I happened to find this while Google searching for info on the place where he now works as a bartender--he's in debt to the tune of over $200,000 and one of his sons is barely speaking to him now because he can't pay the kid's college tuition. (Kid sounds like an ingrate, but we don't know the whole story...)

Other ex-umps who lost their jobs are having similar trouble. Current ump Jerry Crawford and his wife are trying to help.
Ex-umpire down for the count

What happened in 1999 was a case of self interest that got away on everyone, and some guys suffered more than other's which sucks...the games that are played with unions and "solidarity" sometimes go sideways. I feel for the guys that got left out in cold...some of their colleges are to blame. :cool:

Technically, Gregg didn't "lose" his job. He quit. The umpires could not "strike," so they resigned. It was supposed to be en masse, but it turned out it wasn't.

I don't like to see bad things happen to people who never did me harm, but I'm not working up a lot of sympathy here. Gregg voluntarily quit a high-paying job, as part of an attempt to go on an illegal strike. He wasn't an especially good ump. (My memory is that he had that bizarre strike zone was a too-narrow slit, up and down, and way way way too wide left to right.) So Major League Baseball never hired him back.

Maybe he could make some money suing Richie Phillips for professional malpractice.

[ March 08, 2003, 10:45 PM: Message edited by: Charlie in the Trees ]

It's a shame that Richie Phillips can't somehow be held personally (and financially) accountable for the amount of devastation he has caused to the lives of these former MLB umpires....perhaps UMP25 can shed some more light on this, but were it nor for Phillips' "iron-fisted leadership" (which admittedly resulted in significant strides for the professional umpires themselves in terms of compensation, benefits, etc over the course of several decades) and his insistence that the umpires adhere to his instructions "blindly", the 22 men would never have been placed in such a precarious, no-win situation.

I feel deeply for Eric Gregg and others who have suffered immeasurably and question why we never read or hear about any financial assistance or act of contrition offered by Phillips....is Richie simply too busy sitting in his palatial mansion counting the millions of dollars that he has earned at the expense of his "members"?

[ March 09, 2003, 03:25 PM: Message edited by: gamecock ]

I always wonder if I should even comment on such situations, for there is one group of people in society who are virulently anti-union and of the attitude that such mass resignees deserve anything they get. Then there is another group that believes endless pity should be shown to such umpires.

While I am not anti-union, I am not one who blindly believes everything a union does is right or good. I do believe they are a necessity in American businesses, at least in some. I also believe that they should work together with management to better everyone's lives, and not the workers over the employers and vice versa.

At first, I was in the camp that went along with Richie Phillips' strategy--a strategy that I quickly realized was both stupid and arrogant. After much discussion with a few of my then-American League umpire friends, I learned not to go along in the end with the mass-resignation.

It was a strategy that backfired, most likely, BTW, because there were many among us who saw the old guard's view as antiquated and out of touch, and of a nonprogressive mindset. Therefore, many of us desired to form a new union (now called the World Umpires Association), one which would cooperate with Major League Baseball to refine and better its umpires and our relationship.

Personally, I am someone who believes in accepting responsibility for one's own actions. If I make a mistake, or if I screw up, I have no one to blame but myself. I refuse to blame problems I caused on a bad childhood, or overmedication, or stress, or anything else that is so politically correct nowadays.

The 22 who resigned did so knowing full well what the worst-case scenario could be. Sadly, it came to this for some of them. Should we now cry for them? After all, as the cliche' goes: They made their beds. Now let them lie in 'em.

Equally as sad in this whole affair is that many longtime, good friendships were destroyed when the 1999 split occurred. Umpires with whom I had close, rewarding friendships wouldn't give me the time of day because of what I believe to be my principled stance on the issues and all. I am not going to lose sleep over it. If these gentlemen cannot see why things needed to change, nothing I can say is going to make a difference to them.

It is never good to see someone suffer, financially or otherwise, but with respect to Eric, he alone is the one who caused this. Perhaps if he didn't join the other 21, he would still be working today.

Very well put, Ump. On one level I feel bad for anyone who is out of a job and having difficulty making ends meet, but we need to remember that Gregg made a concious choice to break the law in order make his already rather generous compensation (when compared to the population as a whole) even greater. Unfortunately, he is now paying the price for his own actions.

Does the umpires union and/or major league baseball control all levels of the game (A, AA, AAA)... and thus was Eric Greg (and others) shut out from employment in those leagues? And what about college ball, winter leagues, little league, local house leagues, the gay softball league, etc.? One would think that someone qualified to umpire at the highest level of the game could still find employment in a lesser league... like an academy award-winning actor playing local dinner theatre, or a grammy-winning singer playing the local bar.

There are a number of people who lost their jobs as a result of 9/11 and the economy. I'll save my sympathy for them.

Canmark,

Affiliated minor league baseball umpires are under the jurisdiction of the Professional Baseball Umpires Corp. (a.k.a. "PBUC"). (Note: Affiliated refers to the traditional minor leagues, or those affiliated with a major league team. The Northern League, for example, is not among this and is considered an Independent League.)

It is PBUC that selects those who will work the various levels of professional baseball at the minor league level. In conjunction with the various minor league presidents, PBUC decides which umpires to release or promote to the next level. Once an umpire is at the AAA level, it is the major leagues via the Umpiring Dept. of the Commissioner's Office that decides which AAA umpire is good enough to hire as a major league umpire. If a AAA umpire is damn good, but the major league office does not express interest in him, then said umpire is released. This generally occurs after about 5 years in AAA.

Now, even though PBUC runs minor league umpires, PBUC will defer to MLB in some matters. For example: Ed Hickox. He spent a record number of years at the minor league level--16 if my memory serves me correctly, before finally getting a contract for the major league level. In 1999, he was one of the 22 who resigned. He wasn't one of those who was ordered rehired back into the majors. Instead, he was told to start over at the minor league level, something he chose to do. This time, however, PBUC breezed him through rather quickly to the point he is now doing major league spring training games.

So, in some respects, MLB does have some influence on minor league umpires, but only to a point.