Allen Sanford Forman (July 7, 1928 – November 23, 2013) was a professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

. Forman worked in the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

from 1961 to 1965. He also served as a replacement umpire in the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

in 1978 and 1979 for a total of four games. Forman umpired 778 major league games in his seven-year career. He also umpired in the 1962 MLB All-Star Game.Retrosheet
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Early life

Forman served as a parachute rigger in the Navy and was stationed in Norfolk. While in the military, Forman umpired his first baseball game. Upon his discharge in 1954, he attended

Fairleigh Dickinson University Fairleigh Dickinson University is a private university with its main campuses in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Founded in 1942, Fairleigh Dickinson University currently offers more than 100 degree programs to its students. In addition to its tw ...

for two years and then completed the Al Somers Umpire School in 1956.

Umpiring career

Forman umpired in the

Florida State League The Florida State League (FSL) is a Minor League Baseball league based in the state of Florida. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 until its demotion to Single-A following ...

Northwest League The Northwest League is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Pacific Northwest, Northwestern United States and Western Canada. A Class A Short Season league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Maj ...

Texas League The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...

and

International League The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Baseball ...

before his major league promotion. He worked in the National League from 1961 through 1965. League officials elected not to renew Forman's contract for the 1966 season, saying simply that "we thought someone else could do a better job." For brief work stoppages in 1978 and 1979, Forman was a fill-in umpire. In his only game in 1978, he ejected Oakland's Dave Revering after Revering threw a helmet while disputing a call. Forman umpired three games in 1979. By this time, Forman's umpiring work was in the

Eastern College Athletic Conference The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) is a college athletic conference comprising schools that compete in 15 sports (13 men's and 13 women's). It has 220 member institutions in NCAA Divisions I, II, and III, ranging in location fro ...

and he worked full-time in sales for a distillery.

Notable games

Forman was the second base umpire for the Los Angeles-San Francisco game on August 22, 1965, when

Juan Marichal Juan Antonio Marichal Sánchez (born October 20, 1937), nicknamed "the Dominican Dandy", is a Dominican former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for three teams from 1960 to 1975, almost entirely the San Francisco Giant ...

struck Johnny Roseboro with a baseball bat. Forman had been behind the plate two days prior, when Marichal said that he was threatened by Roseboro. Marichal claimed that Forman had overheard the threatening statements.

Later life

As of 2010, Forman was still involved with baseball, evaluating umpires in the

Coastal Plain League The Coastal Plain League (CPL) is a wood-bat collegiate summer baseball league, featuring college players recruited from throughout the nation. The league takes its name from the Class D level Coastal League which operated in the area from 19 ...

. He died in 2013.Allen Sanford Forman obituary
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References

External links

Sporting News umpire cardThe Baseball Cube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forman, Al 1928 births 2013 deaths Major League Baseball umpires Sportspeople from Morris County, New Jersey Fairleigh Dickinson University alumni