Longtime MLB umpire Frank Pulli, 78, dies

Longtime major league umpire Frank Pulli, who used instant replay to make a call nearly a decade before video reviews were allowed, has died. He was 78.

"He was ahead of his time," Atlanta Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez, involved in the replay episode, said Thursday night.

Major League Baseball said Pulli died Wednesday in Palm Harbor, Fla., from complications of Parkinson's disease.

Pulli umpired in the National League from 1972-99 and worked four World Series, six NL championship series and two All-Star games.

In the 1978 World Series between the Yankees and Dodgers, Pulli was involved in a call on the bases involving Reggie Jackson.

Pulli was among the 22 umpires who lost their jobs in a failed mass resignation in 1999. He was an MLB umpire supervisor from 2000-07 and charted pitches, helping umps improve their ball-strike calls.

Many young umpires looked at Pulli as a mentor. He also was a pioneer -- not that he intended to be one.

Early in the 1999 season, Cliff Floyd of the Marlins hit a drive against St. Louis that was originally ruled a double. Gonzalez was the Marlins' interim manager and argued. Pulli, the crew chief, changed it to a home run.

That drew a beef from the Cardinals, so Pulli decided to check replays on a TV camera near the Marlins' dugout. The game in Miami was delayed for more than five minutes before Pulli overturned his own call and put Floyd back at second base.

"He called a home run and Tony La Russa came out and said it wasn't a homer," Gonzalez recalled after the Braves' 3-1 win over Cleveland on Thursday. "So he goes and looks at the monitor in the dugout. The main thing was, he got the play right."

In 2008, MLB approved the use of replay on potential home runs.

Gonzalez, then a coach who was filling in as the Marlins' manager while John Boles had neck problems, praised Pulli for his handling of the situation. "What I remember most about that whole thing was he was a total gentleman," Gonzalez recalled. "Here I was, this guy who wasn't even supposed to be managing, and he treated me with respect."

Pulli was part of another noted play during Game 4 of the 1978 World Series. The Dodgers tried to turn an inning-ending double play in the sixth, but a relay throw by second baseman Davey Lopes glanced off Jackson's leg.

A run scored and manager Tom Lasorda argued that Jackson should've been out for interference. Pulli was at first base and allowed the play to stand. The Yankees won in 10 innings, and wrapped up the title in six games.