Elliott: Boston's Kevin Gregg carrying on a family tradition
Kevin Gregg, vice president of media relations for the Boston Red Sox, shows Eduardo Nunez around.
By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network
Basketball Canada coach Jack Donohue used to say few people knew in grade 9 what they wanted to do in life and then grow up to live their dream.
When Donohue coached at Power Memorial High School in Manhattan, Lewis Alcindor was his centre and John McSherry was his student manager. Alcindor went on to UCLA, the NBA and become Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. A young McSherry wanted to be either an NBA referee or a major-league umpire, which he was 26 years until his death in 1996.
A young Kevin Gregg knew early what he wanted to be when he grew up. Kevin left his Philadelphia home to accompany his father, umpire Eric Gregg, on an Atlanta-New York-Montreal trip. While pop was on the field calling balls and strikes or making out or safe calls, nine-year-old Kevin could do whatever he wanted.
Sit in the seat and watch dad as well as the game, while spending the $20 bill pop had given him. Or roam the stadium on his own. Or stay in the umpire’s room. Or head to the batting cage and toss the ball around.
“I knew from that trip ... I wanted to be in baseball, I wanted to play ball or work in baseball,” said Kevin, this week at the Rogers Centre. “I was on my own (during games), it was like my baseball vacation. Baseball was my whole world.”
Kevin, 38, is now vice president of media relations for the Boston Red Sox, runaway best team in the majors. As a youngster Kevin played third base and second base in high school and was on the James Madison University club team as well. He spent four seasons working for the Philadelphia 76ers during and after college. From 2007 he worked six seasons for the Philadelphia Phillies in the communications department following in the footsteps of Larry (The Baron) Shenk and Greg Casterioto. And in 2013 he was hired by the Red Sox.
Sometimes he’d watch his father make a call and then he’d hear the home fans boo.
“I know fans are there to cheer for their team, see them win,” Kevin said. “You’d turn around to see grownups and you’d want to say something ... but you can’t.”
That was never a problem at Veterans Stadium as fans “would start to boo and someone would say ‘Hey, wait a sec, he’s from Philly.’” Fans had also seen Gregg dance with the Phillie Phanatic between innings.
Kevin’s world included trips to Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego and Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
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Kevin Gregg was in the seats with his mom Ramona, his aunt Karen, along with grandparents, Dorothy and Earnest Gregg, before Game 3 of the 1989 World Series at Candlestick. Eric met Romona when he was umping winter ball in the Dominican Republic in 1974.
Less than half an hour to the first pitch the Loma Prieta earthquake struck at 5:04 p.m. west coast time. The six-man umpiring crew -- Vic Voltaggio, Dutch Rennert, Al Clark, Richie Garcia, Paul Runge and Gregg -- was in the ump’s room down the right field line. I was there that night in the football press box behind third base and I’d forgotten what happened next until Kevin re-told the story. Eric Gregg was supposed to work third base that night.
“The metal arm rests on my seat were shaking,” Kevin said. “The moment the quake stopped, fans in the crowd began to cheer, that’s when my mother began to cry.” Security ushered the umpires families onto the field.
The TVs in the football press box looked like speed bags in a boxing gym, but thankfully none of them fell.
The umpires bolted for downtown San Francisco where power was off in many hotels. Eric Gregg grabbed the entire post-game spread for his family. So, as the Gregg car inched along the freeway, the family was able to grab a snack.
Eric Gregg’s close friends among the umpiring ranks included contemporaries Joe West, Terry Tata, Tom Hallion, Jerry Crawford, John Kibler and Frank Pulli. Fact is, Eric Gregg was well liked by umpires, players, coaches and managers. A good human being.
We ran into him a few nights after games on the road or in Montreal. We recall one night after a game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. We had diner, drinks and discussed our battles with weight: 50 pounds lost to Weight Watchers for me, how I found them, 40 pounds lost on the Atkins Diet and how I found them.
Gregg, whose nickname was Groceries, was sent to the weight-loss clinic at Duke University and came out as “half a missing person,” as one Philadelphia scribe wrote. We don’t recall if it was the same guy who noted, “Groceries not to worry ... your pals are baking you a file with a cake baked inside.”
David Ortiz shows GM David Dombrowski and Kevin Gregg where he used to hit them.
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John McSherry collapsed and died of a massive coronary a few feet from home plate on Opening Day, April 1, 1996 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. The Blue Jays were in Las Vegas since the Oakland A’s stadium was under construction. I remember telling Denny Walling the news and how he broke into tears. Plus my son calling and asking “Dad did you know Mr. McSherry? TSN is showing his death every 20 minutes like it is Wayne Gretzky’s 500th goal.”
