Feb. 7, 2017 – Illinois native Dan Bellino was in his second year at the John Marshall Law School when he decided to become a professional umpire. Given the long odds of making it to the major leagues, this would seem to have been a curious career change, especially since he admits that he didn’t know how difficult the process would be. In fact, his original plan was to be a Division I basketball referee as well as an attorney. In spite of the obvious obstacles, he persevered, receiving his law degree, completing umpire school, and passing the bar exam, as well as working at several part-time jobs while umpiring in the minor leagues.

After working eight years in six different minor leagues, as well as the Hawaii Winter League, the Arizona Fall League, and the Puerto Rico Winter League, he beat the odds and was hired as a full-time major-league umpire in 2011, one of only three of 150 in his umpire school class to make it. He was selected to work in Division Series games seven times between 2014 and 2021, the 2016 All-Star Game, and the 2021 World Series.

Transcript

Interviewer: Larry Baldassaro

Date: February 7, 2017

Dan Bellino: Larry, how you doing?

Larry Baldassaro: Good. How are you?

Dan Bellino: I’m doing great, thank you.

Larry Baldassaro: All right. Did Steve, explain to you what this project is exactly?

Dan Bellino: Well, he told me that you’re an Italian, and he said there’s not enough, good… There’s not enough good Italian Americans in the Midwestern area. And he said that it only makes sense that you and I talk because you’re trying to do something to make Italians look good.

Larry Baldassaro: Well, that-

Dan Bellino: That’s the idea.

Larry Baldassaro: Good. Great. Yeah, this is a collection of interviews I’ve done with Italian American major leaguers, and it’s going to be compiled into a book. And the i the idea is just, you know, preserve for history the legacy of Italian Americans in the major leagues, players, coaches, executives, umpires, et cetera. So that’s what we’re doing. Okay? So what I’d like to do is we’ll talk a little bit about your family history, your Italian background, and then we’ll go into the baseball stuff, okay?

Dan Bellino: Sure.

Larry Baldassaro: So what can you tell me about your Italian background, the family history?

Dan Bellino: Okay. So I am, pretty much 100% Italian. I say pretty much because there’s a dab of German high up on my mom’s side, but it’s… I consider myself 100% Italian. There’s just… My great-great-grandfather on my mother’s side was German, but everybody else in my family famously, you know, was the [names inaudible]. Yeah, we’re all Italian.

Larry Baldassaro: All right. So do you know… So that was your great-great… Who came to the States from Italy?

Dan Bellino: It was my great-grandparents that came to the States.

Larry Baldassaro: On both sides?

Dan Bellino: No. On my mother’s side, it was great-great-grandparents. On my father’s side, it was great-grandparents. And then my grandfather on my father’s side was a veteran.

Larry Baldassaro: Uh-

Dan Bellino: He was… Well, I’m guessing it must have been World War II. But he died very young. He died when my father was 20. When he came back from the war, he was like a lieutenant in the war and came back and, you know, he had a hard time with alcohol when he came back from… He never really recovered. I guess today they probably would refer to it like post-traumatic stress, you know, with the veterans, But when he had come back, he was… He had a… He drank a lot. So he passed away young when my father was 20.

Larry Baldassaro: Okay. And what about, uh-

Dan Bellino: Yeah, we’re from… We’re Sicilian. So we’re from Palermo.

Larry Baldassaro: This on your dad’s side?

Dan Bellino: Yes. Actually, no. On my mother’s side, on my mother’s side, we’re from Palermo. On my dad’s side, we’re Etruscan.

Larry Baldassaro: Oh, really?

Dan Bellino: Yes.

Larry Baldassaro: Tuscany near Florence?

Dan Bellino: Yes.

Larry Baldassaro: Okay. Excellent. So did you grow up with a sense of being Italian?

Dan Bellino: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, my grandmother spoke fluent Italian. I wish to this day that she had taught it to us, but she only yelled at us in Italian.

Larry Baldassaro: Sounds like my grandmother. Was your grandmother on your dad’s side or your mom?

Dan Bellino: On my dad’s side.

Larry Baldassaro: Uh-huh. So the-

Dan Bellino: Yeah. She’s… Of my grandparents, we just recently lost my grandfather. So I only have one grandparent left. My grandmother, maiden name Morici.

Larry Baldassaro: On your mom’s side. How is that name spelled, Dan?

Dan Bellino: M-O-R-I-C-I.

Larry Baldassaro: Okay, great. Thank you.

Dan Bellino: And on my dad’s side, my grandmother’s, maiden name was Gottardo.

Larry Baldassaro: Gottardo.

Dan Bellino: So, yeah, my grandmother, she went by… Oh, I gotta think about this. We called her Nana.

Larry Baldassaro: Yes, of course.

Dan Bellino: But, yeah, so she I know her middle name was Carmela, ’cause we named my daughter Lucinda Carmela.

Larry Baldassaro: Oh, nice.

Dan Bellino: But yeah, her first name was… Oh my gosh, this is crazy. I’m not thinking about this. She passed away in ’01 from cancer. My grandmother on my mom’s side is Angie. And… Oh my gosh, you know, it’ll come to me.

