Bob Davidson (umpire)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Robert Allan Davidson (born August 3, 1952) is an American former
umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French , , and , : (as evidenced in cricke ...
in
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
(MLB). Nicknamed "Balkin' Bob" and "Balk-a-Day Bob" for his tendency to liberally invoke baseball's
balk In baseball, a balk is a set of illegal motions or actions that a pitcher may make. Most of these violations involve pitchers pretending to pitch when they have no intention of doing so. In games played under the Baseball_rules#Rules, Official Ba ...
rule, Davidson was an umpire on the
National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...
(NL) staff from 1982 to 1999, and he was on the combined MLB umpiring staff from 2005 to 2016. He worked one
World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...
(
1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...
) and several other postseason series. A former baseball player at the
University of Minnesota Duluth The University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) is a public university in Duluth, Minnesota, United States. It is part of the University of Minnesota System. UMD offers 17 bachelor's degrees in 87 majors, graduate programs in 24 different fields, a tw ...
(UMD), Davidson spent several years umpiring in the minor leagues before he was promoted to the NL in 1982. In 1999, he was one of nearly two dozen umpires to participate in a mass resignation that was intended as a union bargaining tactic. The maneuver backfired when baseball officials simply replaced those umpires. During four years away from professional baseball, Davidson hosted a sports radio show and worked as a college baseball umpire. Davidson returned to minor-league umpiring in 2003. After prolonged negotiations and legal battles, baseball officials promoted Davidson back to the major leagues in 2007.


Early life

After graduating from Duluth East High School in
Duluth, Minnesota Duluth ( ) is a Port, port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County, Minnesota, St. Louis County. Located on Lake Superior in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, the city is a hub for cargo shipping. The population ...
, Davidson played baseball at the
University of Minnesota Duluth The University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) is a public university in Duluth, Minnesota, United States. It is part of the University of Minnesota System. UMD offers 17 bachelor's degrees in 87 majors, graduate programs in 24 different fields, a tw ...
. In the mid-1970s, Davidson went to umpiring school in
St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the List of municipalities in Florida, fifth-most populous city in Florida and the most populous city in the sta ...
, with a friend and former Duluth East and UMD baseball teammate. Davidson graduated at the top of his class at the umpire academy, and he was given an assignment in the minor leagues. Davidson spent eight years as a minor-league umpire, and his assignments included the
Midwest League The Midwest League is a Minor League Baseball league established in 1947 and based in the Midwestern United States. A Class A league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganizat ...
,
Florida State League The Florida State League (FSL) is a Minor League Baseball league based in the state of Florida. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 until its demotion to Single-A following ...
, Southern League and the American Association. He also umpired in the
Florida Instructional League The Florida Instructional League (FIL), sometimes known informally as "instructs", is an American professional baseball league. The league was founded in 1958. Young major league prospects hone their skills in the FIL, while experienced players may ...
and in a winter league in the Dominican Republic during those years.


MLB career

Davidson was on the full-time umpiring staff for the National League (NL) from 1982 to 1999. He wore uniform number 31 during his career in the NL. Davidson officiated in the 1992 World Series, as well as the
National League Championship Series The National League Championship Series (NLCS) is a best-of-seven playoff and one of two League Championship Series comprising the penultimate round of Major League Baseball's (MLB) postseason. It is contested by the winners of the two Natio ...
in 1988,
1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...
and
1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...
. He also worked in the
National League Division Series In Major League Baseball, the National League Division Series (NLDS) determines which two teams from the National League will advance to the National League Championship Series. The Division Series consists of two best-of-five series, featuring e ...
in
1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...
,
1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...
and
2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...
, and in the
1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...
,
1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...
, and
2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...
All-Star Games. Nicknamed "Balkin' Bob" or "Balk-a-day-Bob" due to his frequent
balk In baseball, a balk is a set of illegal motions or actions that a pitcher may make. Most of these violations involve pitchers pretending to pitch when they have no intention of doing so. In games played under the Baseball_rules#Rules, Official Ba ...
calls, Davidson was voted by players and managers as one of the worst umpires in MLB, placing fourth-worst in a ''
Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...
'' poll in 2011.Rosecrans, C. Trent, "MLB suspends umpire Bob Davidson and Phillies' Charlie Manuel", www.cbssports.com, Friday, May 18, 2012.
/ref>


