MLB has released the following 2012 World Series Umpire assignments, final round of the 2012 Playoffs.
Crew A (MLB World Series/DET@SF)
HP: Gerry Davis -cc (10 pts)`. Your Vote: 56% (1st)
1B: Dan Iassogna (10 pts)^. Your Vote: 30% (10th; 4th Alternate)
2B: Fieldin Culbreth (10 pts). Your Vote: 37% (5th)
3B: Brian O'Nora (12 pts)^. Your Vote: 39% (4th)
LF: Brian Gorman (7 pts). Your Vote: 26% (12th; 6th Alternate)
RF: Joe West (13 pts)". Your Vote: 32% (7th; 1st Alternate)
Your Voted Crew: Davis -cc (56%), Joyce (52), Hernandez (41), O'Nora (39), Culbreth (37), Hallion (33).
-cc denotes Crew Chief. Per UEFL Rule 4-3-c, all umpires assigned to appear in the World Series shall receive four bonus points for this appearance; the crew chief shall receive one additional bonus point for this role (five points total).
^ This is the first World Series assignment for umpires Dan Iassogna and Brian O'Nora.
` With this assignment, Davis will set an MLB record for most postseason games umpired in League history.
"Of all WS umpires, only West has ejected either a Tiger or Giant since 2011. Over the past two seasons, West has ejected Jim Leyland twice and Justin Verlander once (8/5/12 [Leyland]; 7/5/11 [Leyland/Verlander]).
*The rotation listed above is the umpiring alignment for Game 1 of the Series. Assignments are rotated in the following manner: RF Umpire, LF Umpire, 3B Umpire, 2B Umpire, 1B Umpire, HP Umpire.
News: MLB Announces 2012 World Series Umpires
How about that, I think this is the first world series with two rookies on it since the whole McClelland/Bucknor postseason debacle that made MLB go with an all-vet crew in 2009, though MLB has apparently balanced it out by putting three regluar season crew chiefs (Davis/Gorman/West) in the supplement the two freshman WS guys (Cubby is a sophomore, this is his second world series). Then again, it is only world series #3 for Gorman and #5 for both Davis and West.
ReplyDeleteHere's my keeper:
When Davis works Game One, he will set a new record for the most Postseason games umpired in Major League history. After handling five games in the 2012 Division Series, Davis has worked 111 Postseason games, matching retired umpires Jerry Crawford and Bruce Froemming for the most ever.
It is amazing still how many umpires hired in September 1999 have still not done a World Series. In fact, Iassogna was hired full time five years after that.
ReplyDelete@ there were/are several umpires hired in 1999 that would have NEVER made the big leagues. WHile solid they have no biz in MLB. And we lost/are losing several very good umpires post 2003 or so as there just hasn't been a ton of movement. Over the next 10 years things should really cycle itself out
ReplyDeleteDavis always seems to go under the radar when people talk about the best umpires. I think he deserves singificantly more respect and attention than he normally gets.
ReplyDeleteI mean, Davis is getting his fifth world series so that is obviously indication of a respect for his abilities. But people may have lost him in recent years in the midst of such big personalities as Froemming, Crawford and Montague as well as Tim McCLelland, Jim Joyce and the genial Christian Ted Barrett. Davis was part of the Richie Phillips faction but he seems to be of a more subdued personality than the other guys in the group.
ReplyDeleteOverall it looks like a strong crew. Based on what I had seen this year if a second rookie was in it I thought it would have gone to Randazzo and not Iassogna. Also would have put DeMuth over Joe West, but West did have a solid year
ReplyDelete@cgreen, you beat me to it. Gerry Davis obviously must be among the best umpires of this era or else he wouldn't be working his 5th fall classic. But we don't hear of him as often in the news because he simply goes about his business & does the best he can. In fact, until tonight, I had no idea that Davis was even close to the all-time record for post season games. He truly deserves this honour.
ReplyDeleteAnd here's a fun fact: since the discontinuation of the A.L. & N.L umpires, all but 2 of the world series crew chiefs worked in the N.L side: Davis (09 & 12) Crawford (02) Montague (00,04,07) Cowboy Joe West (05) Randy Marsh (03 & 06) and Steve Rippley (01)
Tmac please tell us who would not have made it?
ReplyDeleteanon 3:06, there is almost always 2 rookies on a World Series crew. 2009 was the only exception.
