The Major League Baseball umpires’ union is refusing to cooperate with MLB commissioner Bud Selig’s request for background checks, calling the initiative a “knee-jerk, misguided witch hunt” in response to the NBA betting scandal involving referee Tim Donaghy.

While, perhaps there’s a slim chance of finding a history of serious crime, is it not likely, or even feasible that background checks may uncover information that may help weed out possible candidates that would, if unchecked, further damage the reputation of the game?

The umpires are willing to consider submitting to background checks, but only if MLB comes to the bargaining table and negotiates the provisions in “good faith,” said Lamell McMorris, a spokesman for the World Umpires Association.

“We are committed to fulfilling our obligation to maintain the integrity of the game, but Major League Baseball also has a responsibility to do what’s in the best interest of the sport and its fans — and that is to not engage in knee-jerk, misguided witch hunts against the umpires without fair negotiations,”
“The league hasn’t investigated the umpires in the past thirty years for good reason — our guys are of the highest ethical standing.”
Major League Baseball spokesman Rich Levin said that baseball routinely monitors the activities of umpires and other personnel to make certain they’re not engaged in any type of inappropriate conduct.

“The checks we have are consistent with the labor agreement we have with the union,” Levin said. “To call this a witch hunt in context with us trying to ensure the game’s integrity is entirely misguided.”

Levin said some background checks require consent of the individuals involved.
“We made it clear that without their consent, we would not go ahead with those particular checks,” Levin said.

Umpire and referee conduct has become a hot-topic since the news that Donaghy, an NBA referee, is being investigated by the FBI for allegedly betting on games and providing inside information to gambling associates. Donaghy, 40, resigned July 9. NBA Commissioner David Stern later expressed the belief that Donaghy was acting alone.

While baseball has yet to encounter an umpires’ scandal to compare with the one involving Donaghy, former commissioner Fay Vincent placed umpires Frank Pulli and Rich Garcia on probation for two years in 1989 for placing wagers with bookies on sporting events.

The story didn’t become public knowledge until a New York Daily News report in 2002. After retiring as an umpire, Pulli went on to take a job as an umpiring supervisor with MLB, and Garcia now holds that same position.

Washington attorney John Dowd, the man in charge of investigating Pulli and Garcia, recently told the Daily News that the two umpires should be viewed in a different light from Donaghy and Pete Rose because there was no evidence they wagered on their own sport. The umpires also willingly came forward about their actions.

“We know they told the truth because we knew the story before we asked the questions,” Dowd said. “We did a very thorough investigation. The punishment fit the crime.”