Interview with Mark A. Letendre, Director of Umpire Medical Services

In October 1999, as part of the merging of the National League and American League into Major League Baseball, the decision was made to create a unified approach to look after the health and wellness of major-league umpires. Under the auspices of the Office of the Commissioner, Sandy Alderson and Ralph Nelson reached out to Mark Letendre and ask him to develop and oversee the first comprehensive athletic health care program for Major League Baseball umpires. It was, Letendre believes, the first such health and wellness program developed in any major professional sport.

Letendre had 22 years of experience at the time working as an athletic trainer for the New York Yankees (including four years in their minor-league system) and the San Francisco Giants. He had been a certified member of the National Athletic Trainers Association since 1979 and is a charter member of the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society. Mark served as the National League athletic trainer at the 1987 and 1994 All-Star Games.

The year before his appointment, in 1998, he had been honored by the National Spit Tobacco Education Program (NSTEP) for his efforts to educate players and umpires on the effects of spit tobacco.

Letendre is native of Manchester, New Hampshire and a 1978 graduate of the University of Maine — Orono, where he received a B.S. in Physical Education and Health, and immediately became involved in working in baseball.

He worked as athletic trainer for the Giants right through the 1999 season, its final season before moving to the new downtown stadium currently named AT&T Park; as Mark puts it, “I closed out Candlestick.”1

This new program was an innovative one. It is Letendre’s understanding that he was the first certified athletic trainer in the history of professional sports. The NBA now has a similar position, but they did not at the time. Major League Baseball was the first to make the move.

Leaving the Giants at the time he did means that Letendre cannot boast three recent World Championship rings. There had been a certain comfort in working for a team. But the new position was a challenge to which he looked forward. It was clear that umpires needed more attention to wellness and health, and as he says, philosophically, “You know, it’s probably best. They’ve got a quality medical team that got them to the World Series.”

Today’s major-league umpires greatly appreciate the benefits the program has accorded them. Tim Welke, who has umpired in the major leagues since 1983, said, “The health and welfare of the umpires has just turned into something outstanding. It’s a demanding job. The guys are healthier today. [Mark] oversees that. He’s done a terrific job maintaining people. It’s improved tenfold. He’s done a terrific job at that. In the old days, when you’d get hit in the face mask with a foul ball, you’d just kind of blow it off. Now they’re concerned about concussions. And guys’ backs and necks and knees and all the components. And quality of life is mentioned; that’s something that’s really important.”2

Letendre discusses the wear and tear of the job. “By nature, these guys don’t break down. They wear down. That’s due to the repetitive nature of the job. Now if I could extrapolate that, you begin in the minor leagues where they begin working every other day behind home plate, because there’s only two umpires at Single A. They may be in a three-man crew at Double A. Sometimes four-man, before they get to the big leagues. The aggregate amount of squatting — and, more importantly, standing — 3 ½ hours a day times 132 games at the major-league level. If you look at Tim Welke’s career, how many years has he had at the major-league level? Plus his minor-league career. It’s staggering to think that he could have squatted approaching a million times.”

Indeed, MLB recognizes this aspect of umpiring with an annual Squats Crown. In the year 2014, there was a total of 707,176 squats by home plate umpires. The average number of pitches per game that year was 264.7. The 2014 Squats Champion was Tripp Gibson, with 10,757 home plate squats. He averaged 290.7 pitches per game in his 37 plate assignments that year. The 2015 MLB Umpire Media Guide presents past squats leaders:

Jeff Nelson (10,471) in 2003; Chuck Meriwether (11,570) in 2004; Jerry Layne (10,727) in 2005; Greg Gibson (11,075) in 2006; Randy Marsh (11,008) in 2007; Alfonso Marquez (11,254) in 2008; Tim McClelland (11,417) in 2009; Bob Davidson (11,064) in 2010; Joe West (10,914) in 2011; Gary Darling (11,216) in 2012; and Brian Knight (10,950) in 2013.

In 2015, Joe West again won the Squats Crown, with 10,331. West averaged 295.2 pitchers per game in his 35 plate assignments. And in 2016, West repeated with 9,814 squats (306.7 pitches per game) in 32 plate assignments.

Concussions have been receiving a great deal more attention throughout both amateur and professional sports in recent years, particularly in football and soccer.

