Everything about Nestor Chylak totally explained
Nestor George Chylak, Jr. (
May 11 1922 -
February 17 1982) was an
American umpire in
Major League Baseball who worked in the
American League from 1954 to 1978.
He was born in
Olyphant,
Pennsylvania of
Ukrainian descent, and attended the
University of Scranton. During
World War II, he served in the
Army in Europe; in the
Battle of the Bulge he was wounded by shrapnel from an exploding shell, an injury which nearly cost him his sight. He earned both the
Silver Star and
Purple Heart during his service. After the war's end, he began umpiring amateur baseball in 1946, and returned briefly to college. He first worked in the minor leagues in 1947, reaching the American League seven years afterward.
He umpired in three
ALCS, including the first one played (
1969,
1972,
1973), serving as crew chief in 1969 and 1973, and in five
World Series (
1957,
1960,
1966,
1971,
1977), serving as the crew chief in 1971 (in which he called balls and strikes in the decisive Game 7) and 1977. He also worked in six
All-Star Games:
1957, 1960 (both games), 1964, 1973 and 1978, calling balls and strikes in the second 1960 game and in 1973. After retiring from the field in 1978, he became an assistant league supervisor of umpires. Among his noteworthy games were
Sandy Koufax's final game in the 1966 Series; "
Ten Cent Beer Night"
(External Link
) in
Cleveland in 1974, where it was necessary for him to declare a forfeit due to constant fighting which spread onto the field and which saw Chylak hit over the head with a chair; and the first major league game ever played in
Toronto in 1977, during a snowstorm at
Exhibition Stadium, for which he was the home plate umpire.
As an assistant league supervisor, Chylak was in the umpires' dressing room at
Comiskey Park on
Disco Demolition Night, a
July 12,
1979 doubleheader between the
Detroit Tigers and
Chicago White Sox. In between games of the doubleheader, when unruly fans began to blow up disco records on the field and rioted, Chylak told White Sox owner
Bill Veeck that under no circumstances would the second game of the doubleheader be played. Veeck protested furiously, but Chylak's decision was upheld by American League president
Lee MacPhail. The next day, MacPhail ordered the second game of the twinbill be forfeited to Detroit.
Chylak died of a heart attack at age 59 in
Dunmore, Pennsylvania and is survived by his wife Sue, his sons Robert and William, and his grandsons and granddaughters Matt, Beth, William Jr, Sarah, Daniel, Joseph, and Nicholas. He was elected to the
Baseball Hall of Fame in
1999.
Quotes
- "I umpired for 25 years and can honestly say I never called one wrong in my heart. The way I see it, an umpire must be perfect on the first day of the season and then get better every day."
- "Ballplayers will cheat under any circumstances if they think they can get away with it. Our job is to prevent it."
- "This must be the only job in America that everybody knows how to do better than the guy who’s doing it."
Further Information
Get more info on 'Nestor Chylak'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://nestor_chylak.totallyexplained.com">Nestor Chylak Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
