Frank Dascoli (December 26, 1913 – August 11, 1990) 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 t ...

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'', ...

who 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 ...

from 1948 to 1961. Dascoli umpired 2,056 major league games in his 14-year career. He umpired in three

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

(

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yug ...

, 1955 and

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

) and two All-Star Games (

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

and

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...

Notable games

Dascoli took criticism for his late-season ejection of

Roy Campanella Roy Campanella (November 19, 1921 – June 26, 1993), nicknamed "Campy", was an American baseball player, primarily as a catcher. The Philadelphia native played in the Negro leagues and Mexican League for nine years before entering the minor lea ...

during a game in the 1951 pennant race. Campanella had thrown down his mitt in protest of a call involving what would be the winning run. If not for the ejection, Campanella would have come back up to bat late in the game with two runners on base. However, the young Dascoli later received support from veteran umpire

Larry Goetz Lawrence John Goetz (February 15, 1895 – October 31, 1962) was a professional baseball umpire. Goetz started umpiring in the Blue Grass League from 1920 to 1922. He also umpired in the Western Ohio League, Piedmont League, and the American ...

. On May 6, 1951, Dascoli was home plate umpire for Cliff Chambers' no-hitter. He was also the first-base umpire in

Harvey Haddix's near-perfect game On May 26, , Harvey Haddix of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitched a perfect game for 12 innings against the Milwaukee Braves, but lost the no-hitter and the game in the 13th inning. The game was played at Milwaukee County Stadium. Haddix' perfect ...

on May 26, 1959. On September 26, 1959, Dascoli halted play due to rain (and then ended the game) after Toothpick Sam Jones pitched seven innings of no-hit baseball against St. Louis.

Dismissal

Dascoli was terminated by league president

Warren Giles Warren Crandall Giles (May 28, 1896 – February 7, 1979) was an American professional baseball executive. Giles spent 33 years in high-level posts in Major League Baseball as club president and general manager of the Cincinnati Reds (1937–1951 ...

in the middle of the 1961 season. The action came after media reports alleged that Dascoli had criticized the president's lack of support for umpires. The same reporter also said that Dascoli was making plans to retire after the season.

References

1913 births 1990 deaths Baseball people from Connecticut Major League Baseball umpires People from Canterbury, Connecticut Sportspeople from Windham County, Connecticut {{US-baseball-umpire-stub

Notable games

Dismissal

See also

References