Mark discusses the subject: “Head blows are obviously a concern, as well as the rest of the body. Soft tissue is the number one injury that occurs, from balls and bats going into the body.” He noted that a good deal of what we have learned about concussions comes from medical experience from the military. A considerable number of soldiers suffer concussive events such as IED explosions. As we know, concussions may come from one big hit, but can also come from the frequency of many small hits.

Taking a ball off an arm is another example of soft tissue injury. “Yes, and though it would be painful and debilitating, it’s not the same as with what we’re learning about head assault.” In late 2015, the U.S. Soccer Federation banned headers for players 10 and under. “There is a discernible difference between the myelinated brain, which has the adult hormone kicking in, and the pre-myelinated brain which is the young kid who hasn’t quite had maturity yet. What we’re finding is that it’s more of a question mark. When you have questions, the safest thing to do is to eliminate what you think could be harmful — and that would be heading in youth sports, which I think is a wonderful idea. The term is ‘no header/no-brainer.’

“I’m happy to see what we’re doing with youth. It’s more proactive, preventative. Even if we don’t have the science to completely support, the science has started to lean that way; we’re doing more harm than good [not to take action.]”

One of the things the MLB program does it to baseline each individual umpire. Letendre started doing that in the program in the year 2000. On the player side, neuro-psych baselining has been mandated for the past 10 years or so. For umpires, he says, “We baseline everybody. We also — and this is where it gets a little tricky, where some people get sensitive, on what we administer for our pre-employment physical. There’s three domains to an injury now. There’s the neuro-psych part, which is the brain. Vestibular balance, which is the inner ear. And there’s a vision piece of it, because the cranial nerves to the brain come up the back of the head and control eye movement. The six movements of the eye are controlled by the cranial nerves that are exposed at the back of your head, so any kind of a head blow — and this is where things have taken quantum leaps in regards to understanding that there’s three kinds of injuries that can occur to the head, not just brain injury.

“We do baseline pysch. We do baseline vestibular balance. We do baseline vision.”

Because of the Triple-A call-up umpires, the program Letendre oversees includes more than just the 76-plus umpires working at the major-league level. With the call-ups, it may round out to between 90-100 umpires. He explains, however, that “the minor leagues have also hired a certified athletic trainer who is the coordinator of minor-league umpires. His name is Mark Stubblefield. Mark and I split duties between the minor-league callups.”

The average major-league umpire has mandated vacation time built into his schedule these days; he works 132 games. The opportunity to work in Replay for a couple of weeks during the season helps, too.

“Replay has been an absolute guardian angel for the Medical Services Department. Now they’re buying two more weeks of rest. Realistically, it’s the demand of standing that’s the #1 physically most demanding thing. Three and a half hours a day. It’s unbelievable.”

After all, no one ever sees an umpire sit down on the field for half any inning! “No, sir. I have had some well-meaning fans suggest that between innings, the ball or batboys run out the little walking stick seats that they can watch golf sitting on. We haven’t had too much traction on that.”

Asked about the spit tobacco campaign, Mark replied, “In the late ‘80’s, I started the spit tobacco campaign in baseball, with the help of Al Rosen and owner Bob Lurie. They were the first team to kind of implement that. Since then, there’s been major improvement in major-league and minor-league baseball, and NCAA and high school. Yet there’s still addiction, so we can’t say we’ve got our arms around everything.”

Umpires are subject to the same pressures as the rest of us, and more. Ted Barrett, who has umpired in the majors beginning in 1994, wrote a doctoral dissertation for Trinity Theological Seminary which looked into some of the stressors attendant on the profession. To provide grounding for his dissertation, Barrett began with the words “It is said the job of the umpire is to start out perfect and get better.” Umpires must work away from the ideally supportive environment of home, family, and neighbors. And with the games played out in front of large audiences, both in person and through television, it’s fair to say, as he does, “The arbiters of major league games are under unprecedented scrutiny and pressure.” Under all the stresses of the job, it is not surprising that in their personal lives “some umpires fall into destructive behavior patterns.”3

Major League Baseball has also worked to address the needs of umpires in this area as well. Dr. Laurence M. Westreich is the President of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, and serves as the consultant on behavioral health and addiction to the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.

