MBL Umpires angry over background checks
“You get someone from security, shows his credentials and starts asking these kind of questions, and right away what’s the neighbor going to think other than the umpire is in trouble, he’s done something wrong and he’s going to lose his job.”
Hirschbeck and union spokesman Lamell McMorris said Tom Christopher, the Milwaukee-based supervisor of security and investigations in the commissioner’s office, had asked questions about Klan membership to neighbors of umpires Greg Gibson and Sam Holbrook, who reside in Kentucky. In addition, Hirschbeck said similar questions had been asked to neighbors of umpire Ron Kulpa, who lives in suburban St. Louis.
Baseball stepped up background checks last August, after it became public that the FBI was investigating NBA referee Tim Donaghy for betting on games. Donaghy pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiracy to engage in wire fraud and transmitting betting information through interstate commerce, and he awaits sentencing.
MLB asked umpires to sign authorizations allowing the sport to conduct financial backgrounds checks, but umps balked.
“We did not anticipate that they would approach neighbors posing as a close colleague and friend of the umpire’s and asking them questions such as: Do you know if umpire `X’ is a member of the Ku Klux Klan? Does he grow marijuana plants? Does he beat his wife? Have you seen the police at his home? Does he throw wild parties?” McMorris said by telephone from India.
“To try to link our umpires to the Ku Klux Klan is highly offensive. It is essentially defaming the umpires in their communities by conducting a very strange and poorly executed investigation. It resembles kind of secret police in some kind of despotic nation.”
Contacted Wednesday, Christopher referred questions to Rob Manfred, baseball’s executive vice president for labor relations. Manfred did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.
“The claims of inappropriate questions by individuals conducting background checks was brought to our attention and looked into,” Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB’s executive vice president of operations, said in a statement. “It was determined that these claims were inaccurate. Questioning was conducted with a written script consistent with common practice, and there was no inappropriate conduct on behalf of the investigators.”
Alison Rohan, who lives across the street from Kulpa in Maryland Heights, Mo., said Christopher knocked on her door two or three weeks ago and gave her his card.
“He explained they were going to be talking to neighbors and friends because of the problems with the basketball league and that Ron knew about it,” she said. “He listed about 10 different questions, the first one being did Ron live out of his means? For example, does he drive a Rolls-Royce?”
Rohan said she told Christopher that Kulpa lived in a manner similar to that of his neighbors.
“He asked if Ron belonged to any groups or organizations,” she said.
“Groups?” she remembered replying.
“You know, like the KKK,” she said Christopher told her.
“We both laughed and I said no,” Rohan said. “He belongs to a neighborhood Harley-riding group of dads.”
Hirschbeck, who lives in Poland, Ohio, said that shortly before Christmas, he encountered Christopher on a street in his own neighborhood. Hirschbeck said MLB was taking what the WUA considers to be a typical heavy-handed approach to umpires and that it would be brought up in negotiations for the next labor contract. The current deal expires after the 2009 season.
“Once again, baseball’s favorite way of doing things: Ready, fire, aim,” Hirschbeck said. “It’s not a good way to start the season.”
Aren’t we getting a little paranoid?
Items in Hijack Plot not banned
Transportation Security Administration spokesman Sterling Payne wouldn’t comment on how authorities became suspicious of the teenager, but the agency expressed concern about the items he was allowed to carry on board.
“This case highlights the importance of integrating law enforcement and security,” the TSA said in a statement. “None of the items in his possession were prohibited.”
The FBI first reported when the arrest was made public Thursday that the boy was also carrying rope, but the TSA described it Friday as yarn.
The FBI also had said Thursday that a search of his California home revealed a “mock cockpit.” Nashville prosecutor Jon Seaborg said what was found in the home was “a photograph of the inside of a small aircraft, something you’d find in a bookstore.”
The FBI also had described the boy as suicidal, but federal officials and prosecutors would not comment on that claim Friday.
Nashville-area prosecutors and court officials said the teen pleaded guilty Friday to a “delinquent act,” but they refused to provide other details. A juvenile court judge ordered the boy sent back to California for disposition of that charge and other charges pending against him.
The boy’s name has not been released because of his age.
Federal prosecutors were still deciding whether federal counts were warranted.
A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the teen’s juvenile status, said the boy was from Novato, Calif., a suburb of San Francisco, but could not elaborate.
Charles Slepian, an airline security consultant with the Foreseeable Risk Analysis Center in New York, said security screeners could have held the suspect if they felt if he or the contents of his baggage were suspicious.
“If they had some reason to believe he’s a threat, he shouldn’t be on the plane in the first place,” Slepian said.
Slepian said whether or not the items were prohibited, the combination of them “should rise to the level of additional inquiry.”
Because of security advancements after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the teenager likely could not have taken control of the plane anyway, Slepian said.
“I don’t know how he could hijack the airplane with handcuffs, rope and duct tape,” Slepian said. “There is no way. Even if he had a gun, he can’t get into the cockpit. I don’t look at this a major threat.”
The FBI dismissed television reports Thursday night citing unnamed police sources who told them that the teen was planning to crash the plane into a “Hannah Montana” concert in Lafayette, La. That concert is scheduled for Friday night.
Where the hell are the parents in all of this? AND I think we should be allowed to print the names of these juvenile delinquents along with their mug shot. Anonimity be damned.
