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“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:

  1. The Pitcher’s Friend: These are umps that call strikeouts more frequently than the average umpire, and call walks less frequently than average.
  2. The Hitter’s Friend: These umps call more walks than average, and strikeouts less frequently.
  3. The “Let ‘Em Hit” Ump: The umpires call fewer strikeouts and walks than average.
  4. “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).
  5. “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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