Baseball is pathetic as hell today which is why I rarely watch it. Like you, I too grew up in the `60`s and I can`t ever remember crap like that happening.. Hitting an umpire would be like hitting your mother, impossible to imagine. It`s all effin huge egos today. Matter of fact when I was in little league without fail they would always let our entire team sit in the front seats whether is was Shea or Yankee stadium even though we had the bleacher seats. Then the players would come over and talk with us and give us autographs which was absolutely absolutely mind blowing for a kid. The guys whose card you flipped for on the playground was right there in the flesh asking you what position you played! Unreal, it was like meeting God almighty! To this day I still have Tom Seavers Bud Harrelson Tug McGraws autographs. I had some of the Yankees as well, Bobby Murcer, Roy White, even Thurmon Munson (but this kid ripped those off from me. Grrr!) Today the players don`t even give spit about the kids, the little leaguers are always in the bleachers. I went to a few home games a few years ago and it was pathetic as hell, all those front seats bought up by corporations and guarded off even though they were completely empty to pay a-holes like A-hole-Rod his $20 billion bucks lest he skip town which they end up doing anyway. "Oh I am retiring" Then the pricks are playing with some other team in between steroids. "Oh he broke a new record..Never mind his new caveman pockmarked visage" Eff them all. They`re all a bunch of quasi homos completely self absorbed more obsessed with fashion than they ever will be about any fan.
Hmmmmmm... go back another 50 years or more and you'll find that old time baseball umpires were despised and they were commonly beaten by players and fans alike.