An umpire who received accolades and notoriety for calling a perfect game has been fired by MLB.
Pat Hoberg has officially been fired by MLB, the league announced on Monday. Hoberg had been fired on May 31 last year, but he appealed and sat out the season as MLB investigated.
According to MLB, they began to investigate the matter after being notified in February 2024 that Hoberg had opened up an account with an online sportsbook on Jan. 30. Commissioner Rob Manfred has the power to determine the discipline in this case and decided to fire Hoberg for violating the integrity of baseball.
“The strict enforcement of Major League Baseball’s rules governing sports betting conduct is a critical component of upholding our most important priority: protecting the integrity of our games for the fans,” Manfred said in a statement.
MLB’s statement on the situation indicated that Hoberg shared a betting account with a professional poker player who bet on baseball. That was enough of a concern for MLB, even though the league did not find evidence that Hoberg himself bet on baseball. Another concern for MLB was that Hoberg had deleted some messages from his phone that they wanted to see during their investigation.
“An extensive investigation revealed no evidence that Mr. Hoberg placed bets on baseball directly or that he or anyone else manipulated games in any way. However, his extremely poor judgment in sharing betting accounts with a professional poker player he had reason to believe bet on baseball and who did, in fact, bet on baseball from the shared accounts, combined with his deletion of messages, creates at minimum the appearance of impropriety that warrants imposing the most severe discipline. Therefore, there is just cause to uphold Mr. Hoberg’s termination for failing to conform to high standards of personal conduct and to maintain the integrity of the game of baseball,” the statement said.
The 38-year-old Hoberg is regarded as one of the best, if not the best, umpire in MLB when it comes to calling pitches behind home plate. Hoberg drew widespread attention in 2022 for umpiring a perfect game during the World Series.
Hoberg began umpiring professionally in 2009, first umpired MLB games in 2014, and became a full-time MLB umpire in 2017. He umpired postseason games every year from 2018-2022.
