Here is baseball's November 2014 Fall & Winter Leagues ejections update, including the Arizona Fall, Caribbean Winter & Australian Baseball Leagues:
HP Umpire Ian Fazio: Mesa Solar Sox 2B Tony Renda for arguing balls and strikes (AFL, 11/4)
HP Umpire Emil Jimenez: Caribes de Anzoategui Manager Omar Lopez, strike three call (V, 11/6)
HP Umpire Greg Kent: Sydney Blue Sox P Dae-Sung Koo, ball four call (ABL, 11/9)
HP Umpire Kelvin Bultron: Senadores de San Juan P Malcolm Diaz, balls and strikes (RC, 11/10)
HP Umpire Adam Schwarz: Estrellas de Oriente Manager Dean Treanor, out call (D, 11/13)
HP Umpire Gabrial Alfonzo: Aguilas del Zulia Manager Eddie Perez, ball four call (V, 11/13)
HP Umpire Blake Halligan: Perth Heat Manager Steven Fish, balls and strikes (ABL, 11/16)
HP Umpire Blake Halligan: Perth Heat 2B Luke Hughes, safe call at third base (ABL, 11/16)
3B Umpire Neil Poulton: Adelaide Bite Manager Brooke Knight, out-catch call (ABL, 11/16)
3B Umpire Mariano Vizcaino: Estrellas de Oriente 2B Jordany Valdespin, out call (D, 11/21)
HP Umpire Neil Poulton: Brisbane Bandits C Kuan-Wei Yang, strike three call (ABL, 11/21)
HP Umpire Richard Mason: Sydney Blue Sox Manager Jason Pospishil, fair ball call (ABL, 11/24)
HP Umpire Charlie Rivera: Cangrejeros de Santurce 1B Jonathan Rodriguez, strike three call (RC, 11/24)
HP Umpire Vicente Madero: Aguilas de Mexicali RF Dave Sappelt, strike three call (M, 11/25)
HP Umpire Carlos Cotto: Senadores de San Juan RF Jon Garcia, strike one call (RC, 11/27)
HP Umpire Ron Teague: Gigantes del Cibao SS Jonathan Diaz, strike three call (D, 11/28)
HP Umpire Delfin Colon: Criollos de Caguas CF Miguel Abreu, balls and strikes (RC, 11/28)
HP Umpire Jonathan Parra: Caribes de Anzoategui 3B Niuman Romero, strike three call (V, 11/28)
1B Umpire Travis Eggert: Tiburones de La Guaira Manager Buddy Bailey, safe call (V, 11/28)
HP Umpire Marcelo Alfonzo: Tiburones de La Guaira P Edgmer Escalone, ball four call (V, 11/28)
HP Umpire Tom West: Melbourne Aces 3B Brad Harman, strike three call (ABL, 11/29)
HP Umpire Tom West: Melbourne Aces Pitching Coach John Hussey, DP interference NC (ABL, 11/29)
1B Umpire Takahito Matsuda: Adelaide Bite P Matthew Williams, check swing NC-ball (ABL, 11/30)
HP Umpire Trent Thomas: Perth Heat DH Allan de San Miguel, strike call (ABL, 11/30)
*AFL = Arizona Fall (Finished), ABL = Australian, CS = Caribbean Series (Begins February 2015), D = Dominican, M = Mexicana del Pacifico, RC = Roberto Clemente (Puerto Rico), V = Venezuelan*
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Dale Scott Comes Out as Gay After Feature Article
Veteran MLB Umpire Dale Scott has publicly come out as gay, marrying his 28-year partner Michael Rausch last November. Those who knew Scott well knew Rausch—the pair traveled to Australia for the 2014 Opening Series—and Scott informally came out and introduced the officiating community to Rausch in Referee magazine's October feature, "Redemption."
On December 2, SB*Nation's Outsports division, which covers LGBT issues in athletics, formally publicized Scott's relationships and marriage, having seen the Referee article, subsequently reaching out to Scott and the Referee editorial staff.
Scott knew what his profile in Referee meant: "Obviously, when I sent that picture to [Referee magazine editor] Jeff [Stern], I knew exactly what it meant. In a small way this was opening that door in a publication that wasn't going to be circulated nationwide. It could be picked up, but it's not Time magazine." And it almost was. Sensitive to former umpire Dave Pallone's own story—in which he was publicly outed by the New York Post in 1988 and fired by baseball shortly thereafter (in his book, Behind the Mask: My Double Life in Baseball, Pallone wrote that baseball forced him out because he was gay)—the UEFL opted not to run the story at that time: Outsports is the more appropriate venue, as is the article's timing.
When Outsports first contacted Scott in September, it was a similar tale: Worried it would cause a distraction from MLB's postseason—and Scott's own assignment to the Dodgers-Cardinals National League Division Series—Outsports and Scott agreed to defer the article to after the postseason.
Said Scott, "I am extremely grateful that Major League Baseball has always judged me on my work and nothing else and that's the way it should be...If this story or the Referee picture motivates somebody somewhere who's an amateur umpire or is trying to go to umpire school and is trying to get a job in the Major Leagues but maybe has doubts because of their sexuality and sees this and it gives them some confidence, that's great."
Scott is the first active MLB umpire to publicly and voluntarily say he is gay, the first active male official in the NBA, NHL, NFL or MLB. The NBA's Violet Palmer was the first active official to declare. She married girlfriend Tanya Stine in the summer of 2014.
Update: Scott's story has been picked up nationally by major news outlets ESPN, Fox Sports, Deadspin, Yahoo!, Bleacher Report, Instinct Magazine, MSN, and locally by many more; "Dale Scott" is trending on Twitter and Facebook.
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| Dale Scott & Dan Iassogna listen in on a Replay Review during the 2014 season. |
Scott knew what his profile in Referee meant: "Obviously, when I sent that picture to [Referee magazine editor] Jeff [Stern], I knew exactly what it meant. In a small way this was opening that door in a publication that wasn't going to be circulated nationwide. It could be picked up, but it's not Time magazine." And it almost was. Sensitive to former umpire Dave Pallone's own story—in which he was publicly outed by the New York Post in 1988 and fired by baseball shortly thereafter (in his book, Behind the Mask: My Double Life in Baseball, Pallone wrote that baseball forced him out because he was gay)—the UEFL opted not to run the story at that time: Outsports is the more appropriate venue, as is the article's timing.
When Outsports first contacted Scott in September, it was a similar tale: Worried it would cause a distraction from MLB's postseason—and Scott's own assignment to the Dodgers-Cardinals National League Division Series—Outsports and Scott agreed to defer the article to after the postseason.
Said Scott, "I am extremely grateful that Major League Baseball has always judged me on my work and nothing else and that's the way it should be...If this story or the Referee picture motivates somebody somewhere who's an amateur umpire or is trying to go to umpire school and is trying to get a job in the Major Leagues but maybe has doubts because of their sexuality and sees this and it gives them some confidence, that's great."
Scott is the first active MLB umpire to publicly and voluntarily say he is gay, the first active male official in the NBA, NHL, NFL or MLB. The NBA's Violet Palmer was the first active official to declare. She married girlfriend Tanya Stine in the summer of 2014.
Update: Scott's story has been picked up nationally by major news outlets ESPN, Fox Sports, Deadspin, Yahoo!, Bleacher Report, Instinct Magazine, MSN, and locally by many more; "Dale Scott" is trending on Twitter and Facebook.