Umpire issue boils over

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This article was published 03/08/2010 (5771 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Baseball Manitoba has banned 2008 Summer Olympics umpire Ron Shewchuk from calling Manitoba Senior Baseball League games for the remainder of the season, but refused to publicly state why one of the province’s most senior umpires was pulled from duty.

Sources requesting anonymity told the Brandon Sun that three other umpires resigned from the MSBL on Sunday after hearing of Shewchuk’s fate. A fourth umpire began to refuse league assignments two weeks ago to protest the trigger of this three-week-long battle — the MSBL’s handling of a suspension levied against Brandon Marlins catcher Devin Taylor for an alleged threat directed at an umpire during a July 11 game in Neepawa.

League president Barry Wowk said he had no idea Shewchuk was about to be removed from league duty until a Sunday mediation meeting requested by Baseball Manitoba president Ken Sharpe to settle the differences between the league, its umpires and players.

"That was (Sharpe’s) call, and not my call," Wowk said. "He would have to tell you why. He didn’t disclose everything he has, and I’m sure he wouldn’t want to. He didn’t come out specifically at the meeting and say why and we had no clue until we walked into the meeting. We were just told his assignments would be taken away."

Baseball Manitoba has joint jurisdiction with the MSBL on some disciplinary matters since the league’s playoffs are also provincial playdowns.

In a Sunday interview, Sharpe was given multiple opportunities by the Sun to discuss the ruling, but declined to directly address the reasons for decision.

"I can’t comment on that, it was a closed-door meeting," Sharpe said. "The MSBL is Manitoba’s top league and it’s our most sought-after league and it should be, by players and umpires alike. With the last little while, where we’ve had playoff games not get completed and games that were delayed, I felt that we needed to sit down and discuss it and we did that."

Shewchuk, who was one of two umpires to delay the start of an MSBL game by 40 minutes to protest Taylor’s suspension and other umpire grievances with the league, also declined comment on the matter, though sources say he remains eligible to work Northern League games and national championship assignments.

Sharpe called for the mediation session after the Neepawa Farmers were forced to forfeit Game 1 of the best-of-five semifinal series to the Reston Rockets on July 27 at Reston. The Farmers could not finish the game after two players and manager Garth White were ejected in the third inning.

"There were things happening in the MSBL … the playoffs were not progressing as I’d like," Sharpe said. "We had a meeting to air a few things … and we decided we need to make the product on the field more appealing to the fans. Specifically, I had heard fans weren’t really happy and the fans are what drives the league."

Wowk was satisfied with the progress made at the meeting, which he said was the first step to resolving the problems affecting the league.

"Teams have been simply told to behave and the umpires will still conduct their same umpiring duties but will relax the rules regarding no-tolerance because it seems to be taking away from the game," Wowk said. "(Sharpe) said he’d like to see that and I think everyone’s in agreement with that."

Wowk was not aware of the umpire defections that followed Sunday’s meeting.

"I spoke to the umpire-in-chief (Bob Senff) as recently as (9 p.m. on Sunday) and he was not aware of anything like that, so that’s news to me," Wowk said. "It definitely concerns me. There aren’t a lot of umpires in this area."

Senff did not return calls seeking comment.

If the MSBL faces a shortage of local umpires for the remainder of its playoffs, officials from Winnipeg will be brought in to work the games, Wowk said.

 

» kborkowsky@brandonsun.com