Bill McKinley

Bill McKinley was a steady, dependable American League umpire whose 20-season career, from 1946 to 1965, was marked by numerous highlights and one well-publicized low point.

The highlights included four World Series assignments, three All-Star Games, five no-hitters—one behind the plate—and other historic moments. McKinley was working home plate in 1947 when Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians integrated the American League, and again in 1962 when the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers played a 7-hour, 22-inning game, then the longest game by time in major-league history.1 He is cited as the first graduate of an umpiring school to reach the major leagues and was one of 31 umpires depicted on baseball cards in the 1955 Bowman set, one of the few major card sets to include umps.2

The low point of his career came in 1960, when McKinley and crewmate Ed Runge were entrapped in a tawdry blackmail scandal that drew national attention and resulted in a leave of absence for much of that September. The games McKinley missed in September 1960 were said to be the first absences of his big-league career.3 McKinley rode out the scandal, returning to work for five more seasons before a change to the AL’s retirement age pushed him out of the majors.

William Francis McKinley was born on May 13, 1910, in Kinsman, Ohio, near the state’s eastern border with Pennsylvania.4 Kinsman is about 20 miles as the crow flies from Niles, the birthplace of former US President William McKinley, who was assassinated about 8 1/2 years before the birth of the umpire who shared his first and last name. According to the younger McKinley, the President was a distant cousin.5

The connection with the President later caused the umpire endless headaches, as players and managers who disagreed with his calls often ribbed him with the line, “They shot the wrong McKinley!” Irreverent pitcher-turned-broadcaster Dizzy Dean gave the taunt widespread visibility when he burst out with it while calling a New York Yankees-Cleveland Indians game in July 1951.6 Others known or reputed to have employed it included Fred Hutchinson, Hank Bauer, Jim Piersall, Fred Haney, and Bill Veeck.7 The umpire made it known in the mid-1950s that the President was a relative and the joke was unwelcome, but it seems to have made little difference. “It always burns him up,” a Cleveland newspaper reported in 1957.8

McKinley was the fourth and youngest child9 of dairy farmer Harry McKinley and his wife, Catherine (Speir).10 Years later, McKinley recalled that his father was deeply religious—so much so that the McKinleys attended three church services on some Sundays—and none of his family members supported his interest in baseball.11

After high school, McKinley went to work cutting meat in a butcher shop run by his brother, also named Harry, while playing semipro baseball several times a week. In 1935, McKinley, who was listed as 6 feet and 170 pounds in Retrosheet, paid his own way to try his luck as a catcher at a tryout camp run by St. Louis Cardinals general manager Branch Rickey. By McKinley’s telling, the Cards offered him a contract to play at Class D—the lowest level of the minors—only to have the manager of his prospective team tell him he wasn’t a good enough hitter to play professionally.12

Three more years of butcher work and semipro ball followed before McKinley got the pro baseball itch again. This time, he went to an umpiring school run by National League arbiter George Barr. McKinley had never umpired, but his catching experience made him feel at home behind the plate. He fared well enough that Barr offered him a job in the Ohio State League paying $100 per month. Four years after missing a chance to play Class D ball, McKinley headed to the Class D level as an umpire.13

McKinley broadened his knowledge by attending another umpiring school after the season, this one run by AL umpire and future Hall of Famer Bill McGowan. McGowan took a liking to McKinley, helping the newcomer get a better-paying Class D job with the North Carolina State League in 1940 and the Class C Michigan State League in 1941. Tom Halligan, the Michigan State League’s president, also saw McKinley as an up-and-comer and arranged a job for him in the Class AA American Association—one step below the majors at the time—for 1942. “The president of the league is very important in determining the breaks you get in moving up the ladder because he is the man you are working for,” McKinley later explained. “If he likes you, he is going to try to advance you.”14

McKinley’s rapid ascent was not without its bumps and bruises, of course—like the night in Fremont, Ohio, in May 1939 when the umpire’s call of a game-ending strikeout earned him a hearty shove from the batter and a police officer’s escort off the field.15 Two seasons later, a newspaper in Saginaw, Michigan, rapped McKinley for granting a batter a fourth ball on a pitch he swung at, adding that McKinley put on “about the poorest exhibition of ball-and-strike calling that has been seen here all season.”16 Years later, McKinley remembered more than one night when players had to help the umpires off the field. “They would form a line with bats in their hands, and we would walk through it, get into our cars, and leave,” he said. “That sort of thing discourages a fellow.”17

McKinley’s life took two dramatic turns in January 1943. On the 9th, in the midst of World War II, he enlisted in the US Army.18 Three days later, the 32-year-old McKinley married 26-year-old Margaret Langley, the postmistress of Orangeville, Ohio, roughly eight miles from Kinsman as the crow flies.19 The couple met when McKinley was delivering meat from his brother’s market.20 They remained married until McKinley’s death; the marriage produced a son, Bill Jr., and a daughter, Marilyn.21

McKinley spent 27 months serving in Europe, rising to the rank of staff sergeant. He later noted that his unit stayed mostly behind the lines and that he spent his war service as a mess sergeant because of his civilian experience as a butcher. “At least I ate well,” he quipped.22 

