- Jerry Meals
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Jerry Meals 
Meals in 2011.Born October 20, 1961 Occupation MLB umpire Height 5' 8" inches Weight 168lb. Gerald William "Jerry" Meals (born on October 20, 1961 in Butler, Pennsylvania) is a Major League Baseball umpire.
Meals was part of the National League umpire crew from 1992 to 1999, and has worked throughout both major leagues since 2000. 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]
Meals lives in Perry Township, Ohio and graduated from Salem High School in 1979. He is married to Robyn Meals and has five children.[2]
2011 Braves-Pirates 19th Inning Missed Call
On July 26, 2011 Meals made a controversial call in the 19th inning of a game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Atlanta Braves. While both teams have played more innings in one game, this game was the longest with respect to length of time[3] in Pirates history.[4] 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. Many writers have criticized Meals for this call[5] and the Pirates issued a public complaint.[6] Major League Baseball confirmed the call was incorrect shortly after Meals also himself admitted, upon video review of the play, that he made the wrong call.[7] Following the incident, Meals and his family received death threats at their home. [8] Meals' wife reported that their children, who ranged between 14 and 23 at the time of the incident, were also "approached".[9]
References
- ^ "Umpires: Roster". MLB.com. http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/umpires/bio.jsp?id=2709. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
- ^ Reaction to call a sad reflection
- ^ Cox, Chris (July 27, 2011). "Marathon game rewrites record books". mlb.com. http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110727&content_id=22358556&vkey=news_pit&c_id=pit. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
- ^ Salem grad and umpire Meals says he missed call in Pittsburgh loss
- ^ Passan, Jeff (July 27, 2011). "MLB needs to wake up and expand replay". Yahoo! News Network. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-passan_pirates_braves_blown_call_replay_072711. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
- ^ Pirates issue statement: Jerry Meals “got this one wrong”
- ^ "MLB acknowledges blown call". ESPN. July 27, 2011. http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/6808357/mlb-acknowledges-jerry-meals-missed-call-pittsburgh-pirates-file-complaint-19-inning-loss. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
- ^ Umpire Jerry Meals' family receives death threats over call
- ^ Salem grad and umpire Meals says he missed call in Pittsburgh loss
External links
Categories:- Major League Baseball umpires
- Living people
- 1961 births
- People from Butler, Pennsylvania
- Baseball biography stubs
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