Al Barlick

Al Barlick rose from a Midwestern coal-mining family to a long career as a major-league umpire and eventual election to baseball’s Hall of Fame, the sixth umpire to be so honored. He gave his adult life to baseball and umpiring, working 57 years (1936-1993) in the game.

Albert Joseph Barlick was born on April 2, 1915, in Springfield, Illinois, the fifth and youngest son of John Barlick (c. 1879-1953) and Louise Gorence (1883-1966). John Barlick, an Austrian immigrant, worked for 50 years at the Peabody No. 59 bituminous mine.

Young Al dropped out of high school after two years to help support his family. He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, a Depression-era federal work program, spending six months in Washington State and six more in Wisconsin. When an older brother died, Al returned home and went to work in the coal mine as his father’s helper.

Growing up in Springfield, Barlick and a friend, Pat Ciotti, had devised a backyard game in which they used a flat board for a bat and pitched kernels of corn from about 35 feet away. The pitcher also called balls and strikes. In 1935 Jack Rossiter, who ran the Springfield Municipal Baseball League, needed umpires. Ciotti recommended the 20-year-old Barlick, who was given a tryout and, eventually, a job.

In August 1936 the Class D Northeast Arkansas League needed a replacement umpire after one of the league’s arbiters fell ill. Barlick was recommended to the league’s president, Joe Bertig, and was hired for the last four weeks of the season. He hitchhiked from Springfield to the league office in Paragould, Arkansas. In 1937 Barlick jumped to the Class B Piedmont League, where he spent two seasons, then to the International League after the 1938 season. That league farmed him out to the Eastern League for the start of the 1939 campaign, but recalled him by June.

In September 1940 National League chief umpire Bill Klem was unable to work, so the league needed a fill-in. Barlick made his debut in a doubleheader at Shibe Park in Philadelphia on September 8. His debut game was the first major-league contest he had ever seen. (The complete list of games he umpired can be viewed on the Retrosheet.org website.)

In February 1941 Barlick married Jennie Marie Leffell. They had two daughters, Marlene (born c. 1943) and Kathleen (born c. 1945). At the time of Barlick’s Hall of Fame induction in 1989, two of his grandsons were serving in the US Marine Corps.

The National League offered Barlick a contract for the 1941 season. At 26, he became one of the youngest umpires in major league history.

Barlick was behind the plate for the first game of a doubleheader in Pittsburgh on July 27, 1941. In the first inning, Brooklyn catcher Herman Franks objected to Barlick’s strike zone and Barlick ejected him, the first time he had ejected someone from a major-league game. Bill Klem joined Barlick and his partners for three games in St. Louis starting on September 11, the last three games of Klem’s career.

In just his second season, on July 6, 1942, Barlick was in the umpire crew for the All-Star Game, at the Polo Grounds in New York. It was the first of seven All-Star Games he umpired, and the only one for which he was not the home-plate umpire and crew chief. He worked at second base for the first half of the game and third base for the second half.

Barlick joined the US Coast Guard on November 5, 1943. He spent most of the next two years assigned to an 83-foot cutter based at the training station at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. When he was discharged in 1945, he had attained the rank of seaman 1st class.

He returned to umpiring in 1946, and worked in his first World Series that season. At the time a four-man umpire crew worked in the Series. Barlick umpired at second base in the first game and worked behind the plate twice, including the Series-deciding seventh game, in which Enos Slaughter made his mad dash around the bases. Barlick ruled Slaughter safe at the plate.

Barlick worked at first base on April 15, 1947, Opening Day, as the Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Boston Braves, 5-3, in Brooklyn. The historic game marked the big-league debut of the Dodgers first baseman, Jackie Robinson. Thus, Barlick was the closest man on the field to Robinson as he became the first African-American to play in the majors in the 20th century.

Barlick umpired six no-hit games, the first of them as the home-plate umpire on June 18, 1947, as Ewell Blackwell of the Cincinnati Reds shut down the Boston Braves. In the other five ho-nos, he umpired on the bases.

Barlick worked at first base in Pittsburgh on June 10, 1948, and, in the second inning, called a balk on Dodgers hurler Harry Taylor with the bases loaded, allowing a run to score. Dodgers manager Leo Durocher ran out on the field to argue the call with Barlick and was ejected. Before the game the next afternoon, Durocher started yelling at Barlick, renewing the argument from the previous evening. According to news reports on the game, Barlick was overheard saying something along the lines of “this thing is starting all over again” before tossing Durocher.

