Lou DiMuro

Louis John DiMuro (April 24 1931 - June 7 1982) was an American umpire in Major League Baseball who worked in the American League from 1963 until his death.

Career

DiMuro was born in Brooklyn, New York, and attended Henry Snyder High School in Jersey City, New Jersey, where he played football, ["American League Red Book" (1975), p. 78.] and then Jersey City Junior College. He served in the Air Force in West Germany, but a broken finger while in the service ended his baseball playing career, and he turned to umpiring, graduating from the Al Somers School and working in the Kitty League (1955), Northern League (1956), Eastern League (1957) and International League (1958-62). ["The American League Red Book" (1963), p. 50.] He joined the AL staff and immediately worked a full schedule as a rookie in 1963. He was selected to work the World Series in 1969 and 1976, the All-Star Game in 1965, 1967, 1972 and 1981, and the American League Championship Series in 1971, 1975, and 1978, serving as crew chief in 1978.

1969 World Series

In Game 5 of the 1969 World Series, the New York Mets held a 3 games to 1 lead over the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles, and were looking to close the series at home in front of a raucous crowd at Shea Stadium. The Orioles, behind the pitching of ace Dave McNally, led 3-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning when a pitch from McNally was low and inside to Mets leadoff hitter Cleon Jones. DiMuro, the home plate umpire, called the pitch a ball, but New York manager Gil Hodges appealed the ruling, believing the pitch hit Jones.

Hodges showed the ball to DiMuro, and pointed out a speck of black shoe polish to DiMuro. DiMuro accepted Hodges' explanation, and awarded Jones first base. Baltimore manager Earl Weaver, who had been ejected from Game 4 by umpire Shag Crawford for arguing balls and strikes, immediately came out and vehemently protested DiMuro's decision, to no avail. Donn Clendenon followed Jones by launching a two-run home run into the Baltimore bullpen in left field, pulling the Mets to within 3-2.

The Mets tied the game in the seventh on a leadoff home run by light-hitting shortstop Al Weis, and scored two runs in the eighth with the help of two Baltimore errors. Jones caught a fly ball from Davey Johnson for the game's final out and a 5-3 New York victory, setting off a wild celebration. Notably, DiMuro had been behind the plate barely two months earlier on August 13, 1969 when the Orioles' Jim Palmer pitched an 8-0 no-hitter against the Oakland Athletics. [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. 148 ]

Death

Later in his career, DiMuro was bothered by an ailing hip, but refused to retire. Following a June 6 1982 game between the Chicago White Sox and Texas Rangers at Arlington Stadium, DiMuro went out for dinner with Seattle Mariners manager Darrell Johnson, whose team had flown into the Metroplex following a road game earlier in the day against the Detroit Tigers. DiMuro attempted to walk back to his hotel following dinner at about 11 pm, but he was struck by a car as he attempted to cross a busy street, and died about two hours later at Arlington Memorial Hospital of massive head injuries which resulted from striking his head on the car's windshield; no charges were filed against the driver. According to fellow umpire Durwood Merrill, who was on DiMuro's crew at the time of his death, the attending doctors said there was nothing that could have been done to save DiMuro's life

DiMuro resided in Floral Park, New York before moving to Westfield, New York prior to the 1968 season; he moved to Tucson, Arizona before the 1976 season, and was buried in Tucson's East Lawn Cemetery.

Rocky Roe was named to the American League staff as DiMuro's full-time replacement, where he joined Larry Barnett, Mike Reilly, and Merrill. At the time of his death, DiMuro was one of only four umpires still using the outside chest proector, which had been favored for many decades by AL umpires long after National League arbiters switched to the inside protector, introduced by Baseball Hall of Fame umpire Bill Klem in the dead-ball era. Of the other outside protector holdovers, Bill Haller retired after working the 1982 World Series, while George Maloney, Russ Goetz, and Jerry Neudecker followed suit; Maloney and Goetz in 1983 and Neudecker in 1985.

His five children included twin sons Mike and Ray, who also went on to umpire in the major leagues; Mike has been a major league umpire since 1999, and Ray worked occasionally as a substitute umpire in the AL from 1996 to 1999.

References

External links

* [http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/D/Pdimul901.htm Retrosheet]
* [http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=Lou_DiMuro BaseballLibrary]
* [http://www.thedeadballera.com/Obits/Dimuro.Lou.Obit.html "New York Times" obituary]