Steve Fields

Stephen Harold Fields

• Height 6' 1", Weight 235 lb.

• Born January 1, 1941 in Alexandria, VA USA
• Died October 29, 2009 in Alexandria, VA USA

Biographical Information

Steve Fields was a National League Umpire from 1979 to 1981. He was working for the railroads in northern Virginia in the 1960s and umpiring a few amateur games on the side in Alexandria, VA, when he was noticed by Washington Senators players Ed Brinkman and Bill Skowron, who encouraged him to make a career of umpiring. He worked for 10 seasons in the minor leagues, earning the pitiful pay which was the umpires' lot in those days, until he stood at the brink of the Major Leagues at the end of the 1978 season. He began work in the Western Carolinas League in 1969, then moved to the Carolina League in 1970, the Southern League in 1971 and the International League from 1972 to 1978. He was then at the highest rank of minor league umpires, but still only making $8000 a year.

In 1979, Baseball's umpires went on strike at the beginning of the season in order to improve what were terrible working conditions at the time. Major League Baseball turned around and used amateur umpires to work the games during the strike, but also offered two-year contracts at $18,000 a year to the 12 highest ranked umpires in the minors if they would work during the strike. Steve Fields was one of the eight who accepted the offer and he moved up to the National League; those who turned it down never worked in Major League Baseball. For Fields and his strike-breaking colleagues, however, life became hellish after the strike was settled. They were kept on and integrated into regular umpiring crews, but their colleagues treated them as scabs and refused to help them out on the field or even to talk to them. They would have them stay at different hotels and travel on different flights. After the 1981 season, Major League Baseball fired a number of them, including Fields, nominally for under-performance but in fact in order to appease the umpires' union. Fields found himself on the street, with no marketable skills and no pension.

Further Reading

• Thomas Boswell: "Lives of Noisy Desperation", in Why Time Begins on Opening Day, Penguin Books, New York, NY, 1984, pp. 105-116.

Related Sites

• Steve Fields on Retrosheet.org
• Sporting News umpire card