Canadian Stu Scheurwater becomes full-time major league umpire

Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter, right, yells at umpire Stu Scheurwater. (Seth Wenig/AP)

NEW YORK — Stu Scheurwater has been hired by Major League Baseball to fill the opening on its umpire staff created by Dale Scott’s retirement.

The 34-year-old Scheurwater had been a minor league umpire since 2007, worked big league spring training for the first time in 2013 and has appeared in 268 regular-season big league games as a call-up.

Scheurwater is from Regina, Saskatchewan, and becomes the first Canadian umpire on the full-time staff since Jim McKean from 1974-2001.

Mark Wegner, a 19-year veteran, replaces Scott as a crew chief, the commissioner’s office said Friday.

Scott said in December he was retiring rather than risk another concussion. He missed nearly all of last season after a foul ball off the bat of Baltimore’s Mark Trumbo caught him hard in the mask on April 14, causing Scott’s second concussion in nine months and fourth in five years.

Scott, who worked three World Series among 91 post-season games, came out as gay after the 2014 season.

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