Dan Morrison

Daniel Guthrie Morrison Jr.

• Height 6' 0", Weight 212 lb.
• School Western Kentucky University
• High School College High School (Bowling Green)

• Born January 21, 1948 in Glasgow, KY USA
• Died July 24, 2023

Biographical Information

Dan Morrison was an umpire in the American League from 1979 to 1999 and on the major league staff in 2000 and 2001. He was first added to the AL staff after the 1979 umpires' strike, when veteran Lou DiMuro was injured and a job opened up. Because he had refused to work as a replacement umpire during the strike, Morrison was never ostracized by his colleagues, as the eight umpires who had reached the big leagues by accepting jobs during the strike, such as Derryl Cousins and John Shulock, were. Morrison served as a fill-in umpire for his first four seasons, before becoming a full-time umpire in 1983. In the season opener on April 5th, he got into a heated argument with New York Yankees manager Billy Martin that led to Martin being imposed a $5000 fine.

Morris was injured for most of the 1998 season, only working a week in early June and a two-week stretch in August. He umpired his last game on June 15, 2001. A number of sources indicate that he suffered an on-field injury that forced him to step down.

Morrison was one of the umpires who refused to go along with the disastrously unsuccessful mass resignation strategy cooked up by Richie Phillips, Head of the Major League Umpires Association, in 1999. The strategy led to the decertification of the union and its replacement by the World Umpires Association, and to many of the resigning umpires unwittingly losing their jobs.

He worked 2,660 games. He most notably worked right field in the 1988 All-Star Game and worked the 1992 World Series. He also worked three Division Series and three League Championship Series.

Primary Source: Wikipedia entry

Related Sites

• Dan Morrison on Retrosheet.org
• Sporting News umpire card