Frederick Charles Spenn is an American former baseball umpire. Spenn was one of the eight minor league replacement umpires who was promoted to the major leagues during the 1979 Major League Umpires Association strike. Spenn wore uniform number 32 when the American League adopted them for its umpires in 1980.
Minor league career
Spenn began umpiring minor league baseball in 1970. He officiated in the
Carolina League
The Carolina League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated along the Atlantic Coast of the United States since 1945. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 unti ...
,
Southern League and
American Association prior to becoming a major league umpire during the 1979 strike.
While umpiring in the Southern League in 1972, Spenn was chased and struck with a bat by Savannah Braves hurler Pablo Torrealba after a called third strike on the pitcher. The bat broke across Spenn's back. Torrealba was suspended for the rest of the season. Spenn received a $50 fine and a reprimand for abusive language.
Major league baseball
Before his promotion in 1979, Spenn had served as an American League reserve umpire for the previous two seasons, substituting in 95 major league games during that time. Spenn umpired through the 1980 MLB season, after which he was fired. He appeared in one game during the threatened umpire strike of 1991, after which MLB umpires went back to work.
He was the last umpire to join the American League using the outside chest protector. He used this through the 1979 season. He switched to the inside protector for 1980.
Spenn was home plate umpire for
Bert Blyleven
Rik Aalbert Blyleven (born Blijleven, April 6, 1951) is a Dutch-American former professional baseball pitcher and color commentator. He played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1970 to 1992, primarily with the Minnesota Twins, and f ...
's
no-hitter
In baseball, a no-hitter or no-hit game is a game in which a team does not record a hit (baseball), hit through conventional methods. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in ...
on September 22, 1977.
See also
*
List of Major League Baseball umpires (disambiguation)
Lists of Major League Baseball umpires include:
* List of Major League Baseball umpires (A–F)
* List of Major League Baseball umpires (G–M)
* List of Major League Baseball umpires (N–Z)
See also
* List of Major League Baseball umpiring ...
References
1945 births
Living people
American League umpires
Major League Baseball umpires
Sportspeople from Michigan
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