Returning from the war, McKinley resumed umpiring in the American Association in 1946, as one of four soldier-umps in the loop reclaiming their old positions. The major leagues had recently looked to the AA for umpiring prospects: A preseason news story noted that the AL had hired former AA ump Joe Paparella in the offseason, while another AA ump, Robert Austin, was under a two-year option from the AL.23

McKinley was assigned to a three-man crew with umpires Pat Padden and Charley Moore. McKinley later said he expected Padden, who’d been umping on and off since 1937, to get called to the majors first. “I was working with some good umpires in the Association, fellows I thought would go before I did,” he said.24

Instead, the crew was working in Kansas City in early August when AA league president Roy Hamey abruptly called to tell McKinley he’d been sold to the AL and should report to work in Chicago the following afternoon.25 (Padden submitted his resignation after being passed over. He later retracted it, working as an ump until 1952 and serving as a minor-league umpire supervisor, but he never umped in the majors.26)

McKinley made his big-league debut on August 7, 1946, working at third base for a game between the Indians and Chicago White Sox in Chicago. Years later, McKinley told an interviewer he’d been called up to replace the ailing George Pipgras.27 His memory was faulty: Pipgras, suffering from a kidney ailment, had submitted his resignation in May and was replaced by Hal Weafer.28 Instead, a check of AL umpiring records suggests that McKinley most likely stepped in for his mentor McGowan. McGowan, ill with diabetes, was out of action from May 24 through the end of July; he returned for games on August 1 and 2 but, still sick, missed the rest of the season.29

It took McKinley just three games to land in hot water. He was working at first base in the nightcap of an August 8 doubleheader between the Indians and White Sox when Chicago’s Joe Kuhel lined a ball down the right-field foul line and into the seats for a game-tying ninth-inning homer. The ball was fair, but McKinley accidentally made the signal for “foul” before reversing himself. An argument ensued, during which McKinley ejected Indians shortstop-manager Lou Boudreau and pitchers Steve Gromek and Joe Krakauskas. “Oh, I was embarrassed,” McKinley recalled. “I wanted to crawl under the foul line and right out into the street and go home. But you have got to stay there and take it. That’s part of the experience you go through, the way you learn things in umpiring.”30

This rough start notwithstanding, McKinley was generally sparing with his thumb, issuing 45 ejections over 20 seasons. In 1961, The Sporting News asked managers, coaches, and beat writers in both leagues to evaluate umps in positive and negative categories. The only category in which McKinley placed first was “Least Likely to Eject Players.”31 The timing was fortuitous: 1961 was one of three full seasons in which McKinley made no ejections.32

There was one exception to McKinley’s easygoing attitude—though the problem was not McKinley’s alone. Paul Richards, who managed the White Sox and Baltimore Orioles from 1951 to 1961, was a notorious ump-baiter; he was thrown out of 83 games in that period and led the AL in ejections eight times. McKinley ran Richards from eight games, far and away more than any other coach, manager, or player. The ump repaid Richards for his obstreperousness during the offseason, joking on the after-dinner speaking circuit that Richards ranked as the league’s most even-tempered manager because “he’s always mad.”33

As McKinley found his feet in the majors, he worked historically notable games like Doby’s debut on July 5, 1947.34 Other assignments were memorable for stranger reasons, like the night in September 1949 that the defending champion Indians—eliminated from pennant contention—buried their 1948 pennant beyond Cleveland Municipal Stadium’s center-field fence.35

As a midseason break from the AL, McKinley worked the championship games of the first two College World Series, in 1947 and 1948.36 McKinley also joined the staff of McGowan’s offseason umpiring school, one of six current or future big-league arbiters leading lessons there.37

McKinley later described his umpiring style as low-key—“I wasn’t very colorful”—and built around hustle. To stay focused, he pretended on each pitch that the ball was about to be hit in his direction. He wasn’t as well-versed on the rule book as other umpires, he added, but made up for it in other ways. “You can’t just know the rule and be a good umpire,” he said. “There are three essential things you can’t get out of the book—good eyesight, common sense, and good judgment.”38

McKinley established a positive reputation quickly enough to receive three World Series assignments during the 1950s. In 1950, he worked along the foul lines as the Yankees swept the Philadelphia Phillies in four games. In 1952, he drew his first Series home-plate assignment in Game Four, a 2–0 victory by the eventual champion Yankees over Brooklyn.

And in 1957, McKinley umpired behind the plate for Game Three and the deciding Game Seven, a 5–0 victory for the Milwaukee Braves over the Yankees. Years later, McKinley described Game Seven as the highest-pressure game of his career, knowing that his performance would be closely watched with a championship on the line. He was also concerned about monitoring Braves starter Lew Burdette, a reputed spitballer known for faking motions to his cap, hair, and mouth. McKinley checked the ball for tampering in the seventh inning but found nothing; Burdette scattered seven hits in a complete game for his third win of the Series.39

Regular-season games also provided some historically significant moments for McKinley during the 1950s. He was the plate umpire for Connie Mack’s last game as a manager, a 5–3 Philadelphia Athletics win over Washington on October 1, 1950. Four seasons later he worked at first base for the Athletics’ final home opener in Philadelphia.

