Saturday, April 22, 2000

Umpires' equipment causes delay, shopping trip

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BY JOE KAY
AP Sports Writer

Home plate ump C.B. Bucknor wears cold-weather clothes for golfers and a Reds' face mask. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        Lost umpires' equipment resulted in a frenzied shopping trip, a police escort and a 27-minute delay to the start of the Los Angeles Dodgers-Cincinnati Reds game on Friday night.

        When the umpires arrived from Montreal on Friday, they learned that their equipment had been sent to New York.

        The Reds loaned shin guards, chest protector, a mask and some other items, but a few of the essentials — a brush to clean home plate, a ball and strike indicator for home plate umpire C.B. Bucknor — were missing.

        With a shopping list printed in pencil, Reds clubhouse manager Rick Stowe and an attendant got in a car and headed for a downtown sporting goods store, only to find it closed. With game time approaching, they took off for another store on the west side of town.

        “We started filling a shopping cart,” Stowe said, between trips to the umpires' room shortly before the first pitch. “We got a brush, indicator, long johns, turtle necks, rain suits. We just started pulling stuff off the shelves.”

        After charging a bill that came to over $600, they ran into another problem as they headed back to the stadium — traffic was backed up and the first pitch was only 15 minutes away. They flagged down a police car and got an escort to the stadium.

        The first pitch was delayed from 7:05 p.m. EDT to 7:32 p.m. When the umpires took the field, they were wearing the recently purchased black rain jackets and pants made for golfers. The temperature was 42 degrees and a day-long drizzle had just ended.

        Until this year, umpires' equipment was shipped by Pilot Air Freight Corp., a company controlled by Richie Phillips. Umpires voted during the offseason to replace Phillips' Major League Umpires Association with a new union, the World Umpires Association.

        Baseball decided to no longer use Pilot.

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