Brian Michael Knight (born October 2, 1974) is an American professional baseball
umpire. He has worked as a full-time
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) umpire since 2011. He wears uniform number 91.
Umpiring career
From 2001 to 2010, Knight was a minor league umpire who substituted as needed in the major leagues.
His minor league service included the
Pioneer,
Midwest
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. ...
,
Florida State,
Southern, and
Pacific Coast
Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean.
Geography Americas
Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western or southwestern border, except for Panama, where the P ...
Leagues. He umpired the
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
in
2006 World Baseball Classic
The 2006 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was the inaugural tournament between national baseball teams that included players from Major League Baseball. It was held from March 3 to 20 in stadiums that are in and around Tokyo, Japan; San Juan, Puer ...
.
Knight umpired in the
2012 All-Star Game and the
2013 American League Wild Card Game
The 2013 American League Wild Card Game was a play-in game during Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2013 postseason played between the American League's (AL) two wild card teams, the Cleveland Indians and the Tampa Bay Rays (the latter winners of a ...
, serving as the right field umpire under the tutelage of crew chief
Gerry Davis on both occasions. Knight's first postseason game, the 2013 AL Wild Card, was played on his 39th birthday.
Happy birthday...
@UmpireEjections/Twitter.com. Retrieved 3 October 2013 Knight has also umpired in three Division Series
The Division Series is the quarterfinal round of the Major League Baseball playoffs. Four series are played in this round, two each for both the American League and the National League.
1981 season
The first use of the term "Division Series" date ...
(2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
, 2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...
, 2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...
).
Notable games
Knight was the home plate umpire for Jon Lester
Jonathan Tyler Lester (born January 7, 1984) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Red Sox, Oakland Athletics, Chicago Cubs, Washington Nationals and St. Louis Cardinals. L ...
's no-hitter
In baseball, a no-hitter is a game in which a team was not able to record a hit. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine innings recorded no hits. A pitcher w ...
in 2008, and Josh Beckett
Joshua Patrick Beckett (born May 15, 1980) is an American former professional baseball pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB). A three-time MLB All-Star, he played for the Florida Marlins, the Boston Red Sox, and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Afte ...
's in 2014.Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has been Citize ...
. The 96 MPH fastball was missed by Jose Lobaton and knocked him to the ground.
Personal life
Knight attended Capital High School in Helena, Montana and William Jewell College
William Jewell College is a private liberal arts college in Liberty, Missouri. It was founded in 1849 by members of the Missouri Baptist Convention and endowed with $10,000 by William Jewell. It was associated with the Missouri Baptist Conven ...
before enrolling in umpire school in 1995.
See also
List of Major League Baseball umpires
References
External links
Major League profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Brian
1974 births
Living people
William Jewell College alumni
Major League Baseball umpires
Sportspeople from Helena, Montana