| John Hirschbeck |
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| 1954 births | |
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Hirschbeck has officiated in the , 2003 ), the American League Championship Series 4 times ( 1990 , 1997 , 2000 and 2004 ), and the World Series once ( 1995 ). THE ALOMAR CONTROVERSY Although most umpires stay out of the public eye, Hischbeck came to be widely known for an on-the field incident on September 27 , 1996 when Baltimore Oriole Roberto Alomar got into a heated, two-way argument with Hirschbeck over a called third strike. Alomar spat on Hirschbeck's face, claiming that the umpire had used a degrading ethnic slur against him. Alomar, and other players, claimed that Hirschbeck's personality had changed, and he had been on the edge and extremely bitter since the death of his son from Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), the disease featured in the movie '' Lorenzo's Oil ''. The day after the incident, after hearing Alomar's remarks, Hirschbeck charged into the players' locker room and had to be restrained by a fellow umpire. Alomar was suspended for five games and required to donate $50,000 to ALD research. On October 5, 1996, Hirschbeck said he had forgiven Alomar for the incident. Alomar and Hirschbeck settled their differences publicly and made apologies to each other on April 22, 1997, standing at home plate and shaking hands in front of the crowd before an Orioles game. "You know, I just wanted to put it behind us," Hirschbeck said on an interview to the '' Arizona Republic '' in 2005. "I said something to him once and it just flooded out how sorry he was." Alomar spent years apologizing for a situation that got out of hand rapidly in the heat of the moment and kept getting fueled by media. Both Hirschbeck and Alomar took the unfortunate incident as an opportunity to join forces and help raise awareness about the disease and raise funds for research. They came to regard each other as friends. When asked about the incident at his retirement in 2005, Alomar said, "That, to me, is over and done. It happened over nine years ago. We are now great friends. We have done some things with charity. God put us maybe in this situation for something". Alomar later made a donation of >$250,000 for research on adrenoleukodystrophy. FURTHER CONTROVERSY Hirschbeck attracted further controversy on April 28, 2002 . In a close National League game between the San Francisco Giants and the Cincinnati Reds , Reds pitcher Gabe White threw a pitch over the head of slugger Barry Bonds . Acting as union leader, Hirschbeck instructed fellow umpire Mark Carlson not to issue a warning to the Reds pitcher. Major League Baseball sent Hirschbeck a warning letter on May 10, 2002. Baseball also claimed that Hirschbeck had "a high percentage of missed calls of balls and strikes" on a game on May 4, 2002, which had been evaluated by the " Questec " computerized system looking to standardize the strike zone. The umpires union sued Major League Baseball over the disciplinary warning, but a federal judge tossed out the lawsuit by baseball umpires, ruling that disciplining Hirschbeck was not subject to arbitration under the collective bargaining agreement. TRIVIA
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