Umpires definitely appreciate the care and dedication Mark Letendre and his staff bring to their work. Umpire Paul Schrieber, whose first games in the majors were in 1997, says, “He’s an amazing resource for us. Anything you call him about — anything — he’s on top of it. ‘My knee hurts.’ ‘OK, you’ve got to do this, this, this, this. I’m going to set you up with this doctor….’ ‘My filling fell out of my teeth.’ ‘OK, I’ve got the team dentist. You’re going to meet at this time. Here are the directions. Give him a ring.’ He’s really a great resource. “

Mark’s office will check in with any umpire who has been struck by a ball. “Yes, we have communications with the observers and supervisors in the stands. Of course, the replay department also notifies me if there is a blow to any part of the body.” He will talk with the umpire, “and I’ll refer out to our medical consultant, Dr. Steven Erickson. He is the primary care sports medicine physician based out of Phoenix. If an injury or illness should occur, [the home team physicians will get involved.] They’re in charge of the emergent phase of that injury or illness. Then they contact me and Steve and I put together a plan of what is needed for the umpire. We have a virtual network from Seattle to Miami, from San Diego to Boston, and Toronto. And all parts in between.”

And if a game is played overseas, such as when the Red Sox and Oakland A’s opened in Tokyo in 2008? “Typically, the teams will take their own American physicians with them, but we’re backed up there. We do have a good relationship with the Japanese league.”

Major League Baseball seems to have all the bases covered, so to speak, and has given Letendre all the tools he has needed.

“We’ve been very blessed with their support. It’s an organic program, though. It’s not static. And it grows according to the roster. When we first took over, we had a lot of older umpires so we had to gauge our program for wellness and health to a more aged population. Now we’ve started to become younger and as we do that, we can go into more of a preventative type of program because they’re younger.”

Interviews with umpires show that they tend to select hotels which have a good exercise room and pool.

“Yes, gym facilities and swimming pools. We’re trying to prevent them wearing down and in working out, swimming pools are our best ally because they’re non-impact conditioning. They get enough pounding on the body during the game and during the season. It’s a cumulative type of thing.

The results are incremental, of course, but it was suggested to Letendre that he must be gratified to see some of the results.

“It’s a long-range approach to gratification, because I want to be sure that when they leave the game, there’s quality of life on the back side.

“By and large, as we’re seeing with replay, these guys have God-given talent you and I lack. They’re seeing it one-time, real-time, fast-time, and still getting a preponderance of calls correct.

“I have yet to meet an umpire in my 16 years in this job who wants to go off the field without making sure that both teams got an honest game adjudicated and that every call was correct. And so, with the advent of replay, even though there is a kind of immediate blow to ego, that quickly resolves, because they know leaving the field that everything was adjudicated correctly.”

In 2011, Letendre was honored with the prestigious PBATS President’s Distinguished Service Award at the Baseball Winter Meetings in Dallas, Texas. In addition, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Boys’ and Girls Club of Manchester, New Hampshire. In 2011, Mark was the recipient of the President Abram W. Harris Outstanding Alumni Award by the University of Maine Foundation in 2014. He was recently recognized by the Professional Baseball Chiropractic Society with their Annual Visionary Award.

Mark is a member of the Scottsdale Charros, a civic group, and is on the board of Trustees for the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Scottsdale Foundation. Letendre also serves on the Board of Directors with the Baseball Assistance Team (B.A.T.), Major League Baseball’s charitable organization dedicated to assisting members of the “baseball family” through financial grants, healthcare programs and rehabilitative counseling.

BILL NOWLIN, known to none as “The Old Arbiter” since he has never worked a game behind the plate, still favors the balloon chest protector for its nostalgic aesthetics. Aside from a dozen years as a college professor, his primary life’s work was as a co-founder of Rounder Records (it got him inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame). He’s written or edited more than 50 books, mostly on baseball, and has been on the Board of Directors of SABR since the magic Red Sox year of 2004.

 

Sources

Thanks to the 2015 and 2016 MLB Umpire Media Guides, edited by Michael Teevan and Donald Muller. Thanks as well to Mark Letendre and Mike Teevan for looking over this article.

 

Notes

1 All quotations from Mark Letendre come from an interview on November 13, 2015, unless otherwise indicated.

2 Interview with Tim Welke, July 30, 2015.

3 Edward G. Barrett, An Investigation of Faith As A Life Principle in the Lives of Major League Umpires (Newburgh, Indiana: Trinity Theological Seminary, 2013), 2, 4, 6.