October 28, 2025 • 11 mins
After a stellar career in Major League Baseball, umpire Tom Hallion still calls Louisville home. The native New Yorker moved to Kentucky during the Louisville Redbirds Triple A era, working games until he was called to the bigs.
He kept his Kentucky home and stopped by WHAS to talk about last night's 18 inning World Series instant classic game. He discussed the pressure encountered by umps working extra long games.
Terry Meiners also asked for Mr. Hallion's thoughts on modern technology aiming to take away human umpires to let machines call balls and strikes.
Uh, not a fan.
He kept his Kentucky home and stopped by WHAS to talk about last night's 18 inning World Series instant classic game. He discussed the pressure encountered by umps working extra long games.
Terry Meiners also asked for Mr. Hallion's thoughts on modern technology aiming to take away human umpires to let machines call balls and strikes.
Uh, not a fan.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here with News Radio eight forty whs Terry Miners here.
Happy World Series season. Look who's back in my studio?
Major League Baseball umpire Tom Hallian. Great to see you again.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Great to see you too, Terry. And it's very nice
to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
What's always nice to talk with you. I love talking
with you this time of year because everybody's all worked
up about various things they see in baseball games. But
this is the best of the best of the best
who are called to be the umpires. Yes, and it's
a very rewarding for them. It's a it's acknowledgment that
they had a great year. And you know, you go
(00:36):
out there and keep your fingers crossed that you don't
mess anything up. I've seen a lot of YouTube videos
of you having words with managers over the year. Sometimes
they think if I just go out and scream at
this umpire, he's going to see things my way. But
it never works when it's Tom Hallion. I've seen you
back those guys down every time.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Well, I have a pretty good record. I was lucky
had a good respect from most of the people on
the ball field, so that that helps immensely. But yeah,
I always I always like getting revved up and getting
the blood flowing and uh, you know, if you're gonna
(01:19):
let me have it, well then that's only right. I
should be able to let you have it.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
That's a little bit of New Yorker in you. Yes,
new Yorker says.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Who are you talking to? Are you talking to me?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
What happens to umpires in terms of reviewing your work,
do they does the office email you later and stay
that call that out at third base was not correct?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Well, it depends on how big of a call it
was and what happened after the call. So if you
had an ejection after the call, you probably are going
to get a phone call the next day and they'll
they'll want to hear your side and what happened and uh,
you know, and then they'll we get on every game,
we get evaluations. So most likely if they didn't agree
(02:07):
with you, you're gonna get a does not meet, which
you don't like getting those. But if they think, okay,
he did what he had to do, you'll get a
meet and that you move on.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
If you throw out a manager the same guy like
two times, then they started worrying that it's you, that
it's a personal thing. Between the two of you or
three times or whatever. If it's multiple times.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Well, if you get to three times, it's probably more
than just the call. I have gotten two in a
matter of like a week and a half, and that
was Bobby Cox with Atlanta, And I think Bobby just
didn't like me at that time. You know, I was young,
a young umpire, so and again, you know, I guess
(02:54):
it's my New York upbringing. I don't back down, and
I didn't back and so he got ejected twice. But yeah,
if you go three times, it's usually a little bit
more than just the call.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Why does the manager tend to think that cursing is
going to help, because it can't help. It just you know,
degenerates the conversation. It swivels down around the drain once
it gets to that level. But if they call you
something personal, that's it, right.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, once you put you yours or anything personal towards me,
that's the e jec button they're going.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Okay, last night we saw an amazing World Series game,
and there's a lot of pressure on the umpires to
make calls. But I mean, like Vladdie, he slides into home,
gets his hand on there before Will Smith can tag him.
That relay throwout at third base was brilliant. I mean,
there are some really close calls and they were all accurate.
(03:49):
From my take of seeing that game last night, what
do you say.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yes, they were Again, you're dealing with the two best
teams and you're dealing with the six best stumpires for
the playoffs, so didn't surprise me. I kudos to Mark
Wagner who had the plate and he went eighteen innings,
and you get into the twelfth inning and on it
(04:14):
kind of the pressure starts to build a little bit.
