strike zones.

AT LEAST both teams were unhappy with the strike zone. When the bitching and complaining from both dugouts is roughly equal, it suggests that it wasn't the reason the game turned out the way it did. It's also true, though, that umpires strive not to be noticed. And by that measurement, plate umpire Jerry Meals didn't have a very good evening during Game 2 of the National League Division Series played last night at Citizens Bank Park. Hitters from both teams did little to hide their annoyance when they walked away from the plate after being called out. Pitchers from both teams were frustrated by pitches they believed had been in the zone but were called balls.

NEW YORK - Jerry Layne, Joe West, Dale Scott, and Gerry Davis will be the umpire crew chiefs for the first round of the playoffs. Major League Baseball announced the umpire crews on Thursday. Layne will head the crew for the National League division series between the Phillies and St. Louis that starts Saturday. He will work with Chris Guccione, Jerry Meals, Angel Hernandez, Gary Cederstrom, and Chad Fairchild. West will call the NL matchup between Arizona and Milwaukee beginning Saturday.

THE conventional thinking goes like this: Roy Oswalt should be your fourth starter come postseason because he's a veteran, has pitched successfully in October, seems to be getting stronger as the season winds down. Roy is your man because he's more trustworthy than any rookie, even one as good as Vance Worley. I don't disagree with the reasons. It's the conclusion that I contest. Worley should be your fourth starter come playoff time for all those reasons, and let's add one more: Oswalt has come out of the bullpen in the postseason.

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. - This ballpark could offer no more appropriate farewell. Fewer than 3,000 people dotted the Sun Life Stadium stands at first pitch Sunday. As the Marlins ran onto the field, they noticed the grounds crew had forgotten to install the bases. The Phillies played their final game in this veritable baseball hell, and they protested. Then they lost, 5-4, in 14 innings to the Florida Marlins - and no one is quite sure what happened in the sixth inning, if the subsequent eight innings will even count, or if by some merciless circumstance they will have to return to this stadium.