Umpiring staff changes for 2013 announced

Major League Baseball announced today the changes to the Major League Umpiring staff for the 2013 regular season. The changes include three new crew chiefs and three new full-time Major League Umpires.

The three new crew chiefs are veteran Major League Umpires Jim Joyce (25 years), Ted Barrett (16 years) and Fieldin Culbreth (16 years).  Barrett, 47, and Culbreth, 49, are now the youngest crew chiefs on the Major League staff.  Barrett, who recently completed his Ph.D. in theology, has worked two World Series (2007, 2011), five League Championship Series, seven Division Series and one All-Star Game (2007) in his career.  He is the only umpire in history to be the home plate umpire in two perfect games, among the three no-hitters he has worked overall (David Cone's 1999 perfect game, Ervin Santana's 2011 no-hitter and Matt Cain's 2012 perfect game).  Culbreth, a former college baseball player at UNC-Charlotte, has been assigned to two World Series (2008, 2012), six LCS, five Division Series and one Midsummer Classic (2006).  Joyce, 57, has worked two World Series (1999, 2001), four LCS, eight Division Series and three All-Star Games (1994, 2001, 2012).

Barrett, Culbreth and Joyce replace retired crew chiefs Derryl Cousins, Ed Rapuano and Tim Tschida.

Rapuano, 55, had 22.5 years of Major League experience.  He became a part of the National League's staff in 1991.  Rapuano will become an Umpire Evaluator for Major League Baseball and will participate in the assessments and training of Minor League Umpires.  The Connecticut native was a part of the crews assigned to the 2001 and 2003 Fall Classics along with five LCS, eight Division Series and two Midsummer Classics (1995, 2008).

Cousins, 66, was a 34-year member of the Major League Umpiring staff.  He joined the American League staff in 1979 and worked in Major League Baseball in five different decades.  He was on the field for three World Series (1988, 1999 and 2005), seven LCS (including six ALCS, in 1985, 1989, 1995, 2003, 2006 and 2008), five Division Series (1997, 1999, 2002, 2005 and 2007) and three All-Star Games (1987, 1998 and 2008).  He was the home plate umpire for Hall of Famer Tom Seaver's 300^th career win on August 4, 1985 at Yankee Stadium and for the last game of the millennium, Game Four of the 1999 World Series in The House That Ruth Built, where he also later served as the crew chief for the 2008 All-Star Game, which lasted a record four hours and 50 minutes and a record-tying 15 innings.  Cousins called balls and strikes in the 2009 World Baseball Classic championship game between Japan and Korea at Dodger Stadium.  Derryl and Joe Brinkman worked 2,123 games as partners, which is the most of any tandem in history.  Cousins' 4,496 career Major League games rank seventh all-time and had been the most of all active Major League Umpires. 

Tschida, 52, was a 27-year Major League Umpire.  He became a full-time American League Umpire in the 1986 season.  The Minnesota native worked three World Series (1998, 2002, 2008), four LCS, nine Division Series and two Midsummer Classics (1992, 2002).  He was behind the plate for the record seventh and final no-hitter in the career of Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan in 1991, and he also called balls and strikes in Chicago Cubs hurler Carlos Zambrano's 2008 no-hitter against the Houston Astros at Milwaukee's Miller Park, a game that was relocated.  

The three new members of the full-time Major League Umpiring staff will be Vic Carapazza, Manny Gonzalez and Alan Porter.

• The 33-year-old Carapazza, who has worked in both Triple-A leagues, has been a Minor League Umpire since 2003.  He has been assigned to Major League Spring Training since 2010 and has worked more than 300 regular season games since then as a call-up umpire at the Major League level.
• Gonzalez, 33, becomes the first full-time Venezuelan Major League Umpire in Major League history.  He has umpired professionally since 2002, including in the Triple-A International League, and has worked Major League Spring Training since 2010.  He has been on the field for 175 regular season games since becoming a fill-in umpire in the Majors.
• Porter, 35, has been a Minor League Umpire since 2002 and has worked Major League Spring Training since 2009.  The former International League umpire has 300 games of regular season experience as a Major League call-up umpire since 2010.