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Yes, I stole that line from Dodger Thoughts commenter Andrew Shimmin, but I thought it would be appropriate to honor umpire Bruce Froemming. Froemming was given an award by Bud Selig in honor of his 37th consecutive season as an umpire, the longest such stretch in major league history, surpassing Bill Klem's 36 (1905-1940). Actually, Klem umpired 11 games in 1941 before hanging up his chest protector or whatever umpires hang up metaphorically when they retire. And all the games were at the end of the year and none were behind the plate.
Froemming made his debut as a big league umpire on April 6, 1971 as the third base umpire in a game at Shea Stadium between the Mets and Expos. The game lasted just five innings before rain halted it. The play-by-play doesn't indicate any safe/out calls that Froemming might have had to have made, but maybe he made an appeal call on a check swing.
Because umpires today get vacation time off, Froemming is still behind Klem in total games. Klem also umpired 18 World Series and Froemming has umpired just five, although there is a much bigger pool of umpires now.
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