Hank Morgenweck

Henry Charles Morgenweck

• Height 5' 11", Weight 190 lb.
• High School Saint Joseph of the Palisades High School

• Born April 9, 1929 in New York, NY USA
• Died August 7, 2007 in Teaneck, NJ USA

Biographical Information

Hank Morgenweck was an umpire in the American League from 1972 to 1975. He had gotten into the majors during a postseason game, working Game 1 of the 1970 NLCS during an umpire strike. He later worked the 1975 ALCS to end his career, but was dismissed following that season, officially for poor evaluations. Two other umpires were fired at the same time, Merle Anthony and Armando Rodriguez. He always contended that the three were fired because they did not yet have tenure (which would have been achieved after six years in the league) and the American League wanted to show it was responsive to complaints from managers and executives that the umpiring in the circuit was deficient. His collegues, including his crew chief Larry Barnett, publicly defended his work, but it was to no avail.

He worked one of Nolan Ryan's no-hitters.

He had begun his professional umpiring career in the Georgia State League in 1954, so he already had a lot of professional experience when he worked his first major league game. He died of cancer at age 78.

Related Sites

• hank Morgenweck at the SABR Bio Project
• Hank Morgenweck on Retrosheet.org
• Sporting news umpire card