Ronald Blum, an AP Baseball writer released a hilarious article about Major League Baseball sending investigators to umpires’ hometowns, asking neighbors personal questions that include whether the umpire has smoked marijuana or if the umpire belongs to the Ku Klux Klan. The article contains some interesting details regarding Major League Baseball stepping up background checks last August, after it was released to the general public that the FBI was investigating NBA referee Tim Donaghy for betting on games. Here’s a few choice quotes from the article:

“The questions that we found out are being asked are about beating wives, marijuana use and extravagant parties,” World Umpires Association president John Hirschbeck said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “And then finally with this whole thing about the Ku Klux Klan. “You get someone from security, shows his credentials and starts asking these kind of questions, and right away what’s the neighbor going to think other than the umpire is in trouble, he’s done something wrong and he’s going to lose his job.”

Hirschbeck and union spokesman Lamell McMorris said Tom Christopher, the Milwaukee-based supervisor of security and investigations in the commissioner’s office, had asked questions about Klan membership to neighbors of umpires Greg Gibson and Sam Holbrook, who reside in Kentucky. In addition, Hirschbeck said similar questions had been asked to neighbors of umpire Ron Kulpa, who lives in suburban St. Louis.

I’m not really sure how or why Major League Baseball has drawn a line at asking if umpires belong to the KKK. The once influential hate organization has very little impact on American culture these days and it’s totally irrelevant to an umpires performance on the bal field. This is just another black eye for Major League Baseball and commissioner Bud Selig who’s unpopularity amongst baseball fans continues to grow every day. In my opinion, this is a wonderful way to start the 2008 baseball season. Last year the big hullabaloo was The Mitchell Report and steroid use amongst MLB baseball players, this year it’s the KKK.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 4:17 am and is filed under MLB Umpires. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.