Cy Rigler

Who was Cy Rigler?

Charles "Cy" Rigler was an American umpire in Major League Baseball who worked in the National League from 1906 to 1935. His total of 4,144 games ranked fourth in major league history when he retired, and his 2,468 games as a plate umpire still place him third behind his NL contemporaries Bill Klem and Hank O'Day. Rigler is tied with O'Day for the second most World Series as an umpire, trailing only Klem's 18. Rigler has also been credited with instituting the practice of using arm signals when calling balls and strikes.

Born in Massillon, Ohio, Rigler never played baseball in his younger days, although he played pro football briefly in 1903 as a tackle for the Massillon Tigers. As a young man he worked as a machinist, and also as a police officer and fireman, and was encouraged toward work as an umpire because his thick build served well in quelling disputes on the field between the ironworkers who formed local teams. He advanced quickly in the field, working in the Central League in 1904 at age 22; in 1905 his excellent work was noted by scouts for NL president Harry Pulliam, and he was hired by the NL late in the 1906 season, becoming the youngest regular umpire in that league's history. His first major league game was on September 27, 1906, with the Brooklyn Dodgers visiting the Chicago Cubs; he became a member of the NL's regular staff in April 1907.