MLB announced today that Jerry Crawford, Chuck Meriwether, and Mike Reilly are retiring after combining for more than 80 years as big-league umpires.
Crawford has been on the job since 1977 and became the game’s senior umpire when Ed Montague retired last year. Reilly became an MLB umpire in 1983 and Meriwether, who missed last season due to an injury, was hired in 1993.
According to the Associated Press their replacements are Scott Barry and Brian Knight. Last year Rob Drake, Chad Fairchild, James Hoye, and Adrian Johnson joined the roster when veterans Montague, Randy Marsh, Rick Reed, and Charlie Reliford retired, so the stable of MLB umpires has gotten significantly younger and less experienced in the past 18 months. Which, given some of the criticisms lobbed at the umpires’ performance in recent years, may not be such a bad thing.
