Look at any MLB baseball game and you’ll always see that four-man crew or “third team” on the field. It all started with just one in the early days of the game but by the turn of the century, baseball was using two and sometimes three officials in every game. It wasn’t until 1952 that four were used. The origins of the word umpire are first seen in the Middle English dictionary as “noumpere” and was taken from the Old French, “nonper” meaning “not equal”, a cynical play on words as I see it.
The first record of umpires receiving wages for their duties dates back to 1878 when the National League was paying them $5 per game. In 1882, the now defunct American Association actually created an umpiring staff for the league that were hired, paid, and assigned to games by the league office. They received a salary of $140 per month and were given a $3 per diem for expenses while on the road. The following year, the AA required that they wear a blue flannel coat and cap thus creating the unformed look that still exists. It also led to them being nicknamed “the men in blue” or just “blue” as they are often called today.
Oddly enough, there are only eight of these gentlemen enshrined in the Hall of Fame, six that have had their numbers retired, and a mere five that have seen action in 4,500 or more games. Of those eight that are in Cooperstown, only one has the distinction of being in the hall, having his number retired, and has also umpired the most games. This article focuses on those “men in blue.”
Tommy Connolly (NL, 1898-1900; AL, 1901-31)
Born in Manchester, England in 1870, Connolly was quite the cricket player as a boy. In 1885, his family immigrated to the United States, settling in Massachusetts. He immediately fell in love with the game of baseball and immersed himself in the rules and the playing of the game. He began his umpiring career at a local YMCA and was noticed by a major league umpire named Tim Hurst who secured him an umpiring job in the New England League from 1894-97. In 1898, he was brought up to the NL, but resigned in the middle of the 1900 season as a result of the league president’s failure to back an umpire’s decisions on the field.
Wanting to show baseball fans that the new American League was a serious challenger to the Senior Circuit, Ban Johnson quickly grabbed Connolly who umpired his first AL game on April 24th, 1901 all by himself. Connolly retired from umpiring in 1931 after 34 seasons, but became the league’s first supervisor of umpires, where he would remain in that capacity until he retired permanently in 1954. He died in 1961 at the age of 90 in Natick, Massachusetts, the city that he and his parents originally settled in when they came to the United States nearly 76 years earlier.
William (Bill) Klem (NL, 1905-41)
By far, Bill Klem is the man in umpiring circles whose name shall never be forgotten. He is the man I spoke of above that is the only umpire to be in the Hall of Fame, have his number retired, and to have officiated in the most ball games in history. Synonymous of his career, he wore the number “1” which is now retired, and umpired in 5,368 games, 209 more than the well-known Bruce Froemming and 600 more than Tommy Connolly. He spent his entire 36 year career in the NL and is often called the “father of baseball umpires.”
Klem worked in 18 World Series (1908-09, 1911-15, 1917-18, 1920, 1922, 1924, 1924, 1926, 1929, 1931-32, 1934, and 1940). No other umpire on record has worked in more than 10 Fall Classics. Of the 16 teams that existed in Klem’s day, the St. Louis Browns were the only franchise not to appear in a series’ that he officiated in. Klem died on September 16th, 1951 at the age of 77. He was inducted to the Hall of Fame with Tommy Connolly in 1953, and to this day they are the only two umpires to have worked in five decades.
Billy Evans (AL, 1906-27)
Born in 1884 Chicago, and not having much experience behind him when he started umpiring in 1906, Evans has the distinction of being the youngest umpire in major league history --- he was only 22 years old. Not only was he the youngest umpire ever, but he was also the youngest to officiate a World Series game at the age of 25. In 1907, Evans was knocked unconscious and suffered a skull fracture when an angry fan threw a bottle at him. Fourteen years later, he found himself in a fist fight with Ty Cobb that saw blood shed and the two of them in bandages in their next game. Though he was never one to back down during an altercation, Evans always preferred to substitute diplomacy for belligerency.
From 1919-28, Evans was a sportswriter and served as the sports editor for the Newspaper Enterprise Association, authoring a syndicated sports column entitled “Billy Evans Says.” Evans became known as an innovative umpire and oftentimes would run to a base to be on top of the play and make the proper call, a practice that became a standard among umpires from then on. Evans retired in 1927 to become the GM of the Indians, and was paid a handsome $30,000 annual salary. He served as GM for the NFL Cleveland Rams in 1941, and the following year, was hired as President of the minor league Southern Association. In 1956 when he was visiting his son, Evans suffered a massive stroke and died two days later. His contributions to the game are widely recognized.
Bill McGowan (AL, 1925-54)
Though he umpired for 30 seasons in four decades, there is not too much information available about McGowan, who was born and grew up in Wilmington, Delaware. He umpired in eight World Series (1928, 1931, 1935, 1939, 1941, 1944, 1947, and 1950) and also umpired the first ever All Star Game in 1933. He was the home plate umpire for the first ever AL playoff game between the Red Sox and the Indians that resulted because of them being tied after the last game of the season.
