Steve O's Baseball Umpire Resources

Baseball Facts

670 calls were overturned by replay at the MLB level in 2022. Average of 1 every 3.63 games.

Dan Iassogna called 10,653 pitches in 2019 to claim the squats crown. He averaged 322.8 pitches per game in his 33 plate assignments last season.
Past squats leaders have included Alfonso Marquez (11,254) in 2008; Tim McClelland (11,417) in 2009; Bob Davidson (11,064) in 2010; Joe West (10,914) in 2011; Gary Darling (11,216) in 2012; Brian Knight (10,950) in 2013; Tripp Gibson (10,757) in 2014; Joe West (10,331) in 2015; Larry Vanover (10,171) in 2016; West again in 2017 (10,588); and D.J. Reyburn in 2018 (9,964).

John Tumpane was rated for a "perfect" game behind the plate in game 2 of the 2020 ALCS. He was rated by UEFL as calling 100% of the 135 pitches correctly. 99.4% had been the prior best by Joe West and Jordan Baker.
He also worked the plate during 2020 for what is now the longest game in MLB history this year (see below).

Did you know that prior to 1947, a 4-man (or less in the early days) crew was used for the World Series? In 1947, MLB went to a 6-man crew. However, from 1947-1963, the two outfield umpires stayed in their position for the entire series and did not rotate. Only the four infield umpires rotated for the series. In 1964, MLB went to the current system of rotating all six umpires.

MLB has 30 teams, 17 umpire crews and 2,430 games Umpire scheduling protocol is that an umpire crew does not see the same team sooner than every 18 days and no more than 4 times in a season.

In 1878, the first paid umpires were in the National League, where the home teams were instructed to pay the umpires $5/game

Albert Pujols had won the 2003 NL batting title over Todd Helton by the closest margin in league history, the third tightest in ML history. The final stat was .35871 to .35849 or a .00022 difference. The tightest race ever was in 1945 when the Yankees' Snuffy Stirnweiss beat Tony Cuccinello of the White Sox by .00009. In 1949, Detroit's George Kell edge Boston's Ted Williams by .00016. Check out ML's All-Time Leaders.

Umpire signals were first used in the late 1800's to help a deaf mute player from that time understand what was going on in the game. His name was Dummy Hoy, and he was a ML outfielder from 1888 to 1902. See Umpire Communications for umpire signal information.

The shortest game in ML history was played on September 28, 1919 when the NY Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-1 in a game that took 51 minutes.

The longest 9-inning game in ML history now took place on September 30, 2020, a post season game. It was between the NY Yankees (10 runs) and the Cleveland Indians (9 runs)and took 4:50. John Tumpane was the plate umpire.

John Tumpane was also rated for a "perfect" game behind the plate in game 2 of the 2020 ALCS. He was rated by UEFL as calling 100% of the 135 pitches correctly. 99.4 had been the prior best by Joe West and Jordan Baker.

Now the 2nd longest 9-inning game took place on August 18, 2006 between New York (14 runs) & Boston (11 runs) and lasted 4:45. Jim Wolf was the plate umpire and called 437 pitches. It was the second game of a Day-Night DH. The first game lasted 3:55, with NY winning 12-4. Tony Randazzo was behind the plate for game one.

The third longest 9-inning game in ML history took place on October 5, 2001 between Los Angeles & San Francisco and lasted 4:27. Jerry Layne was the plate umpire and called 361 pitches.

The longest game in ML history featured Milwaukee at Chicago in 1984, required 25 innings and took 8:06.

Jim Evans Training Video
See It

What an Umpire Should Never Do
See It

Quotes

"In a 31-year career, that was the highlight. It was historic. I've worked World Series and playoff games, and this was the most exciting...When he did it, and the visitors' inning was over and it became official and he did that lap around the stadium, it just gave you goose bumps. President Clinton was there, and the head of Clintons' Secret Service detail behind home plate asked me when Cal was going around, 'How long are you going to let this go on?' And I said, 'When he's finished. That's when we'll restart the game.'" Larry Barnett, plate umpire the night Cal Ripken, Jr. broke the record for consecutive games played, commenting on the 10-yr. anniversary of the feat
NOTE: Greg Kosc was in the rotation to be the plate umpire that night, but deferred to Barnett, at the time the senior ML umpire

The single thing that separates good (officials) from the average one is timing. If you allow everything to develop in front of you, then take that picture, you can go get it developed and bring it back with a decision. I think that's what all officials should do. Your eyes are a camera and you're taking a picture. If you start moving the camera, you take the picture a little too fast, which is where timing comes in." Steve Palermo - Former AL Umpire

"You can't think and hit at the same time." Yogi Berra- Additional Yogisms

"I made a game effort to argue but two things were against me: the umpires and the rules." Leo Durocher - More Quotes from Leo

"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts." Earl Weaver - View more of Earl's Pearls

"Good pitching will stop good hitting and vice-versa." Casey Stengel - More of Casey

"The only real way to know you've been fired is when you arrive at the ballpark and find your name has been scratched from the parking list." Billy Martin- More from Billy

"It was all I lived for, to play baseball." Mickey Mantle- Additional Quotes from the Mick

Legal Statement / Privacy Policy

On the internet since February, 1999