MLB announces historic crew-chief assignments
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Major League Baseball announced the retirement of four umpires Thursday, along with historic promotions for others.
Veteran umpires Gary Cederstrom, Dana DeMuth, Mike Everitt and Jeff Kellogg are all stepping away from the full-time Major League staff, creating four crew-chief vacancies that will be filled by Kerwin Danley, Dan Iassogna, Alfonso Marquez and Jim Reynolds. Danley will be the first African-American crew chief, while Marquez becomes the first Mexican-born crew chief.
The retiring quartet of Cederstrom, DeMuth, Everitt and Kellogg worked a combined 17 World Series between them, and they were on the field for many of baseball’s biggest recent moments, including David Freese’s heroics in Game 6 of the 2011 Fall Classic (Cederstrom) and Joe Carter’s title-clinching homer for the Blue Jays in 1993 (DeMuth).
MLB also announced the addition of five newcomers to the Major League umpiring roster: Ryan Blakney, Ramon De Jesus, Nic Lentz, Chris Segal and Jansen Visconti. In 2017, De Jesus made history when he became the first Dominican-born umpire to work a Major League game. He is the second graduate of MLB’s Umpire Camps to reach the big leagues, following Carlos Torres.