Rob Drake

Robert Paul Drake

• Height 5' 11", Weight 184 lb.

• Born May 24, 1969 in Indiana, PA USA

Biographical Information

Rob Drake has umpired in the Northwest League, Midwest League, California League, Eastern League, Pacific Coast League and Dominican League. He made it to the majors in the National League in 1999 and worked the 2006 World Baseball Classic, 2013 All-Star Game and 2017 World Baseball Classic.

He drew unwanted attention to himself in October 2019 when he published on his Twitter account a posting that said he was buying an assault rifle in order to prepare for the upcoming "Cival War" (sic) should Congress press ahead with impeachment of the President. This also shone the light on the fact he had been trumpeting similarly extremist viewpoints for a while now. While he quickly deleted not only the tweet but his entire account, the damage was done, as his statements received significant (and not positive) coverage and Major League Baseball confirmed that it was looking into the matter. He issued a series of apologies the following day, singling out victims of gun violence.

Further Reading

• Jesse Yomtov: "MLB umpire Rob Drake apologizes for tweets calling for civil war", USA Today, October 24, 2019. [1]

Related Sites

• Rob Drake on Retrosheet.org