This was a continuation of a long-standing battle between the young umpire and the fiery Durocher. The arbiter ejected Durocher ten times during Durocher’s career as a manager; in all, Barlick had 81 ejections.

In 1948 Barlick umpired 161 National League contests in a 154-game season. He worked 22 doubleheaders, including a four-day span starting September 19 in which he umpired four consecutive twin bills. He led all National League arbiters in games worked that summer.

On April 30, 1949, Rocky Nelson of the St. Louis Cardinals hit a sinking line drive to left-center in the top of the ninth at Wrigley Field, Chicago. Andy Pafko made a diving attempt at the ball, somersaulted, and came up running into the infield, thinking his catch was the third out. However, Barlick ruled that he had not caught the ball. Pafko argued with the arbiter while holding onto the ball and Nelson ran the circuit for a two-run inside-the-park homer that provided the Redbirds with a 4-3 victory.

Barlick made his second All-Star Game appearance on July 12, 1949, at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. This was the first time six umpires worked the midsummer classic, and Barlick was the home-plate umpire. This game was played in an intermittent drizzle and was sloppily played because of the conditions. The tradition at the time was that the umpires rotated positions after 4½ innings. Instead of taking another position, Barlick left the contest and the right-field line was left uncovered, which was not unusual at the time. No reason was disclosed for his departure.

At the end of the 1950 season, Barlick made his second appearance in the World Series as the New York Yankees swept the Philadelphia Phillies in four games. He worked only in the outfield, two games along the left-field line and two along the right-field line. When the World Series umpire crew expanded from four to six arbiters in 1947, it was the practice that two of the umpires, deemed as “alternates,” worked only in the outfield. This practice was changed for the 1964 fall classic, when the current system of rotating all six umpires around the field was instituted.

On May 6, 1951, Barlick and his partners were at the Polo Grounds in New York for a doubleheader between the Giants and the visiting Cincinnati Reds. The first contest lasted ten innings, with the Reds scoring in the top of the tenth on a solo homer by Virgil Stallcup. In the bottom of the frame, Whitey Lockman singled to lead off the inning and advanced to second on Alvin Dark’s sacrifice. However, Reds second baseman Connie Ryan, who had made the putout at first on Dark, walked down to second with the ball hidden in his glove. He asked Lockman to step off the bag so he could straighten it, and the unsuspecting Lockman did so. Ryan tagged Lockman on the hidden-ball trick to complete a double play and negate the sacrifice. When Barlick called Lockman out, the enraged Giants stormed the umpire, led by their manager, Leo Durocher. Eventually, Barlick ejected his old nemesis and the game ended on the next play. Two days later Durocher and Lockman were fined by the league for their actions. The Durocher ejection was the first of 12 by Barlick during the 1951 season. He led all NL umpires in ejections that year, the only time he ejected more than eight people in one campaign.

Barlick was chosen for the World Series in 1951 for the second consecutive year. This year, he was part of the four-man rotating crew in the infield in the six-game, all-New York series. He worked behind the plate in Game Four, which was played at the Polo Grounds.

Barlick was behind the plate at Shibe Park, Philadelphia, for the 1952 All-Star Game. This was his third appearance at an All-Star Game and his second time starting a game behind the plate. In the middle of the fifth inning, the umpires changed positions and he moved to second base. The start of the game had been delayed 20 minutes by rain and, at the end of the fifth inning, there was a 56-minute rain delay before the game was called off, with the National League ahead, 3-2.

Barlick umpired the 1954 World Series, a four-game sweep by the New York Giants over the Cleveland Indians. He was behind the plate for Game One, a ten-inning affair at the Polo Grounds made famous by Willie Mays extraordinary catch of Vic Wertz late in the game.

On July 12, 1955, Barlick was once again behind the plate to start the All-Star Game. After 4½ innings, he swapped places with third-base umpire Bill Summers of the American League. The game, played at County Stadium in Milwaukee, was won by the NL, 6-5, in 12 innings on a game-ending homer by Stan Musial.