Larry Baldassaro: That’s okay. We don’t need those details, really. Well, that’s good. Now, I assume that as a kid you played baseball.

Dan Bellino: I did. Yeah, I played a lot of sports. I didn’t exclusively play baseball. I played, mostly basketball was the sport that I enjoyed more than anything. You know, baseball I really enjoyed. I enjoyed being a catcher. You know, but as you know, the higher levels you go, the more difficult it was. You know, so I did not, I didn’t play outside of high school. I went to Loyola Academy in Wilmette, and then I did not play outside of high school. I did play basketball through high school, and then in college I went and became the manager of the Northern Illinois men’s basketball team. And that’s how I became introduced to officiating, because one of my duties as the manager was to let the basketball officials in and make sure they… If they needed anything, and then I gave them their paychecks for the games, and I got to know the officials. So that was my first introduction to officiating at a high level.

Larry Baldassaro: Interesting. So, when you got out of Northern Illinois, did you go straight to law school?

Dan Bellino: I did. I did. I went… My… Larry, my goal was I wanted to go and be a Division I basketball official and be a lawyer. That was kind of the blueprint that I had, and that was from my experience at Northern Illinois, where a lot of these guys had, you know, had another business. There were several that were attorneys. And so my goal was, okay, I’ll be an attorney in the Chicagoland area, and I’ll referee Division I basketball, and, you know, and not necessarily for the money, even though the money was good. I just really enjoyed officiating.

Larry Baldassaro: Yeah, yeah. Interesting.

Dan Bellino: So it was my part-time job as a basketball official through law school, and I used to go and referee. The highest level I ever got to was Division II. I was going to the Division I camps when I was about 23, 24, and I made the turn into baseball, which was a very, very strange decision, because I was working for a federal judge, a Greek judge Kocoras. And his… He had at the time, he was the chief judge for the Northern District of Illinois. So he had four clerks, and I was one of them. And two of them were full-time, and two of us were still in law school. So we were, like, greeting to become full-time clerks if we were good enough. You know, it was kind of, it was kind of like a stepping stone. The other, you know, the other part-time clerk that I worked with, and not that it matters, but his name was Rudy Minassian. And Rudy’s father worked for the Texas Rangers. And I used to leave every day at, like, 3:00, 4:00, and I’d say, “Yeah, I’m going to referee, you know, St. Francis. I’m going to referee, you know, wherever.” And Rudy Minassian was the one who said, “Hey, you ever think about going to umpire school? ‘Cause my dad works for the Texas Rangers, and if you like officiating, you should go to umpire school.” And that was I was 22 years old. I remember it like it was yesterday. And I was like, “Umpire school? What are you talking about?” I didn’t even think it was a real thing. But I started looking into it. At 23, I went.

Larry Baldassaro: So you were still in law school. I’m sorry, what was that friend’s name again? Rudy…

Dan Bellino: Rudy Minassian.

Larry Baldassaro: Is it M-I-N-A-S-I-A-N?

Dan Bellino: I don’t know. He just suggested it. You know, I got you this. I would tell you this. If you’re looking to really go, like, this is kind of a funny story. And, you know, Steve told me just to be frank with you and tell you. And you can try to really help. So this is how it went down. So Rudy says to me, “Hey, you know, you leave work early every day. You should go and look into officiating professionally.” So I was like, “Yeah, the NBA…” ‘Cause basketball is… 100% basketball was my preference. I like indoors, I like the flow of the game, I like… You know, I really enjoyed officiating basketball. So when he suggested base who she stood up in my wedding. I mean, she was one of my best friends. She stood up, you know, she’s a phenomenal human being. Amy and I started talking about it, and she went and bought tickets to a Cubs game without telling me. And I showed up to class, and she goes, “Let’s go, come on, we’re not going to class today. I got a surprise.” I said, “Okay.” So we went to the Cubs game. We were sitting right behind the first base dugout. And I’ll never forget it, she said to me, she goes, “Look at those umpires and tell me, can you do that job?” And I said, “I absolutely could do that job.” And she goes, “I think you need to go to umpire school.” And then at the time, I was dating who is now my wife, and I went home and I told her, I said, “You know, I think I wanna go to umpire school.” And she said, “Umpire school?” “Like, why? You don’t umpire.” I said, “I don’t know, it’s interesting.” I said, “I really wanna pursue it.” And then I sat down with both my parents and I said, “This is what I wanna do.” And the only instruction I got from my parents was, they said, “We will support whatever you do as long as you finish law school and pass the bar.” That’s all they required. And I said, “Okay, no problem.”

Larry Baldassaro: So you were in your third year of law school at that point?

