They've been here before, of course. As boys, Jim and Randy Wolf would tape a square to the garage door and try to fire Wiffle balls past each other.

Merciless and seven years older than his redheaded little brother, Jim would dominate.

"That's a strike," he'd say.

"No way," the hot-tempered little brother would bark.

"On the tape."

"You're crazy."

Brothers playing ball. Brothers arguing. Brothers sharing dreams. Brothers experiencing life's joys and enduring its hardships. Brothers being brothers.

Tonight, Jim and Randy Wolf will be together again. It won't be on a driveway in Southern California, though. It will be under the bright lights of Citizens Bank Park.

Randy Wolf, riding an emotional high after his four-hit shutout of the Montreal Expos on Saturday, will pitch for the Phillies against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Jim Wolf, still euphoric after earning a full-time major-league umpire's job two weeks ago, will work third base.

And what will be going through the two brothers' minds as they step on the field?

"I'll be worried about how to get Richie Sexson out," Randy said a few days

ago, before the Arizona slugger went on the disabled list.

"I'll be thinking, 'What are the ground rules here?' " Jim said.

Hey, the script about how the two Wolf boys made it to the big leagues might be right out of a Disney movie, but they are professionals, you know.

�

Randy Wolf, 27, arrived in the big leagues in 1999 after a meteoric rise through the Phillies' system.

For Jim Wolf, 34, the journey was more arduous. He spent 10 years in the minor leagues, living out of rental cars and suitcases, eating fast food on the run and learning that there are no shortcuts in the Texas League, where the drives between cities can be as long as 15 hours.

There were times when he wondered if it was worth it, if he'd ever make it to the majors.

"Becoming a major-league umpire is like becoming a Supreme Court justice," Randy Wolf said. "There are only so many jobs."

Sixty-eight to be exact.

While technically a triple-A umpire, Jim Wolf spent most of the last three seasons working in the majors as a fill-in for vacationing regulars.

He began this season with a fill-in assignment when the phone rang in his Arlington, Texas, hotel room. It was Sandy Alderson, Major League Baseball's executive vice president, calling to tell Jim that he'd been selected for a full-time position, succeeding Mark Hirschbeck, who had retired with an injury.

To say Jim Wolf was excited would be an understatement. He still remembers the time that Alderson called - 9:41 a.m.

Jim called his mother, Judy. She cried.

Later, he called his only brother.

The moment stirred familiar emotions for Randy, bringing him back to when he was called to the majors by the Phillies in 1999.

"I think Jim had a tough time communicating what he was feeling," Randy said. "I was able to understand. It's almost a surreal feeling - the thing you want so badly and worked toward for so long is finally there.

"I'm extremely proud of him. The road for an umpire is not an easy one."

There was one person who didn't get a phone call on April 9, the day Jim Wolf got his full-time appointment.

Jim Wolf Sr. died of a heart attack in March 1994, way too young at age 56.

"My father was one of those guys who never said, 'Later,' who never put things off," Jim Wolf said Wednesday during an interview in Pittsburgh, where he was umpiring a series between the Pirates and the Houston Astros.

"He always had time to play catch or throw you batting practice. He even rebuilt the engine on a car of mine."

In February 1994, when Jim Wolf returned from five weeks of umpire school in Florida, he was picked up at the airport by his father, mother and Randy.

"Well," Jim deadpanned when he got into the car. "It was tough. Can you believe they only take 10 guys out of 150" to an umpire development program?

There was silence in the car.

"And I'm one of them!"

The silence turned to cheers.

"My dad nearly jumped out of his shoes," Jim said.

Less than two months later, Jim was in Florida, in his first weeks as a minor-league umpire. He called home one night and spoke to his family. He said the usual goodbyes to his father. Before hanging up the phone, the elder Jim Wolf said two words to his son.

"Kick ass."

To the Wolf boys, losing their father was traumatic. With the help of their mother, they pressed on - Randy as the high school pitcher who would star at Pepperdine, and Jim, the former junior-college catcher who became an umpire.

"My dad's death brought us closer together," Randy Wolf said. "It was Jim's first year umpiring, and I remember thinking, 'He's got to do this. This is right.'

"For both of us, it was a fork in the road. We could either have gone the right way or the wrong way. I think we both felt obligated to try to do things right after that."

Judy Wolf will not be in Philadelphia for this weekend's series, but she will see her sons work on the same field in August at Dodger Stadium.

As for Dad?

"I believe he is in heaven looking down on us," Jim said. "I know he's proud. Randy and I have always tried to celebrate his life. He wanted us to be happy and successful. Us being two big-leaguers is icing on the cake."

�

The Wolfs are not the first set of brothers to umpire and play in the majors at the same time. Tom Haller was a National League catcher in the 1960s and 1970s while his brother, Bill, was an umpire.

There are cynics who say Jim Wolf should never umpire a Phillies game, at least while Randy is playing for them. Others have gone even further. Last year, Florida Marlins pitcher Mark Redman insinuated that it wasn't right to have Jim Wolf umpire a Marlins game because they were battling the Phillies for the NL wild card.

Major League Baseball officials, such as Alderson, and respected managers, such as St. Louis' Tony La Russa, dismissed Redman's comments, said they were inappropriate, and sided with Jim Wolf while speaking glowingly about his character and umpiring skill.

Jim Wolf bristles at the perceptions of critics, but he knows they probably won't go away.

"If our society thinks an umpire - any umpire - would cheat," he said, "that's sad. It's embarrassing to be associated with a society that would even think that way.

"When you make a call, you don't have time to think who's it for. They have replay now. If I get calls wrong, shame on me.

"I'll always fight it. There will always be someone out there looking for controversy. But they don't care about me or the game. I just want to get the call right."

If anything, Jim Wolf wondered if having a brother in the majors would work against his getting a full-time appointment. He confided those worries to his mother and his brother.

"I look at things through the glasses of common sense," Randy said. "I didn't think there was any way [baseball] would prevent him because of me. As soon as you meet him and watch him work, you know he belongs here."

Tom Lepperd, baseball's director of umpire administration, agreed.

"We want the best people on the field, and Jim is one of them," Lepperd said.

The only stipulation baseball has given Jim Wolf is that he not umpire the plate when his brother pitches. It's baseball's way of preempting any potential headaches.

"It's probably better off for everyone," Jim said with a shrug. "There's no fuel for the media. If I'm behind the plate, I can't win. I could have the best game of my life and still get second-guessed."

�

Jim Wolf first umpired a Phillies game in 1999 in San Francisco. Randy was idle that day. Grudgingly, at Randy's behest, Jim posed for a picture with his brother before the game.

"He was so funny," Randy remembered. "He didn't want to do it. He was so uncomfortable. He didn't want to fraternize. I was like, 'Dude, it's just a picture.' "

Today, that picture hangs in their mother's home.

There will be no pictures tonight. Randy is on the mound. Jim is just another man in blue. There might be time for lunch and brother talk tomorrow. But tonight, it's all business, just like those driveway Wiffle ball games.

"I'll be blind to it all [tonight]," Randy Wolf said. "But maybe Saturday, I'll sit in the dugout and think, 'This is awesome. This is really cool.' "

article from: philly.com