Calvin Troy Drummond (June 29, 1917 – May 3, 1970) was a professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

who worked in the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

(AL) from 1960 to 1969.

Biography

Drummond was born in 1917 in

Ninety Six, South Carolina Ninety Six is a town in Greenwood County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 1,998 at the 2010 census. Geography Ninety Six is located in eastern Greenwood County at (34.173211, -82.021710). South Carolina Highway 34 passes through ...

.Cal Drummond

Retrosheet Retrosheet is a nonprofit organization whose website features box scores of Major League Baseball (MLB) games from 1906 to the present, and play-by-play narratives for almost every contest since the 1930s. It also includes scores from every major ...

. Retrieved October 30, 2014. He attended the Al Somers Umpire School. Drummond umpired 1,357

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) games in his ten-year career. He umpired in the

1966 World Series The 1966 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1966 season. The 63rd edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Baltimore Orioles and National League ...

and the 1961 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. During a 1969 game, Drummond was struck in the head with a foul ball. He underwent surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain. After the procedure, Drummond was unconscious for around two weeks.

Merle Anthony George Merlyn Anthony (April 26, 1926 – February 2, 1993) was an American professional baseball umpire who worked in the American League from 1969 to 1975. Anthony umpired the 1974 Major League Baseball All-Star Game and the 1973 American League ...

was hired by AL president

Joe Cronin Joseph Edward Cronin (October 12, 1906 – September 7, 1984) was an American professional baseball player, manager and executive. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop, most notably as a member of the Boston Red Sox. Cronin spe ...

as his replacement. He recovered, but he was unable to obtain medical clearance in time for the beginning of the 1970 MLB season. On May 1, 1970, Drummond returned to umpiring in the Class AAA

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

, working a game in Des Moines. He was later said to have experienced dizziness and numbness on the side of his head during that game. The following night, Drummond returned to the field but stopped the game in the seventh inning and went to the dugout complaining of dizziness. He collapsed in the dugout and an ambulance took him to a Des Moines hospital, where he died early in the morning of May 3. His death was later determined to have resulted from a

cerebral infarction A cerebral infarction is the pathologic process that results in an area of necrotic tissue in the brain (cerebral infarct). It is caused by disrupted blood supply ( ischemia) and restricted oxygen supply ( hypoxia), most commonly due to thromboemb ...

, a stroke caused by decreased blood flow to an area of the brain. Drummond and his wife Elizabeth had been married since 1938.

References

1917 births 1970 deaths People from Ninety Six, South Carolina Major League Baseball umpires Sportspeople from South Carolina {{US-baseball-umpire-stub

Biography

See also

References