You don't want to mess up. You don't want to
be the cause of something being decided that the game
goes one way or another. So you're trying to be
perfect and you put pressure on yourself. But you, you know,
you try to teach yourself that you just be relaxed,
deep breath and call the pitch.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
And a truck driver has to stop after so many hours.
In professional sports, they can send in a substitute, a
pinch hitter, whatever. You can send in somebody to replace you.
Because the game's going on. Let's say it's a fourth
overtime in football, you guys are stuck until it's over. Right,
there's no one to come in and say, well, he's
worked twelve innings, now let's get another played unplayer.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, we're stuck. There's no overtime pay. You get the
same pay if it went nine innings or eighteen innings.
So yeah, you're you know, if you have to use
the restroom, you can in between innings. Yeah, you've got well,
in the World Series, you got two and a half minutes,
so you make it quick and you get back out there.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
But your judgment when you get that deep and you
sort of alluded to that already, but it's the sixteenth inning,
the seventeenth inning. How can the guy behind the plate
be that effective when he's clearly fatigued.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
You just keep telling yourself focus, focus, focus, and you
just try to do the best you can. And if
you keep that focus, we're you know, we're we're pretty
well paid professionals, so we should be able to do it.
And I would tell you that, there's no doubt in
my mind. Mark, you know, was telling himself that and
was was extremely happy when the game was over.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
A bet give us a sense, since none of us
will be in that position of being the catcher the
batter and the umpire. The three of you were all
there together. Is there a lot of chatter going on
among those three guys? Like is the catcher talking smack
to the batter? I know the umpire is not supposed
to interject, but does a better ever say you're an
idiot because he doesn't like the way you're calling balls strikes.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Well, it might not be that direct, you're an idiot,
but there's there's depending on who it is, there's a
little smack talking that goes on. Sometimes it's pretty neat
to be there and just kind of listen to it,
and you know, you usually know when they're joking and kidding,
but sometimes it gets a little serious and then you
you know, when you think it's time for you to
(06:37):
get involved. You may commence says, all right, guys, let's go,
all right, that's enough, let's go.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
You do tell him like a school teacher, you telling
that's enough.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, yeah, I'm responsible for you know, the what goes
on on the field. And if you let it go,
you know, like say, say me and you got into
a little smack and you know, and then then then
we just get going and it.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Gets a little serious and personal.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
And all of a sudden, you want to throw that
right hand at my face, so you kind of try
to prevent that from happening.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
That is so interesting, And what penalty is there other
than throwing someone out. It's not like you could say,
because you said that, I'm going to add another strike.
You can't do that sort of thing. So the only
punishment is ejection, isn't it correct.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yeah, they haven't added that new rule to the rule book,
so yeah, it's just you're at your you get ejected
from the game, along with a fine or suspension.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
We're speaking with Tom halle in longtime Major League Baseball umpire.
Let's talk about technology. I know in some of the
lower leagues there are machines that are calling balls and strikes.
I don't know if they've moved to the point where
they're calling tagged out, you know, when a guy sliding
into second base and a machine is saying he's out.
I don't know if we're that far yet. But give
(07:49):
me your take on that. You're a human being, You've
done this all your life. That's got to hurt a
little bit, right.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Oh, absolutely, that's why I'm retired. Yeah, it's you know,
I'm waiting for Elon Musk to produce the first robotic umpire.
But it's yeah, it's it's you know, right now, it's
the umpire makes the call and if they want to
challenge it or don't agree with it, they can go
to replay. And then you know, they're in New York.
