Planet of the Umps: A Baseball Life from Behind the Plate

For twenty-five years, Ken Kaiser was the most colorful umpire in the major leagues. Planet of the Umps is his sidesplitting tale of life behind the plate.

"Two things nobody wants to grow up to be are an umpire and broke. Thanks to my career in baseball, I got both."

After calling balls, strikes, and outs for thirty-six baseball seasons and more than three thousand major-league games, umpire Ken Kaiser finally called it a career. From the first day he hit a minor-league catcher with a pool...