ReplyDelete2011- Gibson,Kulpa
2010- Holbrook,Miller
2008- Hallion,Culbreth,Danley
2007- Barrett,Everitt,Diaz(I like Laz but he had no business working this WS, he had only worked 3 postseason assignments before that and never worked and LCS. It made no sense)
2006- Bell,Marquez
And I think you get the picture.
Think this is Joes swan song?
ReplyDeleteAs for this crew, looks pretty solid. O'Nora 100% deserves this assignment. As for Iassogna, a little surprsied he made it. Usually number 4's don't make it but Dan shows great hustle and has great mechanics. He is clearly someone who enjoys his job and is out there because he loves it, not because he was "just" given a spot. His strikezone can be a little bit wild at times which is why I am skeptical. He is probably the next Alfonso Marquez in that he will work multiple world series before even becoming a number 2 on a crew. I would have gone with either Cooper or Randazzo as a first timer but Iassogna should do fine.
ReplyDeleteRe Davis, he gets the assignment not just because of his skills, but because of how good of a CC and general leader he is. MLB has never been afraid to assign rookies to his crews and he always teaches them well. He had Brian Knight in 2010 and he had a great season. Now Brian has since fallen, but he was great in 2010. Last year he had Todd Tichenor and Todd grew tremendously last season and continued his growth with Gorman this season. In case you forgot, Davis also took in Angel Hernandez during the crew swap last season and ever since that Hernandez still does not have an ejection and has shown to be a better communicator. There is no doubt in my mind Gerry helped him be less confrontational as Gerry never seems to get into an argument with anybody. And lastly he had Manny Gonzalez for much of this season and Gonzalez worked way more games than he had ever worked at the MLB level and now is likely under heavy consideration for one of the next openings. Davis is a leader of men and it shows every time his crews take the field. He has a presence on the field that makes it clear the Players and Coaches have nothing but respect for him. He is never talked about but will go down as one of the best Umpires in MLB history IMO. He has not missed the playoffs since 1997...1997. That is just amazing to me. While it is clear some umpires have held on too long (McClelland,Froemming). Davis could work for the next 8-10 years and will still make the playoffs every year. He is just that good. I will be interested to see if he retires after an all star game and World Series appearance. I say no, but it is possible.
What abut Darling? Why isn't he umpiring?
ReplyDeleteanon 5:06-No way. I think Joe will be around at least 3 more years. Just a prediction on my part but it doesn't seem like West is itching to retire. Than again, I was shocked when Randy Marsh retired so you never know.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I did notice about West was he was a lot happier in general this year. I saw him laughing and joking with players on a regular basis, I didn't even think Joe was capable of smiling. Even during his 2 ejections, he was very calm and both ejections were warranted. 2 ejections is very few for him and there were many more opportunities for him to toss somebody. He just seemed more approachable this year. That may b a clue to him wanting to go out on a good note, but I still don't think so.
Because Darling was an Umpire of the NLCS. You cannot work back to back playoff series.
ReplyDelete@ anon 5:11- Darling isn't working the world series because he was crew chief for the NLCS this year & as the general rule, any umpire who works either LCS doesn't work the fall classic in the same year
ReplyDeleteI also think West will likely be around for a few more years. From what I have heard and read in the past he is someone that truly loves being a MLB umpire and the occasional controversy that comes his way is something he has no trouble dealing with.
ReplyDeleteCommon MLB, Where is Jim Joyce. He deserves it.
ReplyDeleteJoyce had a solid year, but does not deserve the World Series
ReplyDelete@Russ yes Joyce does deserve the world series if done one doesn't deserve the world series I would say it's Iassonga or Gorman I think Joyce had a better season then Gorman especially as far as a crew chief I think he also has a better strike zone than both Iassonga and Gorman
ReplyDeleteI meant some one not done one
ReplyDeletehow common is it to be CC for the ASG and WS in the same season??
ReplyDeleteDana DeMuth had both the All-Star Game & World Series in 2009, though Davis chiefed the Series in '09 as well. Joe West had both the ASG and WS in 2005. Ed Montague chiefed both classics in 2004.
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect I just didn't think Joyce had a season good enough to be in the World Series. The one thing above all I didn't like about Joyce was the way he acted as a Crew Chief. During the ejections by Lance Barrett of Ventura and Pierzynski Joyce did not act very well. Not only did he refuse to let Ventura talk to Barrett but he was very aggressive towards Ventura. Then on an ejection of Ozzie Guillen by Angel Campos, he did the same thing. It is ok to break up an argument and be a wall essentially if the argument gets out of hand, but these arguments hadn't even started and Joyce interjected himself too much in those situations. The young guys need the support from the CCs but they need to learn how to deal with angry Managers and Joyce did not let that happen. Also, did you see his strikezone in his playoff game? It was just horrible. Through 3 rounds of playoffs he has the worst accuracy of any Umpire. You cannot justify giving a world Series to a man who was 85% accurate. Someone is going to tell me the assignments were already made but that doesn't mean they can't be changed. And saving a women is a great act that should not go unnoticed, but that doesn't mean you should automatically work a world series.
