Last month former Northwoods League umpire Mark Lollo became the second former Northwoods League umpire to work a Major League Baseball regular season game when he filled in during a double-header in Washington on July 2nd. Lollo was an umpire in the Northwoods League in 2001.
The path to the big leagues in the umpiring profession may be the most difficult of any career in Major League Baseball. At this point, Lollo isn’t a full-time umpire in the bigs, but he did get to experience what he’s been working toward for over a decade. Currently, he’s an umpire in the Triple-A International League.
Read about Lollo’s journey in this article written by Kreg Robinson of the Times Recorder in Zanesville, Ohio.
http://www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201107240630/SPORTS/107240331
The other former Northwoods League umpire to reach Major League baseball is Delfin Colon. He worked games during the 2008 and 2009 seasons on a fill-in basis.
Besides Lollo, six other former Northwoods League umpires are in AAA. They include: Tyler Funneman (2002), Matt Schaufert (2003), Toby Basner (2004), Kellen Levy (2004), Brian Sinclair (2004), and Kelvin Bultron (2005).
