They're accused of lacking eyesight.
Managers kick dirt on their plates.
They're booed when they show up for work. But a couple of major league baseball umpires proved last week that a big heart can go with thick skin. National League umpires Mark Hirschbeck and Wally Bell, who were in town to arbitrate the Giants-A's weekend series, spent a couple of hours Friday visiting some 20 youngsters at the Lucile Packard Children's Health Services at UCSF, and not a single kid threw them out the room. The two men in blue were warm, caring and full of good cheer, but don't tell that to any ball player. Hirschbeck and Bell told baseball stories, joked with kids, passed out T-shirts, posed for pictures, and exploded the stereotype of the umpire as an anonymous grouch.