ReplyDeleteWhat does Mark Wegner have to do to get a WS?
ReplyDeleteI still can't believe Jim Wolf didn't even make the playoffs this year. Was he injured at the end of the season?
ReplyDelete-Zac
No, Wolf was healthy all season he just apparently did not qualify for the playoffs. Every year there are a few surprises and Wolf and Kulpa were the two biggest surprises for me.
ReplyDeleteYea, and if West had a solid season but not made the playoffs, nobody would be backing him up as usual.
ReplyDeleteTo anonymous@4:47, that is interesting that the WS crew chiefs seem to be ex NL umps. Got me thinking about the ratio of NL to AL among this seasons crew chiefs. Turns out that of the 18 CC's (John Hirschbeck included)10 were former NL and 8 were AL. One would think that there wouldn't be such a slant to the NL as WS CC's. It is indeed an interesting fact. As for this years crew, a very solid, low key crew(Yes Cowboy Joe included). Russ, I agree 100% with your opinion of Gerry Davis, comes out and does his job very well, wihout a whole lot of fanfare. This has rubbed off on some of his younger crew members over the years, and has contributed to umpires like Gibson, Tichenor and Everitt, become very solid members of the staff. Brian Gorman served a good number of years as no 1 man on Davis's crews, and his crews are also very low key. Tony Randazzo had a good year as a member of Gorman's crew, and Phil Cuzzi has improved this year, his first on Davis's crew.
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking how many umpires have done a World Series after turning 60 years old? If the series goes six games, Joe West will turn 60 while having home plate.
ReplyDeleteJim Joyce received votes on 52% of the ballots? I truly hope there are more fans than umpires voting for these things...
ReplyDeleteWhen will Paul Nauert get a shot at more Post Season opportunities. He is arguably one of the best teacher of the rules or baseball, stays out of trouble, and very few ejections. Seems like he deserves a shot.
ReplyDelete@long
ReplyDeleteNauert is perhaps a great teacher but his umpiring is not nearly as good that coupled with some well documented mishandled situations ( HE REFUSES TO EJECT) and you get a guy that should NEVER make a meaningful game. Umpires are often confused for staying out of trouble b/c they do not eject and ACTUALLY being good.
Example Joe West is confrontational and doesn't take BS so people think he's not good when in fact the opposite is true.
as for the jim joyce comments: JJ is a great guy but his umpiring like that of tim Welke and Tim McClellend hasn't been up to the standard many of you remember him for. Some guys don't age gracefully from an umpiring standpoint. I know that comment hurts but look at his charts and you will see he really struggled behing the plate this year!
Here's a nice interview with Brian O'Nora
ReplyDeletehttp://www.vindy.com/news/2012/oct/24/austintowns-onora-to-work-first-fall-cla/?newswatch
Pulli was 60 in 1995 for the WS. In the old days of course Klem did it.
ReplyDeleteHere are a few more reasons why Gerry Davis is so respected around the league. Since 2008 he has only ejected one manager (Gardenhire) and has not ejected a manager since 2004 for arguing balls and strikes. Since 1985 he has only worked less than 126 games 2 times and has never worked less than 105 games in that period. An amazing streak of staying healthy and ignoring minor injuries. This streak may be more amazing than his 15 straight years in the playoffs. He has a penchant for having someone on his crew make the World Series. Since 2007 only one year has someone not made the WS from his crew and in 2009, incredibly 3 made the WS (Davis, Gorman and Everitt). I think Davis should win the umpire of the year award. Great job Gerry!
ReplyDeleteKlem was 66 when he worked in his last World Series in 1940
ReplyDeleteOldest Umpire to work in the playoffs was Charlie Berry who was 68 when he worked the first game of the 1970 ALCS.
An argument can be made that Gerry Davis is a Hall of Fame umpire.
ReplyDeleteTo the person who says that Gerry Davis ignores minor injuries: My understanding, via the MLB Umpire Case Book is that umpires must report all injuries to MLB.
ReplyDelete