Resignation

Davidson resigned from the NL staff in 1999 as part of a failed mass resignation during labor negotiations. Instead of furthering negotiations, the resignations backfired when baseball officials accepted the resignations and replaced the umpires with people who did not belong to the union. Reflecting on the resignations several years later, Davidson criticized the move orchestrated by umpire union executive Richie Phillips, saying, "I went from being cocky, to just being plain dumb, to realizing I'm lucky I have a job. What we did in 1999 was just asinine. We were victims of our own success. Phillips had always beaten baseball, but baseball had enough. They called our bluff. It was a huge wake-up call." During the baseball off-season and during his late 1990s hiatus from baseball, Davidson was a part-time talk show host for 850 KOA in Denver, the radio broadcast partner of the Colorado Rockies. Davidson said that he was not very good on talk radio, leading the station to dismiss him. He also umpired baseball at the collegiate level during the period after his resignation from the major leagues. In 2000, MLB officials negotiated with the dismissed umpires, agreeing to give Davidson and nine others their jobs back. However, the agreement was contingent upon Richie Phillips dropping his lawsuit against the league, and Phillips did not agree to do that. A December 2001 district court ruling upheld the terminations of Davidson and several other umpires.


Return to umpiring

Davidson was out of
professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Moder ...
until 2003, when he resumed umpiring in the minor leagues. His first minor-league assignment was in the Class A
Northwest League The Northwest League is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Northwestern United States and Western Canada. A Class A Short Season league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Baseba ...
. Davidson, who was making $160,000 per year in the major leagues, earned $1800 per month during the league's three-month season and he traveled by car between the league's baseball parks in the northwestern U.S and Canada. An article in the ''
Seattle Post-Intelligencer The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. Th ...
'' estimated that Davidson might work his way back to the major leagues by 2008. In December 2004, he and fellow resignees Tom Hallion and Ed Hickox were guaranteed three of the next five positions on the MLB umpire staff, with Davidson reportedly guaranteed the first vacancy. Davidson returned in 2007 to umpiring MLB games after Joe Brinkman retired. Brinkman said that he was glad to find that his spot went to Davidson, because he considered Davidson a friend. Number 31 was worn by umpire Mike Reilly in the
American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is the younger of two sports leagues, leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western L ...
(AL), and it was assigned to Reilly when the AL and NL merged their umpiring staffs in 2000, so when Davidson returned to MLB, he was assigned 61 as his new number. For the 2011 season, he wore number 6, later changing back to 61.


Criticism and suspension

Davidson was sometimes sharply criticized for his on-field performance, especially for the manner in which he handled confrontations. He was ranked the fourth-worst umpire in the major leagues in a 2011 poll of MLB players. That year,
Aaron Gleeman Aaron Gleeman is an American writer primarily covering the Minnesota Twins for ''The Athletic'' and is the former Editor-in-Chief at Baseball Prospectus. He co-hosts Gleeman and the Geek, a Twins Baseball podcast. He was the co-founder and main op ...
of
NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...
wrote that Davidson was "one of the worst and definitely the most confrontational umpire in baseball." On May 15, 2012, during a game in Philadelphia, Davidson and Phillies' catcher Brian Schneider bumped into each other during a play involving a strike three wild pitch. Jason Castro, batting for Houston at the time, was able to safely make it to first base on the play. Davidson yelled into the Philadelphia dugout "You think I wanted to block his ass? What the hell are you yelling about?" These expletives were clearly audible on television broadcasts of the game. During the argument, Philadelphia manager
Charlie Manuel Charles Fuqua Manuel Jr. (born January 4, 1944) is an American former professional baseball player, coach, and manager. During his playing career, he appeared over parts of six Major League Baseball seasons for the Minnesota Twins and Los Angel ...
was ejected by Davidson. Three days later, MLB suspended Davidson from umpiring one game because of "repeated violations of the Office of the Commissioner's standards for situation handling". According to MLB, the suspension resulted from a "culmination of several incidents" as well as Davidson's conduct during the argument with Manuel. Manuel was also suspended for one game.


