Al Forman

Allen Sanford Forman

• Height 5' 11½", Weight 190 lb.
• School Fairleigh Dickinson University
• High School Morristown (NJ) High School

• Born July 7, 1928 in Morristown, NJ USA
• Died November 23, 2013 in Norfolk, VA USA

Biographical Information

Al Forman was a National League umpire for five years, then served as a strike replacement umpire over a decade later.

A New Jersey native, Forman served in the U.S. Navy from 1950 to 1954. After his discharge, he attended the Al Somers umpiring school in Florida and became an umpire. He worked in the Florida State League, the Northwest League, and the Texas League. He joined the NL in 1961. The following year, he worked the second All-Star Game at Wrigley Field. He remained working in the National League through 1965, when he was dismissed by National League President Warren Giles - these were the days before the creation of the Major League Umpires Association, when officials could simply lose their jobs without proper cause.

He then worked as a sales representative for Seagram Distillers later and umpired NCAA games, including several College World Series, and officiated a handful of American League games in 1978 and 1979 during strikes by the regular umpires. He later moved to Kitty Hawk, NC, where he operated a limousine company with his wife, retiring in 1997. Even then, his love of baseball unabated, he continued to umpire high school and youth baseball games. He was still a resident of the Outer Banks of North Carolina when he passed away at 85 in 2013, but he had been removed to a hospital in nearby Norfolk, VA.

Related Sites

• Al Forman at Retrosheet.org
• Sporting News umpire card
• Obituary