Baseball Umpires hire same hondler as NBA refs---NY Times

"Asked about (Lamell) McMorris’s work during the Donaghy scandal, the (NBA) referee said, “If we didn’t have strong representation, there’s no telling what kind of constraints we’d be under now.”

• While the World Umpires Association had been considering hiring McMorris and his firm for months, it made its choice soon after the Donaghy news broke in July and it became clear that what happened in the N.B.A. was going to have an impact on Major League Baseball.

“He understands officials,” said Jerry Lane, a veteran umpire who served on his union’s search committee. “He and the Perennial group understand what we go through.""

(I'm so relieved. sm)

• "McMorris’s first meeting with baseball officials about deeper background checks did not go smoothly. When McMorris asked M.L.B. to add a seventh umpire to the crews of postseason games in return for the heightened scrutiny on umpires, Rob Manfred, baseball’s executive vice president for labor relations, ended the meeting angrily, although McMorris and Manfred have since spoken and met in person to discuss the issue.

As he defends his clients’ interests, McMorris will continue to draw upon a Rolodex featuring more preachers and civil rights leaders than athletes.

“I’ve been surrounded by people all my life who understood the duality of theology and public policy,” McMorris said."

• From NY Times article by Alan Schwarz, "Minister is Going to Bat for the Guys Who Call the Games," 8/22/07

***As in many areas of our culture today, this situation is the result of a total void of leadership fueled by greed and laziness. Concurrent with passivity confused with tolerance.*** (sm)

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