Why am I passionate about this?

With 37 years as a professional umpire, the last 32 with MLB, you can’t help but have a ton of stories. The umpire books I recommend have those and more. Funny, entertaining, revealing, and educational, hearing what happened from the person it was happening to give a unique look to America’s pastime. Being the first active male big 5 sports official (Baseball, Football, Basketball, Hockey, Soccer) to come out as gay in 2014, I also understand the added stress that brings and the courage it takes to live your true self on such a big stage.


I wrote

The Umpire Is Out: Calling the Game and Living My True Self

By Dale Scott, Rob Neyer,

Book cover of The Umpire Is Out: Calling the Game and Living My True Self

What is my book about?

You can’t help but have a ton of funny and entertaining stories when you umpire professional baseball for 37 years. …

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of You're Out and You're Ugly, Too! Confessions of an Umpire with Attitude

Dale Scott Why did I love this book?

I had the opportunity to work with Durwood Merrill three consecutive seasons so I know firsthand, the man can tell a story!

You can’t help but be drawn in when reading how Durwood got the umpire bug, quit his job as a high school principal, and follow his improbable dream to become a major league umpire. Then hold on tight, as Durwood’s wild 20+ year ride in MLB will have you laughing for more!

By Durwood Merrill, Jim Dent,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked You're Out and You're Ugly, Too! Confessions of an Umpire with Attitude as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For twenty-one major league seasons, Durwood Merrill has been one of the most colorful characters in baseball. Part John Wayne, part Will Rogers, part Elmer Gantry, this performer has made baseball his stage since he broke into the major leagues in 1976. Like on Luciano in his best-seller, The Umpire Strikes Back, Durwood will share more than two decades of laugh-out loud anecdotes, controversial opinions, and sage advice. He'll make calls on:

Managers: From Lou Pinella to Earl Weaver to Joe Torre, Durwood related tales of his often explosive relationships with top managers of yesterday and today, and the vicious…


Book cover of Center Field on Fire: An Umpire's Life with Pine Tar Bats, Spitballs, and Corked Personalities

Dale Scott Why did I love this book?

Simply put, Dave Phillips has seen it all in his 32 years in Major League Baseball.

From Disco Demolition Night that resulted in a forfeit by the Chicago White Sox, catching famous spitballer Gaylord Perry in the act, to legendary arguments with the likes of Earl Weaver and Billy Martin, Dave was right there in the middle of it. It’s a funny, fascinating, and frank journey of one of the best to ever put on a uniform.

By Dave Phillips, Rob Rains,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Center Field on Fire as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A fascinating personal account of the author's thirty-two-year career as a major league umpire offers an anecdotal history of some of the most outrageous antics and controversial personalities in baseball, both on and off the field.


Book cover of As They See 'em: A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires

Dale Scott Why did I love this book?

The road from umpire school to the major leagues is full of roadblocks and detours, a journey that only a few complete.

Bruce Weber dives into that journey, attending umpire school, traveling with minor league crews, working games himself from little league to big league spring training, and interviewing not only professional umpires but players, managers, and a former commissioner.

It’s a fascinating peak behind the curtain from a fan's point of view.

By Bruce Weber,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked As They See 'em as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A New York Times reporter describes the perspectives he gained into the game of baseball while attending umpire training school and umpiring games firsthand, in an insider fan's account that also draws on the experiences of dozens of professional umpires. 40,000 first printing.


Book cover of One Base at a Time: How I Survived PTSD and Found My Field of Dreams

Dale Scott Why did I love this book?

A different look at the dream of being in the big leagues, this time not from an umpire but the person who puts the field in field of dreams.

David Mellor was a talented player whose aspirations were crushed, literally, after a car struck him in a McDonald’s parking lot. Setbacks, traumas, and unbelievably getting mowed down again by a deranged driver, he unwarily suffered PTSD.

Through it all he persevered to rise up as the Head Groundskeeper of his beloved Boston Red Sox, renowned as one of the best in all of baseball. 

By David R. Mellor,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked One Base at a Time as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Dave Mellor has built one of baseball's most inspirational stories over the last half-century. Anchored by a love for his family and the game, he survived incomprehensible catastrophes and PTSD to become a pioneering ballfield artist and head groundskeeper for Fenway Park."

