Robert Allen Engel (October 11, 1933 – March 5, 2018) was an American
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 ...
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 ...
who worked in 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 ...
from 1965 to 1990. Engel wore uniform number 5 for most of his career.
A former president of the umpires union, Engel retired after being arrested for the theft of more than 4,000 baseball cards from a
Target
Target may refer to:
Warfare and shooting
* Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports
** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports
** Aiming point, in field artille ...
store in California, for which he pleaded no contest.
Early life
As a young man in
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield is a city in and the county seat of Kern County, California, United States. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, which is located in the Central Valley region.
Bakersfield's population as of th ...
, Engel worked as a hotel bellhop. Baseball umpires who stayed at the hotel caught his attention; he noticed that they stayed out late at night and did not have to wake up until the early afternoon. After serving in the military, Engel worked for an oil tool company. After seeing ads in ''
The Sporting News
''The Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a ...
'' for the George Barr Umpire School, Engel decided to attend. He was hired into professional baseball and worked ten years in the minor leagues before receiving his promotion to the major leagues.
Career
Engel was an umpire in the
1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...
,
1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...
, and
1985 World Series
The 1985 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1985 season. The 82nd edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Kansas City Royals and the Nat ...
. He worked four
Major League Baseball All-Star Game
The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual professional baseball game sanctioned by Major League Baseball (MLB) and contested between the all-stars from the American League (AL) and National ...
s, and six
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 his career, Engel umpired 3,630 major-league games.
Interviewed for a 1987 piece in ''
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 ...
'', Engel expressed annoyance at fellow umpires with a flair for the dramatic, saying that "the players don't care how much gyration you put on. All they care about is getting them right. And I'll guarantee you, the players always want to know who's umpiring, because no two umpires have the same strike zone."
[
He was the president of the ]Major League Umpires Association
The Major League Umpires Association (MLUA) was a union for the umpires of both the American League and the National League. It was formed in 1970. It was decertified and replaced by the World Umpires Association (now the Major League Baseball U ...
, the union for major-league umpires, at the time of the 1978 umpire strike.
/ref>
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
Umpire Card
1933 births
2018 deaths
Major League Baseball umpires
National League umpires
Baseball people from California
People from Atascadero, California
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