(08:17):
They look, They've got like sixteen TVs that they're looking
at for all different angles, and then they come up
and they decide whether you're whether you are correct, or
whether you're wrong. The new system coming in for the
plate calling balls and strikes is that right now you
still have balls and strikes called by the machine, but
the machine doesn't do anything because there's no challenge system
(08:40):
or anything like that. But now next year what you're
going to have is you're going to have a two
challenge system, which means the pitcher, the catcher or the
batter can touch the top of his head, just pat it,
and that means they wanted to whoever it was they
want to challenge all the whole plate. Umpire who called
(09:02):
it a strike or a ball will then turn around
and point up and then they'll put it out on
the big screen out in center field. And if the pitch.
If I called it a strike and that ball comes
in and it doesn't touch any part of the square
line or anything, they overrule me.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Just by a visual there by your own visual or
you're talking about the New York Office over rule, No,
just the visual on the scoreboard. Interesting. Yeah, So we
can't be that far away though, from the machines actually,
because if you watch, you know, Nadal Or he's not
playing tennis. But these guys that are in there now
Janick Center, you know, Carlos al al Karez, these guys,
(09:43):
these these lines people are gone. The machine just says.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Out long, yeah, they you know, they they've got it
a little easier because they've got a specific two dimensional
court where the home plate is three dimensional. You know,
there's there's the front of the plate in the back
of the plate, so there's a three dimension part that
comes into play. I also remember, somebody, a human being,
(10:10):
is going to have to set the lines for aaron
judge who's six foot one hundred, right, and uh for
you know, somebody a five to nine guy.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
A guy who's half his size. So the batter's box.
So they've got a strike zone as much smaller, right,
They got some box. Some people hunker down, you know,
when they're at the plate, so that shortens the strike
zone too.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
The hardest pitch to call, we should play a trivia
game see if anybody would would send you a message
with the right answer. The hardest pitch to call is
a squared around bunt attempt, because what happens you get
down you want to get the back down here, you
completely blow up your strike zone of what you normally
(10:55):
would be if you're standing up to take a take
a swing.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
So that's and you can't see anyway. He's blocking your view.
Sometimes they're big enough. Yeah, so you just got to
call it how it sounded. It's still a great game,
it really is.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
I mean I didn't make it through all eighteen innings
last night, but certainly I enjoyed every inning that I
did watch.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Yeah, the recaps are brilliant today too. They're worth watching this.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Oh. Absolutely. The umpires were very busy, and kudos to
all six of them that were out there on the field.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
I thought it was a mesmerizing start to finish. Tom Hallian,
great to talk to you again as always, Terry. All right,
brother back in a minute on news radio, Wait forty
whas
Here with News Radio eight forty whs Terry Miners here.
Happy World Series season. Look who's back in my studio?
Major League Baseball umpire Tom Hallian. Great to see you again.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Great to see you too, Terry. And it's very nice
to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
What's always nice to talk with you. I love talking
with you this time of year because everybody's all worked
up about various things they see in baseball games. But
this is the best of the best of the best
who are called to be the umpires. Yes, and it's
a very rewarding for them. It's a it's acknowledgment that
they had a great year. And you know, you go
(00:36):
out there and keep your fingers crossed that you don't
mess anything up. I've seen a lot of YouTube videos
of you having words with managers over the year. Sometimes
they think if I just go out and scream at
this umpire, he's going to see things my way. But
it never works when it's Tom Hallion. I've seen you
back those guys down every time.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Well, I have a pretty good record. I was lucky
had a good respect from most of the people on
the ball field, so that that helps immensely. But yeah,
I always I always like getting revved up and getting
the blood flowing and uh, you know, if you're gonna
(01:19):
let me have it, well then that's only right. I
should be able to let you have it.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
That's a little bit of New Yorker in you. Yes,
new Yorker says.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Who are you talking to? Are you talking to me?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
What happens to umpires in terms of reviewing your work,
do they does the office email you later and stay
that call that out at third base was not correct?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Well, it depends on how big of a call it
was and what happened after the call. So if you
had an ejection after the call, you probably are going
to get a phone call the next day and they'll
they'll want to hear your side and what happened and uh,
you know, and then they'll we get on every game,
we get evaluations. So most likely if they didn't agree