On September 25, 1955, Barlick and Lee Ballanfant worked their last game together. They umpired 1,633 games together in the major leagues, starting with Barlick’s debut in 1940. At the time, only Beans Reardon and Larry Goetz had worked more games as partners (1,913) and, at the end of the 2013 season, Barlick and Ballanfant are third on the list of partners. Joe Brinkman and Derryl Cousins top the list with 2,123 games together.

Barlick missed the 1956 and 1957 seasons because of a heart problem, described in various news accounts as either an enlarged heart or a mild heart attack. He spent the time operating a gas station called Barlick & Petrone in Springfield, Illinois. He returned to the National League in 1958 as a crew chief. At the end of the season, Barlick umpired the 1958 World Series, a seven-game set won by the New York Yankees over the Milwaukee Braves.

In 1959 the major leagues held two All-Star Games and Barlick was the plate umpire to start the first game, played on July 7 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. (He swapped with third-base umpire Joe Paparella in the middle of the fifth inning.) 

On September 20, 1959, Barlick was in San Francisco with Jocko Conlan’s crew for the last game played at Seals Stadium. It was an important game in the standings because the hometown Giants, the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Milwaukee Braves (who were in Philadelphia that day) were all fighting for the National League pennant. At the start of the day, the Giants and Dodgers were tied for first place and the Braves were a half-game behind. The Dodgers never trailed in the contest and took a one-game lead over the Giants. At the end of the season, the Dodgers and Braves played a best-of-three series to determine the league champion. The two senior umpires in the league, Barlick and Conlan, were chosen to work the series, along with a veteran group of four other umpires.

On August 15, 1960, Barlick’s crew was in Cincinnati for a doubleheader between the Braves and the Reds. In the first game, Barlick was umpiring at third base when Frank Robinson of the Reds slid hard into third attempting to stretch a double into a triple. Eddie Mathews tagged Robinson out and decided that the latter had come in too hard to the bag, so Mathews started punching the runner. Barlick ejected Mathews for fighting in one of the most memorable brawls in major-league history.

The National League umpire staff expanded in 1961 in anticipation of the addition of two teams in 1962. The league decided to season some arbiters before the league expansion. Barlick’s crew worked with various other umpires for many games as a five-man crew, with the extra umpire stationed down the left-field line. On July 4 the crew was at Wrigley Field in Chicago for a doubleheader between the San Francisco Giants and the Cubs. For those games, the fifth man on the crew was stationed in center field. Barlick’s reasoning, according to The Sporting News, was to give the outfield umpire a better angle to view balls hit near the wall. Many fans would reach over the wall and touch balls in flight, so this angle gave the arbiter a better chance to rule on those situations. This was before netting was installed near the top of the wall.

On July 26, 1961,

The Sporting News published the results of a poll to determine the best umpires. In the opinion of the managers and coaches, Al Barlick was rated as the most respected in the National League and won the top rating in five other categories in the poll: best caller of balls and strikes, best on the bases, best knowledge of rules, best at being in the right position, and most serious-minded. He was tied for the best with Shag Crawford in the category of making the most deliberate decisions. In the opinion of the writers polled, Barlick was at the top of four lists: most respected, best on bases, best knowledge of the rules, and making deliberate decisions.

When asked about the poll, Barlick, the senior National League umpire at the time, called it a disgrace. He criticized what he called the ill-informed opinions of the writers and some of the categories in the poll, including the most sarcastic, the hardest to talk to, the biggest grandstander, and the worst pop-off. His comments drew a lot of negative responses from writers, as might be expected.

Barlick was quoted by Ray Kelly in the

Philadelphia Evening Bulletin as saying: “The very idea of the ratings is unfair in that they place labels on hard-working officials who always try to do a good job. What, for instance, has neatness of appearance to do with sound officiating on the field? What constitutes respect? Does refusal to take abuse from a manager or player signify respect and is that respect forfeited when the player or manager is thrown out of the game?”

At the start of the 1962 season, Barlick’s crew umpired the first game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. At the end of the season, the San Francisco Giants and Dodgers were tied and played a best-of-three series to determine the winner of the NL pennant. Barlick was chosen to work the playoff series, and for the third time in nine years, he was the crew chief for the World Series. This seven-game series started at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park; it was the first time that the Series had been played in the Bay Area and Barlick umpired behind the plate for that initial contest.

