Rich Rieker
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Richard Gregory Rieker (born November 9, 1961) is an American former professional baseball
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 is the Director of Umpire Development for
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).


Career

Rieker spent thirteen seasons as a
minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...
umpire. Rieker made major league appearances as early as 1992 and he joined 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 ...
full-time in 1996, after the death of
John McSherry John Patrick McSherry (September 11, 1944April 1, 1996) was an American umpire in Major League Baseball who worked in the National League from 1971 until his death. McSherry wore uniform number 9 when he entered the National League, then wore num ...
. Rieker worked throughout both major leagues in 2000 and 2001. He wore uniform number 16 during his National League career, then switched to number 38 after the National League and
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 ...
umpiring staffs merged in 2000. Rieker umpired 1,001 regular season major league games in his 10-year career. He umpired in two division series (
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
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 ...
), and the 1998 All-Star Game. Rieker was behind the plate when
Mark McGwire Mark David McGwire (born October 1, 1963), nicknamed "Big Mac", is an American former professional baseball first baseman who played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1986 to 2001 for the Oakland Athletics and the St. Louis Cardi ...
hit his record-setting 69th and 70th home runs on September 27, 1998. Rieker has worked in supervisory roles for Major League Baseball since his 2001 retirement as an active umpire. In 2011, he became the MLB Director of Umpire Development.


Personal life

Rieker has an undergraduate degree in business from the
University of Missouri–St. Louis The University of Missouri–St. Louis (UMSL) is a public research university in St. Louis, Missouri. Established in 1963, it is one of four universities in the University of Missouri System and its newest. Located on the former grounds of Bel ...
. He lives in
Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...
, with his wife and two children.


See also

*
List of Major League Baseball umpires The following is a list of major league baseball umpires. The list includes umpires who worked in any of four 19th century major leagues (American Association, National Association, Players' League, Union Association), one defunct 20th century m ...


References


External links


Umpire Card


1961 births Living people Major League Baseball umpires Sportspeople from St. Louis {{US-baseball-umpire-stub