A caller to the (thankfully Cataldi-free) WIP morning show today lamented that "the unions" are to blame for the out-of-control behavior of baseball's umpires, such as the ump that taunted Ryan Howard the other night, leading to Howard's ejection and the necessity of Roy Oswalt playing left field in the 15th and 16th innings.
Now, I know that some radio callers in Philly, especially on WPHT, have a tendency to blame absolutely every problem in the universe on "the unions." But in fact, baseball's umpires union is pretty weak, and was broken completely about a decade ago* when they tried an ill-advised mass-resigation strategy. One of the umps fired in that purge, the late Eric Gregg, used to come on the morning show frequently, but it didn't appear any of them remembered that.
*Check out the byline on that 1999 story- it's WIP's own Anthony Gargano! Surprisingly, the story doesn't mention "The Sopranos" or food.
Posted by Stephen Silver at August 26, 2010 09:21 AM