Dan Bellino: At that point, I was… That was the spring of my second year, and then once I made the decision, ’cause umpire school’s only in January. So once I made the decision, I then went to the dean of academics, and I said, “I need to be done with law school by January.” The normal progression was going to be the fall semester, spring semester, graduate. Well, they said, “If you wanna graduate a semester early, you need to take…” There was like two or three classes in summer school, and then there was an accelerated trial advocacy class over Christmas break. So I did that, I graduated a semester early, I went to umpire school, and then I actually flew home, in the middle of umpire school to walk and get my diploma-

Larry Baldassaro: Oh, boy

Dan Bellino: In law school.

Larry Baldassaro: Great story, really.

Dan Bellino: It was all kinda… Yeah, it was a lot of balls in the air. But pretty cool.

Larry Baldassaro: So let’s talk then about umpire school. Which school did you go to, Dan?

Dan Bellino: I went to the Wendelstedt Umpire School.

Larry Baldassaro: Yep. And what was that like? Was it more difficult than you expected, or?

Dan Bellino: Well, to be quite honest, I was… I kinda went in uninformed as to how to become a major league umpire. I didn’t realize that there were four levels of [inaudible]. I didn’t realize that guys would be in the minor leagues for 10 plus years. I was kind of floored by that. And the amount of money that they made, and it was pretty challenging for me because I have student loans and my girlfriend… I met my wife in college, so she was my girlfriend through law school, and my girlfriend through umpire school, and my girlfriend through the minor leagues. I’ve been with my wife for 12 years. Married for 12, been with her for 15. So from a financial standpoint, it was very challenging. And that was the toughest part for me with umpire school, but one of my best friends to this day, if not my best friend, I met him at umpire school. He’s an Italian, Vic Carapazza. And so, yeah, so Vic and I climbed the ranks together, and we’re both now full-time major league umpires, which is pretty cool.

Larry Baldassaro: Yeah, that’s cool. So how many… I wanna talk about the process of getting to the major leagues, even once you get out of there. Do you know how many from your class at the umpire school made it to the big leagues?

Dan Bellino: So in that class, there was I think there’s myself, there was Victor, I know that the other umpire school had Lance Barrett, who made it. We have me, Vic, Mark Ripperger. There’s at least three from my class.

Larry Baldassaro: Out of how many?

Dan Bellino: Class had, out of 150 students. Out of 150 students, the three of us made it. I’m trying to think if there was anyone else.

Larry Baldassaro: Well, but in any-

Dan Bellino: I don’t think so

Larry Baldassaro: In any case, the odds were stacked against you, obviously, with those numbers. Did you ever get discouraged along the way? I mean, even when you got out of school?

Dan Bellino: Oh, without question. The… My first year in the minor leagues was 2003, and I was in the New York Penn League, and I didn’t have time to take the bar exam yet. So I was making very little money. The supervisors don’t really know you that well when you first get started, and I was trying to downplay the fact that I had gone to law school. I didn’t really want that to be… I didn’t want people to think I wasn’t serious. So I kinda kept that very private. I didn’t tell a lot of people that I had that background. But meanwhile, I really wanted to take the bar exam. So that first year, out of 45 umpires, I was ranked like number 31…. Thinking like, “That can’t be right.” I mean, I was a little older than a lot of the kids. A lot of them were 18, 19. And it turned out that one of the reasons I was ranked low is because my league president had an issue with the guy I was partnered with, and I kinda got lumped into that category. And they didn’t really know me. So my first year, I wasn’t ranked that well. I considered retiring then and focusing on law because I thought, “I’m at the lowest level of the minor leagues, and they’re ranking me 30th, and the odds of making it to the big leagues are so slim.” But then I got a phone call from Harry Wendelstedt, and Harry asked me to be an instructor at his school, which was a… That was a big honor. Big, you know, like, that kinda puts your star on the map. Almost… I would say the majority of Major League umpires were asked to be instructors at some point. So, I made the decision, I’m gonna give it another year, and I went to Wendelstedt Umpire School, and then I made the decision. I’m like, “All right, I’m invested in this thing, and I’m gonna do it. So I’m gonna give it all I’ve got.” And then to circle back and close the loop with you on law school, I needed to pass the bar. And the difficult part of passing the bar is, as you know, the preparation. So in 2006, when the minor league umpires went on strike, I used that as an opportunity to lock in, take the prep course. So while the umpires were on strike, I studied and passed the bar.

Larry Baldassaro: Nice. Very good.

Dan Bellino: So it was pretty, you know, the timing of it was… Like, I’ve had a lot of people ask me, “Hey, you graduated law school January of ’03. You know, why didn’t you pass the bar in ’03?” And it’s like, “Well, because I went to umpire school, and I was completely invested in that, and I didn’t have a chance to take the bar-” until 2006 when we were on strike.” So the strike really benefited me. Some people have strike babies. You know, like, they have kids, and they’re like, “Yeah, we were on strike, and we had a baby.” I passed the bar. That was my strike.

