Jerry Meals

Jerry Meals
Meals umpiring in 2011
Born	Gerald William Meals (1961-10-20) October 20, 1961 Butler, Pennsylvania
Occupation	Major League Baseball Umpire

Gerald William "Jerry" Meals (born on October 20, 1961) is a Major League Baseball umpire. Meals has been a full-time MLB umpire since 1998 after serving as an MLB reserve umpire from 1992 to 1997. He worked in the 2008 NLCS between Philadelphia and Los Angeles and at the 2002 MLB All-Star Game in Milwaukee. Between 1999 and 2010, he also took part in several Division Series.^[1]

Early life and career

Meals was a 1979 graduate of Salem High School, where he played second base and briefly competed on the wrestling team. After umpiring local baseball for four years, Meals graduated from the Joe Brinkman Umpire School in 1983. At age 21, Meals received his first minor league umpiring assignment in the Class A Appalachian League.^[2] By 1985, Meals had moved to the South Atlantic League, where he was partnered with 20-year-old future MLB umpire Wally Bell.^[3] While working in the Southern League in 1989, Meals was featured in an ESPN documentary on minor league umpires. His family and fellow umpires Chris Jaksa and Fieldin Culbreth also appeared in the film.^[4] Meals worked in Triple-A baseball (Triple-A Alliance and the International League) from 1990 to 1997 before receiving a full-time promotion to the major leagues.^[1]

Notable games

In his first full-time MLB season, Meals was the home plate umpire when Kerry Wood tied a major league record with 20 strikeouts in a 1998 game.^[1] Meals was struck in the mask by a Wood fastball on his first pitch of the game, but the umpire was not injured.^[5]

On May 7, 2011, Meals worked behind the plate for Justin Verlander's second career no-hitter. The umpire's ball four call on J.P. Arencibia in the eighth inning prevented Verlander from achieving a perfect game. However, Verlander later said that he agreed with the call.^[6]

Meals and Major League Baseball both acknowledged that he missed a call in the 19th inning of a game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Atlanta Braves on July 26, 2011.^[7] With respect to length of time, the game was the longest in Pirates history.^[8][9] Pirates catcher Michael McKenry received the ball and appeared to tag Braves runner Julio Lugo three feet in front of home plate but Meals called him safe and the Braves won the game. Meals received criticism for the call^[10] and the Pirates issued a public complaint.^[11] Following the incident, Meals and his family received death threats at their home.^[12] Meals' wife reported that their children, who ranged between 14 and 23 at the time of the incident, were also "approached" by irate and confrontational fans, as Pittsburgh is only 70 miles away from the Meals' hometown of Salem, Ohio.^[9]

On Saturday, September 8, 2012, Meals incorrectly ruled Mark Teixeira of the New York Yankees out on a game-ending double play at first base against the Baltimore Orioles. If Meals had made the correct call, the game would have been tied, but instead the Orioles won and moved up a game to be even with the Yankees for first in the AL East.^[13]

On Monday, July 29, 2013, Meals incorrectly ruled Daniel Nava of the Boston Red Sox out at home plate in the 8th inning against the Tampa Bay Rays which would have tied the game. Instead, the Rays held on to win 2-1. Red Sox manager John Farrell was ejected for arguing the call, which Meals later admitted was incorrect.^[14]

Personal

Meals lives in Perry Township, just outside of Salem in Columbiana County, Ohio. He is married to Robyn Meals and has five children.^[15]

See also

• List of Major League Baseball umpires

References

External links

• Profile at MLB.com
• Retrosheet