NEW YORK -- Baseball umpires and owners finally selected an arbitrator to hear their dispute, deciding Monday on Alan Symonette, a 55-year-old Philadelphian.

Symonette has been a salary arbitrator the past two years, serving on panels that ruled for catcher Charles Johnson and against outfielder Matt Lawton.

Umpires want Symonette to rule that 22 umps were illegally terminated by the American and National Leagues on Sept. 2. Owners say they lawfully accepted the resignations the 22 had submitted as part of a mass resignation strategy that backfired in July.

In a settlement worked out in Philadelphia federal court on Sept. 2, the sides agreed umpires could file a grievance under their current labor contract. After the grievance was filed, the American Arbitration Association's Philadelphia office gave the sides a list of 15 arbitrators, and the owners and umpires took turns crossing out names Monday until only Symonette remained.

Symonette, a 1976 graduate of Swarthmore and a 1979 graduate of Villanova's law school, worked as a lawyer for the National Labor Relations Board from 1979-81, then spent eight years as a lawyer for oil and gas companies.

In February 1998, he was part of a three-man panel that gave Johnson, then with the Florida Marlins, a raise from $290,000 to $3.3 million rather than the $2.25 million the team offered.

Last February, he served in the three-person panel that ruled against Lawton's bid for a raise from $215,000 to $2.4 million and picked the Minnesota Twins' offer of $1.6 million.

When Symonette starts hearing the case, owners intend to ask him to dismiss it, arguing that the labor contract says league presidents have final say on hiring and firing umpires and their decisions are not subject to arbitration.

While baseball intends to eliminate the league presidents as part of a reorganization, they continue to exist, at least until January.

Under the court agreement, the 22 umpires are getting paid through Dec. 31, but if they lost, their salaries from Sept. 2 on would be subtracted from their termination pay.

Umpires announced their mass resignation strategy on July 14, a move designed to spur owners to start negotiations early for a labor contract to succeed the current deal, which expires Dec. 31.

The strategy backfired when about two dozen umps, mostly in the AL, either failed to resign or quickly withdrew their resignations. All umpires then withdrew their resignations, but by then baseball hired 25 new umps from the minor leagues.

A group of dissident umpires, blaming union leader Richie Phillips for the mess, is circulating cards asking the NLRB to hold an election to decertify the current union and certify a new one.