Major League Baseball Umpires

[tnfoto]

Originally Posted by Merkle923

In color! Texas League ump who worked exactly 18 American League games in late ‘70 and early ‘71. This is from a fan’s Polaroid at an Arkansas Travelers’ game from August or September, 1968. He’s shown with Larry Barnett (left) and the plate umpire, Ron (no name provided and a search of Newspapers.com has proved fruitless), with Avents on the right.

Ordinarily I’d snap the photo up and scan the original but the eBay seller has a slightly exaggerated sense of its worth and priced it at $500!

Thank you--what a huge improvement!

[Merkle923]

While we’re here, nice Getty B&W game action of him from the American Association, 1970

[Cusick]

The photo on the left came from an email sent by UMPS CARE, a charitable organization. The photo on the right is from the website change.org and shows him enduring the wrath of a major league manager.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/M/Pmillb903.htm

[tnfoto]

It's been a while since we've done debuts, so let's catch up.

2017 umpire debuts:
Ryan Additon, John Libka, Shane Livensparger, Nick Mahrley

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Jeremie Rehak, Jansen Visconti

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John Bacon, Brennan Miller, Alex Tosi

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David Arrieta, Erich Bacchus, Adam Beck, Nestor Ceja, Paul Clemons

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Alex MacKay, Kyle McCrady, Dan Merzel, Malachi Moore, Edwin Moscoso

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Jose Navas, Charlie Ramos, Jeremy Riggs, Randy Rosenberg, Nate Tomlinson

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Junior Valentine, Clint Vondrak, Lew Williams, Ryan Wills

[Cusick]

A photo of Grinder was posted on page 4 of this thread. Here's another alternative, which is his obit photo. He died on Sept. 11, 2021.

We still don't have a photo showing him in an umpire's uniform.

Thank you, tnfoto, for posting all those debuters immediately above this post.

[Cusick]

Here are two photos of Grinder in uniform. On the left, he has just thrown the Chicago Cubs' Keith Moreland out of a National League game. The photo is from the Hartford Courant of August 5, 1986. On the right, he is ready for duty as a home plate ump. That photo is from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette of June 20, 1985.

[Penale52]

Originally Posted by tnfoto

Found by SABR in the 10-Jul-1977 Portland Oregonian.

Thanks to SABR for finding Jackson!

Dick Jackson worked his first MLB game on Opening Day 1995 when Dante Bichette hit a walk-off home run for the Rockies against the Mets, a game the Rockies uploaded to YouTube in January 2021. A color shot of Jackson at third base is provided here.

[Penale52]

Originally Posted by Penale52

I couldn't find a Mike Riggins anywhere, but it appears through this article: A.A. Umpire Fired After Physical Ejection of Manager | Close Call Sports & Umpire Ejection Fantasy League his name might actually be Mike Riggers. If that is the case, I found a picture of Riggers umping a game in 2012.

I'm guessing the Mike Riggers I found a few years back is not the same person as Mike Riggins who umpired four games in 1995, especially since Riggins worked second base on Opening Day 1995 in Denver and is shown throughout the game on the Rockies' YouTube channel. He doesn't resemble the Riggers I previously found, so I think that's the end of that.

[Penale52]

Originally Posted by Penale52

The image I posted a few years ago for Bob Homolka is no longer available, but here he is on Opening Day 1995 umpiring second base in St. Louis. The game is uploaded to YouTube. About 2 minutes in, they give the rundown of the umpires, but don't zoom in on them. This still is from about 40 minutes in.

[Penale52]

About 1:23:00 into a YouTube upload of Opening Day 1995 in St. Louis, they finally show a decent shot of Fred Schaaf working third base in his first major league game.

[Penale52]

Joe Myers, who worked in the International League in 1973, is shown umpiring a game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and Peninsula Whips that season.

[Penale52]

Gary McAvoy umpired four games in 1979, all in Chicago. I found a newspapers.com Daily Herald article from 1972 with Gary McAvoy as a local little league umpire, and mentioning he is a teacher at Evanston Township High School. I found McAvoy in the school's 1978 yearbook on classmates.com as the director of adult education and evening school.

[tnfoto]

Thanks for the great missing umpire finds! That got me looking at 1979 again, especially Seattle-based Dick Feaser. I have at least strong circumstantial evidence that he was shown in the July, 1967 issue of The Carpenter, as an instructor for the apprenticeship program of the King County and Vicinity District Council of Carpenters.

[Penale52]

John "Jack" O'Sullivan was an umpire for semi-pro Doherty Silk Sox games in New Jersey in the early 1920s. Multiple newspaper clippings mention this connection, including a write-up from The Record announcing his promotion to the National League in late September 1922. I was finally able to find this great article in Newsday detailing his career as a boxing referee and baseball umpire, including the Silk Sox and the National League, though they were off on his tenure there by a few years.