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MLB ALL-STAR GAMEJuly 10, 2007Bruce FroemmingSAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA MIKE PORT: Many of you know the story that during Bruce's 13 years in the Minor Leagues he supported his family, some of whom are here today, by picking up bodies for a local mortuary at $20 each. I think two bodies a day was a good day, Bruce in, those days. But beyond going on to work all the way into the World Series, he'll be behind the plate tonight as the crew chief, his third All-Star Game to date, worked 5,095 regular season Major League games and a pleasure to bring him up here for a special announcement. BRUCE FROEMMING: I'm glad the whole room didn't empty out. I feel a few of you diehards are staying in there. But I got my partners here, and I've been on the field a long time but this is tougher to do than working home plate or anything I've ever done on the field. Because this has been my whole life at work. 50 years ago I started in Waterloo, Iowa, my first game. I can remember standing for the National Anthem and I was 18 years old, and I thought that the Good Lord came down and sent me to heaven. I was so excited. That day upon arriving in Waterloo from Milwaukee, my partner gave me the plate which was really nice. I drove a Greyhound from Milwaukee to Waterloo, and I went to Robert Hall and got an umpire coat for 20 bucks, because I didn't have an umpire coat and my career started. Since then, the people that you have to thank, you start with your family. My wife, Rosemarie and my two boys, one who is here today, Stephen and my other boy who is in New York today on business; Kevin. Without their support and without my wife's support being bus driver, Boy Scout leader, everything you can think of, doing a mother and father's job during the summer, in the Minor Leagues when you never got home, you could not get home. So when you went April 1, you were gone till Labor Day. So without them and God giving me them, I wouldn't -- I couldn't have made it. This has been a great run. You don't do this alone. Besides your family, you've got your partners who I value incredibly as an official. My partners, that's my strength when I go on the field and I want to be their strength. Very little gets by the crew because we talk about it. We play cards, we play golf, we horse around, we go to lunch together and I've always had a crew, always, which is almost incredible over 37 years, at least three of us went to lunch every day. And I value that. And maybe it's because when I became a crew chief and I don't even know what year, '85, '86, the one thing I talked about is good officiating starts in the room; not only in the umpiring room, but in the room of the hotel where you talk it over and you get close to your partners and you know what they are thinking and they know what you're thinking. One of the things I'm proudest of, and Mike Winters is here and if he wants to answer a couple of questions today, I value partners on the field beyond anything I can explain. Because I'm loyal to them and I know I get it back, and I change crews every year, maybe a face or two. I've had Winters, getting to be a pain in the neck, I've had him about seven or eight years -- ten. (Laughter.) But he's hung in there and I appreciate everything that my partners have done. And also, Major League Baseball, from the top to the bottom, and everybody in between, you get much support from them in areas. Do we differ at times? Absolutely. But I differ at home, too, and the umpire at home there, it's not me. And I have to go by what my wife says and when I'm working for MLB, I may have to do something I don't want to do, but the boss is the boss and I respect that. I'd like to thank my friends in the media. I know when I've maybe missed a play, had a questionable call; this room would be twice as packed, because the blood's flowing then, you understand. But today is just an announcement that this year, 2007, will be my last year on the field. And it's been terrific, it's 37 years. I thank Bud, Bob DuPuy, Jimmie Lee Solomon, Mike Port. And we've had discussions in the last two months, and in the last two months we've discussed where I'm going after I put the shirt in the bag for the last time and don't go on the field. We've had fruitful discussions, and I can say today that I'll be doing something in the game, and it will be spelled out later. I'd just like to thank everybody that came here today. If you've got any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them right now. Q. Your first big league game in 1971 at Shea Stadium, five innings, could you talk a little about that game? BRUCE FROEMMING: It was five innings. And Bob DuPuy being an umpire back there, he'll get a kick out of this. We were playing five innings and in the sixth inning it started to snow. The rule in baseball is you have an hour or an hour and 15 minutes of weather and it stops play. And Al Barlick was my crew chief and I never met anybody on the field like him. He said to Mauch when it started