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Austintown’s O’Nora to work first Fall Classic
By Greg Gulas
AUSTINTOWN
As the Detroit Tigers anxiously awaited their opponent in this year’s World Series, news last week from Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig’s office that Austintown’s Brian O’Nora was selected for his first Fall Classic caught even O’Nora off-guard.
“I got the call from Joe Torre last Saturday about 8:30 p.m. and while you always hope that you will be picked to work the post-season, it’s still a pleasant surprise when you receive the call. It’s especially gratifying when you are picked to work the World Series,” O’Nora said.
O’Nora’s crew during the regular season consisted of Tom Hallion (crew chief), Alfonzo Marquez and Chad Fairchild. His crew was the only one of the league’s 17 crews to have all four umpires selected for post-season play.
“It says a lot for Tom [Hallion] to have everyone on his crew selected to work the post-season. It’s a feather in all of our caps,” O’Nora added.
It’s also a feather in the area’s cap when you can say that there are just 68 umpires working major league games, and four on the roster hail from the Mahoning Valley.
Other area MLB umpires include Austintown’s Wally Bell, Poland’s John Hirschbeck and Salem’s Jerry Meals.
Hirshcbeck became a Major League umpire in 1984 and is the October veteran, having drawn three World Series assignments (he served as crew chief in 2010); Bell joined the Major League staff in 1993, working the 2006 World Series (the last time the Tigers advanced to the finals) while Meals, who has been an umpire since 1998, has worked three Division Series, the N.L.D.S. and the 2002 All-Star Game.
O’Nora will work third base when the 108th World Series commences on Wednesday, joining chief Gerry Davis, Joe West, Brian Gorman, Fieldin Culbreth and Dan Iassogna on this year’s crew.
The 1981 Fitch graduate earned two letters while playing baseball for the Falcons under legendary coach Rich Coppola, yet it wasn’t until he read an article in Sports Illustrated that he became interested in umpiring.”
“In 1985, I went to Joe Brinkman’s Umpiring School basically to see if this was what I wanted to do in life. I was hooked and was lucky enough to start working games in the Minor Leagues,” O’Nora said.
“I owe a lot to former Major League umpire Marty Springstead because he basically found me in 1990. The players went on strike in spring training and in mid-March they added two weeks to the season. I was working in the Chicago White Sox Minor League camp and they allowed us to work big league spring training games,” he added.
“The first game that I worked I had the plate and Jamie Moyer was on the mound. I worked 12 spring training games was heading back to Class AA, but it was Springstead who helped get me to AAA. From 1990-98, I was up and down between the minors and majors before finally becoming full-time in big leagues in 1998,” O’Nora stated.
O’Nora always dreamed of playing in the majors, making it to the World Series with his team and ultimately being a difference-maker while on baseball’s biggest stage.
Now, he just hopes that no one notices him or any of his crew members this fall.
“Working the World Series is the truly the ultimate for an umpire. It’s always an honor whenever you get picked for an All-Star Game or the post-season. You work your whole career to get there because you never know if you will ever get another call,” O’Nora noted.
“With the whole world watching, we’ll have done our jobs if no one remembers who worked the games,” he stated.
While West and Davis will each draw their fifth assignment, it is Gorman’s third, Culbreth’s second and the initial assignment for both O’Nora and Iassogna on the game’s biggest stage.
“Gerry [Davis] called to remind me to take everything in during that week or so. He said to remember everything about my first one because it is the most special of all,” he said.
The one void for O’Nora is that his father, Pete, won’t be there to see him work.
“My dad was my biggest backer and he passed away in 2002. I miss him every day and just wish he could have been here with me because he would have enjoyed it,” he said.
“The good part is that my wife, Joanne, three children and mother, Lola, will join me if the travel is right,” O’Nora added.
When the season officially comes to a close, O’Nora, Alfonso Marquez and their wives will head to Spain; O’Nora’s mother’s homeland.
For all, it will be a much needed respite away from the game and their grueling season, which still has at least five and as many as nine games remaining.