Emil Jiménez

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Emil Jiménez Pernalete

Biographical Information[edit]

Umpire Emil Jiménez worked his first major league games during the 2023 season, umpiring in a total of 114 games that first season. He had worked in the U.S. minor leagues for five seasons before that, as well as in the Venezuelan League and the Dominican Summer League. His brother, Edwin Jiménez also worked his first major league games that season, preceding him by a few days: Edwin was the 6th Venezuelan umpire in major league history, and Emil the seventh. The similarity in their names has led to some confusion: for example, on May 13th, he gave the thumb to Chicago Cubs manager David Ross for his first career ejection; a picture of the event was circulated by Getty Images misidentifying Emil as his brother Edwin, and was printed in some sources with the incorrect attribution.

He and Edwin are part of a family of five siblings, all of whom have a first name starting with the letter E. He studied law and literature in university before turning to umpiring full time. Their father, Emilio, was an amateur baseball player and a baseball official in the state of Falcón. Emil wanted to make it in baseball as a pitcher, but hurt his elbow at a young age, forcing a change of career. He started attending umpiring school in his hometown in 2010. Things moved quickly from there as he was working in the Venezuelan Summer League by 2012 and in the Venezuelan League the next year. Future major league umpire Nic Lentz was one of his first crewmates in the winter league, and he was mentored by major league umpires Manny Hernandez and Carlos Torres, who preceded him to the Show.

Further Reading[edit]

  • Juan Carlos Villamizar (Prenza VUC): "Emil Jiménez: un umpire por naturaleza", Venezuelanumpirecamp.com, May 25, 2017. [1]

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