Kirk Arnold Sawyers (born April 25, 1968, Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada) is a baseball umpire who currently works games in his hometown and surrounding areas and for the Intercounty Baseball League.
Sawyers gained public attention in 1990 when he was featured in a Toronto Star newspaper article about the struggles Canadians faced trying to make it as professional umpires.[1]
In 2003 the newly formed Canadian Baseball League hired Sawyers as general manager for its London, Ontario, team, the London Monarchs.[2] Sawyers resigned after the first week of the season, telling the news media that the job involved more administrative work than he had expected.[2] The league was unsuccessful and folded at midseason in July 2003[3] Sawyers was one of dozens of people who were left being owed money by the CBL when it went into receivership.
As of October 2007 Sawyers was believed to have umpired 4,021 games. He has worked in sixteen Intercounty League postseasons, including thirteen championship series, being the plate umpire in a game seven on three occasions, one while still a teenager. Sawyers has been the plate umpire for twenty no-hitters, including one by former Washington Nationals pitcher Shawn Hill. Other prominent pitchers Sawyers has called balls and strikes for include Fergie Jenkins, Ben McDonald, Paul Spoljaric and Jeff Francis.