The Umpire Is Out: Calling the Game and Living My True Self

Dale Scott’s career as a professional baseball umpire spanned nearly forty years, including thirty-three in the Major Leagues, from 1985 to 2017. He worked exactly a thousand games behind the plate, calling balls and strikes at the pinnacle of his profession, interacting with dozens of other top-flight umpires, colorful managers, and hundreds of players. Scott has enough stories about his career on the field to fill a dozen books, but what makes Scott’s book truly different is his unique perspective as the only umpire in the history of professional baseball to come out as gay during his career, after decades of maintaining a public facade of straightness. He navigated this obstacle course at a time when his MLB career was just taking off-and when North America was consumed by the AIDS epidemic.

Scott’s story isn’t only about leading a double life, then opening himself up to the world and discovering a new generosity of spirit. It’s also a baseball story, filled with insights and memorable anecdotes that come so naturally from someone who spent decades among the world’s greatest baseball players, managers, and games. Scott’s story is fascinating both for his umpiring career and for his being a pioneer for LGBTQ people within baseball and across sports.
 

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations
Foreword by Billy Bean
1. Nutcutters, Polebenders, and Shithouses
2. Eugene
3. Playing the Game
4. “You Were Terrible!”
5. “He’s That Blind SOB”
6. Only in the Dominican
7. Getting the Call
8. When Sparky Quit Chewing
9. “Mike, Your Mom Is Blasting Me”
10. Sophomore Slump
11. For the Last Time
12. “I Can Put Two and Two Together”
13. TK
14. Hardly the First
15. “What Do You Mean, Colorful?”
16. Nolan and George
17. Hello Again, Boss
18. Jeffrey Who?
19. A Long Way from Bradenton
20. “What Flavor Was the Kool-Aid?”
21. W.
22. Like a Human Blood Clot
23. “Hell Has Frozen Over”
24. “Hey, Lou, You Missed a Spot”
25. “I Am the Walrus”
26. Postseason from Hell
27. Get the Hell Out of the Way
28. From Frank’s Friendly to Jimmy Fallon
29. Flip
30. “I Can’t Believe This Is Happening Again”
31. No Complaints, No Regrets
Acknowledgments
Appendix
Index

About the Author :
Dale Scott’s career as a Major League umpire included three World Series, three All-Star Games, six League Championship Series, twelve Division Series, and more than ninety postseason games. He lives in Palm Springs, California, with Michael, his husband, and their yellow Lab, Wylie. Rob Neyer serves as commissioner of the West Coast League and has written or cowritten seven books, including Power Ball: Anatomy of a Modern Baseball Game. Billy Bean (1964–2024) was vice president and special assistant to the commissioner of Major League Baseball.
 

Review :
"A rollicking new memoir. . . . Scott is cheery yet candid about the indignities of umpiring."-John Swansburg, New York Times "The Umpire Is Out offers so many inside stories on great names in baseball history. Scott is honest in how he explains each encounter. He's a man you can't help but to root for in his coming years as a private (baseball) citizen. Scott truly is one of the better ambassadors of the game."-Don Laible, Bradenton Times "[The Umpire Is Out] is highly recommended as a biographical memoir of umpiring and the game itself over the past forty years, and also as a . . . candid portrait of gay life in American sports over the same era. It is generous, humorous, enjoyable, and is a great source for learning about both subjects-"The Wedge," as it were, of Scott's professional and personal life."-Tim Wiles, NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture “Dale Scott was both consistent and approachable, perhaps the two most important qualities for an umpire. Dale’s personal story is inspirational, but his book also features vivid game stories from a truly great run at the top of his profession.”-David Cone “Dale’s personal story differs dramatically from those of his umpiring colleagues. And yet, what also shines through is what he and so many of us have in common: an abiding love of baseball and an appreciation for what the game has meant to our lives. This is a textured story, both entertaining and meaningful. And told with uncommon grace.”-Bob Costas “As the late, great Ernie Harwell once said to me about Dale, ‘A great umpire is like a great driver in traffic: you never notice they’re there.’ That was Dale Scott. He had a great, consistent strike zone, and I don’t recall him ever missing a call on the bases. But as good an umpire as Dale was, he’s also one of my all-time favorite people.”-Harold Reynolds “Dale Scott umpired for more than thirty years in the big leagues. He’s seen it all, and most of the best parts seem to have wound up in these pages. But heck, I’d buy the book just for the chapter on the JosÉ Bautista Bat Flip Game!”-Dan Shulman “For more than ten years, Dale Scott made me laugh every day. As a mentor, he taught me how to not only survive but excel in the Major Leagues, and I am forever grateful for his friendship and leadership. This memoir delivers the humor, excitement, and knowledge that only a true insider can provide. Make the right call and read this book!”-Dan Iassogna