FILE - In this July 18, 2007, file photo, New York Mets' Carlos Beltran, left, disagrees with umpire Rick Reed after being called out on strikes in th...
FILE - In this July 18, 2007, file photo, New York Mets' Carlos Beltran, left, disagrees with umpire Rick Reed after being called out on strikes in the first inning of the baseball game against the San Diego Padres in San Diego. Reed, whose career as a big league umpire spanned three decades and included two All-Star games and a World Series, has died. He was 70. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi, File)
FILE - In this April 21, 2006, file photo, Houston Astros manager Phil Garner, left, gets into it with home plate umpire Rick Reed, right, and is thro...
FILE - In this April 21, 2006, file photo, Houston Astros manager Phil Garner, left, gets into it with home plate umpire Rick Reed, right, and is thrown out of a baseball game in the first inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Houston. Reed, whose career as a big league umpire spanned three decades and included two All-Star games and a World Series, has died. He was 70. (AP Photo/Tim Johnson, File)
FILE - In this March 21, 2006, file photo, home plate umpire Rick Reed watches the grounds crew cover the infield during the third inning of a spring ...
FILE - In this March 21, 2006, file photo, home plate umpire Rick Reed watches the grounds crew cover the infield during the third inning of a spring training game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Seattle Mariners in Peoria, Ariz. Reed, whose career as a big league umpire spanned three decades and included two All-Star games and a World Series, has died. He was 70. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Rick Reed, whose career as a big league umpire spanned three decades and included two All-Star games and a World Series, has died. He was 70.
Major League Baseball confirmed Reed's death Saturday.
Born in Detroit, Reed first worked a handful of American League games in 1979 before eventually becoming a full-time ump in the majors four years later. He worked the classic seven-game World Series between Minnesota and Atlanta in 1991 and also received All-Star assignments in 1986 and 1998.
Reed appeared as an umpire in the 1999 movie “For Love of the Game” that starred Kevin Costner.
Reed retired from the major leagues after the 2009 season. He'd had strokes in 2008 and 2009, according to the Oakland Press, but he was able to return to the field and umpire the final big league games of his career.
“I was proud to be an umpire in the major leagues,” Reed told the newspaper. “I took pride in being considered one of the 68 best in the world at what I do and I gave it everything I had.”
Reed was the plate umpire in 1992 when George Brett got his 3,000th hit as Kansas City shut out the Angels. The winning pitcher that day was longtime big league right-hander Rick Reed — the same name as the ump.
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