Larry Baldassaro: Very nice. So how long did it take you to get… I know you were called up in 2008, not full-time yet. So how much time between that first year in A-ball and getting called up? Was it-

Dan Bellino: Okay, so I worked my first game in 2008, and that year, I worked one game. It was at Wrigley Field. It was an emergency situation, and they called and said, “We need you right now.” So that was a big break. You know, getting the first call is one of the toughest things to get. So once I got that under my belt, in 2009, they gave me, I think it was 32 games. And I worked 32 games where I was… Yeah, I’d go to the crew for, like, three days, then I’d go back to the minor leagues. So it was sporadic, which is pretty common, where… Back then, at least, it was common, where they want you to get your feet wet, then they send you back to the minor leagues and kinda catch your breath. So 2009, I worked 32 games. 2010, I was up the entire year, basically. I worked with Joe West, for five months of the six-month season. Had a great year with Joe, and then I was hired full-time during spring training of ’11. So by the start of 2011, I was full-time.

Larry Baldassaro: What do you remember about that first game at Wrigley?

Dan Bellino: I mean, I remember getting the call at… I live in Crystal Lake, Illinois. I remember getting the call at 5:15 PM, and the head supervisor, Rich Garcia, telling me, said, “Where are you?” ‘Cause it was an off day in the Pacific Coast League, and I had gone home. I said, “I’m at home.” And he said, “How long would it take you to get to Wrigley Field?” And I said, “How much time do I have?” And he said, “Game time’s 7:05.” I said, “I’ll be there.”

Larry Baldassaro: Whoa.

Dan Bellino: In rush hour, I… Rush hour, which is typically a two-and-a-half-hour drive, I was driving on the shoulder of the road through the expressway, and I made it there with about 15 minutes to spare.

Larry Baldassaro: Wow. So that might have helped. It didn’t give you too much time to think about it.

Dan Bellino: It really didn’t. You’re actually spot on. I was… By the time I got there, I was so nervous about getting there. And by the time I got there, it was a rush, and it was get out on the field. I worked third base. The game was the Orioles and the Cubs, and, you know, it was… I don’t… I couldn’t tell you if the game was two hours or four hours. It didn’t matter because to me, it was, you know, I… It was game seven of the World Series to me.

Larry Baldassaro: Your feet never touched the ground, right?

Dan Bellino: That’s right.

Larry Baldassaro: Wow. That’s a great story, too. So, once you’d started getting called up, is that pretty much an assurance that you will be hired full-time?

Dan Bellino: No.

Larry Baldassaro: No.

Dan Bellino: No, no, no, no, no. No. What, once you… The progression for umpires is a lot different than the players. So when you get to Triple-A, you have milestones that you have to achieve. So one of the milestones is, you work your first They select you for the Arizona Fall League. And they only take 12 umpires in the Arizona Fall League. Of the 12, about six of them are going back for their second year, six of you are new. So that’s a big assignment to get. That’s a big milestone. Then once you start working Arizona Fall League, then your goal is to be assigned Major League Spring Training. So you’re working the Fall League, you’re hoping for Major League Spring Training. Then, once you get Major League Spring Training, once you get an assignment, which is a big deal because that’s your first taste of making much better money than you make in the minor leagues, because Major League Spring Training pays Major League money. So once you work your first Major League Spring Training, then you’re, you hope that they add you to the roster, which means, Larry, that they give you a number. They assign you a number for your sleeve, and that’s a big deal. Now, like Steve Palermo, back in the day, they would the National or the American League would purchase a contract for the umpire. They would own the rights. Well, that, this is the equivalent of owning the rights. Once they give you a number, you are officially on the roster and eligible to fill in.

Larry Baldassaro: Got it. Interesting. So…

Dan Bellino: And my first number was 93. They gave me 93 when I first got a number, and then when Jerry Crawford retired in 2010, and I was added to the staff in ’11, Jerry Crawford was an umpire that I very much looked up to, and I called Mr. Crawford and I asked him permission to put in for his number, and I promised him, I said, “You wore it for 20 years or 30 years, I’ll wear it for the next 30.”

Larry Baldassaro: Whoa.

Dan Bellino: So they switched me to number two in the 2012 season, and I’ll be number two until I retire.

Larry Baldassaro: Very good. Well, you mentioned one name there. Were there mentors along the way that helped you as you were going through the process?

Dan Bellino: Oh, without question. Without question. There’s, Steve Palermo’s a mentor, Jerry Crawford’s a mentor, Joe West is a mentor, Tommy Hallion, mentor, Phil Cuzzi, mentor. Just some wonderful people. Jerry Crawford, I got to work two weeks with him before he retired, just an incredible human being, incredible umpire. I mean, Jerry’s family, his brother was a longtime NBA referee. You know, these are guys that taught me early on that this is a lifestyle. You know, you’re part of baseball. This is pretty special. You know, Harry Wendelstedt, I would not leave Harry Wendelstedt out. He put me on the map. Harry passed away in 2012, and ironically, I was hired March 9, 2011, Harry passed away March 9, 2012.

Larry Baldassaro: Mm-hmm. So once you get to the major leagues, let’s say full-time or even before, was it what you expected? Were there any surprises?

