Center Field on Fire: An Umpire's Life with Pine tar Bats, Spitballs, and Corked Personalities [Hardcover]

Dave Phillips (Author), Rob Rains (Author), Bob Costas (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2004

Former MLB umpire Dave Phillips was at the center of some of baseball's most unforgettable moments - Comiskey's infamous Disco Demolition Night, Gaylord Perry's spitball ejection, Albert Belle's confiscated corked bat and George Brett's pine tar bat debacle - and he shares with baseball fans the untold stories behind those incidents and many others, giving baseball fans a complete perspective on the life of an umpire.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Phillips was a professional baseball umpire for 32 years, many of them spent in the major leagues. "I admit that sounds like a pretty good job description," he writes. "But there is much more involved in being an umpire than fans understand or appreciate." Over the years, Phillips was a diplomat, a detective, a mediator, a hero, and a villain. He threw Gaylord Perry, the notorious pitcher, out of a game, when none of his colleagues had ever managed to get the proof they needed that Perry was throwing spitballs. He had a corked bat stolen from his locker in an operation so ingenious it could have leapt off the pages of a Hollywood script. He was on duty when the Chicago White Sox held their disastrous "Disco Demolition Night" promotion, and mobs set the outfield on fire. He went face-to-face with some of baseball's most famous names but managed to earn the respect of the game's players and managers. His memoir, written with coauthor Rains, is chock-full of the kind of behind-the-scenes details that fans crave. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Inside Flap

Whether you consider it a blessing or a curse, Dave Phillips was major league baseball’s version of Forrest Gump throughout his remarkable 32-year umpiring career. Few people, if any, have been involved in as many historic, controversial, and just plain peculiar incidents on a baseball diamond. Among the more notable games Phillips worked was the infamous Disco Demolition Night in Chicago in 1979. He emerged from the umpires’ dressing room expecting to start the second game of a doubleheader, only to find that thousands of fans had converged on the field and portions of the outfield were in flames due to a radio station–sponsored promotion gone bad. Phillips was also in uniform during 1994’s "Batgate" (which also took place at Chicago’s Comiskey Park), during which he confiscated Albert Belle’s suspect bat and subsequently became the victim of one of baseball’s most notorious crimes.

Phillips had legendary run-ins with the likes of Earl Weaver and Billy Martin—the most memorable of which came in the George Brett Pine Tar Game in 1983—and he was the first umpire to catch famed spitballer Gaylord Perry in the act. In Center Field on Fire, Phillips recounts these and dozens of other amazing stories from his unique perspective. His tales are not only wildly entertaining and humorous, but also provide an insider’s glimpse into some of baseball’s most prominent and controversial personalities over the last half century. Phillips reveals telling anecdotes about Pete Rose, Reggie Jackson, Sparky Anderson, Bud Selig, and many more of the game’s heavy hitters, and he offers informed opinions about important issues in baseball today, such as labor relations and drug use.

One of the most talented and respected professionals in the business during his long tenure, Phillips accurately portrays the life of an umpire. Following in his father’s footsteps, he toiled in the minor leagues for several years before getting his shot in the majors. Once there, he learned how to live with the constant travel, stress, conflict, and never ending ire from fans, players, coaches, and managers.

Center Field on Fire provides a candid and humorous look inside the fascinating life of a true major leaguer.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Triumph Books (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572435690
• ISBN-13: 978-1572435698
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #952,611 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 30 years of an umpires' perspective on MLB, June 18, 2004

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Center Field on Fire: An Umpire's Life with Pine tar Bats, Spitballs, and Corked Personalities (Hardcover)

Many books have been written on sports, some by the players, some by those who watch and some by the people whose job it is to write about them. However, the people who officiate the games have the most unique perspective on the game, how it is played and how it is managed, in the sense of the on-field manager up to the level of the executive. Dave Phillips was an umpire in the major leagues for 32 years and has witnessed many changes in the game.
Two points really stand out in the book. The first is how the umpires get along between themselves, which in many cases, is not very well at all. The stories about members of a crew hating each other so much that they refuse to even speak to each other or making bad calls and blaming others for it were disturbing. The idea that the umpires often do not work well together is a disturbing one, for even-handed officiating is the one thing that no sport can lack.
The second is that baseball really has some serious problems that must be corrected. As Phillips notes, there has been a serious drug problem in baseball for over a decade, with an adverse affect on many careers. The focus has now shifted from cocaine to steroids, but there still appears to be no stomach for tackling the issue. Which is silly, because allowing the players to continue using drugs damages their careers and ultimately their health.
Phillips recounts many of the most memorable events in the last three decades, from Gaylord Perry finally being kicked out of a game for using grease on a ball to George Brett being called out on a home run because there was too much pine tar on his bat. All are presented from the perspective of the umpire, which is an interesting one.
The most disturbing point in the book is when Phillips discusses George Steinbrenner and an incident where Steinbrenner was asking for "special consideration" from the umpires. I found the description disgusting, I have never been a fan of Steinbrenner, but now I loathe him, a position all who care about the game should have.
At the end of the book, Phillips goes over what he considers the fundamental problems baseball now has, from high ticket prices, to the lack of a commissioner tasked with "acting in the best interests of baseball." Clearly, the powerful owners seem unable to learn from other sports. Basketball and football have salary caps with revenue sharing and the popularity of both has soared in the last two decades. In this time, baseball has entered into a state where two players on the Yankees earn more than all the players on some of the other teams. In this environment, some teams simply cannot be competitive, and that destroys a sport.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A big disappointment, April 22, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Center Field on Fire: An Umpire's Life with Pine tar Bats, Spitballs, and Corked Personalities (Hardcover)

Poorly written. Can't believe he can remember all the details of games he worked over 30 years ago. Co-author has done similar books, and all are about the same caliber.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not the most interesting book, September 9, 2007

By 

Jim J. Carroll - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Center Field on Fire: An Umpire's Life with Pine tar Bats, Spitballs, and Corked Personalities (Hardcover)

I struggled throught this book. I would recommend almost any other book by any other umpire over this one.If I had not have read Ron Luciano's book beforehand I would have been lost a couple times in the stories Mr. Phillips attempted to tell.Really nothing in here but whining.Save your time and read "You're out and yer ugly too".It is much more entertaining.