Mark Hirschbeck (born September 22, 1960 in

Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the List of cities by population in New England, fifth-most populous ...

) is a former

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'', ...

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), ...

who worked in the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

from to , and both Major Leagues from until his retirement in . He wore uniform number 4 (previously worn by former NL umpire

Satch Davidson David Leroy "Satch" Davidson (January 18, 1935 – August 21, 2010) was a Major League Baseball umpire (baseball), umpire in the National League from 1969 to 1984. During his career, Davidson was behind the plate for Hank Aaron's 715th home run whi ...

) throughout his NL career, but changed to 20 when the umpiring staffs unified in 2000. His brother

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

is also a major league umpire, making the Hirschbecks the first pair of brothers to umpire in the Major Leagues at the same time. (Brothers Tim and

Bill Welke William Anthony Welke (born August 22, 1967) is an American umpire in Major League Baseball (MLB). He joined the major league staff in 1999 and wears uniform number 3, his brother Tim Welke's old number prior to his retirement. Biography Welk ...

became the second such pair.) Mark Hirschbeck's assignments included the

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

and

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

National League Division Series In Major League Baseball, the National League Division Series (NLDS) determines which two teams from the National League will advance to the National League Championship Series. The Division Series consists of two best-of-five series, featuring ...

, the 2001 American League Division Series, the 1996 NLCS, the 2000 ALCS, and the

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

and

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

. Hirschbeck also officiated the

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

All-Star Games. Hirschbeck was forced to retire seven games into the

2003 season 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...

after it was discovered that he needed a hip replacement. Although Hirschbeck originally hoped to return to umpiring after he recovered from his surgery, his ceramic implant cracked six weeks after the operation. About two months later, a

staph infection A staphylococcal infection or staph infection is an infection caused by members of the ''Staphylococcus'' genus of bacteria. These bacteria commonly inhabit the skin and nose where they are innocuous, but may enter the body through cuts or abrasio ...

formed in Hirschbeck's hip and he was unable to return to baseball. Hirschbeck later sued Wright Medical Technology, makers of the ceramic prosthetic, as well as the doctor who performed the surgery. Hirschbeck settled out of court with both the surgeon and the medical device company. In 2012, Hirschbeck opened the

Shelton, Connecticut Shelton is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 40,869 at the 2020 United States Census. History Origins Shelton was settled by the English as part of the town of Stratford, Connecticut, in 1639. On May 15, ...

restaurant, ''Hirschbeck's Sports Bar & Grille'', which later closed in 2015.

References

External links

The Baseball Cube
Living people 1960 births Sportspeople from Bridgeport, Connecticut Major League Baseball umpires {{US-baseball-umpire-stub

See also

References

External links