to snow in the sixth inning that that was it. And Gene Mauch said, "What do you mean, Al?" He said, "You've got to wait." "Wait, hell, do you see what's going on here? It's snowing." Now, if a rookie had done that, and Mauch protested, "I don't care what you do. Can you see the weather? We're not playing anymore." We went to the dressing room and looked at each other and thought, well, maybe should you wait and we're not waiting. That's how I got introduced to the big lease. It was a miserable day in New York. I had my wife and my family with me, my wife and boys and mother and father-in-law. We went to a restaurant in New York for the older people here, called Henry Stampler's, it was off Central Park. Do you remember the old cigarette guy, Johnny Morris, he was the maitre'd, and had the hat on and the whole bit. It was a neat, neat deal and that was my first day in the big leagues. Q. When did this crystallize in your mind that this was your last year, and how difficult was the decision? BRUCE FROEMMING: Well, the decision, I think when you do something that you love, that started 50 years ago, I think anything you do to change that, it's a big decision. But, you know, I say I've had a great run. You've got to step away sometime and I thought the timing was right and MLB has gone the extra step to make it an easy transition and whatever I do in the future, probably would be with MLB to help out in some capacity. Q. What does it mean to break Clem's record? BRUCE FROEMMING: Last year when it came up, I was with Winters and two other -- the guy came in the room and said, you know, in July, or in August, you're going to break the record for the most years in baseball -- I'm sorry. He said you're going to have 5,000 games in August. I never even thought of it. I didn't know if I had 3,500 or 6,500. But the one thing that Clem has got, he's maybe 200 games ahead of me, maybe 250, but the one thing, he never had a vacation. In 1979, we got four weeks vacation. And for his game record, I would think those 28 days, the last 28 years that we've had vacation because it gave a chance for young umpires that started to watch their families grow somewhat in the summer with the four weeks' vacation. I think it's an incredible, important tool in their itinerary, because to start a season in April and go till October and get home just for the All-Star Break, guys would get tired; guys would get sick, on purpose in the old days, because they had to go home, they had to see the family. So when they told me about the 5,000 games coming in August and Mike Port and Jimmie Lee Solomon was there and Bob was on a ship going to Alaska on a nice vacation and I couldn't believe it. What Jimmie Lee and Mike Port did, along with the rest of Major League Baseball's blessing, they brought along my family and former partners and the Red Sox and baseball did something that, unless you were there, you couldn't believe it. It was just an incredible, touching thing for my family and for myself. And then to have John Henry, the owner of the Red Sox, come to our party after the thing with Jimmie Lee and Port and all of the office people that were there, it was just something that you can't -- I can't describe it, how great it was. Q. Other than the first one, is there a game of those 5,000 plus that's going to live with you for a long time? And can you talk about what you remember most about the Pappas game? BRUCE FROEMMING: Well, the Pappas game was only 36 years ago. (Laughter.) And the pitch has gotten better every year to where now the pitch was right down the pipe and I missed the pitch. (Laughter.) The Pappas deal was he had a no-hitter, for those that don't know yet, a no-hitter for 26 outs and the 27th hitter had two strikes on him, Larry Stahl, a pinch-hitter and Zimmer was the manager for San Diego. 6-0, two strikes on Larry Stahl. I did not know at that point it was a perfect game, I can tell you that. I knew he had a no-hitter because umpires do look at the scoreboard, and he threw a pitch off the plate, another pitch off the plate, a foul ball and another one just off the plate and it was 3-2. And then the catcher, Hundley, who is not a real friendly guy with umpires, never said a word. But Pappas came off the mound twice, on ball two, and I think on ball four, and I said to Hundley, I said, if he gets there, just tell him to keep walking. And Lockman was the manager, and he gets the next guy out, he gets his no-hitter. The next day Lou Boudreau, and I can't remember his partner's name in Chicago, but they interviewed me and they said, "You know that you could have become the 12th umpire in the history of baseball to have perfect game; you could have become famous." And I asked Boudreau who the 11th umpire was. (Laughter.) And he said he didn't know and I said, "That's how famous I'd have been." (Laughter.) And the next day, Pappas agreed the pitches were balls and he wanted it and I could have given it to him. That's what the scenario was then. Since then, they have done story after story with Pappas, and I missed it and