Thugs.

This may help explain why the Union fights back when MLB asks for urine tests:

"MLB asked umpires to sign authorizations allowing the sport to conduct financial backgrounds checks, but umps balked.

'We did not anticipate that they would approach neighbors posing as a close colleague and friend of the umpire's and asking them questions such as: Do you know if umpire "X" is a member of the Ku Klux Klan? Does he grow marijuana plants? Does he beat his wife? Have you seen the police at his home? Does he throw wild parties?'"

There ought to be an Umpire "X." Wears a mask to hide his identity. Cuts off a manager's body part if the manager argues with him too much. "The Abominable Umpire X."

"'To try to link our umpires to the Ku Klux Klan is highly offensive. It is essentially defaming the umpires in their communities by conducting a very strange and poorly executed investigation. It resembles kind of secret police in some kind of despotic nation.'"

Also, the Union is legally obligated to fight back.