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Nick Bremigan: UB Catcher to MLB Umpire


Nick Bremigan graduated from UB in 1965 with a degree in history, after a less than stellar career as a UB baseball player. Bremigan was a part of the 1964 UB baseball team that played in the NCAA College Division Atlantic Region tournament played at the original Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, coached by Jim Peele.

By his own estimates, Bremigan was "ninth-string" catcher. "Well, I wasn't bad as a batting practice pitcher. Other than that, I didn't do anything spectacular". Statistics show Bremigan appeared in exactly one varsity game for UB.

After graduating from UB, Bremigan got a job teaching history in the Rochester, NY area. But one summer, he reached a turning point in his life. A friend of his got him interested in umpiring baseball around the Rochester area. Bremigan admitted that prior to that, he had no interest in umpiring at all.

At first he umpired for just some extra spending money, but after a few years he became disinterested in teaching, and he enrolled in umpiring school. He was given a job in the low minor leagues, and in 1973 he was promoted to the American League staff.

Making the switch from a baseball player to an umpire was not difficult for Nick. "Playing baseball, of course, gives you a knowledge of the game, although umpiring is quite a bit different." He noted that being a good ball player does not make you a good umpire, and that of all the umpires who were former players, none were stars or even average major league ballplayers.

The biggest problem Bremigan found going from being a player to being an umpire was positioning and timing. "The biggest thing I had to adjust to was getting into position and giving myself an adequate opportunity to see a play before I called it", he said. "I think the biggest fault of anyone in umpiring is that they want to anticipate, and that leads to mistakes".

At that time, instant replay was still a rather new invention, and being used to critique umpire's calls by television announcers, but Bremigan was in favor of instant replay use, because it showed that umpire were correct an overwhelming majority of the time. But he was not in favor of the idea that somehow instant replay would be used to overturn an umpire's decision.

Bremigan enjoyed being a major league baseball umpire. "This might sound a little vain", he said, "but it's the prestige that goes with being a major league umpire", voicing that this was a common bond between umpires and major league players.

He would go on to umpire 14 years in the American League, a total of 2,122 games, wearing #2 on his shirt or jacket. He officiated in the 1980 World Series and in the American League Championship Series in 1977, 1981, 1983 and 1986, serving as crew chief in 1981. He also worked the All-Star games of 1979 and 1985. One of his biggest moments in baseball history came when he umpired the now infamous "Pine Tar" game, in which George Brett's home run was dis-allowed because he had pine tar on his bat too far from the bat handle (a call that was overturned a few days later), but Bremigan was not the umpire who made the final call against Brett that day. He was also on the field on the infamous "Beer Night" game in Cleveland, when the umpires had to forfeit the game due to the unruly behavior of the fans.

Bremigan passed away in 1989 at the age of 43 from a heart attack, after having worked a spring exhibition game the day before. He is buried in Rochester, NY. American League umpires wore Bremigan's number 2 on their sleeve for the rest of the 1989 season, and his number was "retired" by American League umpires, and not used again until the AL and NL umpiring staffs merged. In 2010, Bremigan was inducted into the Frontier Field (Rochester, NY) Walk of Fame.

Author's recollection: all quotes from Bremigan are from my interview with him exactly 42 years ago today. That year, I saw a list of major league umpires and what college they went to, and I saw Bremigan went to the University of Buffalo (back then, it was not called the University at Buffalo). I wrote to the American League office asking if I could interview him, and much to my surprise, a few days later I received a press pass which also entitled me to go down on the field at Shea Stadium before the game. (The game was Texas against the Yankees, but since Yankee Stadium was being renovated, the Yankees played their home games at Shea Stadium that year). So I went down on the field before the game, and found Bremigan who greeted me with a huge smile, and introduced me to his umpiring crew mate Jim Evans, who would go on to be a major league crew chief. He told Evans that I was from UB. "He's from UB ... UB ... UB" as if he was thrilled to talk to someone from UB. As the interview was being conducted, many famous players wandered by, much to my distraction. As we talked, not 30 feet away, Rangers pitcher Gaylord Perry was playing catch, and I asked Bremigan if he thought Perry threw a spitball, which was illegal but Perry had been accused of this a number of times (and which Perry would be caught throwing years later). Bremigan's answer was quite diplomatic, "There's no evidence".

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