Dan Bellino: So it’s difficult to… I wouldn’t categorize them as surprises because I’m, I kind of pride myself on trying to avoid being surprised. You know, I ask a lot of questions. I, you know, I try to prepare. For me, the biggest incentive for me was the security for my family because I wanted to have a big family. You know, I come from an Italian family. I wanna have a big family. I’ve got four kids. For me, it was the benefits, the insurance, the pension. You know, you’re part of something pretty awesome. Major League Baseball is an incredible family to be a part of. So, I mean, the… Surprises, I really wouldn’t use that word. There were, you know, just after a while, does it become a job? Well, sure. There’s certain aspects of it, but the best way I can put it is this. The amount of money we make very good livings, and we’re very blessed. Umpiring is the easy part. When we walk on the field, it’s the easy part. They don’t pay us to umpire. We love umpiring. What they pay me to do, they pay me to leave my family. They pay me to miss birthdays. They pay me to miss, you know, milestones in my family. They… Whether it be my grandparents’ anniversary and I, you know, I, it doesn’t fall on a vacation week for me. To me, that’s the sacrifice that we make. But the umpiring, the game itself, you know, the challenge of going out there and doing a good job and getting your plays right, being in the right position, they… I love that. I love every aspect of it. But the money that I make is because I have four kids at home and they pay me to leave them to go do my job.

Larry Baldassaro: That’s an interesting way to look at it, yeah. Well, when you did first come up, did the managers or, and/or players kind of test you, if you know what I mean, to see-

Dan Bellino: Absolutely

Larry Baldassaro: How… In what way? How’d that happen?

Dan Bellino: No different than players. You know, when you’re new, they kind of push the envelope. They wanna see how much, you’ll take…. G.U. See, okay, does this guy have a, you know, a quick temper or short temper? Does this guy break the yell back? Does he yell back quickly? You know, I mean, I would say that the testing is probably the first five years of your career, you’re establishing your reputation.

Larry Baldassaro: Oh, for five years. Wow.

Dan Bellino: You know, I think it’s about five years, and that’s… I would say five years is probably a good way to look at it, because you don’t see everybody that often. So, you know, it’s about five years, and people start to get to know you. And once they get to know you and they understand you, and they understand you’re not somebody that… You know, you care about your mistakes, you care about doing a good job, you care about representing the game, and integrity will not be compromised. You know, I’m very matter-of-fact when it comes to doing my business. I wanna go out there, you know, work as hard as I can, leave it on the field. And after the game’s over, listen, we’re all human beings. We’re all fathers. I mean, you’ve seen in the paper, there’s been tragedies this off season. I mean, young kids making tragic mistakes and accidents and losing their lives, and life is too fragile. So, you know, from my perspective, I think that you get to know a lot of these players, and these players get to know you. The managers get to know you. And, you know, for example, when I came up as a fill-in, Joe Torre was the manager of the Dodgers. And so my first interaction with Joe Torre was as the manager of the Dodgers. And I umpired games with him. Well, it just so happened that Joe Torre, you know, another great Italian American he took a job at the end of 2010. He took a job in the commissioner’s office in which he took over the umpiring department. So, I was hired full-time by Joe Torre. So, one of the first things Joe Torre did was hire me, which, you know, I’d like to think that the experience that he had with me on the field, you know, he understood that I went out there, I worked very hard, and did my best, and, you know, carried myself in a way that he knew that he… I would never embarrass Major League Baseball. But, you know, it’s pretty awesome for me to say that a Hall of Fame manager, Joe Torre, is the one who hired me, you know, to be a Major League umpire right after he was a manager. It was, like, one of the first things he did. And he said to me, he goes, “One of the first things I ever did when I took the job was hire you.” I said, “All right. I’ll never let you down.”

Larry Baldassaro: That’s quite a tribute. It really is.

Dan Bellino: Yeah.

Larry Baldassaro: Were there… And I don’t know if you wanna answer this question, but were there particular managers or players who test you do more than others?

Dan Bellino: There always will be. I don’t… Larry, I never say something negative about you know, j- ’cause players are competitive, they’re competing. You know, managers are competing. They’re under a lot of pressure. And it’s our job to be that calming influence, to be that neutral voice, to, you know, enforce the rules. And, you know, if you’re talking to a lot of players, I want you to put this in your mind, ’cause this has really… It’s changed the way that I’ve umpired. There’s two things I look at. Number one, I was always told, “Umpire as though my kids are sitting in the front row watching me.” So that everything I do, I don’t ever want them to be embarrassed of me. You know, that’s one thing. The second aspect that I take when it comes to umpiring is, players nowadays, you know, they’re making tremendous livings. They’re under huge scrutiny. The managers are under incredible pressure. And we are the only people in their lives that really tell them no.

Larry Baldassaro: That’s right.

Dan Bellino: So, you know, you have to kinda appreciate the fact that these guys are… They’re surrounded by people that tell them yes to everything. So, I expect them, at times, to not like to be told no.

Larry Baldassaro: Of course.

