Ben May (umpire)

Benjamin Joseph May (born January 23, 1982) is an American umpire in Major League Baseball (MLB). He has worked in MLB since 2014, and wears number 97 on his uniform. ^[1]

Ben May
May at Citi Field in 2022
Born: (1982-01-23) January 23, 1982 (age 42) Racine, Wisconsin, U.S.
MLB debut
April 17, 2014
Crew Information
Umpiring crew	7
Crew members	#58 Dan Iassogna (crew chief) #54 C.B. Bucknor #97 Ben May #38 Adam Beck
Career highlights and awards
Special assignments All-Star Games (2024) Wild Card Games/Series (2022, 2024) Division Series (2023) World Baseball Classic (2023)

Early life

A native of Racine, Wisconsin, May comes from an athletic family and graduated from St. Catherine's High School in 2000 and from Marquette University in 2005. He has a twin brother, Bill, who works and lives in Milwaukee, WI.^[2][3]

Career

May in the Midwest League in 2008

May umpired his first MLB games on April 14, 2014, working both games in a doubleheader between the Toronto Blue Jays and Minnesota Twins.^[4] He worked a total of 187 games during his first three MLB seasons, and issued five ejections. In 2015, according to an investigation by the Denver Post, May had the highest percentage of challenged calls overturned (12 out of 13) in MLB.^[5] By the 2018 regular season he was found to be a top-ten performing home plate umpire in terms of accuracy in calling balls and strikes, based on a study conducted at Boston University where over 350,000 pitches were culled and analyzed.^[6] In 2022, he was again rated as one of MLB's best umpires behind the plate, ranking in the 97th percentile for consistency and 70th percentile for accuracy.^[7]

May was an umpire for the 2011 All-Star Futures Game, and qualifying rounds of the 2013 World Baseball Classic.^[4]

In January 2022, May was promoted to be a full-time MLB umpire.^[2] He was tabbed to be one of six umpires at the 2024 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, four of whom would be making their MLB All-Star Game debut.^[8]

May was featured on the cover of the Virtual Umpire Camp DVD.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• List of Major League Baseball umpires

References

1. "Major League Umpire Roster". MLB.com. March 2017. Retrieved September 23, 2017.
2. "Baseball: Racine's Ben May achieves coveted status as a fulltime MLB umpire". Racine Journal Times. February 1, 2022. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
3. "Bill May - Senior Digital Strategy + Organic Search Analyst, Momentic". September 8, 2023. Retrieved September 12, 2023.
4. "Major League Umpiring Debut: Ben May (97)". closecallsports.com. April 17, 2014. Retrieved September 23, 2017.
5. "Chart: Which MLB umpires performed the worst in replay reviews?". Denver Post. October 13, 2015.
6. "MLB Umpires Missed 34,294 Ball-Strike Calls in 2018. Bring on Robo-umps?". BU Today. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
7. "Ump Scorecards: Ben May". Retrieved February 27, 2023.
8. Truttschel, Dan (27 June 2024). "Racine native Ben May named an umpire for 2024 MLB All-Star Game". Racine County Eye. Retrieved 1 July 2024.

Further reading

• Jackel, Peter (October 4, 2015). "Ben May hopes to change his status as a Major League Baseball umpire from substitute to permanent". Racine Journal Times. Racine, Wisconsin.

External links

• Retrosheet