epiphany/players to umpires

[dumbdumb]

@the man in blue

a little googling

Hank O'Day HOF mlb former player and HOF umpire

Cal Hubbard HOF NFL former player and HOF umpire-only one in both.

many other players not on staff worked games back then, when the train was late, or umpire illness.

more recent

Tom Gorman, Mets pitcher and NL MLBU, former supervisor also.

Bill Kunkle (fixed it) former MLB pitcher for the crankees, and yes i spelled that 2nd one correct, and the last former MLB player

who worked a spring training game his son was playing in with the Rangers

more recent

Derryl Cousins--milb catcher in Tigers organization late 1960's.

John Shulock--milb infielder (ss) twins organization late 1960's.

Steve Javie--milb pitcher Orioles organization-milb with Jerry Layne in Florida state League, then switched

to CBA basketball and became a NBA official.

Jim McKean-MLBU-former Canadian professional football player

Paul Stewart--NHL player and then NHL Referee.

Bernie Fryer-NBA Player to NBA referee.

??Believe someone currently on the NBA staff also was a player but I cannot remember whom. will add later.

Leon Wood and Haywoode Workman, although i think Workman is now/might be in the front office.

but to your epiphany, no, there are not a plethora of former players turned officials at the Highest Level.

you know the drill. i would not do what you do and all that crap you put up with from the former and current players.

the people in power could do a lot more to stop that refrain, but they do not want to. they want you to take it or leave.

like i said, is that how employers treat their employees, and still get to keep their jobs and why, and are employees allowed to go into the office and do that to them, and keep their job and why not if their bosses do that to them, and apparently that is leadership by example.

[Tborze]

@The Man in Blue 

[MadMax]

I really believe, in the modern era, on the recruitment & transition of former high-achieving players into umpires, the greatest obstacle lies in two monsters. 

And I use the term monsters specifically, because they are created and they behave organically; they are born, they are fed, they grow, they affect their environment… and they often times s#!t 💩 things out. For former players, there are very rare circumstances that insulate them from one of these two monsters’ effects… whether feed or s#!t. 

Monster #1 is the “Tutor / Coach / Academy-head”. These guys were high-achieving because they were good at taking their talents and converting and honing it into skills. Now, for any number of ancillary reasons, they didn’t forge an enduring career playing on the professional stage, but with the digital information craze we live in, there is a glut of kids and parents that seek out the latest tools and “expert” attention so as to hone their own skills faster and grander. It’s simple demand & supply. These former players already invested all that time and effort to get to this point, and a modest income can be made, even at the “private tutor” or coach -level. It’s a rather attractive monster, and one that many, many former players choose to be consumed by. 

Monster #2 is much uglier, nastier, and insidious. It looks upon former players with disdain and contempt. It has its own self-imposed and self-adjusted timetable, often ambiguously explained as “You gotta do yer time”, and has daunting, often times defeating costs involved, again explained as “You gotta pay yer dues”. Any notoriety or accomplishment one may have had in baseball is often mocked, derided, or at the very least, dismissed as irrelevant or inconsequential to one’s pursuit and navigation of “fitting in” in the new “brotherhood”. Can you guess the monster of which I speak? Yup. 
I call it – “The U-stablishment”. 

Yes guys, we (umpires) do it to ourselves. 

[BigBlue4u]

9 hours ago, dumbdumb said:

Bill Kundle former MLB pitcher for the crankees, and yes i spelled that correct and last former MLB player

 Don't know if you are talking about Kundle or crankees.  If so, you are wrong on both.  It's Kunkle as in Bill Kunkle who pitched one year for the Yankees in 1963.

And, of course, Yankees.

[dumbdumb]

4 minutes ago, BigBlue4u said:

 Don't know if you are talking about Kundle or crankees.  If so, you are wrong on both.  It's Kunkle as in Bill Kunkle who pitched one year for the Yankees in 1963.

And, of course, Yankees.

you are absolutely correct. did i ever mention how much i hate auto correct.

Bill Kunkle correct. i did not intentionally mean to spell it Kundle. you just barely beat me to fixing it. crankees, yes i did mean to spell the Yankees that way.

[BigBlue4u]

Just now, dumbdumb said:

Bill Kunkle correct. i did not intentionally mean to spell it Kundle. you just barely beat me to fixing it. crankees, yes i did mean to spell the Yankees that way.

👌

[Maineac]

Actually it’s Kunkel.

[dumbdumb]

29 minutes ago, Maineac said:

Actually it’s Kunkel.

upon further review, my spelling has been overturned.

Kunkel it is, per baseball-reference

but am i spelling the Wes McCauley (#4) last name correct or is autocorrect changing it.

[Maineac]

14 hours ago, dumbdumb said:

but am i spelling the Wes McCauley (#4) last name correct or is autocorrect changing it.

You are spelling it correctly!

[BigBlue4u]

22 hours ago, Maineac said:

Actually it’s Kunkel.

I'll take the hit on this.  I did misspell it in my response.  😞