Dan Bellino: I expect them to be upset. And, you know, it’s just human nature. I understand my role. I understand, you know, my part of the game. [inaudible] So, these guys are competing. And when you see them make incredible plays and you see them do something, I mean, there’s some times you just shake your head. You go, “I don’t know how the heck he did that.” But that’s why they’re Major League Ballplayers. And likewise, I think there’s a lot of people that, you know, from an umpiring perspective, they say, “Man, I don’t know how that umpire was where he was.” Well, that’s why we’re Major League umpires. You know? There’s a reason that being on that field with Nolan was. Being on that field is… It is… Gotta work on a Major League field. There’s no doubt about it.

Larry Baldassaro: Yeah. Do you think… Is there something or more than one thing you think that, let’s say, the ordinary fan just doesn’t know about umpires and what they do?

Dan Bellino: I don’t think that ordinary fans have any idea or appreciation for the amount of scrutiny that we put on ourselves. Office. Every pitch that we call is tracked and graded. Every play that we make is tracked and graded. And at the end of each season, we’re given evaluations. We’re given a mid-season and an end-of-season evaluation, and they track all of our calls. Any signal we make, you play a ball fair or foul, they can look at the video and it’s sent to us. So, we are graded at such a high level that the most disappointing thing to me is, you know, and I don’t watch SportsCenter. I don’t, I really don’t. I don’t… If I watch a game, I don’t listen to the announcers. It’s just… When you hear announcers say, “Oh, he, you know, he made that call. It’s a makeup call,” or, “Oh, he made that call because he must have dinner reservations,” or, “He just wanted to get out of your face.” That’s not true, because I can tell you, if I make a mistake, it’s rated against me. And at the end of the year, my mistakes are tallied. So, if I miss one call, and the theory of a makeup call, that doesn’t happen. Now I’ve missed a two call. Now I’ve compounding the problem. So, you know, I think the biggest misconception is people are raised to kinda hate the umpire.

Larry Baldassaro: Of course.

Dan Bellino: But, you know, we’re fathers, and we’re human beings, and, you know, we’re not infallible. We make mistakes. But we are, for the most part, we are really good people. My colleagues are great people. And, you know, we just, we kinda carry ourselves in that way where we don’t expect to be the show. We don’t expect to be the story. We just, you know, we’re privileged to be a part of the game. And at the end of the day, if we’ve done a good job, you know, we’re happy. And, you know, most crews that I’m on, you know, we like to hug after a game, and, you know, you get through it. And we’ve had difficult days, don’t get me wrong. Some days are more challenging than others, and some games are very intense. And when they’re over, it’s a relief. You’re happy. You got through it. It was a tough game, and you did a good job, and you’re proud. And for me, you know, making my parents proud is paramount. And then for all the people that helped me get to this position and working my butt off, those are the people that I continue to try to get better every day for, because I don’t want anyone to ever say they made a mistake in helping me.

Larry Baldassaro: Yeah. Well, Art, as an umpire, you’re now under more scrutiny than ever because of instant replay.

Dan Bellino: No question.

Larry Baldassaro: What do you feel about that whole process?

Dan Bellino: Well, instant replay is, it’s a different animal because it’s somewhat new. So, yeah, I can tell you that since I was in the major leagues only for about five years without instant replay, I feel as though instant replay brings advantages and disadvantages. I think the advantages of instant replay are obviously the days of having an umpire’s career be defined by one missed call are gone. And that is the one true advantage, because there’s a litany of umpires that are defined by one call, whether it be Jim Joyce perfect game call, the Don Denkinger World Series call, the Rich Garcia, Yankees-Baltimore call. There’s all of these calls that unfortunately, a 30-year career, and you’re remembered for one thing. That’s not fair. So, instant replay righted that wrong. The downside of instant replay, obviously, it takes away some of the excitement, in my opinion, because you’ll have a close play at the plate. You’ll call a runner safe or out, and the crowd would erupt. And now it’s like a delayed eruption. Like, the chief says, “Okay, let’s watch the replay.” Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because I can’t have it both ways. I can’t tell you that I don’t wanna be defined by a missed call and not have the ability to fix it. But what it also takes away is it takes away the art of arguing.

Larry Baldassaro: Yeah, exactly.

Dan Bellino: Where- It’s eliminated that manager jogging out and the excitement of the manager arguing. And I really enjoyed the arguments. I enjoyed the dialogue because-

Larry Baldassaro: Everybody does

Dan Bellino: I… Yeah, it was fun at times. And you know what? I’m not gonna sit here and tell you that I won every argument I was in. I mean, my call was my call. But there were times that a manager would get me, and I’d be like, “Man, he’s right.” And you just, you know, you hold your ground, but you acknowledge. You’re like, “I hear what you’re saying.” Like, you know, if I had the ability to go back, I might change my answer. But this is the call I made, and I’m sticking with it. So, you know, that, to me, was, it was like an artist. You know, handling managers, handling players. And ejections haven’t gone down, but now they’re mostly over just ball strikes.

