Umpire Odds & Ends: McClelland Works 4,000th MLB Game

Tim McClelland was the second base umpire tonight at Comerica Park, where the Detroit Tigers hosted the Kansas City Royals. McClelland umpiring at second meant this was his 4,000th Major League game he has umpired in his career. During the lineup exchange, Royals Manager Ned Yost and Tigers Manager Jim Leyland  both gave their congratulations to McClelland. The crew chief also posed with his crew of Brian Runge, Marvin Hudson and Ted Barrett for pictures prior to the beginning of the game.

McClelland becomes the 20th umpire to have worked 4,000 Major League games. He joins Joe West and Derryl Cousins as the only active umpires to have achieved such milestone. In his 30 seasons as a Major League umpire, he has worked the 3rd most League Championship Series (9), worked 94 postseason games, and worked over 1,000 plate games. McClelland is most remembered for the pine tar incident involving Hall of Famer George Brett. He was also a part of another bat incident, ejecting Sammy Sosa for using a corked bat.

McClelland has no ejections so far in 2012, and had one in 2011 of New York Yankees Manager Joe Girardi.

UPDATED: Tim McClelland was part of a controversial call in his 4,000th game. In the top of the 9th, a Jeff Francoeur batted ball was ruled a catch by McClelland that appeared to hit off the top of the wall. After conference, the call was changed to a double. Both Yost and Leyland came out, but neither were ejected. The video of the call and incident can be seen here (courtesy of tmac, who is not Tim McClelland).

News: McClelland Works 4,000th Game