Worthy of note where McGowan is concerned is his record 2,541 games where he didn’t miss a single inning over a sixteen year period. He died at his home in Silver Spring, Maryland two days after he had suffered a heart attack in December of 1954 when he was only 58 years old. McGowan would later be elected into the Hall of Fame in 1992.
Cal Hubbard (AL, 1936-51)
Hubbard was born on Halloween in 1900 and actually spent nine years with four different NFL teams. After retiring from pro football in 1936, he pursued a second career as an AL umpire. Oftentimes considered one of the better umpires of the game, Hubbard was also an innovator like Billy Evans. He used his football knowledge to position the umpires in such a way so as to avoid confusion as they moved towards certain plays on the field to make their calls. Within Hubbard’s methods lay the foundation of the system that umpires still follow today and resulted in the use of four-man crews beginning in 1952.
During the off-season in 1951, a hunting accident damaged the vision in his right eye and he was forced to retire. Still loving the game, he couldn’t walk away and was named supervisor of umpires in the AL, holding that position from 1954-69. In 1976, he was elected to the Hall of Fame, but having succumbed to cancer, he passed away a year later at the age of 76.
Al Barlick (NL, 1940-43, 1946-55, and 1958-71)
Born on April 2nd, 1915 in Springfield, Illinois, Barlick served in the Coast Guard during WWII. Again, not much information exists on Barlick either (as with Hubbard). He umpired in the All Star Game on seven different occasions and officiated in seven World Series as well (1946, 1950-51, 1954, 1958, 1962, and 1967). In 1969, he was selected crew chief in the first ever National League Championship Series.
Another one that couldn’t walk away from the game, Barlick served as a consultant to the National League for 22 years until 1993. He had been elected to the Hall of Fame four years earlier in 1989. While living in Springfield after retirement, he suffered a cardiac arrest and died on December 27th, 1995. He was 80 years old when he passed away.
Jocko Conlon (NL, 1941-64)
Born just before the turn of the century in December of 1899, Conlon began his career as a center fielder with the White Sox in July of 1934 when he was 34 years old. The next year, while playing in a game against the Browns, Conlon was asked to officiate when one of the umpires fell ill due to the heat. He never looked back. The following season he started his umpiring career in the minor leagues where he remained for five seasons through 1940.
Conlon went to the NL in 1941 where he spent 24 seasons officiating. He umpired in six All Star games and five World Series (1945, 1950, 1954, 1957, and 1961). He was the home plate umpire on August 31st, 1950 when Gil Hodges hit four home runs and again on April 30th, 1961 when Willie Mays accomplished the same feat. Though he had retired after the 1964 season ended, he substituted in 17 games the following season.
Interestingly, Conlon was known for three trademarks during his career. He wore a bow tie instead of a traditional dress tie and was known for making “out” calls left-handed. But what he will always be remembered for the most was that he was the last umpire in baseball to ever be allowed to wear the outside chest protector. The inside one was what all the other umpires of the day were already using when Conlon was still marching to a different drum.
Conlon was the fourth umpire elected to the Hall of Fame in 1974, was the first one inducted since Bill Klem in 1953, and is the only one of the eight HOF umpires to have played in the majors. Conlon passed away in 1989 while at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona. At his side was his son John who had served as a U.S. Representative from Arizona (1973-77). He was 89 years old.
Nestor Chylak (AL, 1954-78)
Chylak served in the Army in Europe where he nearly lost his sight due to shrapnel from a shell that exploded while fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. He earned the Purple Heart and the Silver Star for his service. He began umpiring amateur ball in 1946 and then worked in the minor leagues from 1947 until he came up to the AL seven years later. He umpired in the ALCS three times (including the first one ever held in 1969), six All Star Games, and five World Series (1957, 1960, 1966, 1971, and 1977).
His other noteworthy games included Koufax last game in the 1966 series, “Ten Cent Beer Night” in Cleveland (1974) when drunken fans that were fighting spilled onto the field and he was hit over the head with a chair, and the first game ever played in Exhibition Stadium (Toronto) in 1977 during a snowstorm. He was an assistant league supervisor attending “Disco Demolition Night” at Comiskey Park in July of 1979 (White Sox vs. Tigers), when he told White Sox owner Bill Veeck that the second game of the doubleheader was not going to be played because fans began blowing up disco records on the playing field. Standing up to Veeck’s protests against Chylak’s decision, AL President Lee MacPhail not only abided with the decision, he also ruled the second game a forfeit in favor of the Tigers.
Chylak died in 1982 at the age of 59. He was elected into the Hall of Fame 17 years later in 1999.
Umpires who have had their numbers retired include Bill Klem (#1), Nick Bremigan and Jocko Conlon (#2), Al Barlick (#3), Bill Kunkel (#9) who was also an NBA referee, and Lou DiMuro (#16) who was killed in an automobile accident during the 1982 season. His son Mike, who is also a major league umpire, wears #16 to honor his father. The five umpires that have officiated in the most games are Bill Klem (5,368), Bruce Froemming (5,159), Tommy Connolly (4,768), Doug Harvey (4,670), and Joe Brinkman (4,505).
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