If an umpire could steal the show in a Major League game, Al Clark might well have been the one to do it. Tough but fair, in his thirty years as a professional umpire he took on some of baseball's great umpire baiters, such as Earl Weaver, Billy Martin, and Dick Williams, while ejecting any number of the game's eliteonce tearing a hamstring in the process. He was the first Jewish umpire in American League history, and probably the first to eject his own father from the officials' dressing room. But whatever Clark was doingofficiating at Nolan Ryan's three hundredth win, Cal Ripken's record breaker, or the earthquake World Series of 1989, or braving a labor dispute, an anti-Semitic tirade by a Cy Young Award winner, or a legal imbroglioit makes for a good story.
Called Out but Safe is Clark's outspoken and often hilarious account of his life in baseball from umpire school through the highlights to the inglorious end of his stellar career. Not just a
Trade Review“Clark, having called well over 3,000 MLB games, offers a perspective that is engaging as well as steeped in personal experience. It will be of interest to any baseball fan.”—Brian Renvall,
Library Journal “Enjoy some great baseball stories from a man who once had a front-row seat in our great game.”—Chris Wheeler, Phillies broadcaster
“Al Clark never threw me out of a game, but Billy Martin wasn’t so fortunate. I not only witnessed his confrontations with Al but enjoyed remembering them in this book.”—Ron Blomberg, first designated hitter
“Everything about Called Out But Safe is personal, and thank goodness for it.”—Don Laible, Utica Observer-Dispatch
“Books from umpires are infrequent and refreshing. . . . It is baseball’s timeless field of vision that offers the vantage where Clark made a living for more than twenty-five years. From a reader’s perspective it’s a point of view worth sharing.”—
The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
Table of ContentsForeword
PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. The Family Clark2. Getting Started3. The Art of Umpiring4. Dressing the Part5. My Office6. Names and Games7. Wives, Women, and Song8. The Yiddishe Umpire9. Billy, Earl, and a Few Dicks10. Bucky F. Dent11. Labor Pains12. Quaking in My Boots13. A Texas Connection14. Lights Out in Baltimore15. The Iron Man16. Credit Denied17. Jailhouse Rock18. Lasting ImpressionsEpilogue
Appendix
