Michel Spinelli
Michel Spinelli
Michel Spinelli, who is incorrectly called "Mike" Spinelli on his Sporting News umpire card, worked as an umpire in the New York-Penn League in 1971. He then returned to the Montreal, QC area where he worked as an amateur umpire. When the major league umpires went on strike in 1979, he worked a total of 12 National League games, all at Stade Olympique.
In civilian life, he co-owned one of the largest automobile dealerships in the Montreal area, a family-owned business started by his grandfather who opened a small auto mechanics business shortly after he emigrated to Canada from Italy in 1918. He was an official scorer for the Montreal Expos from 1980 until they left town after the 2004 season, even accompanying the team on its travels to Hiram Bithorn Stadium in Puerto Rico their final two seasons. For many years, he was in charge of training official scorers for Baseball Quebec, the provincial baseball federation. He was inducted in the Baseball Quebec Hall of Fame in 2000 in recognition for his work both as an umpire and official scorer.
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