Major League Baseball Umpires

[cinemaodyssey]

I don't normally research umpires, but happened upon Connolly in the 4/26/1886 edition of the National Police Gazette. There's a nice article about what got him interested in umpiring.

[Cusick]

Chickazoola has posted a woodcut image of Skinner on the following webpage of major league players:

https://tinyurl.com/22xadmke

Skinner was an umpire in the American Association and National League in 1886.

[Cusick]

Jen Pawol made her MLB debut as major league's first female umpire today (Aug. 9, 2025).

[Merkle923]

Originally Posted by Cusick

The photo is from the Detroit Free Press of May 1, 1995. Sparky Anderson is easily recognized as the Tigers' manager arguing with Higgins.

Turned out John Higgins, 1991 AL replacement (and spring training replacement in 1995 in the Cactus League) was married to a predecessor of mine at ESPN, Anne Montgomery. They met at umpire school (she was doing a story) and divorced in 2000. She wrote a moving but not crushing obituary after he denied of COVID in December 2020 https://annemontgomerywriter.com/202...for-an-umpire/

She included photos

[Merkle923]

Originally Posted by tnfoto

2010

He was a double replacement in 1995 - did Grapefruit League spring training replacement games too

[prewinter]

James Barron, who umpired a few games in 1875, was a member of the Empire Baseball Club in St. Louis in the late 1860s. A sketch of the club was printed in the St. Louis Globe Democrat on January 22, 1888 (pg. 19). This is the skecth shown below. A different version was printed in the Sporting News in 1895. James Barron is in the front row, holding the belt. Adam Wirth, another National Association umpire, is in the back row. Despite the photo saying 1868, the players more closely match the 1869 lineup.

[Merkle923]

Arguing with Lasorda, from a feature on umps from the Fort Lauderdale News, September 14, 1986

[Merkle923]

Replacement guys, Opening Day in Detroit, April 8, 1991 (Associated Press photo). From the left, Mark Arata 1991 (a one-gamer), Randy Harvey (who returned to work five games in '95, and umpired forever in the NCAA), the ubiquitous Bill Deegan, and Jim Knaus 1991 (another one-gamer)

Sparky Anderson is self-evident as the Tiger skipper on the right, but the Yankee manager is Stump Merrill, and boy oh boy is the fact that Stump Merrill managed the Yankees for a year-and-a-half increasingly hard to believe as time goes by.

[Cusick]

Lawlor umped in one game in the National League in 1882.

See the following webpage for a posting of his photo as a major league player:

https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...4046&page=1896

[Penale52]

An image of Henry D. Stanwood is included as part of the New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1800 - 1910.

[prewinter]

Henry Murphy (https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/M/Pmurph901.htm) umpired in the National League in 1880, but he was umpiring in Lynn for a few years before that. The photo was attached to his obituary in the Lynn Daily Item on July 5, 1913. He died of injuries suffered when he was thrown from a carriage after the carriage struck a hydrant.

He is also pictured in a photo of the 1888 Lynn baseball club, printed in the Daily Item only July 9, 1910. That would provide a more contemporary image of him.

[Merkle923]

How about this? Included in a series of snapshots from the 2nd 1959 All Star Game at the L.A. Coliseum, it's American League arbiter Bill Summers in the next-to-last month of his 27-year, 4176-game career!

Summers did a record seven All Star Games (working the plate in all of them, though in that era the umps would switch stations during the games) and an A.L. record eight World Series (13 games behind the plate) and was behind the plate the day DiMaggio's hitting streak ended, and when Jackie Robinson stole home in the '55 Classic. He was also on the Rules Committee while still an active ump.

The Hall of Fame candidacy of Umpires, especially of his era and earlier, is almost utterly subjective but it's hard to understand why Summers hasn't gotten more support. That All Star Game home plate record - spanning 1936 through 1959 - suggests he was acknowledged to be among the elite of his era.

[tnfoto]

Jim Maginnis was a long-time "Saturday League" umpire in and around Cincinnati, before getting a chance to umpire one NL game in 1910. He is pictured here prior to the start of the 1901 amateur season, listed, as was common in Cincinnati papers, as James (or Jim) McGinnis.

[Penale52]

A photo of William Wellington Jeffers was posted by his 3x great-granddaughter on Find a Grave.