Dale Scott reached a life-altering decision after he was struck by a foul tip in April 2017. (Fred Thornhill/The Canadian Press via AP)
For veteran baseball umpire Dale Scott, the possibility of suffering another concussion just isn’t worth the risk anymore.
Scott, who missed the rest of the 2017 season after a foul ball off the bat of Baltimore’s Mark Trumbo struck him in the face mask in April, told the Associated Press of his decision. The concussion was his second in nine months and fourth in five years. It was a wake-up call as he underwent treatment for head, neck and shoulder injuries.
“It was pretty easy,” he said of his decision. “I wasn’t planning on this year being the last one, but I thought this is a sign.”
Like many people, Scott has new awareness of the long-term dangers of repeated hits to the head and concussions, which can lead to cognitive disorders and chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
“[Doctors] said, ‘We just don’t know,’ ” Scott said, “but they told me that the more times you get hit, the more probability that you’ll have issues.”
Scott, 58, spent half his career as a crew chief and worked 3,897 regular-season games as well as three World Series, three All-Star Games and 91 postseason games. Scott may be best known, though, for a decision he made in 2014, when he revealed that he is gay in an interview with Referee magazine that contained a photo of his husband.
“My thought process was,” Scott told Outsports, “that there’s a story about my career and how I got started in umpiring and they’re talking to people I have known since junior high and it didn’t seem right to have a whole story and pictures without a picture of Mike and I, someone who’s been with me through this entire process. We met the October after my first year in the big leagues.
“Obviously, when I sent that picture to Jeff, I knew exactly what it meant. In a small way, this was opening that door in a publication that wasn’t going to be circulated nationwide. It could be picked up, but it’s not Time magazine. I made that decision to go ahead and do it because I felt it was the right thing to do.
“I realized that it could open a Pandora’s box, but this is not a surprise to Major League Baseball, the people I work for. It’s not a surprise to the umpire staff. Until Mike and I got married last November, he was my same-sex domestic partner and had his own MLB I.D., and was on my insurance policy.
Scott and Michael Rausch have been together since 1986 and were married in 2013. Spending more time with his husband near their Portland, Ore., home was another factor in his decision to retire. He is healthy and hopes that sharing his experience with concussions helps other umpires. Baseball offers long-term disability for those who cannot work because of concussions and other injuries, but Scott worried about what happens after umps clear concussion protocol and return to work.
“That needs to be addressed,” he said. “Maybe my situation can be a catalyst for that.”
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