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Friday, June 14, 2013

MLB Promotes Chris Conroy to Umpiring Staff

Congratulations to new full-time MLB umpire Chris Conroy, officially promoted to the full time staff on Friday. Conroy fills the roster spot vacated by Brian Runge, who did not work a Major League contest this season after an attempted AAA rehab assignment in May.

First reported as a rumor by the UEFL on June 9, The move was confirmed in a Friday press release by Major League Baseball.

Conroy has been a regular big league fixture in 2013 and his 129 games worked in 2012 ranks third amongst call-ups that season (Mike Muchlinski [ranked #8], 132; DJ Reyburn [ranked #7], 130). Conroy has umpired professionally since 2000 and was promoted to Triple-A in 2006 before working his first spring training in 2009. A Massachusetts native, Conroy worked both the Pacific Coast and International Leagues (AAA) before his promotion to the full-time MLB staff.

15 comments:

  1. Great Conroy story, too. Worked four seasons in the Dominican, one of which, his wife was pregnant for. Put the time in, and deserves the opportunity. Congratulations, Chris.

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  2. Congratulations Chris!!! Eric Cooper tossed Elvis Andrus.

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  3. Congrats to Conroy! On the other hand, the Runge Dynasty comes to an end! There was a 2 year gap between Ed and Paul, and one between Paul and Brian, otherwise a Runge umpiring in the bigs since 1956!

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  4. Congrats Chris! I believe he worked the Mets game yesterday behind the plate. He deserves to be up in the bigs.

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  5. Great story about a guy who got hired off the PBUC reserve list. Congrats!!!

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  6. Same source that I had for the story tells me that Runge had an issue with his knee.

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  7. What happened to Runge? Fired or released? Surely MLB would have mentioned it was a retirement due to injury if it was in fact for that reason.

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  8. I read that as well. I was just curious if there was more to it.

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  9. That's not true. It was not injury related. Off field issues.

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  10. Why do you think MLB did not come out and announce "the retirement" of Brian Runge? They just announced Conroy's hiring. You need to connect the dots. Saving all parties from embarrassment.

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  11. Got to meet Chris at a training in RI. Great guy, passionate and knowledgeable. Happy for him.

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  12. Well, I'd love to know what you know. Because your speculation = defamation.

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  13. It would appear that he has been placed on Gary Darling's crew, with Bruce Dreckman shifting to Tim Welke's crew, and Marty Foster over to Tim McClelland's crew.

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  14. I don't want to reveal my source (who is in professional baseball), but I can confirm Runge's departure was not injury related, but as Tom suggested, it was off-field issues that led to his "termination."

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