Reds owner Marge Schott was upset that her Opening Day against the Montreal Exposs telling reporters “First snow in the morning and now this.” She also re-gifted a bouquet of flowers to the umpire’s room the next day.
Eric Gregg wept at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Roman Catholic Church in the Bronx for the funeral of good friend McSherry. Gregg was one of more than a dozen umps who showed including Ed Montague, McSherry’s crew of Jerry Crawford, Steve Rippley and Tom Hallion, as well as American League umpires Dave Phillips and Don Denkinger. McSherry was buried at Gates of Heaven Cemetery in Valhalla, N.Y., where Babe Ruth and Billy Martin are interred.
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Blue Jays coach Mike Mordecai was at class-A Durham in the Atlanta Braves system later that season when someone pointed out that was Eric Gregg -- major-league ump -- was standing down the foul line watching the game. Mordecai spent 12 years in the majors, all in the NL with the Montreal Expos, Florida Marlins and the Braves.
“Eric always liked to have fun with our coaches,” said Mordecai who had some fun himself. First some back ground: Mordecai pinch hit for John Smoltz with the Braves losing 5-1 in the seventh playing the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick in July of 1996. Shawn Estes threw the first pitch fastball down the pipe and plate ump Charlie Williams called it a ball.
“Giants catcher Tom Lampkin said ‘C’mon man, that’s a strike,’” Mordecai said. “Charlie replied, ‘I blinked, I blinked, I can’t call what I don’t see. I’m sorry.’ I kept my head down.”
Mordecai struck out but any time he saw Gregg he would ask him if he ever blinked on pitches “Eric would raise his voice and say ‘Eric Gregg doesn’t blink.’”
Eric Gregg worked the plate in Game 5 of the 1997 National League Championship Series, which was deadlocked as the Braves played the Florida Marlins at Pro Player Stadium. Greg Maddux fanned nine in seven innings, while Livan Hernandez fanned 15 in the complete-game 2-1 win. Mordeci was in the Atlanta dugout and remembers Fred McGriff returning to the dugout and telling manager Bobby Cox “I can’t reach those pitches.”
One season Gregg was working third base at Busch Stadium on the Cardinals final day of the season. Cardinals trainer Gene Gieselmann took a cheeseburger and gave it to infielder Tom Lawless to place on the third base bag as St. Louis took the field. Plate ump John Kibler was in on the gag would not start the game, pointing to Gregg that something was on third. Gregg, ran over, picked up the burger, laughed and pretended to take a bite out of it.
Red Sox first base coach Tom Goodwin spent 14 years in the majors, including five with the Los Angeles Dodgers, two with the Chicago Cubs, one with the Colorado Rockies and one with the Giants.
“Eric Gregg was one of the first umpires I ever got to know,” said Goodwin, who early in spring training asked Lanny Harris if Gregg was an umpire he could talk to.
“The ball comes in high, Eric calls it strike one,” Goodwin said. “I have my head down, wearing my double ear flaps and No. 72 and whispered, ‘Was that ball high?’”
Gregg responded with: “When you are wearing a number as high as 72 you should be swinging and you should be swinging on the next pitch.”
Goodwin described Gregg as a “gentle giant.”
What about a pitcher’s view? “Eric was consistent but not my style of umpire,” said one former NL veteran. “He didn’t always give the lower part of the zone. He was good inside and outside. Consistency was the key.”
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After Eric Gregg retired he would bar tend at the Chickie’s and Pete’s -- famous for their crab fries at Citizens Bank Park. Gregg was hired to serve beers and being a wonderful story teller, he told stories to Philly fans.
Eric Gregg in an add from the Phillies program.
Yet, after he retired in 1999, it became “too difficult” to watch games on TV.
Besides Kevin, the Gregg’s had two sons: Eric, Jr. 39 and Jamie, 31 and a daughter Ashley Gabrielle named for Ashley Abbott of the soap opera The Young and the Restless. Eric was a big fan of the day-time series even appearing a few times as an extra. Once he was arrested for being a pimp and another time he was buying a ticket at the window. He had one $6 cheque framed.
“My father grew up in poverty in Southwest Philly and accomplished a lot, he met Presidents,” said Kevin. His father met President Ronald Reagan and President George H. W. Bush before their respective first-pitch ceremonies.
Eric Gregg passed in 2006 at age 55.
Recently Kevin Gregg received an autographed ball from April 15, 1977 when the Dodgers played the New York Mets at Shea Stadium to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the colour barrier. His father had worked the plate, marked the date, the teams and signed it. Someone else had the ball and thought it should belong to Kevin.
“When he was younger my father would say, ‘Some day I’m going to be on TV,’” Kevin recalled, “And my grandmother would say: ‘The only way you will be on TV is if I pick you up and set down your butt on the top of the TV.”
Eric Gregg knew what he wanted to be at an early age.