Erich Bacchus

Erich Bacchus

• Height 5' 9", Weight 175 lb.
• School Montgomery College, University of Maryland

• Born November 2, 1990 in Germantown, MD USA

BR register page

Biographical Information

Erich Bacchus umpired his first major league game on August 7, 2020 as one of 19 umpires to make their major league debut that season, a situation resulting from the Coronavirus pandemic and the decision by many veteran umpires to sit out the season. He worked as part of a regular crew for the last two months of the season, all of his games taking place in the two Central divisions of Major League Baseball. He was added to the full-time major league umpiring crew in 2023.

An African-American, he graduated from the Wendelstedt umpire school in 2012 and worked in the Arizona League, New York-Penn League, Florida Instructional League, South Atlantic League, Carolina League, Eastern League and International League starting in 2017 before being promoted to the majors. Prior to that, he had worked one season in the summer collegiate Coastal Plain League as part of an umpire development agreement with MLB. He later became an instructor at the Wendelstedt school.

He had some prestigious assignments during his apprenticeship in the minors, including working the 2017 Futures Game in Miami, FL, and the International League championship series in 2019. On August 25, 2014, he was the home plate umpire during the infamous incident in the Carolina League when manager Tommy Thompson of the Winston-Salem Dash disagreed with a call on a checked swing by first-base umpire Adam Beck and went on an epic tirade that ended with his taking off his shoes and leaving them on home plate as a statement, and then throwing his helmet into the stands, after being ejected by Bacchus. Beck would join Bacchus in making it to the majors in 2020. Working in the Arizona Fall League in 2020, he was one of the home plate umpires who relied on an automatic ball and strike calling system to render decisions on called pitches, serving simply as a messenger for these while still being responsible for other types of calls.

He is an avid runner and in November 2019 joined fellow umpires Nic Lentz and Brennan Miller in running a half-marathon on behalf of "Umpire Cares Charities" in Holly Springs, NC. He is a resident of Germantown, MD.

Further Reading

• Tom Schad: "Up through the ranks: Minor-league umpires face slim odds, long road to the majors", The Washington Times, July 9, 2015. [1]

Related Sites

• Erich Bacchus on Retrosheet.org