Umpire Ron Luciano [2] Trivia Quiz

Answer: Michael

Ron Michael Luciano was born on June 28, 1937 in Endicott, New York. His father immigrated to America from San Giovanni in Italy around 1927. His mother was born in America. His parents owned a diner and lived over the bar.

Answer: True

Ron lived in a community that included 17,000 Italians. His best friends were Pete and Joe Barbara. Their father allegedly had Mafia connections. In 1957, Endicott had one of the biggest gangland busts in history. Ron was questioned by the FBI, but he had nothing useful to tell them.

Answer: Murwood

Evidently Ron felt that you had to be a bit crazy to become an umpire. He and "Murwood" umpired together for many years.

Answer: Yes

Ron taught at both Al Sommers and in the Umpires Development Program. Ron said that each teacher taught that aspect of the game at which he is best. Ron's expertise was big size. The other instructors told their students to do things exactly opposite of the way that Ron umpired. Actually, Ron was voted one of only two excellent umpires by the American League Association.

Answer: True

Ron learned that managers don't really know the rule book very well. Once during a game, he had a play at first base in which the first baseman had the ball in his glove and tried to touch the base with his right foot. He missed, but hit it with his left foot before the runner got there. Ron called the runner safe.

The defensive team's manager came out argue, but before he could open his mouth Ron shouted, "How can you yell at me when you know he touched the base with the wrong foot?" The manager considered that for a moment, then said, "You're right," and returned to his dugout. Ron said that managers usually learned only the rules that they had the most problems with.

Answer: George Maloney

Ron hated repetitive sounds like a faucet dripping (or Earl Weaver complaining about balls and strikes, according to Ron). So George Maloney hid a metronome in the duct. Ron searched every inch of his room, asked his partners if they heard the ticking, (which they claimed they didn't, since they were in on the joke), and finally asked for another room, which he couldn't get, as the hotel was full. Ron had to listen to that constant tick, tick, tick, for three days and nights before the batteries finally died. George would also offer chocolate to Ron on the field on the hottest days so that it would melt all over his hands. George would also get up early, take Ron's newspaper, glue some of the pages together, then put it back in front of Ron's hotel room door. Ron retaliated by sewing closed George's shirts, and tying knots in all of his equipment!

Answer: Billy Martin

Ron had almost as many arguments with Billy Martin as he did with Earl Weaver. Then one night in 1975, when Martin was managing the Yankees, Ron ran into Martin after a game. Martin asked Ron to join him for a drink, and they worked out a lot of their differences. Their truce lasted the entire winter, until the first time Ron had Martin's Yankees in 1976.

Answer: True

Of course, Ron loved it! He only needed to step on a button and a burst of air would come up and blow the dirt off of home plate. Ron would wait until a batter that he was good friends with would come to bat in a meaningless game. He waited until the batter was ready and waiting for the pitch, then step on the button, causing the batter to jump when the air blew into his face.

He always called an immediate time out so no player or team was penalized.

Answer: Getting booed for blowing a call

Maybe players and managers got used to being booed, but Ron never did. His mother was at one of the games he umpired. She demanded to know what kind of job he had that people booed at him. He tried to lie his way out of it by telling her the crowd was crooning "Rooooon", but she saw right through him. "I'm old, not stupid!" she said.

Ron's words: "Blowing a call is only the second worst thing that can happen to an umpire on the field; the worst is getting booed for blowing a call. The day you find yourself standing in the middle of a baseball field listening to thirty thousand people booing and screaming at you is the day you finally realize there is no place to hide on a baseball diamond. You just have to stand there and take it. There is absolutely no way to prepare yourself for the experience of being booed by forty or fifty thousand people. You can't sit at home listening to a booing record."
[ from his second book "Strike Two" ]

Answer: Yes

Ron's cousin Mary, saw a photo of Ron in the newspaper when his book became a best-seller. She contacted Nina and Fonda, and a family reunion in Endicott soon followed.