Larry Baldassaro: Yeah. I think fans miss that too. I know I do. It takes away some of the human element of the game, and it also breaks up the rhythm of a game sometimes too. But-

Dan Bellino: Yeah, the true fans side of baseball becoming such a big business is these players are paid so much money, and they want their product on the field. And so the ejection, you know, when you go back and you look at ejections, I mean, obviously there’s… We’ve all ejected somebody maybe a little too soon. A lot of times we’ve ejected them a little too late or not at all. You know, I understand the logic. If you’ve got a superstar and it’s the second inning of a game, and you call him out on a close play, and he gets upset and he says something that’s ejectionable and you eject him, I understand that’s a pretty valuable asset that is not on the field for that team. I get that. And, you know, I don’t ever look at ejecting as being, you know, just an easy conclusion to make. You know, my goal is to try to keep them in the game. If they cross the line, they cross the line. But, you know, I would rather… I would never want to have somebody say, “Oh, the White Sox would have won that game had umpire Bellino not ejected, you know, Abreu.” You know, that’s… I don’t wanna affect the outcome of games. I wanna be impartial. I wanna be fair but firm.

Larry Baldassaro: The assumption, I think, for most people, is that the player, if he says the magic word, that’s kind of automatic. Is that fair to say? Is that true?

Dan Bellino: Yes. If… I wouldn’t call it a magic word. I would call it if they, you know, if they make it personal. And for example, Larry, I can tell you, “Larry, that call was terrible. That call was…” You know, without using the language that’s mostly used, you could read between the lines, “But Larry, that’s bullshit.” You know, “That terrible call.” Versus, “Larry, you suck.” Okay? It’s a very… It’s, clear as day, black and white. Argue the call, argue my position, argue my judgment, argue the decision that I made, but don’t say, “You were lazy,” “You didn’t care.” Or, “You’re just flat-out terrible.” That’s when you say, “No, I won’t put up with personal abuse.” I will definitely defend my call and allow you the opportunity to voice your displeasure. I will definitely do that. But don’t question my integrity, and I won’t question yours, because I realize you’re competing.

Larry Baldassaro: Well, but if you did that, you’d lose their respect too, wouldn’t you? I mean, if they knew they could get away with that.

Dan Bellino: Absolutely. And actually, to take it one step further, and this is what was taught to me by all of my mentors that still to this day, if I stand on the field and somebody was to verbally berate me personal, and they were to take the approach of, “You’re terrible. You don’t deserve to be on this field. You know, you never should be here,” and I just stood there and took it’s not that person’s respect that I just lost. It’s the other 49 players that are sitting around their side. It’s the managers, the coaches, it’s my colleagues, the other three umpires. Those are the people that lose more respect, because the person yelling at me, you know, for them to say those things and do those things, it’s like, okay, they’re in the heat of the moment, but we’ve seen it. I’m sure in your years of being a fan, you’ve seen it where you’re like, “Man, I can’t believe that guy stayed in the game.” And ultimately, you look at the umpire and you’re like, “Why do you let him get away with that?” You know, without knowing what’s being said. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ve had situations, Robin Ventura was a great one. Robin Ventura will love to come out and love to say, “Dan, I think you got this play right, but everybody in this stadium wants to see me, you know, call the bus. So I’m gonna point over at second base, but now I’m gonna point at first base, and now I’m gonna point at you, and then I’m gonna point back at first base, because everybody here needs to think that I’m upset with you, but I’m not.” And that type of thing, you know, and that happens a lot. A lot more than people know. And so it may look like we got yelled at, didn’t do much, but, you know, sometimes you don’t know. And really, I mean, if you ever pull up some of my ejections, I have ejections where I don’t say a word. I just sit there and it’s like, okay. Like, I can see the guy wants to get ejected. You just can tell. He wants to get ejected. He’s trying to fire up his team. Okay, no problem. You have a job to do. Do your job. That’s fine. I have a job to do. Okay.

Larry Baldassaro: And he’s gone.

Dan Bellino: Yeah. It is what it is. I mean, and then, you know, after the game when we shower up and we’re walking out, we see him in the hallway, “Hey, see you tomorrow.”

Larry Baldassaro: Right. Right. Well, you can’t carry it over till the next day, right? I mean, either as an ump or as a player. That’s the worst thing.

Dan Bellino: No. That’s the worst thing. Every day’s a new day. Yeah. You’re in the wrong business, because like I said, you miss a call today- It’s raised against you. You miss a call tomorrow, it’s raised against you. You don’t wanna get in the reputation of missing calls. And you miss a call on purpose, that, to be quite honest with you, in my entire major league career, I’ve never seen anything miss a call on purpose.

Larry Baldassaro: Right. Well, from everything you’ve said, Dan, it sounds to me like you feel now that you made the right decision to become an umpire.

Dan Bellino: Well, it’s easy to say once you’re at the big leagues, Larry.

Larry Baldassaro: Yeah, yeah. That’s what I mean. I mean, with hindsight, yeah.

Dan Bellino: Yeah. In hindsight, I’m a genius. Yeah, there was eight years there where there was a lot of people questioning, like, “What the heck is he doing?”

Larry Baldassaro: Of course.