he would like to strangle me and everything else, because it cost him a perfect game. Q. Is there a manager over the years whose arguments you most enjoyed or found entertaining? BRUCE FROEMMING: One of the guys that I really enjoyed, because he could make you laugh and you had to put your mask on was Herman Franks. Herman, he just had a way about him. I told a story today about somebody, we had a big fight in L.A. one day, a bean ball, Reggie Smith got hit by a pitch by Rick Reuschel and both teams, you've seen it, they are on the field and Swisher is swinging at a guy like it's a 15-rounder. We had like four ejections. And Herman was a piece of work. He was a funny, funny man. And during the argument, I noticed the pitching coach, Barney Schultz being there. Now Barney had to come from the bullpen. I said to Barney during this mess, I said, "What the hell are you doing here"? Herman said, "What the hell are you doing here? Get back in the bullpen." So Herman ran him back in the bullpen. I didn't have to chase him. Q. Cal Ripken was here before you, in the Hall of Fame; do you think umpires should be in the Hall of Fame and what do you think your chances are of eventually becoming a Hall of Famer? BRUCE FROEMMING: I wouldn't speculate on that. Just to have it mentioned in those names, with the names you mentioned is a terrific thing for me. But I never umpired for awards. I umpired because I loved to umpire and I love teaching umpiring. I love working with kids and guys that are coming up, and I'm not talking about, I did it this way or I did it that way. I'm talking about angles to keep you out of trouble and different plays and different things to make things easier for them. I'm not an "I" guy. Winters can tell you this, it's been "we," "we," "we," all the time and I believe that makes for good umpiring. Q. Do you find the relationship between umpires and players to be much different than it was in 1971, and if so, how? BRUCE FROEMMING: I think it's a lot better. And the reason, one of the reasons, major reasons obviously is you've got multi-year contracts now and you have players that are a lot happier. 1971, 1972 when I started, a guy who had a bad two weeks, they would send him down to Indianapolis and send up another shortstop. Now, you have contracts and the money has drastically changed the game. Everybody is making a decent buck so to speak. I just think, you know, I've played in golf tournaments with players, and I see them in the winter when I was in Milwaukee, and the one thing I've always been proud of, Winfield was at the banquet last night, and Winfield and his wife, they talked to my wife, and you know what, you can't -- I don't think you get a better compliment than came from Dave and he didn't even know he was giving it. He just said, "You know what, he was fair, and he was firm." But he said, "You always knew where you were with him." And he said he liked playing ball when I was umpiring because of how hard you worked everything and it doesn't get better than that and he's been gone a long time. Winfield, he was an incredible competitor, and as a matter of fact, I thought he would kill somebody in the box and I'm surprised he didn't hit a pitcher more often than he did. Q. Have you ever let Mike Winters or anybody else beat you in pinball? BRUCE FROEMMING: Mike Winters joined my crew in St. Louis -- I grew up with a pinball machine in the basement with my boys, and it's tough to beat a guy that can play pinball seven days a week and now how to bounce the ball and everything. Winters won a couple of games. There wasn't nothing going on. I said, why don't we just make it for five bucks or whatever, and $55 later, he said, "You hustled me." BOB DUPUY: All I wanted to say is on behalf of Bud and Jimmie Lee and Mike and Chris and the others who are not here, we congratulate Bruce on his 37 years, his 37 terrific years of umpiring in Major League Baseball. We congratulate him on being named to be the crew chief; well deserved honor in the game here in San Francisco. And what I would like to say is that all of us, for all of us at Major League Baseball, the thing about Bruce is, he has been the consummate professional throughout his entire career. When we had one-game playoffs back in the '90s, it was Len Coleman, two in a row called on Bruce to be the crew chief of those playoff games because he knew it meant getting into the playoffs. He knew Bruce would take control of the game. He knew he wouldn't have any issues. And, in fact, Bruce did exactly that. He's been terrific to his partners the entire time and he's been terrific to the young umpires who have worked with him. The present crew notwithstanding, he has taken some young umpires under his wing when we've had issues with those umpires and has surprised them into consummate professionals, as well. All of us congratulate him, salute him and we're really happy he's going to continue with us going forward and we wish him nothing but the best. Thank you, Bruce. End of FastScripts |
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