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| Former Major League Baseball umpire Bruce Froemming gives the keynote speech during the West Bend Baseball Association's Wall of Fame induction ceremony March 9 at The Columbian. Photo by Nicholas Dettmann. |
By Nicholas Dettmann
WEST BEND – Bruce Froemming spent more than 5,000 games in
professional baseball as an umpire. On March 9, during the West Bend Baseball
Association’s Wall of Fame induction banquet at The Columbian, he shared
stories of some of the best players he ever watched, the life of an umpire and
his quickest ejection.
But, he also wasn’t shy to give his thoughts on the
direction baseball is headed, specifically with replay and a proposed robot
umpiring system. Froemming was in attendance at the banquet as its keynote
speaker.
“Baseball is making a big mistake,” Froemming said about the
idea of a robot umpiring system.
He also mixed in humor. When he got to the podium, he encouraged the attendees to
boo him, which the crowd did. Then, he “politely” told them to be quiet. From
there, he shared stories of humor, but also amazement as to how difficult life
was for an umpire.
“We’re the same as you,” Froemming said. “We get screamed at
a lot. Now, as we look back at it, you realize how well I did my job because we
didn’t have instant replay. Everything I called was right.”
Then he talked about a possible three-year test with robot
umpires to call balls and strikes at a low level of professional baseball.
“This is incredible,” he said. “I’m going to tell you where
this comes from. It comes from the people that go to school out at Yale,
Harvard, Cornell and wherever. They’re reinventing the game. It’s really BS. It
really is bad.
“How they’re going to do this is I’m going to have an
earpiece, the umpire, and the pitch is going to come in and you wait for them
to tell you, if you can believe this, that’s a strike. Strike one. They told me
what to call. They’ve got these machines, they’re good. But there’s certain
things they cannot do. For instance, if you bounce a pitch and it goes above
the knees and goes through the strike zone, it’s a strike on the machine. … The
games are three hours-plus now and you’re talking about balls and strikes. They’re
not shortening the game. It’s a disgrace.”
During a question-and-answer session, Froemming, a Milwaukee
native, fielded questions about the best players he ever watched, plus how many
games he did during a given season. He is the longest-tenured umpire in major
league history in terms of the number of full seasons umpired, finishing his
37th season in 2007. He also worked several postseasons – 111 games in all –
including five World Series (1976, 1984, 1988, 1990 and 1995). He also umpired
a record 11 no-hitters, including one perfect game (Dennis Martinez with the
Montreal Expos against the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 28, 1991).
Best hitters he ever saw included Roberto Clemente, Hank
Aaron, Pete Rose and Tony Gwynn.
“He was a magician with the bat,” Froemming said about
Gwynn.
Best pitchers he ever saw included Tom Seaver and Steve
Carlton. But he labeled Bob Gibson as the best. One of the reasons he said
those pitchers were among his favorites was because they threw strikes, forcing
hitters to swing the bat.
As for how many games he did during a season, Froemming said
up until about the late 1970s, life was difficult for umpires. From Opening Day
until the end of the season, including postseason for some, umpires were on the
field in different cities every day of the season. There were no off days,
unless there was a cancelation or postponement. That was 162 games per year,
plus, some possible playoff games. Very rarely did umpires make it home to see
families, unless they lived in the city with an MLB team and they were in town
to work those games.
Because of that, he said, divorces were quite frequent for
umpires because they rarely saw their spouses or families from April through October.
In the late 1970s, that changed when umpires were given vacations, about three
or four weeks’ worth they could take during the season. Froemming called that “a
lifesaver.”
The stories he shared filled the room with laughter.
His quickest ejection came in a game in St. Louis with
Whitey Herzog as the manager of the Cardinals at the time. It was a 100-degree
day in St. Louis and it was an early afternoon game. Froemming said he and
Herzog got along very well.
But on that 100-degree day, just two pitches into the game,
Herzog began screaming at Froemming from the dugout about a call on a pitch.
The next pitch goes in, Herzog still yells at Froemming and he slightly gets
irritated. After the fourth pitch, Herzog was still on Froemming and he ejected
him – four pitches into a game.
Later on, Froemming met up with legendary broadcaster Jack
Buck and they talked about the ejection. Buck clued in Froemming about why
Herzog did what he did. Froemming said Buck told him that the Cardinals had an
off-day the next day and he was to meet a friend to go fishing the next day.
Froemming also shared a story about how his pants were too
tight for a game in the minor leagues in Little Rock, Arkansas, and when he
squatted into his stance, his pants ripped. The next day, he sees a picture of
his butt with a hole in his pants on the front page of the newspaper. The
headline? “Official opening.”
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