Dick Nelson

Richard Guy Nelson III

• Born July 6, 1935 in Springfield, MA USA
• Died April 20, 2023

Biographical Information

Dick Nelson was a minor league umpire from 1973, when he got his start in the California League, until 1978, when he worked in the American Association. In the interim, he had also been in the Texas League and the International League.

When the major league umpires went on strike at the start of the 1979 season, Dick was hired by the American League to serve as a replacement umpire. Like his near namesake Bob Nelson over in the National League, he was used extensively during the conflict to take advantage of his recent professional experience. He worked 36 games, travelling all over the league, from Boston, MA to Toronto, ON to Los Angeles, CA, and working almost half of his games - 15 - as the home plate umpire. The improvised crews put together by the two leagues during that time were usually composed of one or two umpires with professional experience like Dick handling the more critical jobs of home plate and first base, and local amateur umpires hired for a few games to fill in at the other spots.

In spite of all this work, he was not one of the four umpires retained by the A.L. to be kept on staff when the conflict ended, and that marked the end of his professional umpiring career.

Related Sites

• Dick Nelson on Retrosheet.org
• Sporting News umpire card