Oldest person to officiate (referee) Major League Baseball

The oldest umpire to officiate a Major League Baseball game is Hank O’Day (USA, b. 8 July 1859), who was third-base umpire for his final game – between the Chicago Cubs and the St Louis Cardinals on 2 October 1927, at Sportsman’s Field in St Louis, Missouri, USA – aged 68 years 86 days.

It had been previously thought that Bruce Froemming was the oldest MLB umpire to officiate at 68 years 2 days – largely owing to, in the words of MLB.com, “O’Day's habit of shaving 5-7 years off his age”.

O’Day served as player, umpire, manager and scout at MLB level. During a game between the New York Giants and Chicago Cubs in 1908, he was responsible for the one of the most controversial calls in baseball history, ruling out a winning run by the Giants’ Al Bridwell owing to teammate and base-runner Fred Merkle sprinting off the field before reaching second base to avoid fans storming the field in celebration. The incident went down in baseball lore as “Merkle’s Boner”.