-Buster Olney, ESPN

On July 10, 1981, David Mellor was just a baseball-crazed kid, a star high school pitcher preparing to go to college and dreaming of one day taking the mound in Fenway Park for his beloved Boston Red Sox. His dream was derailed as he crossed the parking lot of a McDonald's. He heard the racing…


Book cover of Going the Other Way: Lessons from a Life In and Out of Major-league Baseball

Dale Scott Why did I love this book?

The day-to-day pressures as an MLB player are enormous. On the field, off the field, in the clubhouse, it’s nonstop.

Doing all of that while hiding who you are as a gay man, compounds everything. Billy Bean takes you with him, from the best player in little league to making it on a major league roster, all while hiding his true self.

Leaving baseball at his prime after the death of his partner, something he couldn’t tell a soul about, Billy’s story is heartbreaking yet triumphant and helped me when I publicly came out as an active MLB umpire.

By Billy Bean, Chris Bull,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Going the Other Way as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Billy Bean is the first major league baseball player to publicly discuss his homosexuality and the first athlete in a professional American team sport to do so since all-pro football player Dave Kopay came out in 1975. By 1996, when Bean retired at age thirty-two from the game he loved after ten years as a pro ballplayer for the Tigers, Dodgers, and Padres, he had become disillusioned by the sport that had defined his life. Bean found himself forced to choose between his love of baseball and the man he loved. It was an agonizing end to a career in…


Explore my book 😀

The Umpire Is Out: Calling the Game and Living My True Self

By Dale Scott, Rob Neyer,

Book cover of The Umpire Is Out: Calling the Game and Living My True Self

What is my book about?

You can’t help but have a ton of funny and entertaining stories when you umpire professional baseball for 37 years. From Billy Martin’s last ejection to having a secret service umpire in the World Series, Dale Scott’s career on the diamond (1981-2017) has it all. But there’s another story that’s unique only to him. 

A personal journey from hiding who you are and living a double life, to coming full circle and being the first active male official in the big 5 sports to publicly come out. A fascinating career and a pioneer for the LGBTQ community.

Book cover of You're Out and You're Ugly, Too! Confessions of an Umpire with Attitude
Book cover of Center Field on Fire: An Umpire's Life with Pine Tar Bats, Spitballs, and Corked Personalities
Book cover of As They See 'em: A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires

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Grand Old Unraveling: The Republican Party, Donald Trump, and the Rise of Authoritarianism

By John Kenneth White,

Book cover of Grand Old Unraveling: The Republican Party, Donald Trump, and the Rise of Authoritarianism

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Why am I passionate about this?

Reading was a childhood passion of mine. My mother was a librarian and got me interested in reading early in life. When John F. Kennedy was running for president and after his assassination, I became intensely interested in politics. In addition to reading history and political biographies, I consumed newspapers and television news. It is this background that I have drawn upon over the decades that has added value to my research.

John's book list on who we are, how we’ve changed, and what gives us hope

What is my book about?

It didn’t begin with Donald Trump. When the Republican Party lost five straight presidential elections during the 1930s and 1940s, three things happened: (1) Republicans came to believe that presidential elections are rigged; (2) Conspiracy theories arose and were believed; and (3) The presidency was elevated to cult-like status.

Long before Trump, each of these phenomena grew in importance. The John Birch Society and McCarthyism became powerful forces; Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first “personal president” to rise above the party; and the development of what Harry Truman called “the big lie,” where outrageous falsehoods came to be believed. Trump…

Grand Old Unraveling: The Republican Party, Donald Trump, and the Rise of Authoritarianism

By John Kenneth White,

What is this book about?

It didn't begin with Donald Trump. The unraveling of the Grand Old Party has been decades in the making. Since the time of FDR, the Republican Party has been home to conspiracy thinking, including a belief that lost elections were rigged. And when Republicans later won the White House, the party elevated their presidents to heroic status-a predisposition that eventually posed a threat to democracy. Building on his esteemed 2016 book, What Happened to the Republican Party?, John Kenneth White proposes to explain why this happened-not just the election of Trump but the authoritarian shift in the party as a…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in MLB, baseball, and PTSD?

MLB 33 books
Baseball 177 books
PTSD 106 books