Gary Darling calls on Cooperstown
Accompanied by his wife Cheri, the couple, who reside in Phoenix, Ariz., drove approximately 600 miles from northeast Indiana, where they spend their summers.
“I’m just a longtime baseball fan and always wanted to get here. I’m finally taking the time to make the pilgrimage,” said Darling during an interview at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on Sept. 5, 2019. “I was a longtime umpire, umpiring my whole adult life. Who wouldn’t want to come and see the Hall of Fame?”
Darling began his major league career umpiring for the National League in 1988, missed the 2000 and 2001 campaigns due to a labor dispute, returned in 2002 and became a crew chief prior to the 2004 season. In 2000, the AL and NL abolished their individual umpire crews in favor of one crew for all of Major League Baseball. After 28 years, Darling announced his retirement in July 2014, having been on the disabled list for the entire season.
“I played baseball through junior college (Cosumnes River Junior College in Sacramento, Calif.), but knew the only people who were going to draft me were the Army, so I decided to try umpiring,” he said with a smile. “I went to umpire school and worked my way through the minor leagues. I took some sports officiating classes when I was in junior college and liked it. When I was growing and playing ‘pickle’ or ‘runner,’ the extra guy would always ump. I always kind of liked it but never thought about it until I did those officiating classes. And baseball was just the right fit.”
“And I was always able to walk the kids to school in the morning when they were young enough and let dad walk with them,” he said with a chuckle. “Not a bad career.”
Darling’s career highlights include working a pair of All-Star games (1993, 2003) and World Series (2003, 2010), the 2012 A.L. Wild Card Game, 10 Division Series (1995, 1997-98, 2002-03, 2005, 2007-08, 2010, 2013), and five League Championship Series (1992, 2004, 2006, 2011-12). He was even behind the plate when Roger Clemens collected his 300th career win and 4,000th career strikeouts in the same game on June 13, 2003.
“My last year was 2013 and full replay started in 2014. I think it is a little overkill. It’s nice that there’s a safety net for the guys – you’re not going to be THAT guy that has THAT call at a crucial time because those can now get fixed – but it changes the way they officiate the games,” he explained. “Like the steal play, when the guy is sliding in, his foot hits the base and then barely pops off and they keep the tag on him, stuff that they really weren’t looking for initially with replay.
Earlier this year, the Atlantic League donated to the Hall of Fame the earpiece used by the home plate umpire from the first regular season game to utilize ABS to call balls and strikes.
“Who is to say it won’t ever be in the big leagues. I don’t think it’s quite ready yet. It’s hard to do it in real time because one hitter is José Altuve, who is 5-foot-6, and the next hitter is Aaron Judge, who is 6-foot-7. Those lines aren’t exact – and they move while they’re hitting. It’s just not an exact science,” Darling said.
Bill Francis is the senior research and writing specialist at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
Related Hall of Famers
To the topRelated Stories
To the top
Umpires Break Through Glass Ceiling

Doug Harvey remembered as umpire who changed the game
