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.
Umpires are the nomads of major league baseball.
He recruited many of his fellow umps into the program, which now has the backing of the Major League Office. On Friday, Hirschbeck and Bell arrived in SF after a series in Milwaukee, and were headed the following week to LA and Philadelphia. At UCSF, they were met with all smiles. They offered to deliver a thank-you letter from a nurse to Giants manager Dusty Baker. Shelly Matsumoto, the child life services coordinator who handled the visit, cautions celebrity visitors about promising something to a child and risking disappointment if they can't deliver.