You’veprobably never heard of Bill Klem or Doug Harvey, but chances are you mightwish they were alive today. Why? Because Klem and Harvey are considered the #1and #2 greatest umpires of all time.
Infact, Bill Klem was so superb at calling balls and strikes that he umpired exclusivelybehind home plate for 16 seasons. Few umpires today are revered like that. Manyare disliked and disrespected. There are plenty of players, managers and fanswho are not happy with the state of umpiring these days.
Hasthe game changed, or have the umpires? It wasn’t always like this.
Hallof Fame Umpires
So,now might be a good time to look at two of the best umpires of all time, accordingto historians and those who follow the game closely, then and now, such as theSociety for American Baseball Research. It may be hard to believe, but thereare only 10 umpires in the Hall of Fame.
Hereare the names of the umpires in the Baseball Hall of Fame, along with the yearthey were enshrined: Bill Klem (1953), Tom Connolly (1953), Billy Evans (1973),Jocko Conlon (1974), Cal Hubbard (1976), Al Barlick (1989), Bill McGowan (1992),Nestor Chylak (1999), Doug Harvey (2010) and Hank O’Day (2013).
Here’sa quick look Bill Klem and Doug Harvey, two of the best ever.
BillKlem: “The Old Arbiter”
NationalLeague Umpire, 1905–1941
Some historians say Klem is credited with introducing hand andarm signals to the game (and Klem liked to say it himself). It was likely intendedfor the fans, but perhaps also for the players in the field. He came up withthe signals for balls and strikes, as well as fair or foul batted balls. He said,“Thatguy in a twenty-five-cent bleacher seat is as much entitled to know a call asthe guy in the boxes. He can see my arm signal even if he can’t hear my voice.”
Klemwas the first ump to wear a chest protector, and he worked during a time whenjust one ump handled a game by himself. He umpired in the National League from1905 to 1941 and was one of the League’s most respected. He said, “Your job isto umpire for the ball and not the player.”
Evidently,if a player or manager was protesting a call, Klem would make a line in thedirt with his shoe. If someone “crossed the line” while arguing, Klem wouldeject him from the game.
Klemheld many records, including umpiring in 18 World Series (103 games, theall-time record). He finished hiscareer having umpired 5,375 regular-season MLB games (all in the National League), 103postseason games (all World Series) and two MLB All-Star Games.
He is now second on the list ofmost regular-season games called. (His record was broken just this year!) Heloved baseball, and after retiring as an active ump, he was chief of the League’sumpire staff…right up until he passed away in 1951. Bill Klem was one of thefirst two umpires elected to the Hall of Fame in 1953.
Hisumpire number was “1,” and it’s retired by Major League Baseball. Sort of. UmpireBruce Dreckman currently wears number 1, even though Klem’s number is “retired.”
DougHarvey: “God”
NationalLeague Umpire: 1962–1992
DougHarvey is one of the most recent umpires inducted into the Hall of Fame andperhaps one of the most respected. In his three decades of umpiring, Harveynever called a no-hitter, but he was behind the plate when Kirk Gibson hit hisfamous home run against Dennis Eckersley in the 1988 World Series. Harvey wasquoted as saying, “The integrity of the game is the umpires. Nobody else.”
Witha father who was an umpire, Doug Harvey knew at the age of six that he wantedto follow in his dad’s footsteps. It didn’t go too smoothly, but he impressedsome baseball scouts and former umpires when they saw him behind the plate, sothey put in a good word with their contacts. He finally reached the Majors in1962 and joined the crew of Al Barlick, Shag Crawford and Ed Vargo—seasoned andwell-known umps of their day.
Thefirst player Harvey ejected was Joe Torre, in 1962. Thirty years later, inHarvey’s final season, he tossed Torre out of the game in the ninth inning, ina meaningless game in late September. It had all been prearranged, and Torrewas just fine with being Harvey’s first and last ejections. Harvey had apersonal goal of umpiring 5,000 games, but health issues forced him to retirein 1992 with 4,673. At the time, that was the third most in MLB history, behindBill Klem and Tom Connolly, but now he is sixth on the all-time list.
Whenhe retired, he was the most respected umpire in the game. The famous sportswriter, JeromeHoltzman, wrote, “Many players and managers refer to Harvey as ‘God’ because in22 years in the National League, he has yet to make a wrong call.” Doug Harvey passed away in 2018.
Side note: Doug Harvey and Joe West, another long-time umpire,appeared together in the 1988 comedy The Naked Gun. Speaking of JoeWest…
“Cowboy Joe” in the Hall of Fame?
Will Joe West, who retired at the end of the 2021 season, windup in the Hall of Fame? Should he? West broke Bill Klem’s record for most gamesumpired in May of 2021 with his 5,376th game. West had come back for the 2021campaign, he said, to break Klem’s record.
Joe West has also recorded two country music albums, which iswhy he’s also nicknamed “Country Joe.” The fact is though that he’s had manymanagers and players singing the blues during his baseball tenure.
He’s been called one of the best and one of the worst by many.He’s brought a lot of attention to himself for all the wrong reasons. Whilemany may have been singing his praises as he retired, there were others glad tosee the singing umpire heading for the exit.
If longevity alone gets you into the Hall of Fame as an umpire,West surely will get it. However, if they review his career and ask players andmanagers what they think of him, it might turn out differently.
Time will tell.
Resources:espn.com/mlb/story/umpire-joe-west;sabr.org/journal/article/men-in-blue;baseball-almanac.com/umpireswhowereplayers; mlb.com/umpires/history/records;en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Baseball_umpiring_records; mlb.com/official-information/umpires
