Jerry Meals
From BR Bullpen
Gerald William Meals
- Height 5' 8", Weight 168 lb.
- Born October 20, 1961 in Butler, PA USA
Biographical Information
Jerry Meals has been a major league umpire for over a decade. He spent 15 years in the minors, including stops in the Appalachian League (1983-1984), South Atlantic League (1985), Carolina League (1986), Southern League (1987-1989), Triple-A Alliance (1990-1991) and International League (1992-1997). He made it to the majors in 1998. His first year as an ump, he worked the plate in the game in which Kerry Wood tied the MLB record with 20 strikeouts. He worked the 2002 All-Star Game and the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
He made a controversial call in Game 3 of the 2009 NLDS, ruling that a ball hit by the Philadelphia Phillies' Chase Utley was fair, although replays showed that it had touched his foot in the batter's box and should have been ruled a foul ball. The hit was a key to the Phillies' winning run in the 9th inning in a 6-5 win over the Colorado Rockies. He was involved in another highly controversial call in a game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Atlanta Braves on July 26, 2011 at Turner Field. He ruled that the Braves' Julio Lugo was safe at the plate on a not-particularly close play that ended a 19-inning marathon between the two teams, giving the Braves a 4-3 win. Replays showed Pirates catcher Michael McKenry had successfully tagged Lugo, but Meals explained that he had seen the sliding Lugo pop up just before the tag and thought he had avoided the ball. Immediately after the game, the Pirates filed a formal complaint about the call with the Commissioner's office. The following day, after watching video replays, Meals acknowledged that he had made a mistake, as did MLB Vice-President Joe Torre, who added however that the call was part of the game's human element and would not be reversed.
