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Thursday, March 15, 2012

Exclusive: Umpire John Hirschbeck to the Disabled List

According to a source, MLB umpire John Hirschbeck will miss the 2012 season—and potentially more—due to illness.

Hirschbeck was one of several umpires who suffered injury or illness and missed significant time during the 2011 season. After Hirschbeck worked first base during the Nationals-Padres game on June 12, he did not return to action until July 8's Pirates-Cubs contest. He also suffered through a few painful deflections while a plate umpire, once on April 12 and again on July 24. Prior to deflection, the second pitch had been clocked at 95 MPH.

While most full-time crew chiefs worked between 127 and 136 regular season games in 2011, Hirschbeck worked just 112 due to back pain. Only Tim Tschida (81 games) worked fewer.

Hirschbeck previously missed the entire 2008 MLB season due to back surgery to repair a ruptured disk, while Hirschbeck was diagnosed with testicular cancer in mid-2009. August 2 was his last game that season and oncological surgery shortly followed.

The offending tumor was removed and doctors at the time predicted a 10 percent chance of the cancer returning.

At the time, Hirschbeck had predicted a retirement in the near future: "I'm 55 and I don't plan on working a whole lot longer."

Hirschbeck was the first president of the World Umpires Association and concluded the 2011 UEFL season with zero ejections and zero points. His younger brother, former MLB umpire Mark Hirschbeck, was also bitten by the injury bug, suffering a career-ending injury when his artificial hip shattered during a game. In April, Hirschbeck settled his lawsuit with Wright Medical Technology of Arlington, Tenn. for several millions of dollars.

Umpire Bill Hohn was on MLB's Disabled List in 2011 before retiring prior to 2012.
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9 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 15, 2012 at 7:20 AM

    The only other umpire who has not worked this spring is Bruce Dreckman. Also, Ed Rapuano has only worked 2 games while most of the major league umps have worked several more.

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  2. AnonymousMarch 15, 2012 at 11:49 AM

    I have found out from a reliable source that Derryl Cousins will ave the exact same crew as last year. Also Andy Fletcher will be on Joe West's crew along with Sam Holbrook and Angel Hernandez will be on Ed Rapuano's crew.

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  3. AnonymousMarch 19, 2012 at 10:27 AM

    Sounds like Bruce Dreckman had neck surgery this offseason, he may be out for a while too.

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  4. AnonymousMarch 19, 2012 at 4:55 PM

    There have to be a couple guys going to Japan. Maybe Rapuano isn't working as many games during ST because he is one of the ones going. Probably not the reason, but maybe it is.

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  5. AnonymousMarch 22, 2012 at 10:55 AM

    Joyce is going to replace Hirschbeck this season.

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  6. Big MarcMarch 24, 2012 at 12:01 PM

    Many on this site predicted Tim C., Cousins, and Bob D. would retire, I did not.
    How does Japan figure into this?

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  7. AnonymousMarch 25, 2012 at 6:46 AM

    Just responding to someone who did not see Rapuano working many games with a guess. Oakland and Seattle are over in Japan for some exhibition games before opening the regular season in Japan. My guess with Rapuano was wrong.
    Tom Hallion, Jeff Nelson, Marvin Hudson and Dan Bellino are the umpires who worked the exhibition games from last night and will work the season opener. They worked with 2 Japanese umpires in each of those exhibition games last night.

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  8. AnonymousMarch 29, 2012 at 11:27 PM

    So Hirschbeck and Dreckman are MIA, likely injured or ill, disabled list. Hopefully MLB releases those 2012 umpiring crews soon...

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  9. AnonymousAugust 24, 2012 at 12:39 PM

    I miss seeing John Hirschbeck work games. He works a great game, same energy and effort every time. I wish him the best of health, that is what is most important.

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