Kenny Kaiser

Major League Baseball umpire who spent 13 years in the minor leagues...and who is the only umpire to be fined ($25) by a league president (George McDonald, of the Florida State League) before his first game. That was for getting in a billiard room-brawl against a guy who turned out to be the catcher for the Cardinals' farm club; Kenny actually hit him over the head with the pool table, after the other fellow cracked Kaiser's rib with a cue. At the age of 19, Kenny was hired by the (Class D) Western Carolina League...which was so notoriously tough on umpires that, once, its entire staff quit on the same day. Kaiser's first day in that league was the closest he ever came to being killed. The man Kenny was to work with that season was a 6'10", 275-pound fellow; it certainly didn't help that said man carried a chip on his shoulder almost as big as Kaiser himself. (Let's call him Goliath) Kenny and Goliath worked their first game at Greenville, South Carolina; at the pregame meeting, Goliat