(02:07):
with you, you're gonna get a does not meet, which
you don't like getting those. But if they think, okay,
he did what he had to do, you'll get a
meet and that you move on.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
If you throw out a manager the same guy like
two times, then they started worrying that it's you, that
it's a personal thing. Between the two of you or
three times or whatever. If it's multiple times.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Well, if you get to three times, it's probably more
than just the call. I have gotten two in a
matter of like a week and a half, and that
was Bobby Cox with Atlanta, And I think Bobby just
didn't like me at that time. You know, I was young,
a young umpire, so and again, you know, I guess
(02:54):
it's my New York upbringing. I don't back down, and
I didn't back and so he got ejected twice. But yeah,
if you go three times, it's usually a little bit
more than just the call.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Why does the manager tend to think that cursing is
going to help, because it can't help. It just you know,
degenerates the conversation. It swivels down around the drain once
it gets to that level. But if they call you
something personal, that's it, right.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, once you put you yours or anything personal towards me,
that's the e jec button they're going.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Okay, last night we saw an amazing World Series game,
and there's a lot of pressure on the umpires to
make calls. But I mean, like Vladdie, he slides into home,
gets his hand on there before Will Smith can tag him.
That relay throwout at third base was brilliant. I mean,
there are some really close calls and they were all accurate.
(03:49):
From my take of seeing that game last night, what
do you say.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yes, they were Again, you're dealing with the two best
teams and you're dealing with the six best stumpires for
the playoffs, so didn't surprise me. I kudos to Mark
Wagner who had the plate and he went eighteen innings,
and you get into the twelfth inning and on it
(04:14):
kind of the pressure starts to build a little bit.
You don't want to mess up. You don't want to
be the cause of something being decided that the game
goes one way or another. So you're trying to be
perfect and you put pressure on yourself. But you, you know,
you try to teach yourself that you just be relaxed,
deep breath and call the pitch.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
And a truck driver has to stop after so many hours.
In professional sports, they can send in a substitute, a
pinch hitter, whatever. You can send in somebody to replace you.
Because the game's going on. Let's say it's a fourth
overtime in football, you guys are stuck until it's over. Right,
there's no one to come in and say, well, he's
worked twelve innings, now let's get another played unplayer.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, we're stuck. There's no overtime pay. You get the
same pay if it went nine innings or eighteen innings.
So yeah, you're you know, if you have to use
the restroom, you can in between innings. Yeah, you've got well,
in the World Series, you got two and a half minutes,
so you make it quick and you get back out there.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
But your judgment when you get that deep and you
sort of alluded to that already, but it's the sixteenth inning,
the seventeenth inning. How can the guy behind the plate
be that effective when he's clearly fatigued.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
You just keep telling yourself focus, focus, focus, and you
just try to do the best you can. And if
you keep that focus, we're you know, we're we're pretty
well paid professionals, so we should be able to do it.
And I would tell you that, there's no doubt in
my mind. Mark, you know, was telling himself that and
was was extremely happy when the game was over.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
A bet give us a sense, since none of us
will be in that position of being the catcher the
batter and the umpire. The three of you were all
there together. Is there a lot of chatter going on
among those three guys? Like is the catcher talking smack
to the batter? I know the umpire is not supposed
to interject, but does a better ever say you're an
idiot because he doesn't like the way you're calling balls strikes.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Well, it might not be that direct, you're an idiot,
but there's there's depending on who it is, there's a
little smack talking that goes on. Sometimes it's pretty neat
to be there and just kind of listen to it,
and you know, you usually know when they're joking and kidding,
but sometimes it gets a little serious and then you
you know, when you think it's time for you to
(06:37):
get involved. You may commence says, all right, guys, let's go,
all right, that's enough, let's go.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
You do tell him like a school teacher, you telling
that's enough.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, yeah, I'm responsible for you know, the what goes
on on the field. And if you let it go,
you know, like say, say me and you got into
a little smack and you know, and then then then
we just get going and it.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Gets a little serious and personal.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
And all of a sudden, you want to throw that
right hand at my face, so you kind of try
to prevent that from happening.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
That is so interesting, And what penalty is there other
than throwing someone out. It's not like you could say,
because you said that, I'm going to add another strike.
