Thursday, July 7, 2011

Umpire Odds & Ends: Injured Umpires

Over the past couple of days, we have had a few individuals bringing up the fact many umpires have suffered injury and are not on the field. In the Umpire Forum, Jon Terry and anonymous gave us some great information as to the umpire injures, and umpires that are out. As we previously mentioned, Mark Wegner injured his calf in May and had what was likely season-ending surgery. Mike Muchlinksi is currently filling in for Wegner. Unfortunately, the injury bug continues to strike. A look at some of these injuries:

The July 4th Detroit Tigers broadcast reported that Jim Joyce is out for the season with a knee injury. Joyce had not umpired since June 9th. John Tumpane has received the fill-in role for Joyce. Jim Joyce has 4 ejections and 16 points in the 2011 UEFL season.

All-Star Game second base umpire Hunter Wendelstedt has not umpired since June 26th due to a head injury he suffered in that day in a game between the Indians and Giants. Wendelstedt took a ball off the side of the mask and continued the inning behind the plate, but after being evaluated by a trainer left. The incident can be seen here. Wendelstedt has no ejections and 1 point in the 2011 UEFL season.

Paul Schrieber has not umpired since May 10th. He has been out with an undisclosed injury. Schrieber missed significant time in 2010 due to injury. Angel Campos has largely filled the duties for Schrieber in his absence. Schrieber has 1 ejection and -2 points in the 2011 UEFL season.

Lance Barksdale has been missing in action since June 5th. Filling in at times for Barksdale is Alan Porter. Barksdale has 1 ejection and 4 points in the 2011 UEFL season.

Paul Nauert has been out since June 12th, and since has had his spot filled by Vic Carapazza. Nauert has no ejections and 0 points in the 2011 UEFL season.

John Hirschbeck has also been out since June 12th, his spot has been filled in by various umpires due to his Crew Chief status. Wally Bell has served as acting crew chief at times in Hirschbeck's absence. Hirschbeck has 0 ejections and 0 points in the 2011 UEFL season.

Tim Tschida has not umpired since June 16th, with Mike Estabrook filling the vacant spot on his crew. Jeff Nelson has acted at times as acting crew chief. Tschida has 2 ejections and 2 points in the 2011 UEFL season.

This is in addition to Todd Tichenor filling in all year long for the injured Bill Hohn.

During tonight's action, there were 12 non-MLB hired umpires working fill in duties:
Cory Blaser - Third Base Rockies at Braves
Vic Carapazza - Second Base Blue Jays at Indians
Mike Muchlinski - Home Plate Cubs at Nationals
Mike Estabrook - First Base Orioles at Red Sox
D.J. Reyburn - Home Plate A's at Rangers
Manny Gonzalez - Home Plate Twins at White Sox
Alan Porter - Home Plate Tigers at Royals
Chris Conroy - First Base Reds at Brewers
Angel Campos - Second Base Mariners at Angels
Mark Ripperger - Third Base Mariners at Angels
Todd Tichenor* - Second Base Mets at Dodgers
David Rackley - First Base Padres at Giants

*Tichenor is considered a MLB umpire for scoring purposes in the UEFL

13 comments :

Anonymous said...

James Hoye has also been out the past couple of weeks from the Hallion crew. Hallion himself had been out with something prior to that but must be okay now.

Jeremy Dircks said...

Anonymous,

James Hoye was actually at first base last night for the Tigers-Royals game, but he had been missing from the box scores for a little bit.

Anonymous said...

Cory Blaser has actually filled for the last three weeks on Hirshbeck's crew.

Anonymous said...

John Hirschbeck back tonight--CHC @ PIT behind the dish

Anonymous said...

Hunter Wendelstedt back tonight too WSH @ COL working 3rd Base

thexfactor264 said...

I know box scores are sometimes incorrect... but John Hirshbeck appears to have returned from injury tonight...

Anonymous said...

Hirschbeck and Wendlestedt both appear to be back during the series this weekend..

In an earlier discussion someone mentioned Tim Tschida was out indefinitely. I recall him "becoming ill" just prior to a game a few weeks ago, but I never would have thought it would put him on "indefinite" status. Can anyone provide details as you what may have happened?

Anonymous said...

Hirschbeck was back on the field tonight in Pittsburgh.

tmac said...

Hallion had an ejection tonight and we had multiple Ejs with the fight in the red sox/o's game!!

Jeremy Dircks said...

Hey guys, write-ups are coming. Busy night.

Anonymous said...

To my recollection, Tschida took ill and an emergency replacement had to be found, in the form of AAA Umpire Tyler Funneman's first ever MLB game. Don't know what it was tho.

Anonymous said...

Tschida became sick because of his own medication. What he was on, and for what I do not know. So I would "suppose" MLB is just making sure his new meds are working for him, before he comes back.

Jon Terry said...

Happy to note that Paul Schreiber returned to action with Joe West's crew on Friday July 22.

Also happy to see that Lance Barksdale came back on July 22, filling O'Nora's spot with Ed Rapuano's crew. Bill Miller has been keeping Barksdale's usual spot warm since the break, with AAA guys moving through Miller's spot with Tom Hallion.

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