Associated Press Umpire Jerry Meals of Salem pauses at home plate in 2022 during his 25th and final season as a full-time Major League Baseball umpire.

NEW YORK — Major League Baseball umpire Jerry Meals, a Salem resident, has retired after 25 years of full-time service.

Meals, a 1979 graduate of Salem High School, was one of 10 umpire retirements announced Thursday by Major League Baseball, the most in the league since 1999. Also retiring are Marty Foster, lan Porter, Adrian Johnson, Greg Gibson, Jim Reynolds, Sam Holbrook, Bill Welke, Paul Nauert and Tim Timmons.

Meals, 61, umpired in the 2014 and 2020 World Series and was behind the plate for rookie Kerry Wood’s 20-strikeout game for the Cubs in 1998 and Justin Verlander’s second no-hitter in 2011.

He also umpired in eight Division Series, two League Championship Series and the 2009 World Baseball Classic. He was promoted to crew chief in 2015.

The crowning achievement of his career came in 2014 when he was assigned to work the World Series. He was behind the plate for Game 1 at Kauffman Stadium between the Kansas City Royals and San Francisco Giants.

“That was probably the most thrilling moment for me,” Meals said in a 2020 Morning Journal interview. “It’s hard to explain the excitement of being on the field for a World Series game and having your family there. It was a very gratifying experience.”

Meals’ career started on the youth baseball fields in Salem as a way to remain involved in the game.

“It was just something I thought was fun,” he said. “I’ve always loved baseball and liked the umpiring aspect of it. After graduating high school, I got a job working on cares and I thought umpiring would be a good thing to do on the side.”

After four years of umpiring youth games in Salem, he decided to take the next step and attend umpiring school.

In 1983, Meals graduated from Joe Brinkman’s Umpire School in St. Petersburg, Florida. That summer, he got his first assignment working in the Class A Appalachian League.

“After graduating, I was one of two in my class to get a minor league assignment,” Meals said. “I originally was just hoping to umpire college and high school games to earn some extra money on the side. I never dreamed where the job would eventually take me.”

Meals spent the next nine years working his way up through the minor leagues. He finally made his big league debut on Sept. 14, 1992, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. He was the third base umpire as the Cubs took on the New York Mets.

“You just think back on everything you did to get to that point,” Meals said. “To this day, Wrigley probably remains my favorite ballpark because its where I made my debut and because of all the history there. You can’t help but feel nostalgic walking into that place.”

Six years later, Meals was in his first season as a full-time major league umpire when he drew the home plate assignment at Wrigley for an afternoon game between the Cubs and Houston Astros on Wednesday, May 6, 1998.

That day, Kerry Wood made history by tying Roger Clemens’ single-game major league record with 20 strikeouts.

Like pretty much every other umpire at any level, Meals has had his share of on-field run-ins with angry players and managers over the years.

“Some of ejections are actually pretty funny, others not so much,” he said. “You have to learn to take things with a grain of salt and not dwell on the negative stuff, the next big call could be right around the corner. It’s a great job, but also a very humbling job, you always have to be learning from your mistakes. All you can do is go out there, do your best and call what you see.”

Ten minor league umpires were promoted to the big league staff, all with 156 to 473 games of major league experience as fill-in umpires: Erich Bacchus, Adam Beck, Nestor Ceja, Shane Livensparger, Nick Mahrley, Brennan Miller, Malachi Moore, Edwin Moscoso, Alex Tosi and Junior Valentine.