Colorful ex-ump Kaiser dies at 72

Former major-league umpire Ken Kaiser, a colorful figure between the lines who briefly moonlighted as a professional wrestler to make ends meet while working in the minor leagues, has died. He was 72.

The World Umpires Association said Thursday he died in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y., on Tuesday. Kaiser had diabetes for years.

An American League umpire from 1977-99, Kaiser umped two World Series, one All-Star Game and several playoff series.

The 6-foot-3 Kaiser, who weighed just under 300 pounds, wrote in his 2003 book, “Planet of the Umps: A Baseball Life from behind the Plate,” that when he graduated from high school in 1964 his “long-range plan was lunch.” He often was criticized for his portly physique during the more than 3,000 big-league games he umpired.

Former White Sox announcer Jimmy Piersall once called him “a gutless, lazy whale,” while fellow former umpire and mentor Ron Luciano said Kaiser was “like a barrel on which two arms had been stuck on backwards.”

In his book, Kaiser wrote of his decade in the minor leagues and offseason jobs that included bar bouncer, bank teller and that short stint as the wrestler dubbed “Hatchet Man.”

In 1986, Kaiser was voted the American League’s most colorful umpire in a poll conducted by The Sporting News.

Kaiser’s umpiring career ended when he joined a group of umpires who submitted their resignations in 1999 during labor negotiations, a gamble by the Major League Umpires Association that failed. He was not rehired.

Kaiser is survived by two adult children. Funeral plans are incomplete.