Malachi Moore

Malachi Moore

• Height, 5' 10", Weight 180 lb.
• School Compton College
• High School Dominguez High School

• Born June 14, 1990 in Compton, CA USA

Biographical Information

Malachi Moore umpired his first major league game on August 17, 2020, being one of 19 umpires to make their debut in the majors that year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic which prompted a number of veteran umpires to sit out the season. All of his games were in the two western divisions. He became a permanent member of the major league umpiring crew in 2023.

An African-American, Moore was the first professional umpire to graduate from the program created by the Urban Youth Academy in Compton, CA to promote baseball among inner-city youngsters. He was originally a player, but turned first to groundskeeping and then to umpiring after realizing he did not have the skills to make it far as a player. As a result of participating in the program, he received a scholarship to the Wendelstedt Umpire Academy in 2012 and was later hired as an umpire in the Arizona Instructional League, Arizona Fall League, South Atlantic League, California League, Texas League and Pacific Coast League. He worked the 2018 Futures Game and the 2017 Texas League All-Star Game. He has also umpired in the Northwoods League, a summer collegiate league. After gaining minor league experience, he worked as an instructor at the Wendelstedt Academy, run by major league umpire Hunter Wendelstedt.

In 2019, he was part of the USA Baseball Dream Series, alongside fellow African-American umpires Kerwin Danley and Adrian Johnson and umpiring supervisor Cris Jones as part of a program to encourage minority youth to think of careers in baseball other than playing, as a back-up plan if things don't pan out. He grew up in a tough neighborhood in Compton, a city best know for its gangs, and his brother Nehemiah was killed at age 19 when he was just 15. He played baseball in junior college and joined the Academy as a groundskeeper and coach before getting into umpiring. Danley had in fact been instrumental in convincing him to give umpiring a try, speaking to him during a visit to the Academy facilities. While he moved to Phoenix, AZ after becoming a professional umpire, he returns to Compton every off-season to provide umpire training at the Academy.

He was named to the major league umpiring staff two years after his mentor, Danley, retired, and asked to be assigned his number 44; the number held additional importance for him as it was also that of childhood hero Hank Aaron and the presidential number of Barack Obama.

Further Reading

• Betelhem Ashame: "'Major League or bust': Moore paves way for Black umps", mlb.com, February 2, 2023. [1]
• Jesse Sanchez: "Umpires inspire, inform at Dream Series panel", mlb.com, January 21, 2019. [2]

Related Sites

• Malachi Moore on Retrosheet.org