Review of “The Umpire Is Out”

It is only fitting that on this last day of Pride Month that I share my review of an excellent memoir by Dale Scott, a very successful and openly gay major league umpire.  

 Title/Author: “The Umpire is Out: Calling the Game and Living My True Self” by Dale Scott with Rob Neyer

Rating: 

5 of 5 stars (very good)

Review: 

Dale Scott worked as a MLB umpire between 1986 and 2017 when a concussion suffered in an early season game made him decide to retire. In 2014, he publicly announced that he was gay, becoming the first openly gay umpire in MLB. This memoir written with Rob Neyer tells Scott’s story of not only his umpiring career but also how he dealt with the need to hide his sexuality from becoming public. 

Given the title, I expected the bulk of the book to be mostly about his private life, but there is more about his life as an umpire than his personal life. That doesn’t mean the book was a disappointment - indeed, I felt that both topics were very interesting and no matter what part of his life Scott was sharing, I found the stories and the writing to be great. 

Scott didn’t set out to have a career in umpiring right away - he had a good gig at a radio station and was an official for basketball and football games as well as a baseball umpire. He decided to enroll in an umpire school and when he did well enough to be offered a minor league job, he took it. His description of life at the school and in the minor leagues is not unlike many of those stories of minor league players but there are unique elements of being an umpire versus being a player.

His stories, and there are many, of games, arguments and ejections during his time in the majors are excellent. As a Twins fan, my favorite story is one he shared about a time Tom Kelly, then manager of the Twins, was actually telling him he made a great call but was making it look like an argument to the fans. He devoted an entire chapter to “TK” and said he was one of the best managers when it came to temperament with umpires. Of course there are plenty of stories that were true arguments, including a great one with Billy Martin.

The reader will learn a lot about the life of an umpire and also some of the issues with their union and MLB. A particularly interesting piece in this area was the mass resignation plan by then-union head Richie Phillips in 1999. The actions taken and the fallout from that scheme read like a drama novel and Scott’s part in it made for very interesting reading.

Like the players, an umpire will spend a lot of time away from home. This took Scott away from his long time partner and now husband Mike. How the two of them met was one of my favorite passages where Scott talks about his personal life. It wasn’t so much of a “love at first sight” story that drew me in, but when describing that first encounter, Scott explained how the gay men community would signal that they are interested in a guy. I felt that was important for readers who are heterosexual to know so they get a better understanding of the LGBTQ+ community lives. 

It is important to note that when Scott realized his sexuality he was completely comfortable in who he was. He had concerns, like many LGBTQ+ individuals, about how he should hide this and when he could tell others. His stories about coming out to his family, to friends who may not have known and even fellow umpires were mostly positive. Some people thought so and this was a confirmation. Probably the most telling was when he came out to his father via a letter instead of a conversation or phone call. Reading about this was quite emotional and having his father eventually come to accept and love his son (after saying he needed time to process this, which Dale understood) was a very powerful passage.

This was a book that I started and finished in one sitting, something I rarely do. It is a terrific memoir of not only the life of a successful umpire but also one of the many hurdles a gay person may face until they, as the book’s subtitle says, can live their true self. 

I wish to thank the author and University of Nebraska Press for providing a review copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own. 

Link:https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496230447/