Center Field on Fire: An Umpire's Life with Pine tar Bats, Spitballs, and Corked Personalities

by Dave Phillips, Rob Rains, Bob Costas (Foreword)

A fascinating personal account of the author's thirty-two-year career as a major league umpire offers an anecdotal history of some of the most outrageous antics and controversial personalities in baseball, both on and off the field.

Genres: Sports, Baseball, Biography

224 pages, Hardcover

First published March 31, 2003

Reviews

[mitchell p. kanefsky]

Good Read

As a fan who grew up in the times Davey Phillips was manning the bases, I can relate to many of the personalities - albeit from a more clinical perspective. This book flows very well, and found it interesting - though not surprising - to read his quick story about Steinbrenner (loyalty to him vs. loyalty to the game). Sounds sadly familiar. (Sorry for the political comment.)

Regardless, I highly recommend it!

[Scott]

Written by long-time Major League umpire Dave Phillips, this book is basically the professional memoirs of a guy who had a knack for working memorable games. He talks about being the only umpire ever to eject Gaylord Perry, working the famous "Disco Demolition Night" at Comiskey Park, working the make-up part of the George Brett "pine tar bat" game, etc.

You always have to cut these sports-memoir authors a bit of slack since they're not professional writers (although I'm sure they get plenty of help from editors and, in the case of bigger figures, ghost writers), but this one is fairly well-executed and easy to read. Short too, and this is usually a good thing with books of this type. Still, this is only for hardcore baseball fans.

[Dustin]

Eh. This wasn't what I was expecting. The stories that comprise the selling points of the book are the same ones inside the dust jacket. It's the same as when a movie gives the plot away in a preview. It's not as much about being an umpire as it is a few stories, anecdotes and op-eds. And everything jumps around a bunch. I was hoping for a more detailed description of the grind in the minors. I guess something more linear. It's not terrible. Just didn't scratch the itch I had. 'As They See 'em' is probably the best umpire book I've read so far.