The Biz of Baseball: Brown: MLB Investigation Asks if Umpire is Member of KKK

Ernie Roth was a ML umpire?

In August of last year, MLB announced that it was going to conduct credit checks for all umpires in the wake of the Tim Donaghy betting scandal in the NBA, much to their chagrin. The umpires are unionized under the World Umpires Association. In September, the Association of Minor League Umpires (AMLU) agreed to allow fully background checks.

Now, it appears that a situation in which MLB is looking to conduct investigations, and World Umpires Association have bumped into a messy situation. Today, the following press release was sent out by the WUA:

“...In the aftermath of last year’s insider-gambling scandal involving NBA referee Tim Donaghy, Commissioner Bud Selig and Major League Baseball commenced background investigations of its veteran umpires. One of the league’s security officials arrived in Northern Kentucky recently to interview the neighbors of several umpires. These neighbors were strangers to the MLB official and not necessarily close acquaintances of the umpires. Among the standard questions to the neighbors was this errant bombshell—do you know if the umpire is a member of the Ku Klux Klan?

Setting aside the First Amendment rights to freedom of association and freedom of speech, liberties so dearly defended by Dr. King, we must wonder why, some 50 years after Rosa Parks and the march on Selma, Alabama, we are still talking about organizations and symbols of hatred and discrimination that potentially divide us.”

Lamell McMorris, spokesman for the World Umpires Association said, “One has to ask, what does the KKK have to do with being a major league umpire?”...