LOS ANGELES -- Choking back tears, Tom Hallion said he hated baseball, at least right now.

Bill Hohn said his heart is broken.

And Terry Tata was too overcome with emotion to speak with reporters.

It was quite a scene in Dodger Stadium on Wednesday night after Hallion, Hohn and Tata apparently umpired their final game.

Shortly after Milwaukee's 5-4 victory over Los Angeles was completed, Hallion walked into the umpires' room with his arm around Tata, apparently consoling his crew chief.

Rookie umpire Ron Kulpa, the only one of the Tata's four-man crew who keeps his job, walked with his colleagues into the room in a tightly knit group.

Hallion, Hohn and Tata were three of 22 umpires whose resignations were accepted by baseball in the wake of the union's unsuccessful attempt to try to force an early start to negotiations for a new labor contract.

Twenty-five umpires who were hired by baseball in July will become permanent starting Thursday. Many of them have been vacation fill-ins from the minor leagues.

"I guess devastated would be the only word that I can use to describe my feelings right now," the 42-year-old Hallion said. "If I was to lose my job because of my work and my performance on the field, I could handle that as a human being, as a person and as an umpire.

"But to lose your job and be put in this situation. ... It not only has broken my heart, but it has devastated me as an individual. Right now, I'm sitting here, I just did my last game. This is what I want to do, this is what I love to do. I love baseball. Right now, I hate baseball."

Hallion, whose father died earlier this year, said he "had it on automatic pilot" throughout Wednesday's game.

"My head was so far out of that game because of everything I was thinking," he said.

In addition to saying he has a broken heart, Hohn criticized the American League umpires who rescinded their resignations, cracking the union's solidarity.

"I've put in a lot of effort and energy to be a fine National League umpire," he said. "And to be terminated the way I have been, it's hard to take."

During a pitching change in the eighth inning, Hohn, umpiring at third base, went into a crouch and, staring at the dirt, seemed to be reflecting on the recent events as well as his future.

"I've got one half of my life dedicated in baseball," he said.. "I'm 44 years old. I can't go sell my services anywhere else. I mean, my college education was the minor leagues, and they're going to throw me out at 44?"

Several players as well as Dodgers manager Davey Johnson and Brewers skipper Jim Lefebvre supported the umpires.

"I hate to see it," Johnson said. "They've probably all thrown me out at one time or another, but I know there's a mutual respect. We're going to miss them. They're part of the game, just like (Raul) Mondesi, (Eric) Karros, (Gary) Sheffield.

"I talked to Terry Tata after the game; he said he'd been fired. I told him I'd had three of them. Everybody knows they're giving you the best they've got. The mood was a little somber, we had three in this series, I really like all three."

Brewers third baseman Jeff Cirillo said he could tell the umpires were downcast throughout the three-game series.

"You hope everything gets worked out," Cirillo said. "We're losing a lot of good umpires. The game will be affected.

"There's kind of a consensus here that some of the umpires have been sticking it to us because of Bud Selig. I haven't seen it."

Before being elected commissioner last summer, Selig was president of the Brewers.

"It's just crazy, what's come out of this thing," Dodgers catcher Todd Hundley said. "It's just ridiculous. The umpires got some bad advice. It's just too bad, to have all these umpires gone is tough."

Between the eighth and ninth innings, Dodger Stadium organist Nancy Bea Hefley paid tribute to the departing umpires with a few choruses of "I'll Be Seeing You."

The umps only hope it's true. Their only option now is the arbitration agreed to by management.