Dale Scott

Dale Allan Scott (born August 14, 1959) is an umpire in Major League Baseball. He worked in the American League from 1986 to 1999, and has officiated in both leagues since 2000, becoming a crew chief in 2001. He wore uniform number 39 his first two years and number 5 ever since.

Umpiring career

Scott began umpiring at age 15 and entered the minor leagues in 1981, eventually working his way up to the American Association. He umpired in the World Series in 1998, 2001 and 2004, in the All-Star Game in 1993, 2001, and 2011, calling balls and strikes. He has also worked in six League Championship Series (1996, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2009, 2013) and in twelve Division Series (1995, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2015).

When the AL introduced red shirts in 1996, Scott frequently was the only umpire to wear the color, rather than the usual navy blue. He almost always wore the red shirt when working home plate, including Game 3 of the 1998 World Series at Qualcomm Stadium.

Controversies

On May 30, 1988, Scott ejected New York Yankees manager Billy Martin from a game against the Oakland Athletics. Martin was suspended for three games for throwing dirt at Scott during the argument.^[1]

On April 15, 2012, Scott was behind the plate for a game between the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers. With two men on and no one out, Jesús Guzmán of the Padres attempted to lay down a bunt but the pitch was thrown right at him. Diving back to avoid the pitch, the ball hit the end of the bat and landed in front of home plate. Temporarily losing sight of the ball, Scott started to put his hands up ruling the ball dead but never verbally killed it. Dodger catcher A.J. Ellis, who was in front of Scott so he never saw the hands start to come up or hear the umpire yell foul, picked up the ball and threw it to third for the force out. The ball was then thrown to second, and finally to first to complete a triple play. Padres manager Bud Black was ejected by Scott after he argued that Guzman was hit by the pitch, thus making all following actions by the Dodgers irrelevant because the ball would have been dead.^[2]

Notable games

On July 1, 1990, Scott was the home plate umpire as Andy Hawkins of the New York Yankees pitched eight hitless innings in a road game against the Chicago White Sox, yet lost; it was only the second game in history in which a pitcher lost a complete game no-hitter.

Scott was the first base umpire when Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander threw a no-hitter at Comerica Park against the Milwaukee Brewers on June 12, 2007.^[3] Five days prior to Verlander's no-hitter, Scott was also at first base in a game between the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland Athletics in which Boston pitcher Curt Schilling had a no-hitter until Shannon Stewart broke up the no-hitter with a single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning.^[4]

Scott worked his 3,000th career, regular season MLB game in St. Louis on his 50th birthday, August 14, 2009.

He was the third base umpire for Verlander's second no-hitter, thrown on May 7, 2011 against the Toronto Blue Jays.^[5]

Scott was the third base umpire when six Seattle Mariners pitchers combined to no-hit the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 8, 2012.^[6]

He was the second-most tenured umpire selected to officiate the 2014 Opening Series at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney, Australia.^[7]

Personal life

Scott worked as a radio personality at KBDF, a Top 40 station in Eugene, Oregon, in the late 1970s. He is an avid Oregon Ducks football fan and often attends games at Autzen Stadium when given the opportunity. Scott came out as gay in 2014, thus becoming the first openly gay umpire in MLB, and is married to his partner of 29 years, Michael Rausch.^[8] In 2015, he was inducted into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame.^[9] Scott was also inducted to the Sheldon High School Hall of Honor, Eugene, Oregon in April 2015.^[10]

See also

• List of LGBT sportspeople
• List of Major League Baseball umpires

References

External links

• Major league profile
• Retrosheet