C A R D I N A L S M A G A Z I N E34 C A R D I N A L S M A G A Z I N E35

It’s one of the most protected bunkers in Busch Stadium, or any big-league ballpark, with ushers standing guard in the hallways approaching the

room’s entrance, and uniformed police officers acting as escorts once its occupants emerge to take the field.

Sharp-eyed passersby who happen to get close enough to read the sign posted on the nondescript, brown metal door will learn that visitors are not allowed – before, during or after a game.

It’s not a visiting head of state, Albert Pujols and Co., or a despised division rival whose privacy is so carefully protected in this off-limits lounge under the home-plate field boxes at Busch. Rather, the space serves as a quiet, secure “green room” for the four men who hope to remain nearly as anonymous on the field as they are behind the guarded door – the major

league umpires.Just like the home and visiting teams

enjoy their own sanctuary under the stands, so do the men in blue, who call no ballpark home but enjoy a room of their own in every stadium they visit. But unlike the players’ locker rooms – where major league regulations permit team officials and members of the media to come and go at will during prescribed times before and after every game – admission to the umpires’ room comes only by invitation from the umps themselves.

After receiving a rare invite from one of the game’s most cordial crews – the four-man team of Dale Scott, Jerry Meals, Mark Wegner and Dan Iassogna – Cardinals Magazine took a backstage look at the very private space afforded men who practice a very public profession.

Well-equippedThe umpires’ “room” at Busch Stadium

is actually three rooms, forming something of a mini-clubhouse. The outer door opens to a sparsely furnished, 16-by-22-foot space akin to a living room in a college-dorm suite; a doorway on the far side of that room leads to the umpires’ locker area, which resembles a smaller version of the dressing room in the players’ clubhouses. A shower area adjoins the locker room.

When an umpiring crew works the first game of a series at Busch – crews are assigned to work one series, in one city, then move on to their next assignment – they travel to St. Louis either a day ahead of time or the morning of their first game at Busch, depending on whether their previous assignment ended with a day or night game.

Once they report to Busch for the series opener – usually about 90 minutes before

To get an insider’s clue on the men in blue, Cardinals Magazine secured a backstage

pass into the very private ballpark quarters of major league umpires

By LARRY STATE

The Inner sancTum

Left: There’s no cause for debate as (clockwise from left) Mark Wegner, Dale Scott, Dan Iassogna and Jerry Meals carry on a casual round-table discussion in the front room of the umpires’ clubhouse at Busch Stadium. Above: As Ed Rapuano thumbs out the photographer, crew mates CB Bucknor (seated) and Joe West don’t question his call amid a glimpse inside the umpires’ locker area before a 2008 game at Busch.

C A R D I N A L S M A G A Z I N E36

the first pitch – the umpires find everything they’ll need unpacked and in place. Their equipment is clean, their uniforms are laundered and their lockers have been arranged with fastidious care.

“When we get here, everything is laid out for us,” said Iassogna. “Everything has been unpacked. Our uniforms are hanging up, our equipment is laid out. It’s all in order.”

At Busch, that advance work is the responsibility of home clubhouse assistant Mark Walsh, the umpires’ St. Louis connection in a system standardized across the majors.

Away from home for weeks at a time, each umpire travels with a tightly packed footlocker trunk, equipped with all the necessary equipment he’ll need over the course of the season. At the end of each series, the crew’s trunks are packed by the home team’s clubhouse staff and sent by courier to the airport, to be shipped to their next destination.

Walsh, working his 21st season with the Cardinals and his sixth tending to the umpires’ needs, relies on a comprehensive schedule from the commissioner’s office, supplemented with daily research, to get every detail just right.

“Before the season I receive a confidential master schedule of where every umpiring crew is (there are 17 four-man crews), at all times,” Walsh said. “I’ll look in the newspaper and check the box score from their last game before they get here, to figure out which guys are at which positions – they rotate every game, so the ump who worked the plate one game will be at third base the next, and so forth.

“That affects how I set up their lockers. For instance, I’ll know which chest protector to leave in (a particular) umpire’s trunk for a three-game series, since I’ll know which crew member won’t be working the plate. And each umpire has two different

Unauthorized visitors are not permitted in umpires’

dressing rooms. Only the umpires, officials of the Office

of the Commissioner, and the clubhouse attendant

assigned to the umpires’ room are permitted in these

rooms before, during or after a game.

Club personnel are prohibited from entering the dressing

room unless invited by the crew chief. Any attempts to

violate this rule should be reported to the umpiring

department by the crew chief, who is responsible for

enforcing this rule.

NO VISITORSUMPIRE DRESSING ROOM REGULATIONS

With mementos inside his trunk offering a link to home, umpire Ed Hickox performs one of the rituals of the road as part of his pregame routine.