GuardiansUpdated: Oct. 30, 2025, 1:07 p.m.|Published: Oct. 30, 2025, 12:49 p.m.
Jack Efta served as the umpires-room attendant at Progressive Field from 1995 to 2019. His many duties included coating baseballs with mud.Marc Bona, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The baseball world lost one of its essential behind-the-scenes architects this week when Jack Efta, the longtime umpire room attendant at Progressive Field, passed away at 72 after battling lymphoma.
While casual fans might never have known his name, Efta represented the invisible backbone of baseball operations – those critical figures who make the game possible without ever stepping into the spotlight.
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