{"id":126874,"date":"2017-08-11T10:10:21","date_gmt":"2017-08-11T15:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=126874"},"modified":"2017-08-11T10:10:21","modified_gmt":"2017-08-11T15:10:21","slug":"former-mlb-ump-ken-kaiser-passes-72","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=126874","title":{"rendered":"Former MLB ump, Ken Kaiser passes, 72"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — Former major league umpire Ken Kaiser, a colorful figure between the lines who briefly moonlighted as a professional wrestler to make ends meet while working in the minor leagues, has died. He was 72.<\/p>\n

The World Umpires Association said Thursday he died in his hometown of Rochester, New York, on Tuesday. Kaiser had diabetes for years.<\/p>\n

An American League umpire from 1977-99, Kaiser umpired two World Series, one All-Star Game and several playoff series.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-3 Kaiser, who wrote in his book, “Planet of the Umps: A Baseball Life from behind the Plate,” that when he graduated from high school in 1964 his “long-range plan was lunch.” He weighed just under 300 pounds and often was criticized for that portly physique during the more than 3,000 big-league games he umpired.<\/p>\n

Former Chicago White Sox announcer Jimmy Piersall once called him “a gutless, lazy whale,” while fellow former umpire and mentor Ron Luciano described him as “like a barrel on which two arms had been stuck on backwards.”<\/p>\n

In his book, published in 2003, Kaiser wrote of his decade in the minor leagues and off-season jobs that included bar bouncer, bank teller, and that short stint as the wrestler dubbed “Hatchet Man.”<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

In 1986, Kaiser was voted most colorful umpire in the American League in a poll conducted by The Sporting News.<\/p>\n

Kaiser’s umpiring career ended when he joined a group of umpires who submitted their resignations in 1999 during labor negotiations, a gamble by the Major League Umpires Association that failed. He was not rehired.<\/p>\n

He is survived by two adult children. Funeral plans are incomplete.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — Former major league umpire Ken Kaiser, a colorful figure between the lines who briefly moonlighted as a professional wrestler to make ends meet while working in the minor leagues, has died. He was 72. The World Umpires Association said Thursday he died in his hometown of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":126875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126876,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126874\/revisions\/126876"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/126875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}