You can't do that sort of thing. So the only
punishment is ejection, isn't it correct.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yeah, they haven't added that new rule to the rule book,
so yeah, it's just you're at your you get ejected
from the game, along with a fine or suspension.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
We're speaking with Tom halle in longtime Major League Baseball umpire.
Let's talk about technology. I know in some of the
lower leagues there are machines that are calling balls and strikes.
I don't know if they've moved to the point where
they're calling tagged out, you know, when a guy sliding
into second base and a machine is saying he's out.
I don't know if we're that far yet. But give
(07:49):
me your take on that. You're a human being, You've
done this all your life. That's got to hurt a
little bit, right.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Oh, absolutely, that's why I'm retired. Yeah, it's you know,
I'm waiting for Elon Musk to produce the first robotic umpire.
But it's yeah, it's it's you know, right now, it's
the umpire makes the call and if they want to
challenge it or don't agree with it, they can go
to replay. And then you know, they're in New York.
(08:17):
They look, They've got like sixteen TVs that they're looking
at for all different angles, and then they come up
and they decide whether you're whether you are correct, or
whether you're wrong. The new system coming in for the
plate calling balls and strikes is that right now you
still have balls and strikes called by the machine, but
the machine doesn't do anything because there's no challenge system
(08:40):
or anything like that. But now next year what you're
going to have is you're going to have a two
challenge system, which means the pitcher, the catcher or the
batter can touch the top of his head, just pat it,
and that means they wanted to whoever it was they
want to challenge all the whole plate. Umpire who called
(09:02):
it a strike or a ball will then turn around
and point up and then they'll put it out on
the big screen out in center field. And if the pitch.
If I called it a strike and that ball comes
in and it doesn't touch any part of the square
line or anything, they overrule me.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Just by a visual there by your own visual or
you're talking about the New York Office over rule, No,
just the visual on the scoreboard. Interesting. Yeah, So we
can't be that far away though, from the machines actually,
because if you watch, you know, Nadal Or he's not
playing tennis. But these guys that are in there now
Janick Center, you know, Carlos al al Karez, these guys,
(09:43):
these these lines people are gone. The machine just says.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Out long, yeah, they you know, they they've got it
a little easier because they've got a specific two dimensional
court where the home plate is three dimensional. You know,
there's there's the front of the plate in the back
of the plate, so there's a three dimension part that
comes into play. I also remember, somebody, a human being,
(10:10):
is going to have to set the lines for aaron
judge who's six foot one hundred, right, and uh for
you know, somebody a five to nine guy.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
A guy who's half his size. So the batter's box.
So they've got a strike zone as much smaller, right,
They got some box. Some people hunker down, you know,
when they're at the plate, so that shortens the strike
zone too.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
The hardest pitch to call, we should play a trivia
game see if anybody would would send you a message
with the right answer. The hardest pitch to call is
a squared around bunt attempt, because what happens you get
down you want to get the back down here, you
completely blow up your strike zone of what you normally
(10:55):
would be if you're standing up to take a take
a swing.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
So that's and you can't see anyway. He's blocking your view.
Sometimes they're big enough. Yeah, so you just got to
call it how it sounded. It's still a great game,
it really is.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
I mean I didn't make it through all eighteen innings
last night, but certainly I enjoyed every inning that I
did watch.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Yeah, the recaps are brilliant today too. They're worth watching this.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Oh. Absolutely. The umpires were very busy, and kudos to
all six of them that were out there on the field.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
I thought it was a mesmerizing start to finish. Tom Hallian,
great to talk to you again as always, Terry. All right,
brother back in a minute on news radio, Wait forty
whas
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