Dan Bellino: You know, my wife is the one who fielded the majority of the questions because she was a school teacher and, you know, making ends meet wasn’t necessarily the easiest at times. I mean, I worked… When I was in the minor leagues, I worked for a funeral home and part-time I drove, like, the flower car, I drove the hearse. I worked for a funeral home part-time. I refereed basketball. I substitute taught. All these… I had these jobs until I passed the bar. And once I passed the bar, I focused on law. So, you know, for my wife, the people would say to her, “Your husband’s a lawyer and he’s umpiring in the minor leagues and he’s working these side jobs.” And, you know, a lot of people, it didn’t make sense, so he took a lot of the criticism. But as soon as I started working in the big leagues, everybody, you know, saw it right and right, “Oh, he’s a genius.” “What a great job.”

Larry Baldassaro: Do you know of any other umpires who have had law degrees?

Dan Bellino: I don’t.

Larry Baldassaro: Yeah. You know, there have been managers like Tony La Russa, John McGraw. I think there are three or four or five, but I’ve never heard of an umpire. Yeah.

Dan Bellino: No, I don’t… I hesitate to say I’m the first because I honestly don’t know the answer to that.

Larry Baldassaro: But you don’t know of any, right?

Dan Bellino: I don’t know of any, but I venture a guess to say that I probably won’t be the last.

Larry Baldassaro: Yeah. Well-

Dan Bellino: This game rarely has, you know, one of anything.

Larry Baldassaro: Yeah. Well, you know, right now, I’m pretty sure that there are more Italian American umpires in the major leagues at any single time in the past. I mean, there are, what, nine of you now, right? I mean, that’s quite a number compared to what it has been.

Dan Bellino: Yeah. I don’t know if that would be true, though. I mean, you’d have to go back and look because back in the day, there was a lot of Italian umpires.

Larry Baldassaro: Well, there were over time, but I think at any given time, I mean, I look back at this quite a bit and you always see, you know, like Augie Donatelli, you had guys that stood out. But there weren’t a-

Dan Bellino: [inaudible]

Larry Baldassaro: Yeah. But there weren’t a lot of them at one time as there are now, I don’t think, which is good.

Dan Bellino: Well, part of that could be that the staff has expanded. I mean, there’s so many-

Larry Baldassaro: Well, there’s that. Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. But, well, is there anything that, you know, I want readers to learn something about umpiring that they didn’t know, or is there anything else that I haven’t touched on you think that we should about your job or whatever?

Dan Bellino: I would say, the amount of respect that I personally have for those that umpired before me, for the representatives of Major League Baseball who are entrusted to supervise us and to rate us and to develop us into being the best that we could be, I personally have a tremendous amount of respect for the positions that they’re in because this is a really hard field that you’re graded on at the major league level. Everything is on video. It… I would tell if a reader was reading about me, and I don’t think I’ll ever write a book, Larry. I just don’t. That’s not my… It’s not in my nature. I would… When I retire, I wanna go spend time with my family. I wanna go be a… It’s… With all the sacrifices I make as a father, I wanna be, you know, too old to be a grandfather. That’s really what this thing is about. And we sacrifice a lot to do our job, and everybody does. And whether… I don’t care what you do in your life, we all make sacrifices. But what people need to understand is that traveling the country, staying in hotels, and being part of this great game of baseball is a privilege. And for me, I don’t think that will ever change. I don’t think I’ll ever get to the point where I don’t view it as a privilege. I don’t think I’ll ever get to the point where I don’t appreciate the good fortune that I’ve had to be in this position. And if that day were to come, I think that would be my sign, okay, it’s time to retire and go home. I just… I don’t… I… The crazy thing about umpires is that when they retire, it’s usually because their body’s taken a beating. Whether it be too many head blows, you know, the knees, the back. And yeah, I wanna be able to leave with good quality of life.

Larry Baldassaro: Of course.

Dan Bellino: Right. The guys that retire, this year we had four guys retire. I guarantee you, they all four love umpiring. It’s just, you know, they got older. They’re in their 60s and it’s a young man’s game.

Larry Baldassaro: That’s a long time, yeah.

Dan Bellino: Yeah.

Larry Baldassaro: Well, Dan, this has been wonderful. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you taking the time and being so articulate. Very much like my interview with Steve. Just both of you have been terrific. So…

Dan Bellino: Steve is a, Steve is an incredible human being, Larry.

Larry Baldassaro: Yeah, I’m very I mean, I, you know, I’ve followed him, of course, for many, many years, and one of the best known and best Italian American umpires. And for him to come back from what he did is remarkable. Very impressive.

Dan Bellino: Well, let me tell you this. From a young umpire’s, and this isn’t just because I’m Italian, and this isn’t just because he was one of the supervisors that supervised me through the minor leagues into the big leagues. I’m gonna tell you something. And you can, you could tell Steve I said this the next time you talk to him. Steve Palermo had a very short career on the field. But you ask anybody that ever worked with him or worked in that era, and they all say Steve Palermo would have been a Hall of Fame umpire. He was that good. He was that good. He just… Some guys have it, some guys were born to be umpires. Steve was one of them.

Larry Baldassaro: Yep.