John Andrew “Rocky” Roe understands an MLB umpire’s life.
After 23 seasons on the job, working the bases and calling balls and strikes behind home plate, Roe knows the highs that come with umpiring at the highest level, and what the rigors of working out of a suitcase mean. Following his dream and collecting a paycheck had a cost.
Retiring after the 2001 season, the physical wear and tear on his body helped Roe make the decision to mothball his mask and chest protector.
“I had seven knee operations. The last two, I had both knees replaced,” Roe told The Epoch Times earlier this week, speaking from his Lake County, Florida, home.
Aside from the physical healing that Roe, 74, has become all too familiar with since completing his MLB career that debuted in July 1979 while working a double-header in Minneapolis between the host Minnesota Twins and Seattle Mariners, he never wavered from his principles.
“Everything I ever did for baseball always had the best interest in the game. Always,” said Roe, who signed his rookie American League umpire contract of $17,500 for the 1979 season.
So, when earlier in the week MLB announced the firing of umpire Pat Hoberg after a lengthy investigation for sharing sports gambling accounts with a friend who bet on baseball games, this struck a chord with Roe. The investigation that began in February 2024, which led to Hoberg not working any MLB games during the 2024 season, was finalized this week with MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred’s ruling.
Roe is adamant that from his decades of experience of observing so many greats of the game, including several who would go on to be Hall of Famers, that umpires “fixing” a game would be impossible.
“Baseball is the worst sport to bet on,” said Roe when comparing it to football, basketball, or hockey. “In football, a play could be screwed up, or a flag thrown by an official. In baseball, to have all four umpires in concert just wouldn’t happen. If you bet on baseball, you have a real problem.”
For example, during Roe’s first 21 seasons, he worked exclusively in the American League. In 2000, MLB merged its umpiring staff. In one February during his career, as he and his fellow umpires were preparing for spring training, Roe recalls a special guest that the American League brought to a union meeting focusing on gambling. Michael Franzese, the former mobster in the Colombo crime family in New York City delivered a sobering message to a room filled with captivated umpires.
“The league brought him into our union meeting. Michael filled us in on just how much information [gamblers] had on us umpires. At first, I had no idea what he was talking about. Then, Michael is telling us, each one of us, what our strike zones were, where we positioned ourselves in the field. He had a book with all this information on umpires.”
This is a moment in Roe’s decorated MLB career that ranks at the top of those that simply amazed him.
In Hoberg’s case, he is said to have intentionally deleted electronic messages between him and the friend with whom his gambling accounts were shared. An MLB umpire since 2014, Hoberg will be able to apply for reinstatement no earlier than 2026. At the conclusion of the investigation, Hoberg accepted responsibility for his actions.
MLB umpires can earn between $150,000 to $450,000 annually. Influencing factors for individual pay grades include experience, performance, postseason assignments, and where they are ranked in the system among fellow umpires.
“When I started, I received $52.00 per diem to cover expenses. The next year, 1980, my per diem was bumped up to $53.00,” said Roe.
When reviewing his umpiring career, Roe credits several of the veterans on the crews he was assigned to for looking out for his well-being.
“I was very lucky. After umpiring my first high school game in April 1976, three years later, July 3, 1979, I was umpiring my first game in the big leagues,” Roe said.
“I had fellow umpires taking a liking to me, looking out for me, and making me into the pro that I became. Bill Haller, Don Denkinger, Ron Luciano, and Russ Goetz, they gave me the confidence to work in the big leagues.”
Armed with memories of dealing with bombastic, often animated, and usually hyper-vocal managers—Sparky Anderson, Billy Martin, Earl Weaver, and George Bamberger—today Roe gladly trades those very public duels for the privacy of spending time with his two kids and five grandchildren and playing golf four to five times weekly.
Keeping a distance from anyone or anything remotely associated with gambling, and just concentrating on growing professionally, Roe offers no regrets on how his career evolved. In the end, he said he is at peace knowing that the integrity of big league baseball games remains paramount to those in charge.
