NEW YORK -- After breaking with their union, more than a dozen major league umpires criticized their leadership for "a flawed and doomed strategy" that apparently will cost 22 colleagues their jobs.
As baseball officials said ability, racial and ethnic background and experience will be among the factors used to decide which 19 National League umpires stay and which 13 are let go, many of the umpires who kept their jobs blamed the mess on the union leadership, headed by president Jerry Crawford and Richie Phillips, the umps' negotiator since 1978."The major league umpires have been seriously harmed because union leadership adopted a flawed strategy that was doomed to fail from the beginning," said the statement, agreed to by a group of umpires that included Joe Brinkman, John Hirschbeck, Dave Phillips, Dale Scott and Rocky Roe.
"The advice to quit jobs in order to keep them made no sense at all," the group said, "especially under a collective bargaining contract that not only ruled out strikes, but also ruled out 'other concerted work stoppage."'
A person familiar with the drafting of the statement said more than a dozen umps joined in. The statement was to be formally issued today, and also includes Wally Bell and Jeff Nelson of the National League, the person said.
"It grieves us that more than 20 umpires will apparently lose their jobs as a result of this flawed and doomed strategy," the statement said. "We have been able to save some of our colleagues by convincing them not to resign or to quickly rescind their resignations. If we had not taken a stand, all major league umpires could be facing the end of their careers.
"It is essential that we proceed with a realistic view of the world and do what is in the best interest of all umpires, our families and the public."
Crawford, contacted after his game in San Diego on Wednesday night, declined comment.
Management officials and lawyers said they said they expected to make their choices on NL umps by the end of this week. On Monday, AL president Gene Budig told nine umpires that their resignations were being accepted.
In addition, baseball wrote a letter threatening to seek sanctions against Phillips for filing a lawsuit Monday, a management official said on the condition he not be identified. Federal court rules say suits must be based on "existing law or by a nonfrivolous argument" for changes in the law.
Phillips and Crawford retained Cohen, Weiss and Simon "to take appropriate aggressive legal action against major league baseball." Cohen, Weiss and Simon has worked for the Airline Pilots Association and the Teamsters Union.
All of the claims the umpires made in the suit are subject to the jurisdiction of the NLRB or the binding arbitration clause in the umpires' labor contract, or are based on anticipated actions that haven't occurred, management officials said.
Forty-two umpires withdrew their resignations Tuesday as the union's strategy of a Sept. 2 mass walkout collapsed due to lack of support among AL umps.