In September 1953, he worked at first base for the final game in St. Louis Browns history—a 2–1, 11-inning loss to the White Sox. McKinley was behind the plate in Washington one season later when left fielder Carlos Paula integrated the Senators franchise.40

On April 14, 1955, in Boston, McKinley not only witnessed the integration of the New York Yankees, but hastened it. In the sixth inning, McKinley ejected Yankees left fielder Irv Noren, who bumped him while protesting an out call at home plate. Right fielder Bauer chipped in with a chorus of shot-the-wrong-McKinley and was thumbed as well.41 Manager Casey Stengel, suddenly short on outfielders, tapped newcomer Elston Howard—the team’s first Black player—to replace Noren in left field in the bottom half.42

And on September 22, 1959, McKinley called the final out at first base as the White Sox beat the Indians, 4–2, to clinch their first pennant since 1919. The game was in Cleveland, though, so McKinley missed hearing Chicago’s city fathers turning on the city’s air-raid sirens in celebration.43

The 1960 season began with recognition ofMcKinley’s streak of 2,070 straight games, believed to be the longest by a big-league ump. A Sporting News article noted his “eagle eye, stentorian voice, sound judgment, bulldog grit and plenty of experience.”44 It also showed that McKinley didn’t take himself too seriously, as the ump told stories of his most embarrassing moments—like the time a ceremonial toss by President Dwight Eisenhower plunked McKinley in the rear end.45

McKinley faced considerably greater embarrassment late in the 1960 season, amid an uncharacteristically salacious scandal. On August 28, crewmates McKinley and Runge went to a motel room in Baltimore with two strippers, presumably expecting a private performance. Instead, they walked into an extortion scheme known to crime buffs as a “badger game.”46 Two men unexpectedly entered the room and took photos of McKinley and Runge with the scantily clad women. A blackmail threat arrived not long afterward. The umps were told the photos would be publicized and mailed to their wives unless they paid several thousand dollars or agreed to throw a game.47

McKinley and Runge went to the police and agreed to be used as “bait” in a follow-up meeting with the blackmailers. At the meeting, police arrested two men and one of the women, charging them with extortion and related crimes.48 The umpires’ cooperation with authorities ensured that the tawdry story would go public. On September 6, when Runge told the umps’ story at a court hearing, newspapers from coast to coast ran wire-service summaries.49 The Sporting News, the widely read “Bible of Baseball,” followed with a full recap in mid-September.50

On September 8, AL President Joe Cronin put McKinley and Runge on leave for the rest of the season, ostensibly at their request so they could support the criminal investigation.51 Some, including prominent New York columnist Dick Young, saw the leave as the first step toward a “quiet ease-out” for the umps.52 “Umpiring is a profession that allows not the slightest deviation from the straight and narrow,” opined a Buffalo, New York, sportswriter.53

But, in the absence of any announcement by Cronin, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Boston Globe reported by year’s end that McKinley and Runge would return in 1961.54 The Globe cited a “shortage of competent umpires” as part of the reason, while McKinley and Runge’s status as “two of the best arbiters in the American League” (as per The Sporting News) no doubt contributed as well.55 Other pundits suggested that firing the umps would have sent the wrong message. If an error in judgment meant an automatic firing, a future ump caught in a sticky situation might try to hush it up instead.56

McKinley worked some of his most historically significant regular-season games after the scandal, including the 22-inning 1962 clash between the Yankees and Tigers, won on a home run by reserve outfielder Jack Reed. The physical ordeal brought out McKinley’s salty side when Yankees catcher Yogi Berra—whom McKinley considered a pest—asked him late in the game to brush off home plate. “Brush it off yourself,” McKinley shot back. “I know where it is.”57

Less than two months later, McKinley worked his only big-league no-hitter behind the plate as the Red Sox’s Bill Monbouquette shut down the White Sox, 1–0, in Chicago.58 An old familiar taunt raised its head at an uncomfortable moment. With two out in the ninth and Luis Aparicio at the plate, McKinley called a close two-strike pitch a ball. A leather-lunged fan roared, “They shot the wrong McKinley!” The jeer brought Monbouquette a moment of paranoia: “I thought, ‘Wait a minute, guy, I’ve got a no-hitter going. Don’t mess with the umpire,’” Monbouquette said later. Aparicio took the next pitch for a called third strike, sealing the no-no.59

McKinley continued to draw showcase assignments after the scandal, suggesting that he was still seen as trustworthy. He worked the second 1962 All-Star Game at Wrigley Field, umpiring at first base during a 9–4 AL victory.60 He’d previously umpired All-Star Games in 1953 and 1958, spending the final few innings of the ’53 game behind the plate.61

