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‘The Legend’ ends 51-year career

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The end of this year’s high school baseball season marked the end of a legendary Hall of Fame career for a Ramona resident.

Mike McDonald retired as a baseball umpire and football official after 51 years between the lines in college and high school.

Ironically, McDonald’s career started as the result of an athletic injury at the age of 15.

“I broke my arm and since I couldn’t play I started umpiring,” he said. “I enjoyed it so much that I never quit.”

In 1965, McDonald graduated from Kearny High School, where he played football. Insisting that they had inflated footballs when they played, he said not everybody had a face mask.

He joined the San Diego County Umpires Association at the age of 18.

He served in the U.S. Army as a reservist.

“I once was officiating a football game at RHS (Ramona High School) on Veterans Day and the announcer announced that I was a Civil War veteran and I got an ovation of sorts,” joked McDonald.

He coached Division I basketball at U.S. International University, now Alliant International University.

He admits that as a coach he was hard on officials as a coach at first, “until my wife straightened my out. She was the dean of students at the time and told me that she wouldn’t let students act like that so I wasn’t allowed to act like that.”

McDonald never officiated basketball, but he did work with some legendary coaches. He worked at camps with John Wooden, Bob Kloppenberg and Jerry West. At the West Camps there was a young player working named Pat Riley.

He was offered a job as a replacement umpire when the Major League umpires went on strike.

“I was supportive of the Major League umpires and I refused to be a strike breaker,” he said.

He umpired in Jack Murphy Stadium when the San Diego Padres played San Diego State University in its annual fund raiser.

“I was on first base and Steve Garvey alerted me when a pickoff play was coming up. He would say ‘Mike, heads up.’ It was a lot of fun.”

At the age of 30, McDonald became a high school football official. He has officiated eight CIF championship games, many of which were in Qualcomm and Jack Murphy Stadium.

As McDonald gained experience, he passed on his knowledge to younger officials. He was president of the High School Baseball Officials Association for 21 years and served 12 years as the president of the College Baseball Officials.

He helped found the officials wing of the Breitbard Hall of Champions Hall of Fame. He was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 2007 along with Major League umpire Paul Runge.

He has worked games for Hall of Fame college coaches that included John Cunningham, Jim Dietz and Jerry Bartow, and several high school hall of fame coaches.

He has taken his share of ribbing lately. His nickname is The Legend and he is constantly asked if the retirement home knows where he is.

In a recent game at Ramona High School, McDonald was the junior member of the crew. He worked the bases and 74-year-old Ralph Cripes was calling the balls and strikes. Cripes was a varsity baseball coach at RHS and moved to Carlsbad High School in the 1960s. That day there was well over 100 years of high school experience calling the game.

The money McDonald made as an official has been well spent.

“For a long time it went to the education and weddings of my daughters.”

Mike and his wife, Mary, raised three daughters. Katie and Shauna followed in their mom’s footsteps and are high school counselors. Megan is an anchor for CBS in Chico. She got her talking skills from dad.

“Nobody can officiate for over a half of a century for the money,” a sports reporter said. “McDonald loves football and baseball. He has given back to football and baseball more than he has received.”

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