- Tom Gorman (umpire)
Thomas David Gorman (
March 16 1919 –August 11 1986 ) was an American left-handedpitcher and umpire inMajor League Baseball who pitched five innings in four games for the New York Giants in 1939, and went on to serve as aNational League umpire from 1951 to 1976 and then as a league supervisor. His son Brian has been a major league umpire since 1993.Gorman was born in
New York City and grew up in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. After pitching in the minor leagues for three years, he served in the Army in Europe as a member of the 16th Infantry duringWorld War II .cite news |first=Brad |last=Willson |title=Gorman, Umpire of the Year, Starting 25th Season in N.L. |work=The Sporting News |page=39 |date=1975-03-15 ] An injury in 1946 ended his playing career; faced with the choice of returning to New York City and becoming aplumber , he became aware of an umpiring position in theNew England League , and although he felt he was not cut out to be an umpire, his wife persuaded him to take the position for the 1947 season for $180 per month. He later moved up to theInternational League in 1949.cite news |title=Obituaries |work=The Sporting News |page=41 |date=1986-08-25 ] He also coached baseball at Rice High School in Manhattan, a Christian Brothers school.After joining the NL staff, he umpired in the
World Series in 1956 (outfield only), 1958, 1963, 1968 and 1974, serving as crew chief in the last two Series. His most famous World Series contest came in Game 1 of the 1968 Series, when he called balls and strikes asBob Gibson of theSt. Louis Cardinals struck out a Series-record 17Detroit Tigers .He also officiated in the
National League Championship Series in 1971 and 1975, serving as crew chief in 1971, and in the three-game playoff to determine the NL champion in 1959. He also worked in the All-Star Game in 1954, 1958, 1960 (both games) and 1969, calling balls and strikes for the second half of the second 1960 game. During a game in the 1962 season, he discovered that the Giants (by now in San Francisco) were having their groundskeepers water down theCandlestick Park infield to slow down theLos Angeles Dodgers 'Maury Wills ; Gorman stopped the game for an hour and a half to allow the field to dry out.Among the notable games in which he umpired were nine
no-hitter s, tying a record for NL umpires shared byFrank Secory andAugie Donatelli ; he tied the mark onJuly 9 ,1976 , working second base inLarry Dierker 's 6-0 win. [cite book |last=Coberly |first=Rich |title=The No-Hit Hall of Fame: No-Hitters of the 20th Century |year=1985 |publisher=Triple Play |location=Newport Beach, CA |isbn=0-934289-00-X |pages=p. 173]Paul Pryor , who also officiated in that game, tied the mark himself later that year, and broke it upon working in his 10th no-hitter in 1978. Gorman was the home plate umpire for two no-hitters –Warren Spahn 's first onSeptember 16 ,1960 , [Coberly, p. 115.] andBill Stoneman 's first onApril 17 ,1969 . [Coberly, p. 144.] He was the left field umpire forDon Larsen 'sperfect game in the 1956 World Series. [Coberly, p. 107.] He was the home plate umpire onJune 15 ,1952 when theSt. Louis Cardinals set an NL record by overcoming an 11-0 deficit to beat the Giants 14-12, [cite book|last=Dittmar|first=Joseph J.|title=Baseball's Benchmark Boxscores|year=1990|publisher=McFarland & Co.|location=Jefferson, NC|isbn= 0-89950-488-4|pages=pp. 95-97] and again two weeks later onJune 29 when theChicago Cubs scored seven runs with two out in the ninth inning to beat theCincinnati Reds 9-8. [Dittmar, pp. 97-99.] Two years later, onAugust 8 ,1954 , he was again the home plate umpire when the Reds gave up a record 12 runs (all of them unearned) after there were two out and no one base in the eighth inning of a 20-7 loss to the Brooklyn Dodgers; the inning ended only whenGil Hodges ' bid for a grand slam was caught high off the center field wall. [Dittmar, pp. 109-112.] And onMay 2 ,1956 , he was again behind the plate as the Giants and Cubs used 48 players in a 6-5, 17-inning New York victory; CubDon Hoak struck out a record six times against six different pitchers. [Dittmar, pp. 114-116.]In 1975 he was honored by the Al Somers Umpire School as the Outstanding Umpire of 1974. In his acceptance remarks, he said of umpiring, "It's a hard road but a good road. Sometimes you'll ask yourself if it's worth it. If you've got the guts and the skills, the answer is bound to be yes." He added, "People may come to see ballplayers, but there'd be no baseball without good umpires."
"Mad" magazine ran an article presenting hypothetical magazines from other planets. In the interplanetary version of "
Sports Illustrated ", umpire Tom Gorman explains why he threw out a player fromVenus : "He opened up ten mouths to me!" ["Space Magazines." "MAD" Super Special Summer 1983. p. 73.]Gorman married Margaret Fay on
October 7 1944 , and they had three sons and a daughter before her death c. 1968 ; they resided inWhitestone, Queens until c. 1965, when they moved toCloster, New Jersey . His autobiography "Three and Two!", co-written withJerome Holtzman , was published in 1979. [ISBN 0684161699.] Gorman died of a heart attack in Closter at age 67, and was buried inGeorge Washington Memorial Park in Paramus.References
External links
*baseball-reference|id=g/gormato01
* [http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/G/Pgormt101.htm Retrosheet]
* [http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=Tom_Gorman_1916 BaseballLibrary]
* [http://www.baseball-almanac.com/umpires/umpireswhowereplayers.shtml Umpires who were players] - Baseball-Almanac.com
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