McKinley also worked the 1964 World Series, taking his fourth and final Series turn as plate umpire in Game Two. In the sixth inning of a 1–1 tie, McKinley ruled that a pitch from the St. Louis Cardinals’ Bob Gibson had hit the thigh of the Yankees’ Joe Pepitone. The infuriated Cardinals insisted they had heard the pitch hit Pepitone’s bat. Mickey Mantle, who had previously walked, then scored on Tom Tresh’s single to give the Yankees a 2–1 lead they never relinquished in a game that ended 8–3. “The call certainly changed the complexion of the game,” Gibson said. “It upset me.”62 St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports editor Bob Broeg, predictably, led the next day’s column with a shot-the-wrong-McKinley reference.63

McKinley turned 55 on May 13, 1965, during a season with a full workload—165 games—but no historic milestone events. He spent his birthday umpiring at third base for a White Sox-Kansas City Athletics game in Chicago, a matchup notable as the major-league debut of future Hall of Famer and Cy Young Award winner Catfish Hunter.

Unbeknownst to him at the time, McKinley worked his 3,004th and final major-league game64 on October 3 of that season. He umpired at second base as the Baltimore Orioles’ Steve Barber outdueled the Indians’ Sam McDowell, 2–1, in Cleveland. The youngest player in the game, the Orioles’ 21-year-old center fielder Paul Blair, had been two years old when McKinley made his major-league debut.65

McKinley’s big-league career began unexpectedly in August 1946, and on December 29, 1965, it ended the same way. McKinley and fellow umpire Eddie Hurley received notice from Cronin that the AL had lowered its mandatory retirement age for umpires from 60 to 55, and both men would be retired on January 1. Paparella, also over the age limit, had resigned a few days earlier.66 “Even when an umpire gets fired, he gets 10 days’ notice,” Hurley huffed. “We got two. … The way they did it, I just can’t believe it.”67

McKinley told SABR member and umpire researcher Larry Gerlach that he’d been involved in attempts to unionize AL umps, and that he and four other senior umpires had brought a list of demands to Cronin, who promised to present them at an upcoming league meeting. Shortly after the meeting, McKinley received his retirement letter. “I don’t think they wanted to give us what we wanted and were trying to head off an organization,” he said. “There was no warning. Just a letter, an eight-cent letter, saying I was through. … After 20 years in the league I thought I should have a little more warning than that.”68

Cronin, for his part, said the group of umpires had requested retirement at 55 with a pension as one of their demands. “They asked for it themselves,” he said. “There was nothing personal in this. It was all business.”69

McKinley said he hoped to catch on with a major-league team’s public relations department, and he worked for a time for the Indians in that capacity.70 He also umpired college games for Ohio State University and Kent State University, but never liked the two-man umping system used at that level. “You can’t see all the plays; you have to guess so much of the time because you can’t possibly be on top of the plays,” he explained. “As a result, you always get a lot of yelling and screaming.”71

He took on a diverse pair of umpire-in-chief roles in the late 1960s. McKinley served as ump-in-chief of the American Amateur Baseball Congress, consulting on officiating matters, holding clinics, and umpiring at major national tournaments.72 In February 1969, McKinley also signed on as umpire-in-chief of the Global League, a fledgling international operation run by a Louisville, Kentucky, businessman named Walter Dilbeck. The league played a handful of games outside the US before folding.73

McKinley spent the 1970s like many American men his age—moving to Florida, getting a pacemaker installed, playing golf.74 He also continued the after-dinner and public speaking engagements that had provided a side income for many years, trotting out colorful stories about Paul Richards, Casey Stengel, Jimmy Piersall, and other names from a generation past.75 “You want to know what was my greatest achievement in life?” McKinley asked an audience rhetorically in 1973. “Doing something I liked to do.”76

In August 1977, McKinley was inducted into the Ohio Baseball Hall of Fame, in distinguished company that included Boudreau, Walter Alston, Early Wynn, and former NL president Warren Giles.77 The first big-league arbiter to graduate from an umpiring school also continued to teach others. Ads published in The Sporting News in August and September 1978 promoted McKinley’s participation in an umpiring school in Florida, alongside two other big-league umps.78

Bill McKinley died on August 1, 1980, in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, after suffering a heart attack. He was 70 and was survived by his wife, son, and daughter.79 Following services at Kinsman Presbyterian Church, the umpire was laid to rest at Kinsman Cemetery in his hometown.80

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and Abigail Miskowiec and checked for accuracy by SABR’s fact-checking team.

SABR member Larry Gerlach’s interview with Bill McKinley for his book The Men in Blue: Conversations with Umpires, cited in the Notes, was a primary source for this story, and the author thanks Gerlach for responding to a follow-up question. The author also thanks the Giamatti Research Center at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum for research assistance.

Sources and photo credit

In addition to the sources credited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for background information on players, teams, and seasons.

Bill McKinley: SABR-Rucker Archive.

Notes

1 John Milner, “Yankees Outlast Tigers in 22-Inning Game,” SABR, accessed November 2025, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/june-24-1962-yankees-outlast-tigers-in-22-inning-game/. As of the end of the 2025 season, the longest known major-league game by time was a 25-inning battle played on May 8 and 9, 1984, by the Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers. That game ran 8 hours and 6 minutes of playing time.

