{"id":507323,"date":"2026-02-27T10:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T10:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/507323\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T10:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T10:13:09","slug":"bruce-froemming-dies-at-86-after-37-year-career-as-mlb-umpire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/507323\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruce Froemming dies at 86 after 37-year career as MLB umpire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bruce Froemming, a Major League Baseball<\/a> umpire whose career spanned nearly four decades and more than 5,000 games, has died at the age of 86, according to The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

\"FirstFirst base umpire Bruce Froemming looks at fog in center field at AT&T Park in the eighth inning of a baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers in San Francisco, April 6, 2007. (AP)<\/p>\n

Froemming died Wednesday following a fall at his home in Mequon, Wisconsin<\/a>, his son Steven told the AP. He fell just after midnight Tuesday and struck his head on a hardwood floor before being taken to Ascension Columbia St. Mary\u2019s Hospital in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

His son said doctors were unable to stop brain bleeding because Froemming was on blood thinners.<\/p>\n

Also Read: Devonta Lee cause of death: What happened to the ex-LSU star? All on his cancer battle<\/a><\/p>\n

Nearly four decades in the big leagues<\/p>\n

Froemming began his professional umpiring career in the minor leagues in 1958 at age 18, starting with a game in Waterloo, Iowa<\/a>. After more than a decade working his way through the ranks, he joined the National League staff in 1971. He later became part of the unified major league umpiring staff in 2000.<\/p>\n

By the time he retired in 2007, Froemming had worked 5,163 games: the second-most in MLB history at that point behind Bill Klem.<\/p>\n

Both were eventually surpassed by Joe West, who finished with 5,460 games before retiring in 2021.<\/p>\n

Shortly before stepping away from the field, Froemming reflected on his early days in an interview with the AP, saying, \u201cI thought I was in heaven, on the ballfield, professional athletes, I was starting my professional career.\u201d He noted that reaching the majors once felt distant because \u201cyou had so far to go through the minor leagues to even get a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also Read: Robert Cosby Jr. cause of death: What happened to RHOSLC star Mary Cosby’s son? Details emerge<\/a><\/p>\n

He also talked about patience as a key trait for umpires, adding, \u201cYou\u2019re going to make mistakes early on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Record-setting no-hitters and World Series<\/p>\n

Froemming officiated a record 11 no-hitters during his career.<\/p>\n

Among the most memorable was September 2, 1972, when Milt Pappas of the Chicago Cubs narrowly missed a perfect game after issuing a late walk.<\/p>\n

He also was behind the plate for no-hitters by Nolan Ryan and others, and worked five World Series.<\/p>\n

After retiring, Froemming served as a special assistant to MLB\u2019s vice president of umpiring.<\/p>\n

He is survived by his wife, Rosemarie, two sons and grandchildren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bruce Froemming, a Major League Baseball umpire whose career spanned nearly four decades and more than 5,000 games,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[254631,64,63,254629,254630,591,85,12216],"class_list":["post-507323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-163-games","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bruce-froemming","tag-major-league-baseball-umpire","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-wisconsin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}