World Series umpire crew not much older than Justin Verlander

The recently announced World Series umpire crew is not much older than Astros pitcher Justin Verlander.

Houston Astros legend and future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander is still dominating the opposition at 39 years old and is wrapping up a season in which he is likely to win his third-career AL Cy Young Award.

After missing essentially the entirety of both the 2020 and 2021 campaigns, it’s a miracle that Verlander was able to make a return to the mound in general, and even more miraculous that he didn’t miss a beat.

In 28 starts this year, Verlander went 18-4 with a 1.75 ERA and 2.49 FIP in 175 innings. He walked just 29 batters and finished the regular season with an MLB-leading 220 ERA+.

The umpire crew for the upcoming World Series that Verlander will be a part of was recently announced. Upon taking a closer look at the names, the average age of the umps is actually shockingly close to Verlander’s age.

2022 World Series: Umpire crew not much older than Justin Verlander

The average of this year’s World Series umpire crew is just 45.7 years old, more than five years younger than the average World Series crew over the past ten years.

In Game 2 of the series, there won’t be a single full-time crew chief on the field. Typically during big games like all seven games of the WS, there will be two or even three veteran crew chiefs on the field at a time.

Dan Iassogna (53) is working his third World Series while Lance Barksdale (55) and James Hoye (51) are the other two “old men” of the group calling their second Fall Classic. Alan Porter (44) is also calling his second alongside a number of rookie umpires including Tripp Gibson (41), Jordan Baker (40) and Pat Hoberg (36).

These young umpires got the opportunity to call such big games thanks to their highly-ranked abilities to call pitches. MLB considers a multitude of different factors when selecting the World Series crew each year including ball-strike grades, game management and performances in both the current year and in the past.

It is such a crazy stat that Verlander is not only older than one of the umpires calling games on baseball’s biggest stage but the fact that he has now been a part of more Fall Classics than half of the crew.

The future Hall of Fame pitcher is likely going to be the Game 1 starter for Houston and will become just the 17th pitcher in MLB history to start a World Series game at the age of 39.

How many of those other 16 pitchers consistently threw 99-100mph fastballs like Verlander, you ask? None.