In 1963 the National League mandated that the umpires crack down on balks by pitchers. This created a lot of arguments on the field. On May 4 Barlick was behind the plate for a game in Milwaukee between the Chicago Cubs and the Braves. Milwaukee starting pitcher Bob Shaw was called for a balk in the top of the first inning, three times in the third, and again in the fifth. In the third, the Cubs’ Billy Williams had walked and the three balks sent him around to score. In the fifth inning, after setting a record with his fifth balk of the game, Shaw walked Andre Rodgers to load the bases and then Nelson Mathews to force in the go-ahead run for the Cubs. Shaw objected to Barlick’s strike zone and was ejected by the arbiter.

A week later Barlick was quoted by Les Biederman in

The Sporting News: “We umps have to shoulder too much blame, yet all we do is enforce the rules. We don’t write the rules, just make certain none is violated. Now everybody is on us about the balks. Our instructions are to call balks when the pitcher fails to pause in his delivery with men on base, and we’re following orders. What would you do if your boss told you to do something and you didn’t follow through? What happens to a player who fails to follow instructions from a manager? It’s just as simple as that.”

On June 15, 1963, his crew worked a game in Cincinnati between the Reds and the New York Mets. At 3 o’clock the next morning, Barlick called Fred Fleig, the secretary of the National League, and, according to various news accounts, told him: “I am fed up with things and I am going to quit and go home.” League President Warren Giles told reporters later that day that he had tried to contact Barlick without success but hoped that he would change his mind because “he is an excellent umpire and a fine person.” At the time, there was no supervisor of umpires in the league, unlike the American League, which had a supervisor. The NL umpires were dissatisfied with Giles’ administration and felt that he failed to back them up when there was a controversy.

The balk situation was one of those controversial issues. Giles had ordered the arbiters to call the rule the way it was written, and so well over 100 were called in the first few weeks of the season. Commissioner Ford Frick convened an emergency meeting of the rules committee to reword the balk rule and bring it into conformity with standard practice. The umpires felt that Giles caused the problem and then failed to defend them once the trouble started. On June 17 Giles announced that he had spoken with Barlick, who was at his home in Springfield. Giles released a statement saying: “A misunderstanding has been cleared up. I asked Barlick to spend two or three days with his family. He will rejoin his crew in Chicago on June 21.” Giles refused to elaborate on the misunderstanding.

The time at home for the umpire was a rarity. Most years, Barlick would leave for spring training in February or March and not return home until the beginning of October or later. On the last day of the 1963 season, he said he was not sure if he would return the following year. He had umpired 20 seasons in the National League and, at 48 years old, was the senior arbiter in the league in terms of service. When he returned home to Springfield, he took a job at the city’s Water, Light and Power Department as a public-relations representative. By mid-January, however, Barlick had told the league that he would be back for the 1964 season.

In October 1963 the first umpires union was formed. The Association of National Baseball League Umpires included only National League umpires and was no doubt a reflection of the umpires’ opinion of the state of relations between them and Warren Giles. The union’s board of directors comprised Barlick, Jocko Conlan, Henry “Shag” Crawford, Augie Donatelli, and Tom Gorman. Conlan and Barlick were the two most senior umpires in the league at the time, since both joined the staff in 1941.

The purpose of the union as stated in its Illinois incorporation papers was “(t)o improve the general conditions pertaining to the relationship of the National Baseball League Umpires with the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs and to further aid in the constructive improvement of the game of National League Baseball.”

This union was replaced with the Major League Umpires Association, which was recognized by both leagues in 1970 and represented all umpires. This organization was disbanded and replaced with the World Umpires Association in 2000.

In 1965 Barlick and his crew opened the season in Houston, as the Astros hosted the Philadelphia Phillies at their new ballpark, the Astrodome. This was the first indoor stadium in the major leagues and the senior member of the league umpiring staff, Al Barlick, worked behind the plate for the initial contest.

On May 28, 1966, Barlick’s mother, Louise, died at her home in Springfield. Barlick went home after the game of May 25 to be with his ailing mother and returned to work on June 3, missing nine games. On July 12 Barlick was behind the plate for the All-Star Game, played at the newly opened Busch Stadium in St. Louis. As was the practice, the umpires changed positions in the middle of the fifth inning, with Barlick moving to third base.

