Op-Ed Contributor
By FAY VINCENT
Published: July 9, 2007
Williamstown, Mass.

DURING Major League Baseball's All-Star Game tomorrow night, a rotund, grandfatherly man with a cherubic face, a ready grin and a sturdy, no-nonsense view of his responsibilities will umpire the game at home plate. There, he will properly be honored for breaking the record for the most years of service as a major league umpire. Bruce Froemming, now in his 37th year in the Show, has dusted off home plates, called them as he sees them, and dismissed the gripes of unhappy managers and players since long before all but a few of this generation of baseball All-Stars were born. But his remarkable achievement has, sadly, gone largely unnoticed.

That seems to be the lot of officials in all our sports. To some sportscasters and fans, the umps seem like the bases: necessary but not worthy of mention. Don't think the umps fail to notice that attitude. That's why Major League Baseball and other sports leagues need to institute an award for the best performance during the season by an official. A Most Valuable Official award, if you will. Such recognition for these essential and generally ignored participants in our sports is long overdue.

My father was a devoted sports official who spent time as a National Football League referee and who, well into his 70s, officiated at high school and college football and baseball games. If four children on a corner ever needed a ref or an ump for a game, he was always ready.

When I was child, my father once came home after a game with his head down, obviously unhappy with his work that day. When he told me he felt bad because he had "missed one," I knew that he had disappointed himself as well as the players who had counted on his infallibility. I also remember how appalled I was when I went to a football game with my father and some of the crowd yelled abuse at him as if he were some kind of ugly statue they could insult without restraint or any sense of civility.

When I watch baseball games on television, I notice how rarely the umpires are even introduced. I hear sharply edged criticism of missed calls and very little comment on the enormously high percentage of calls that turn out to have been properly made. In my time in baseball, I was regularly reminded how seriously officials take their work and how disappointed they are when things go badly. Imagine how you would feel if your mistakes were captured by cameras and routinely mocked by well-respected commentators.

In sports these days there are awards for virtually everything. But no major sport takes the time or care to pat officials on the back, to recognize the fine ones who do their jobs well and with the devotion we fans have come to expect. It's true that there have been mistakes and behavioral excesses by officials. We all know the umps don't get them all right. Some officials have become unduly confrontational and more conscious of the television cameras than they used to be. If we want to encourage the best behavior among officials, we should spell out the reasons we respect and admire those who do their jobs well.

I would hope such awards would over time come to be cherished by the recipients and acknowledged by the public. In baseball, the award might be named after the late Bart Giamatti, who as commissioner demonstrated great affection for "my umpires," as he called them.

Football officials, basketball refs, and baseball umpires are the keepers of order and civility. They know the rules and enforce them. Without them there can be no game because the rules define the contest and permit there to be a winner. So long as they do their jobs well, we may not even notice them. But we know how vital they are, and we would be sending them our thanks with this recognition of the best of them.

Fay Vincent was the commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1989 to 1992.