Photo/Tim Cammett

Mark Wegner is in his 8th season as a Major League Baseball Umpire.

Mark Wegner’s professional baseball umpiring career started in 1992 after finishing near the top of the Brinkman-Froemming Umpire School.  At the young age of 20, Mark was assigned to work in the Pioneer League.  He traveled throughout small towns in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho as a member of a two-man umpiring crew working games for teams named the Mustangs, Chukars, and Osprey.

According to the book Baseball’s Narrowest Door, less than 2% of all umpires make it from a Rookie League, like the Pioneer League, to the Major Leagues.  Undaunted by the odds, Mark focused on learning and improving in each and every game.  Soon he found himself on a four-man umpiring crew working games for teams named the Red Sox, Dodgers, and Cubs.

Mark traveled to Atlanta’s Turner Field in 1998 to work his first Major League game and the next season he was hired as a full-time umpire for Major League Baseball.   He has worked three consecutive League Divisional Series (2003-2005) and looks forward to a future World Series assignment. 

Frequently asked if he always wanted to be an umpire, Mark’s reply is “I’ve always wanted to be a dad”.  In 1996 he married Michelle Mullins and together they have three beautiful children - Nathan, Joey, and Tori.  As a family they participate in church activities and support agencies like Sharing and Caring Hands which offers a compassionate response to the needs of the poor.

“I'm very excited about being a part of Blue for Kids,” says Mark.  “I look forward to making a difference whether its game tickets for underprivileged youth, offering words of encouragement to kids coping with serious injury or illness, or bringing awareness to children’s causes.”