Jerry Meals
| 41 – Jerry Meals | |
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Meals umpiring in 2011
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| Born |
October 20, 1961 Butler, Pennsylvania |
| MLB debut | September 14, 1992 |
| Umpiring crew | |
| 15 | |
| Crew members | |
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| Career highlights and awards | |
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Special Assignments
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Gerald William "Jerry" Meals (born October 20, 1961) is a Major League Baseball umpire. Meals biggest assignment was the 2014 World Series, where he was the home plate umpire in Game One. Meals has been a full-time MLB umpire since 1998 after serving as an MLB reserve umpire from 1992 to 1997. He worked in the 2008 NLCS between Philadelphia and Los Angeles and the All-Star Game in 2002 and 2015. He has also worked in seven Division Series (1999, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014) and the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
Meals was a 1979 graduate of Salem High School, where he played second base and briefly competed on the wrestling team. After umpiring local baseball for four years, Meals graduated from the Joe Brinkman Umpire School in 1983. At age 21, Meals received his first minor league umpiring assignment in the Class A Appalachian League. By 1985, Meals had moved to the South Atlantic League, where he was partnered with 20-year-old future MLB umpire Wally Bell. While working in the Southern League in 1989, Meals was featured in an ESPN documentary on minor league umpires. His family and fellow umpires Chris Jaksa and Fieldin Culbreth also appeared in the film. Meals worked in Triple-A baseball (Triple-A Alliance and the International League) from 1990 to 1997 before receiving a full-time promotion to the major leagues. Meals spent the 2014 season as an interim crew chief while regular crew chief Gary Darling was on the Disabled List. Meals was officially promoted to permanent crew chief upon Darling's retirement.
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