Six days later, he was behind the plate for a game at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Phillies. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Dick Allen was on second base when a pitch got by Dodgers catcher John Roseboro for a passed ball. Barlick called the pitch a foul ball, so Roseboro did not run after the ball immediately. By the time he retrieved the ball, Allen had scored from second base. However, Barlick called time and placed Allen at third, explaining to the Phillies what he had done and that Allen would only have reached third without the umpire’s gaffe. Allen scored minutes later on a sacrifice fly.

Barlick missed the last two weeks of the 1966 season due to high blood pressure. He worked his last game on September 15 in Chicago and traveled to Houston for the next series. However, on September 17, he went home and was admitted to the hospital for a series of tests, which showed no damage to his heart. Barlick rested during the fall and later decided he was fit enough to go back to work in 1967. The 135 games Barlick umpired in 1966 represented the lowest total of his career for one season, excluding his partial season in 1940 before he joined the National League staff in 1941.

Barlick was chosen to umpire the 1967 World Series, his seventh and final time in the fall classic. In the second inning of the first game, played at Boston’s Fenway Park, Barlick stopped the contest briefly because a teenager was watching the game from atop the left-field wall just to the fair side of the foul pole. This was before the addition of the Monster Seats above the wall, when there was only a net.

On September 13, 1968, a fifth umpire was added to Barlick’s crew. Just as in 1961, the league decided to give some umpires big-league experience before they were needed on the field the following season. Each member of the crew was to take a day off in rotation and they worked that way until September 24, when all five umpires were on the field. The crew worked together for the last five games of the season.

After the season, Barlick accompanied the St. Louis Cardinals on a five-week tour of Japan. In one game, Lou Brock protested a strike call by the arbiter, so Barlick took Brock’s hat and bat, gave Brock his umpire cap, and stepped into the batter’s box. The crowd loved this prearranged set piece.

During the 1969 season, Barlick umpired 166 games, including 20 doubleheaders. The 166 games were the most in any season of Barlick’s career. With the expansion in 1969, each league was split into two divisions and the division winners played a round of playoff games to determine the World Series participants. The NL version of the League Championship Series started on October 4 with Al Barlick as the crew chief.

After the 1969 season, Barlick announced that he would retire if the pension plan for umpires was set up sufficiently. If not, he told reporters, “I’ll hang around. They’re not going to leave me in the middle of the street.” However, he returned to work in 1970 and, on June 28, he was in Pittsburgh for the final game played at Forbes Field. The Chicago Cubs and the Pirates played a doubleheader that day, with Barlick behind the plate for the first game. Two days later, the crew was in Cincinnati as the Reds opened their new home, Riverfront Stadium.

The 1970 All-Star Game was played at Riverfront Stadium on July 14, and Barlick was the crew chief and home-plate umpire. This was his seventh All-Star Game appearance, which is the most by any umpire, tied with longtime American League arbiter Bill Summers. Summers worked behind the plate for all of his games, while Barlick was the plate umpire six times. The 1970 game ended with the famous play in which Pete Rose crashed into catcher Ray Fosse, scoring the winning run when Fosse dropped the ball.

In February 1971 Barlick accepted the Umpire of the Year Award at the Al Somers Umpire School. The selection was based on a poll of the major-league umpires. As he accepted the award, Barlick said: “I’ve never accepted an award before. This is a true, honorable, sincere award because it is given to an umpire by umpires. That’s why it is very special.” He continued: “Bill Klem told me I’d meet some people in baseball I’d like. I’d meet some I didn’t like. But to help them all, because in doing that you’ll be helping all baseball.”

Barlick returned to the field in 1971 for his 28th and final year, even though he was a year past the retirement age. On May 31 the crew worked a game in Cincinnati between the Houston Astros and the hometown Reds. Barlick, who had been the plate umpire on the previous afternoon, worked at third base this day. During the game, Reds coach Alex Grammas was sarcastically praising Barlick’s strike zone of the previous day, so Barlick ejected Grammas.

The crew was at Wrigley Field for a Sunday afternoon game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Chicago Cubs on September 26. Barlick worked behind the plate that day in the final game of his career, as the Phillies won, 5-1. The rest of the crew went to New York for three days, but Barlick did not work that series, having taken the advice of his teammates to go home early.