Other notable calls

* On August 23, 1989, Davidson ejected
Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos () were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in the National League (baseball), National League ...
mascot Youppi! from a game against the
Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...
following repeated complaints from Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda. * On October 20, 1992, Davidson missed Kelly Gruber's tag on
Deion Sanders Deion Luwynn Sanders Sr. (born August 9, 1967) is an American American football, football coach with the Colorado Buffaloes football, Colorado Buffaloes. Sanders is also a former professional football and baseball player, having played in the N ...
during Game 3 of the 1992 World Series, costing the
Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Since 1989, the team has p ...
a World Series
Triple Play In baseball or softball, a triple play (denoted as TP in baseball statistics) is the act of making three out (baseball), outs during the same play. There have only been 739 triple plays in Major League Baseball (MLB) since 1876, an average of ju ...
. * On September 21, 1998, Davidson controversially ruled that a ball hit by St. Louis Cardinals slugger
Mark McGwire Mark David McGwire (born October 1, 1963), nicknamed "Big Mac", is an American former professional baseball first baseman who played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1986 to 2001 for the Oakland Athletics and the St. Louis Card ...
in
Milwaukee County Stadium Milwaukee County Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Opened in 1953 Milwaukee Braves season, 1953, it was primarily a baseball park for Major League Baseball's Milwaukee Braves and later the Milwaukee Brewers. It was also ...
was a
ground rule double A ground rule double is a baseball rule that awards two bases from the time of pitch to all baserunners including the batter (baseball), batter-runner, as a result of the ball leaving play after being hit fairly and leaving the field under a cond ...
instead of a home run. Davidson said that a fan reached over the outfield fence to catch the ball, interfering with a ball in play. The home run would have been the 66th of the season for McGwire, who had broken
Roger Maris Roger Eugene Maris (born Maras; September 10, 1934 – December 14, 1985) was an American professional baseball right fielder who played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He is best known for setting a new List of Major League Baseball p ...
's single-season home run record earlier that month. McGwire and Cardinals president Bill DeWitt said after watching replays that they thought it should have been ruled a home run, and DeWitt attempted to appeal the ruling to Major League Baseball. *On May 16, 2009, Davidson ejected Anaheim Angels pitcher John Lackey after just two pitches after the latter threw behind Texas Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler, then hit him with the next pitch. It was Lackey's first start of the season after spending the first month on the disabled list. This came after Kinsler hit two home runs against the Angels the previous night. * On August 5, 2010,
Gaby Sánchez Gabriel Sánchez (born September 2, 1983) is an American former professional baseball first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Florida/Miami Marlins and Pittsburgh Pirates, and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the ...
of the
Florida Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. The team plays its home games at LoanDepot Park. The ...
hit a hard ground ball down the third base line which was ruled foul by Davidson. However, subsequent replays showed that the ball landed just in fair territory, bounced over the base and landed again in fair territory, sparking outrage from the Marlins dugout. The
Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...
went on to win the game in ten innings by a score of 5–4. Davidson later stated, "In my opinion, where it goes over the bag, you can't tell. ... I'm very confident I got it right. What the ball did when it went past me is irrelevant." * On September 7, 2010, Davidson ejected three people during a game between the
St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...
and the
Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. The Brewers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Di ...
. In the bottom of the 3rd inning, Davidson ejected Cardinals' pitching coach Dave Duncan for arguing balls and strikes from the dugout. Later, during the bottom of the 5th inning, Davidson ejected Brewers batter Chris Dickerson after Dickerson threw his helmet and bat to the ground after taking a called third strike. The final ejection occurred during the bottom of the 7th inning when Davidson ejected a fan for heckling Cardinals catcher
Yadier Molina Yadier Benjamín Molina (; born July 13, 1982) is a Puerto Rican professional baseball Manager (baseball), manager and former catcher who is the manager of the Águilas Cibaeñas of the Dominican Professional Baseball League. He played his entir ...
.


Personal life

Davidson is married to Denise and has two daughters, Amber and Andrea, and two grandchildren, Alana and Brock. He resides in Colorado. In 2010, Davidson was elected into the University of Minnesota Duluth Athletic Hall of Fame.


Retirement

Davidson announced his retirement at the end of the 2016 MLB season.


See also

*
List of Major League Baseball umpires (disambiguation) Lists of Major League Baseball umpires include: * List of Major League Baseball umpires (A–F) * List of Major League Baseball umpires (G–M) * List of Major League Baseball umpires (N–Z) See also * List of Major League Baseball umpiring ...


References


External links


MLB.com bio


{{DEFAULTSORT:Davidson, Bob 1952 births Living people Major League Baseball umpires National League umpires University of Minnesota Duluth alumni Sportspeople from Chicago