Veteran umpire McClelland to miss 2014 season

One of Major League Baseball's longest-serving umpires will miss the entire season. The Des Moines Register reported Thursday that Tim McClelland will miss the entire 2014 campaign due to a back injury, and that the future status of the 31-year veteran may also be in doubt.

McClelland said Wednesday that doctors would not clear his injury to work this season, and Major League Baseball announced earlier that he would be unavailable for the start of the year. McClelland, the league's second-most experienced umpire, is unsure when he will work again.

"I'm not working this year," McClelland told a reporter from the Des Moines Register. "I'm not retiring, I'm just on the disabled list. I'm going to rest, and we have to reevaluate at the end of the year."

McClelland hopes that he will be able to return to the game after sitting out a year, pending his recovery. McClelland has worked four World Series and three All-Star Games, but he's perhaps best known for ejecting George Brett in the famous "Pine Tar Game" in 1983.

The longtime umpire was behind the plate for a perfect game by David Wells in 1988, and he was working at second base when Philip Humber threw a perfect game in 2012. McClelland was also on the field -- but at different bases -- for no-hitters by Jack Morris in '84 and Nolan Ryan in '90.