In the words of former professional umpire Max McLeary, “Everyone’s got a story about a one-eyed guy that they like to tell when they’re drunk.”

Well, I’m not drunk, but I do have an interesting story to tell. It’s a tale which revolves around that man himself who, for more than twenty years, umpired baseball games with only one eye to his credit.

Now retired, Max makes his living as the general manager of the Cincinnati Steam, who play in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League.

“I love everything about the game,” McCleary told Sports Illustrated. “God sets things up in a crazy manner, and we can’t always understand why… But I am a living testimonial that you don’t need two eyes to umpire.”

The career-defining event occurred in 1977 during a blizzard in Cincinnati, when his girlfriend at the time slipped on a patch of ice. As Max leaned down to help her, he was struck in the head by the tip of her pointed boot.

His right eye, it seems, died a chivalrous death.

Undeterred by the loss of vision, Max made his way back into umping after only two years. He’s earned a reputation on the minor league and college circuits as a man who can dish it out as well as take it.

Just ask Joe Charboneau, the one-time manager of Pennsylvania’s Washington Wild Things. He once asked the ump if, after the grounds crew was finished dragging the field and replacing the bases during the fifth inning, he’d like them to Windex his prosthetic eye.

“Get with the 20th cetnury. They’re plastic now,” replied McCleary, before removing the false eye and throwing it at the mocking coach.

Joe Charboneau, for his part, promptly ducked out of the way before bending down and vomiting.

- Taylor Maxwell

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Tags | Baseball, baseball umpire, Cincinnati Steam, glass eye umpire, Joe Charboneau, Max McLeary, one eyed umpire, Washington Wild Things