Larry Vanover

Larry Wayne Vanover

• Height 5' 11", Weight 210 lb.

• Born August 22, 1955 in Owensboro, KY USA

Biograophical Information

Larry Vanover became a National League umpire in 1993, after having started his professional career in the South Atlantic League in 1981. He had been briefly up for 8 games as an injury replacement in 1991. He has worked the 1999 and 2013 All-Star Games and the 2009 and 2017 World Baseball Classics.

He resigned at the end of 1999 as part of a failed negotiating ploy by the umpires' union, but he was re-hired by MLB with back-pay in 2002. His minor league career consisted of stints in the South Atlantic League, Midwest League, Southern League, American Association, Pacific Coast League, International League and Venezuelan League.

On April 12, 2023, he was the second base umpire in a game between the Cleveland Guardians and New York Yankees when he was struck on the side of the head by a throw from 2B Andres Gimenez of Cleveland, who was attempting to relay the ball home. He was knocked to the ground and had to be hospitalized for a couple of days with a concussion. In September of 2024, he announced that he would be retiring at the end of that season, after 31 seasons as a major league umpire.

Related Sites

• Larry Vanover on Retrosheet.org
• Sporting News umpire card