2 Bill Pruden, “Umpire Schools: Training Grounds for the Guardians of the Game,” The SABR Book of Umpires and Umpiring, (Phoenix, Arizona: Society for American Baseball Research, 2017), 235, https://sabr.org/journal/article/umpire-schools-training-grounds-for-the-guardians-of-the-game/; Jason Schwartz, “The Umpires of 1955 Bowman,” SABR Baseball Card Blog, posted October 5, 2021, https://sabrbaseballcards.blog/2021/10/05/the-umpires-of-1955-bowman/.

3 An Associated Press obituary for McKinley said he umped 2,200 straight games from August 17, 1946, to September 1, 1950, while a United Press International obit gave the dates as August 17, 1944, to September 1, 1960. The correct dates were August 7, 1946—McKinley’s debut—to September 7, 1960; McKinley missed his first game on September 8. Associated Press, “William F. McKinley,” Toledo Blade, August 4, 1980: 7; United Press International, “Umpire William McKinley,” Newsday (New York, New York), August 5, 1980: 25.

4 As of November 2025, McKinley was the only major-league umpire, player, manager, or coach with Kinsman listed as their birthplace in Retrosheet.

5 Arthur Siegel, “Radatz Can Aid Sox ALL Year,” Boston Globe, April 10, 1964: 24. Research for this biography did not discover any source in which umpire McKinley specifically said he was named in honor of President McKinley. Conjectural evidence suggests he might not have been: The umpire’s older brother Harry was born in October 1902, a year after the President’s death, which meant that McKinley’s father had an earlier opportunity to name a son in tribute to the slain President and chose not to.

6 “Diamond Dust,” New York Daily News, July 26, 1951: 69. Although this item refers to Dean making the crack during “Monday’s game,” which would have placed it on July 23, the description of the play that inspired the remark matches news descriptions of the game of Tuesday, July 24. Frank Gibbons of the Cleveland Press led his story about the July 24 game by paraphrasing the quip. Gibbons, “Close Plays and Long Hits Extend Yank Jinx,” July 25, 1951: 34.

7 Pat Harmon, “Hutch’s Words Are Reminders,” Cincinnati Post and Times-Star, November 13, 1964: 24; Associated Press, “Irv Noren Indefinitely Suspended for Fracas With Umpire in Boston,” Buffalo News, April 15, 1955: 45; “Piersall Reappears as Finley Employee,” Toledo (Ohio) Blade, June 22, 1972: 38; Associated Press, “Angry Haney Blasts Umpires,” Minneapolis Sunday Tribune, October 6, 1957: Sports: 2; Bill Veeck, “Bad Umpires Need Bit of Seasoning in Minor Leagues,” Baltimore Evening Sun, December 17, 1962: B12.

8 Oscar Ruhl, “From the Ruhl Book,” The Sporting News, July 14, 1954: 16; Siegel, “Radatz Can Aid Sox ALL Year”; Harry Jones, “Batting Around,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 7, 1957: 25.

9 The 1920 US Census, accessed via FamilySearch.org in November 2025, listed the McKinleys as having four children: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDBM-B6W?lang=en. A FamilySearch page for McKinley’s father Harry also listed him as having four children: https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/9Z3S-HN8.

10 Research for this biography found McKinley’s mother’s first name spelled Cathrine, Catherine, Catharine, Kathrine, and Katherine in various sources. Even sources that might usually be considered definitive disagree: She is Cathrine on her 1896 state of Ohio marriage certificate (accessed via FamilySearch.org in November 2025: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VF95-GH5?lang=en), Kathrine in the 1920 US Census cited above, and Catherine on a family marriage record (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2QHQ-J6D?lang=en), her 1934 state of Ohio death certificate (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X6QT-YKD?lang=en), and gravestone (all accessed via Findagrave.com in November 2025: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/98822441/catherine-a-mckinley). This biography opted to side with the latter sources.

11 Larry R. Gerlach, The Men in Blue: Conversations with Umpires, (New York: Viking Press, 1980), 151–170.

12 In Gerlach’s The Men in Blue, McKinley said the man who delivered the bad news was both the manager and catcher of the Cardinals’ Norfolk, Nebraska, farm team. Baseball-Reference indicates that the Norfolk manager/catcher in 1935 was Lester “Pat” Patterson, a career minor leaguer as a player and manager who later scouted for the Cincinnati Reds and New York Yankees. “Lester Patterson,” Baseball-Reference, accessed November 2025, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Lester_Patterson. The story varied in some retellings: In 1960, McKinley said he’d gone to a New York Giants training camp and had been rejected by Hall of Famer George Sisler. Lawrence Stolle, “McKinley Sets Pace as Iron-Man Arbiter,” The Sporting News, March 16, 1960: 5.

