Ron Luciano

Ronald Michael Luciano (June 28, 1937 – January 18, 1995) was an American Major League Baseball umpire from 1969 to 1979 in the American League. He was known for his flamboyant style, clever aphorisms, and a series of published collections of anecdotes from his colorful career.

Early life
Luciano was born in Endicott, in southern upstate New York near the Pennsylvania border, and lived his entire life there. The 6-foot-4, 260-pound Luciano was a standout two-way tackle at Syracuse University, where he majored in mathematics. He played in the 1957 Cotton Bowl and was named to the 1958 All-America Team. In 1959 he played on the Orangemen's national championship squad with future Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis. The Detroit Lions selected him as an offensive tackle in the third round of the 1959 NFL Draft, but he suffered a serious shoulder injury in the College All-Star Game and never played a down for the Lions. They released him after the 1960 season. The AFL Buffalo Bills picked him up in 1961, but a knee injury forced his retirement after only two games.

Umpiring career
Luciano began umpiring in the Class A Florida State League in 1964. He was promoted to the Double-A Eastern League in 1965 and the Triple-A International League in 1967. In 1969 he became an MLB umpire in the American League and remained so until his retirement just before the 1980 regular season.

As an umpire he was known for his flamboyant calls, particularly his habit of "shooting out" players. "My personal record is 16 shots," he wrote. "Bill Haller counted them." One night Luciano gave an "out" sign at home plate by pumping his right hand a dozen times. "I was so carried away that I never saw the ball rolling to the backstop," he later said. "Fortunately, someone pointed to the loose ball and I changed my call." In addition to making theatrical events of routine outs, he was considered an "individualist" who played fast and loose with the league's rules of conduct. For example, rather than working from behind second base as mandated by the American League, he would frequently stand between the pitcher and the base, National League-style. He would routinely converse with players during between-inning breaks and even during play, a practice strictly forbidden by the league. In 1973 during spring training, he switched positions with Buddy Bell, playing a portion of an inning at third base while Bell umpired. (Both were reprimanded by the league.) For all his antics, however, his skills were respected by the players. In a 1974 Major League Baseball Players Association poll, Luciano was one of only two American League umpires rated "excellent."

Luciano was also known for a long-running feud with Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver, whose career closely paralleled Luciano's. The two men first met in Double-A during a four-game series in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1965; Weaver was managing the Elmira Pioneers. Luciano ejected Weaver from all four games, with the last ejection coming during the pre-game lineup exchange. After an argument with Luciano in a 1967 Triple-A game, Weaver literally stole second base, taking it to his dugout and refusing to give it back. In the majors, Luciano once ejected Weaver from both games of a doubleheader; the second ejection came, once again, before any pitches had been thrown. He ejected Weaver so often that Orioles players reportedly placed bets on the inning in which their skipper would be removed. The friction became so intense that for an entire year, Luciano was transferred whenever his crew was scheduled to work an Orioles series. In the third inning of Luciano's first game in Baltimore a year later, he ejected Weaver, who in turn publicly questioned Luciano's "integrity" and received a three-game suspension. Eventually, each admitted a grudging respect for the other: Weaver said Luciano was "one of the few umpires people have paid their way into the park to see." Of Weaver, Luciano wrote, "It's impossible for me not to admire him, but it's pretty hard for me to like him."

Luciano was a member of the 1974 World Series umpire crew, but did not work the plate; the Oakland Athletics closed out the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games. Other extra-season duties included the 1971, 1975, and 1978 American League Championship Series and the 1973 All-Star Game. He was the home plate umpire for Nolan Ryan's second no-hitter in Detroit on July 15, 1973. He served two full terms as president of the Association of Major League Umpires, and was one of its principal leaders and spokesmen during the 1979 umpire strike.

Personal life
Luciano married Polly Dixon, an airline flight attendant from Chicago, in 1974. During the baseball season they saw very little of each other, and during the off-season they could not agree on where to live: she did not want to move to upstate New York, and he did not want to live in Chicago. They had no children and divorced after less than two years. Luciano was an enthusiastic amateur ornithologist and an avid reader. "I don't understand Shakespeare's sonnets at all, but I follow his tragedies," he said. "I like the mean characters, people like Macbeth's wife. Hey, you've got to be a masochist to be an umpire, right?"

Retirement
After his retirement in 1980, Luciano spent two seasons partnered with Merle Harmon as a color commentator on NBC's Game of the Week; but he became best known as the author of five books—The Umpire Strikes Back, Strike Two, The Fall of the Roman Umpire, Remembrance of Swings Past and Baseball Lite—compilations of humorous anecdotes and reminiscences from his umpiring days. He also became a popular speaker on the banquet circuit.

Death
In January 1995 Luciano was found dead at age 57 in his garage at his home in Endicott, a victim of suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning. He reportedly suffered from depression for many years, and he was hospitalized for its treatment in early 1994. He was buried at the Calvary Cemetery in Johnson City, New York.

Quotes

 * "Any umpire who claims he has never missed a play is . . . well, an umpire." (from The Umpire Strikes Back)
 * "When I started, the game was played by nine tough competitors on grass, in graceful ball parks. But while I was trying to answer the daily quiz Quiz-O-Gram on the exploding scoreboard, a revolution was taking place around me. By the time I finished, there were ten men on each side, the game was played indoors on plastic, and I had to spend half my time watching out for a man dressed in a chicken suit who kept trying to kiss me."
 * "I never called a balk in my life. I didn't understand the rule."
 * "The problem with Earl [Weaver] is that he holds a grudge. Other managers, if they disagree with a call, may holler and shout, but you can still go out for a beer with them after the game. Not Earl. He never forgets. Heck, he even holds your minor league record against you. Once, a couple of years ago, I made a controversial call at the plate. Earl charged out of the dugout, screaming that that was the same call I'd blown at Elmira in '66. That sort of thing can get to you." (from Phil Pepe and Zander Hollander's The Book of Sports Lists 3 (1981), p. 45, following his list of the five toughest managers he had to deal with. Weaver was the first four; No. 5 was Frank Robinson, of whom Luciano said, "He's Earl's protege")
 * "Any umpire who lasts five years in the minor leagues deserves to be immortalized. Any umpire who lasts ten or more years in the minors deserves to be institutionalized."
 *  “The umpires have kept this game honest for 100 years. We’re the only segment of the game that has never been touched by scandal. We gotta be too dumb to cheat. We must have integrity, because we sure don’t have a normal family life. We certainly aren’t properly paid. We have no health care, no job security, no tenure. Our pension plan is a joke. We take more abuse than any living group of humans, and can’t give back any. If we’re fired without notice, our only recourse is to appeal to the league president. And he’s the guy that fires you. That’s gotta be unconstitutional.”