Al Barlick worked 4,227 games in the major leagues, which at the time was the fourth most of all time. He worked with 49 different umpires, including more than 1,000 games with four different umpires: Lee Ballanfant (1,633), Stan Landes (1,229), Augie Donatelli (1,104), and Ed Vargo (1,009).

On December 9, 1971, National League President Chub Feeney announced that Barlick was retiring from active duty as an umpire. The league hired him to supervise and scout umpires, a job he held for 22 years. During his time as supervisor, he hired many umpires who had long major-league careers. According to Bruce Froemming, who worked on Barlick’s crew in 1971, Barlick was “very proud of the staff he built.”

Froemming also talked about how easy Barlick made the transition from the minors to the majors. He “was a good teacher for the young guys” and “down to earth” with them, helping them get acclimated to life in the big leagues.

During spring training in 1988, Barlick was eating dinner with some umpires. He asked Mike Winters, a minor-league umpire working major-league spring games, to bring the bottom of his strike zone up a quarter-inch the next day. Winters looked at Barlick for a bit and then realized he had been had. Barlick was only joking with him because “no one is that good with their strike zone.”

In 1989 Al Barlick was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. He was the sixth umpire to be so honored, after Bill Klem, Tommy Connolly, Billy Evans, Jocko Conlan, and Cal Hubbard. In 1991 Barlick was made a charter member of the Springfield (Illinois) Sports Hall of Fame.

On September 10, 1995, a ceremony was held at Wrigley Field, Chicago, to retire numbers for three Hall of Fame umpires who worked in the National League: Bill Klem (No. 1), Jocko Conlan (2) and Al Barlick (3). Note that these were not numbers actually worn by those arbiters but done to honor them.

At the end of that month, the Babe Ruth Museum in Baltimore held a weekend card show as part of its celebration of the centennial of Ruth’s birth. The museum gathered many Hall of Famers for autograph sessions during the three-day event and Barlick was one of them. The Hall of Famers waited in a backstage room before doing their session with the public. Many players who came into the room, upon seeing Barlick sitting quietly at the side of the room, made a detour and stopped to say hello. Most addressed him as “Mr. Barlick” and asked how he was doing. Barlick once said: “I think I earned the players’ respect and that’s the ultimate in life, isn’t it? I didn’t care if they liked me or disliked me, as long as I had their respect.” The reaction of those Hall of Fame players that day in Baltimore certainly proved that respect.

Weeks later, Al Barlick died in Springfield on December 27, 1995, at the age of 80. He had collapsed at home and was pronounced dead at a hospital. Cardiac arrest had stilled his growling, booming voice, one of the loudest in the big leagues. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered by the family.

Barlick was fond of saying: “There are umpires and there are those who hold the title.” No one doubts that Barlick was an umpire. In fact, Bruce Froemming described Barlick as “an umpire’s umpire.”

In addition to the 49 umpires with whom he shared the field, Barlick mentored many umpires who were still working in the major leagues as of 2014. His legacy in the game lives on in those people.

Photo credit

Al Barlick, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.

Sources

Biederman, Les, “Umps Shoulder Too Much Blame,”

The Sporting News, May 11, 1963.

Dolson, Frank, “Barlick a Loveable Tough Guy,”

Philadelphia Inquirer, July 27, 1989.

Froemming, Bruce N., phone interview with the author, January 27, 2011.

Holtzman, Jerome, “How Al Barlick Entered the ‘Hall,’ ”

Chicago Tribune, March 12, 1989.

“Japan Land of Fun for Gift-Laden Cards,”

The Sporting News, December 14, 1968.

Kelly, Ray, “Rating of Umpires Called Disgrace by Barlick,”

Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, July 24, 1961.

Koppett, Leonard, “Al Barlick: An Ump Calls Himself Out,”

New York Times, June 17, 1963.

Miller, Tony, “An Interview with HOF Umpire Al Barlick,”

Sports Collectors Digest, December 25, 1992.

Retrosheet website

retrosheet.org (umpire data and game schedules).

Vincent, David, Lyle Spatz, and David Smith,

The Midsummer Classic: The Complete History of Baseball’s All-Star Game (Lincoln, Nebraska: Bison Books, 2001).

Wind, Herbert Warren, “How an Umpire Gets That Way,”

Saturday Evening Post, August 8, 1953.

Winters, Michael J., phone interview with the author, January 25, 2011.