13 Gerlach, The Men in Blue. McKinley’s Sporting News umpire card, accessed via Retrosheet in November 2025 (https://retrosheet.org/TSNUmpireCards/McKinley-William.jpg), does not mention his 1939 experience in the Ohio State League. His 1955 Bowman baseball card also omits this season. A search of Newspapers.com in November 2025 turned up several mentions of McKinley in Ohio newspapers in 1939, including “Arc-Light Sparks,” Fremont (Ohio) News-Messenger, May 4, 1939: 13. Box scores in Ohio newspapers throughout the season also credited an umpire McKinley. (As of November 2025, Retrosheet’s catalog of Sporting News umpire cards contained no other umpires with the last name McKinley.)

14 Gerlach, The Men in Blue: 154.

15 Jerry Liska, “Green Sox Donate Game to Hens, 12-7,” Fremont News-Messenger, May 26, 1939: 12.

16 “Sox Leave 17 Runners Stranded in Losing to Reds, 8-2,” Saginaw (Michigan) News, June 1, 1941: 12.

17 Gerlach, The Men in Blue: 155.

18 World War II Army enlistment record for William F. McKinley, accessed via FamilySearch.org in November 2025, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KMFZ-X4B?lang=en. In Gerlach’s The Men in Blue, McKinley said he’d previously been rejected for service because of a punctured eardrum, but his local draft board changed its mind.

19 1943 Trumbull County, Ohio, marriage record for William F. McKinley and Margaret P. Langley, accessed via FamilySearch.org in November 2025, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPQT-F4QP?lang=en.

20 Stolle, “McKinley Sets Pace as Iron-Man Arbiter.”

21 Stolle.

22 Gerlach, The Men in Blue: 156.

23 Tommy Fitzgerald, “A.A. Umpires, Meeting Here, Get Chance to Yell, ‘Thief!,’” Louisville Courier-Journal, April 16, 1946: 2:2. Austin never umpired in the majors.

24 Associated Press, “A.A. Baseball Names First-Day Officials,” Richmond (Indiana) Palladium-Item and Sun-Telegram, April 16, 1946: 8; Gerlach, The Men in Blue: 156; Sporting News umpire card for Patrick Padden (https://retrosheet.org/TSNUmpireCards/Padden-Patrick.jpg).

25 Gerlach, The Men in Blue. McKinley identified the league president at the time as George Trautman, but contemporary news clippings list Hamey as AA president in 1946. Trautman had previously served as the league’s president but was employed in 1946 as general manager of the Detroit Tigers.

26 George A. Barton, “Sport-O-Graphs,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, August 10, 1946: 9.

27 Gerlach, The Men in Blue.

28 Forrest R. Kyle, “Once Over Lightly,” Decatur (Illinois) Herald and Review, May 7, 1946: 7; Hy Hurwitz, “Woburn Hal Weafer’s Insult Spurs Red Sox to Sparkling Victory,” Boston Evening Globe, May 11, 1946: 1. Pipgras’s Retrosheet entry indicates that he worked his last big-league game on April 30, 1946, some time before McKinley’s call to the majors.

29 Joe Trimble, “Yanks Trap Tribe in 11th, 6-5,” New York Daily News, June 8, 1946: 26.

30 Gerlach, The Men in Blue: 157, is the primary source for this paragraph. The author also consulted game coverage in the Chicago Tribune and Cleveland Plain Dealer editions of August 9, 1946.

31 Results were presented separately—one list for managers and coaches, one for writers. McKinley won sole honors for Least Likely to Eject Players in the coaches and managers’ poll; in the writers’ poll, he shared the honors with Red Flaherty. C.C. Johnson Spink, “Barlick Rated No. 1 Umpire in Poll of N.L.,” The Sporting News, July 26, 1961: 1.

32 Based on the list of ejections on McKinley’s Retrosheet page as of November 2025. The other full seasons McKinley worked without any ejections were 1949 and 1957.

33 “Umpiring Is ‘Foundation’ of Baseball, Major Loop Arbiter McKinley Tells Railway Club,” Greenville (Pennsylvania) Record-Argus, January 11, 1957: 11.

34 Twenty days later, McKinley worked a Boston Red Sox-St. Louis Browns game at Fenway Park, in which the Browns’ Willard Brown became the first Black player to appear in a major-league game at Fenway. (The Red Sox, the last team to integrate, did not do so until July 1959.)

35 McKinley worked at third base for this game, a 5–0 Detroit Tigers win. “‘Mortician’ Veeck Buries 1948 Flag,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 24, 1949: 14.

36 2009 College World Series media guide, accessed November 2025, http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/baseball_cws_RB/2009CWSfull.pdf: 151. Contemporary media accounts also placed McKinley at the College World Series final game in both years.

37 “Umpire Students Register Today,” Palm Beach (Florida) Post, January 7, 1948: 8. The other major-league umps teaching at the McGowan school that session were McGowan, Art Passarella, Eddie Hurley, Augie Donatelli, and Grover Froese.

38 Gerlach, The Men in Blue: 159-160.

39 Gerlach’s The Men in Blue is the primary source for this paragraph. The author also reviewed game coverage in the New York Daily News and Newsday, as well as a wire-service play-by-play of game action. United Press, “Play by Play Account of Final Series Game,” Honolulu Advertiser, October 11, 1957: B5.

