Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create accountLimited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks when you make the switch!
Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Make the switchGift audiobook credit bundles
You pick the number of credits, your recipient picks the audiobooks, and your local bookstore is supported by your purchase.
Start giftingThe Umpire Is Out
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreDale Scott's career as a professional baseball umpire spanned nearly forty years, including thirty-three in the Major Leagues, from 1985 to 2017. He worked exactly a thousand games behind the plate, calling balls and strikes at the pinnacle of his profession, working in every Major League Baseball stadium, and interacting with dozens of other top-flight umpires, colorful managers, and hundreds of players.
What makes Scott's book truly different is his unique perspective as the only umpire in the history of professional baseball to come out as gay during his career. Granted, that was after decades of remaining in the closet, and Scott writes vividly and movingly about having to "play the game": maintaining a façade of straightness while privately becoming his true self and building a lasting relationship with his future husband. He navigated this obstacle course at a time when his MLB career was just taking off—and when North America was consumed by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Scott's story is also a baseball story, filled with insights and memorable anecdotes that come so naturally from someone who spent decades among the world's greatest baseball players, managers, and games. Scott's story is fascinating both for his umpiring career and for his being a pioneer for LGBTQ people within baseball and across sports.
Rob Neyer serves as commissioner of the West Coast League and currently hosts the weekly podcast SABRCast with Rob Neyer. He has also written or cowritten several books, including Power Ball: Anatomy of a Modern Baseball Game, winner of the 2018 Casey Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year.
Dale Scott worked as a Major League umpire until 2017 when-due to multiple concussions-he retired. His career included three World Series, three All-Star Games, six League Championship Series, twelve Division Series, and over ninety-one postseason games. An Oregon native, he lives in Portland with Michael, his husband, and their yellow Lab, Wylie.