Every year the bottom-rated five would have to go back to the minors and work on their game. I think there's some very good umpires and nice people who're being misdirected. I'm not a labor scholar, but I fail to see their logic. Robin Yount, also inducted Sunday, said, ''I'm bothered any time you have the potential of the game being disrupted. Nobody wants to see this happen, especially late in the year when the games become so important.
Commissioners tend to like umpires because they're commissioners on the field.
No matter how I look at it, I can't make an argument for what the umpires are doing. I was tempted to ask Richie Phillips, but decided against it. It's hurting some very good umpires who have remaining careers in front of them. They're being loyalists and are going to have their resignations accepted. You just have to wait and see what's going to happen.