40 The Washington franchise often thought of as the “first Senators” – the team that moved to Minnesota before the 1961 season and became the Twins – was formally called the Nationals from 1905 to 1955.

41 Associated Press, “Howard Breaks into Yank Lineup After Umpire Ejects Irv Noren,” Buffalo Evening News, April 15, 1955: 45.

42 Noren had replaced the Yankees’ starting left fielder, Bob Cerv. The game was not Howard’s major-league debut, as he had appeared in 20 games with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League in 1948. (As of the time this biography was written, Major League Baseball recognized certain Black-only leagues between 1920 and 1948 as major leagues.)

43 Don Zminda, “September 22, 1959: White Sox Clinch First American League Pennant in 40 Years,” SABR, accessed November 2025, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/white-sox-clinch-first-american-pennant-in-40-years-september-22-1959-chicago-white-sox-4-cleveland-indians-2-at-cleveland-stadium/.

44 Stolle, “McKinley Sets Pace as Iron-Man Arbiter.” McKinley said he maintained good health and had stayed accident-free during the baseball season, though he’d once had to spend an offseason week in the hospital after badly cutting his hand in an accident.

45 Stolle. McKinley’s explanation was that the participants in the original first pitch had turned to walk away, but photographers wanted a retake, and Eisenhower threw before everyone was ready. The only season during the Eisenhower administration in which McKinley worked the opening game in Washington was 1959.

46 Dick Young, “Young Ideas,” New York Daily News, September 6, 1960: 64; Bill Furlong (Chicago Daily News Service), “Is a ‘Fix’ In Sports a Rare Occurrance? [sic],” New Orleans Times-Picayune, November 17, 1960: 2:15.

47 Associated Press, “Umpire Tells of Extortion Try in Motel,” Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram, September 8, 1960; United Press International, “Grand Jury Gets Ump Case,” Cleveland Press, September 7, 1960: 65; Associated Press, “Umpire Ed Runge Is Target in Extortion Try by Pair,” Sacramento (California) Union, September 8, 1960: 9. The amount McKinley and Runge were allegedly offered to pay off the blackmailers varied from $2,000 to $5,000 in different news accounts. According to an online inflation calculator made available by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, $2,000 to $5,000 in September 1960 had the same buying power as $21,945 to $54,864 in September 2025.

48 “Umpire Extortion Plot Holds 2 Men, Dancer,” Washington (District of Columbia) Evening Star, September 2, 1960: 1; “Umps Used as Bait to Nab Extortionists,” Philadelphia Daily News, September 2, 1960: 56.

49 McKinley did not testify at the September hearing but spoke at a subsequent hearing in mid-October. Years later, he refused to discuss the matter during his interview with Gerlach for The Men in Blue. Associated Press, “Umpire Tells of Extortion Try in Motel”; “Post-Bulletin Sports Wire,” Rochester (Minnesota) Post-Bulletin, October 18, 1960: 22; author’s email correspondence with Larry Gerlach, November 2025.

50 Dave Brady, “Umps Blow Whistle on Extortion Plot – 3 Suspects Nabbed,” The Sporting News, September 14, 1960: 12. The Sporting News’ coverage included a comment from Runge’s wife in support of her husband, but no similar testimonial from Margaret McKinley.

51 Associated Press, “Ump Targets in Girl Plot Given Leave,” Baltimore Evening Sun, September 8, 1960: 1; United Press Association, “Umpires Request Absent Leave,” Jasper (Alabama) Daily Mountain Eagle, September 13, 1960: 3A. Minor-league umps Bill Kinnamon and Harry Schwarts were promoted to fill the vacancies for the remainder of the season.

52 Dick Young, “Young Ideas,” New York Daily News, September 10, 1960: 28. Another columnist predicting that the umps would never work in the majors again was Frank Gibbons, “Browns, Steelers May Draw 70,000,” Cleveland Press, September 10, 1960: 14.

53 Steve Weller, “Cronin Did Umpires Favor With ‘Out’ Call,” Buffalo Evening News, September 14, 1960; 87.

54 The author searched Newspapers.com and The Sporting News for the months spanning October through December 1960 for the words Runge, McKinley, and Cronin and found no formal announcement on the umpires’ status. The report by Gordon Cobbledick in the Plain Dealer was quoted in Ray Gillespie, “Diamond Facts and Facets,” The Sporting News, October 12, 1960: 14. The Globe’s report: Bob Holbrook, “Jensen Fit for Sox’ Comeback,” December 11, 1960: 87.

55 Holbrook; “Cronin Still Clouting as Prexy,” The Sporting News, September 21, 1960: 8. Kinnamon and Schwarts, who filled in for McKinley and Runge in September 1960, were both hired as AL umps for 1961. The league, expanding by two teams, needed more full-time arbiters.

56 Dick Young, “Young Ideas,” September 6, 1960. Young described the umpires’ predicament as “a personal mess that could, let’s face it, happen to most of us.” News coverage reviewed for this biography tended to praise the umpires for going to police and risking public embarrassment. Comparatively few column inches were spent criticizing McKinley and Runge for the poor personal judgment that brought them to a motel room with a pair of strippers in the first place.

