The Associated Press

NEW YORK - John Hirschbeck became the second umpire in less than a week to be given a 10-day suspension because of inappropriate comments.

The penalty was announced Wednesday after the umpire met at the commissioner's office with Rob Manfred, executive vice president for labor relations in the commissioner's office.

Hirschbeck got into a heated telephone conversation with Manfred last month and made personal threats against him. Hirschbeck was upset that an acquaintance was one of 26 baseball employees laid off on Jan. 22.

Hirschbeck, the head of the umpires' union, did not return a telephone call seeking comment Wednesday. Manfred declined comment.

Bruce Froemming, baseball's most senior umpire, received a 10-day suspension last week for using an anti-Semitic slur about an umpiring administrator. Froemming also was pulled from an assignment to work the major league opener in Tokyo.

Froemming later apologized.

The commissioner's office, which said Hirschbeck was suspended for "inappropriate use of language in a conversation with a major league baseball executive," said the suspension would start on a date to be determined after opening day.

Baseball will contribute Hirschbeck's lost pay to the John Drew Hirschbeck Memorial Fund for Research on Adrenoleokodystrophy. John Drew Hirschbeck, the 8-year-old son of the umpire, died of the rare brain disease in 1993.