Stephen Harold Fields (January 1, 1941 – October 29, 2009) was a

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

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 nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

who worked in the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

from to , wearing uniform number 27 during his career. Fields umpired 373 Major League games.Retrosheet
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Early life and career

Fields worked railroad and postal jobs as well as working as an oil driver in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. ...

. At the same time he was also working on the side as a high school umpire, before pursuing officiating as a professional. Fields worked 14 years in the minor leagues and was brought up to the National League (along with Dave Pallone,

Lanny Harris Lanny Dean Harris (February 21, 1940 – June 16, 1991) was a Major League Baseball umpire who worked in the National League from to , wearing uniform number 29 during his career. Harris umpired 851 Major League games. MLB career Harris was prom ...

, and

Fred Brocklander Frederick ("Fred") Brocklander (March 5, 1940 – August 13, 2009) was a Major League Baseball (MLB) umpire in the National League (NL) from to . A native of Baltimore, Maryland, he umpired in the minor leagues for ten years. He was promoted to th ...

) during the 1979 Major League Baseball Umpires Strike as a replacement. As such, he was not permitted to join the

Major League Umpires Association The Major League Umpires Association was a union for the umpires of both the American League and the National League. It was formed in 1970. It was superseded by the World Umpires Association (now the Major League Baseball Umpires Associati ...

. When the strike was settled, Fields and the others were allowed to remain on the staff as long as their performance was satisfactory. After the

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major off ...

season, Fields was fired for "low performance ratings" and "failure to show improvement", the first of the four replacements to leave (Harris was fired in 1985, Pallone technically resigned in 1988, and Brocklander retired in 1992). Fields filed a $1 million lawsuit against MLB because of his firing and claiming that his performance suffered due to the "ostracism and antagonism" from other umpires due to his "scab" status.Ex-Umpire's problems
/ref> After he left baseball, he worked as a high school umpire and as a truck driver.

Death

Fields died on October 29, 2009, at the age of 68.

References

1941 births 2009 deaths Major League Baseball umpires Sportspeople from Virginia {{US-baseball-umpire-stub