57 Gerlach, The Men in Blue: 159. Later in the Gerlach interview, McKinley said he considered Berra a pest because he would frequently turn around to umpires and complain. “He would get the crowd and the bench on you with his actions,” McKinley said. By McKinley’s own telling, his comment to Berra also included an ethnic slur aimed at Berra’s Italian heritage.

58 McKinley also worked at second base for Don Black’s no-hitter of July 10, 1947, for Cleveland against the Philadelphia Athletics; at first base for Allie Reynolds’ no-no of July 12, 1951, for the Yankees against Cleveland; at third base for Virgil Trucks’ no-hitter for Detroit against Washington on May 15, 1952; and at first base for Mel Parnell’s no-no for Boston against the White Sox on July 14, 1956.

59 Mark McCarter, “Stars Rip Smokies for Sixth Straight,” Huntsville (Alabama) Times, May 20, 1998: E2.

60 Two All-Star Games were played per season between 1959 and 1962.

61 In both All-Star Games, the umps rotated positions midgame. In 1953, McKinley started at third base and moved to home plate. In 1958, he began at second base and moved to first.

62 Neal Russo, “Cards Look to Simmons for Go-Ahead,” and Bob Broeg, “The Umpire Didn’t Pitch,” both St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 9, 1964: 1B; Dick Young, “Ball Ticked Pepi’s Bat 1st, Disappointed Cards Say,” New York Daily News, October 9, 1964: 77. The Cardinals won the Series in seven games.

63 Broeg, “The Umpire Didn’t Pitch.”

64 This total includes 2,976 regular-season games, 25 World Series games, and three All-Star Games.

65 Blair was born on February 1, 1944.

66 “Umpiring Career Ends for McKinley,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 9, 1966: 5C.

67 “Obituaries,” The Sporting News, November 29, 1969: 44.

68 Gerlach, The Men in Blue: 169.

69 Milton Richman (United Press International), “Today’s Sport Parade,” Terre Haute (Indiana) Tribune, February 11, 1966: 12.

70 “Umpiring Career Ends for McKinley”; “Shortstop, 1st Baseman Would Shape Up Indians,” Dover (Ohio) Daily Reporter, December 13, 1966: 13.

71 Gerlach, The Men in Blue: 169.

72 Bill Frank, “Veteran Major League Umpire to Work Musial World Series,” Battle Creek (Michigan) Enquirer and News, June 18, 1967: 3:3; Bob Wagner, “Amateur Baseball’s 1970 Finale a Spectacular One,” Kalamazoo (Michigan) Gazette, September 15, 1970: C5.

73 Associated Press, “McKinley to Boss Global League Umps,” Louisville Courier-Journal, February 17, 1969: B6. For the full story of Dilbeck and his fly-by-night league, see Warren Corbett, “A Global Fiasco: Warren Dilbeck’s Third Major League,” SABR Baseball Research Journal, spring 2020, https://sabr.org/journal/article/a-global-fiasco-walter-dilbecks-third-major-league/.

74 Paul J. Purcell, “Kill the Umpire,” New Port Richey (Florida) Press, April 10, 1975: 7; Dick Young, “Young Ideas,” The Sporting News, April 13, 1974: 16; Jack Lang, “Coleman Retains St. Pete Golf Crown,” The Sporting News, March 10, 1973: 53.

75 A few of many citations for McKinley’s 1970s speaking appearances: Jack Patterson, “The Umpire Isn’t Always Wrong,” Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal, May 30, 1971: B4; “McKinley to Speak in Dunedin,” Tampa Tribune, April 28, 1973: 2C; Purcell, “Kill the Umpire!”; “Retired Umpire Grotto Speaker,” Zanesville (Ohio) Times Recorder, September 27, 1976: 8B; Georgie Beunk, “DAR Chapter to Hear USF Professor,” Manatee (Florida) Times, September 15, 1977.

76 Andee Strong, “A Former Umpire Looks at the Past – And the Present,” St. Petersburg Times (Suncoast Times section), February 26, 1973: 1. In his interview with Gerlach for The Men in Blue, McKinley expressed similar pride in being able to make a living from work he enjoyed.

77 “Ohio Honors Eight,” The Sporting News, August 6, 1977: 22.

78 A representative ad for the Sports International Umpire Training School can be seen on page 52 of the September 23, 1978, issue of The Sporting News. The other umps were Tom Gorman, a National League ump from 1951 to 1977, and Bill Williams, who worked in the NL from 1963 to 1987.

79 “Obituaries,” The Sporting News, August 23, 1980: 51; “William F. McKinley” (obituary), Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 4, 1980: 8C.

80 Findagrave.com entry for Staff Sgt. William F. McKinley, accessed November 2025, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/98822670/william-francis-mckinley. McKinley is interred in what is referred to as the “new” Kinsman Cemetery (also called “Kinsman Cemetery New” by some sources), to distinguish it from the community’s original burial ground.