Bill Klem worked 18 World Series, which is a major league record.
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28 Facts About Bill Klem
2.
Bill Klem was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953.
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3.
Bill Klem was born on February 22,1874, in the "Dutchtown" area of Rochester, New York.
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4.
Bill Klem had changed the spelling of his last name from "Klimm" to "Klem" because he thought it had a better sound.
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5.
Bill Klem pursued a baseball career as a catcher until he sustained an arm injury.
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6.
Bill Klem then worked as a bartender and traveled through the Northeast building bridges.
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7.
Bill Klem decided to pursue umpiring after reading a newspaper article about major league umpire Silk O'Loughlin.
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8.
That year, Bill Klem had a run-in with league secretary and team manager Jim O'Rourke after Bill Klem ejected one of the manager's players.
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10.
Bill Klem spent the 1904 season in the American Association before joining the NL in 1905.
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11.
Bill Klem worked a record 18 World Series: 1908,1909,1911,1912,1913,1914,1915,1917,1918,1920,1922,1924,1926,1929,1931,1932,1934 and 1940.
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12.
Bill Klem was one of the umpires for the first All-Star Game in 1933, and worked behind the plate for the second half of the game; he later umpired in the 1938 All-Star Game as well.
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13.
Bill Klem holds the MLB record for most career ejections by an umpire with 251.
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14.
Bill Klem called balls and strikes in five no-hitters, an NL record later tied by Harry Wendelstedt.
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15.
Bill Klem was the home plate umpire on September 16,1924, when Jim Bottomley of the St Louis Cardinals had a record 12 runs batted in.
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16.
Bill Klem had a number of nicknames amongst the players: his favorite was "The Old Arbitrator", but his jowly appearance led to some players calling him "Catfish".
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17.
Bill Klem despised the latter name, and was notorious for ejecting players whom he caught using it.
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18.
One particular incident involved a player whom Bill Klem ejected after he caught the player drawing a picture of a catfish with his foot in the infield dirt.
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19.
Bill Klem dismissed catcher Al Lopez from a game after Lopez pasted a newspaper clipping onto home plate which showed Bill Klem clearly in error calling a play involving Lopez.
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20.
The league began experimenting with four-man umpire crews in 1941 and Bill Klem appeared in a few games that season so that those games would have four umpires.
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21.
Bill Klem held the record for most MLB games umpired for over 70 years – at his retirement in 1941, he had umpired 5,375 games, the record until 2021 when it was surpassed by Joe West.
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22.
Bill Klem finished his career having umpired 5,375 regular season MLB games, 103 postseason games, and two MLB All-Star Games.
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23.
Bill Klem had the longest career of any major league umpire before Bruce Froemming tied that mark in 2007, and was the oldest umpire in history at age 67 until Froemming surpassed that mark as well.
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24.
Bill Klem was widely respected for bringing dignity and professionalism to umpiring, as well as for his high skill and good judgment.
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25.
Bill Klem was an innovative umpire: he was one of the first to wear a modern, somewhat pliable chest protector inside his shirt, a move which he successfully campaigned to have adopted throughout the NL, although Jocko Conlan and Beans Reardon used the outside protector.
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26.
Bill Klem was the first to straddle foul lines and stand to the catcher's side for better perspective.
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27.
Bill Klem died on September 16,1951, at age 77, at Doctors Hospital in Coral Gables, Florida.
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28.
Bill Klem had been hospitalized for over a month when he died.
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