BALTIMORE (AP) — Tyler Jones umpired the first game of this week's Blue Jays-Orioles series, then was napping the next day. His brother Austin called and told him the middle game of the series was rained out.
A doubleheader Wednesday meant Austin — who in addition to being Tyler's identical twin is also an umpire — was on his way to Baltimore to work the games alongside his brother.
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“This is something we’ve dreamed about forever,” Tyler Jones said. "We were told last year, ‘OK, if we can make it happen, we’ll make it happen.’ And it didn’t. The schedules didn’t align. Even this year we weren’t even sure if it was going to happen or not, and then it was kind of a shock.”
The 31-year-old twins called both ends of Wednesday's doubleheader, each won by Baltimore by a 4-2 score. Austin worked first base in the opener and Tyler was at second. Then they swapped for the nightcap — although the numbers on their uniforms were the only easy way to tell them apart.
The two are on a list of Triple-A call-up umpires who fill in at the big league level for injuries, illnesses, vacations and other reasons of absence. There are typically five umpires on a crew for a doubleheader instead of four, so Austin Jones was added.
Austin umpired his first major league game in 2024, Tyler in 2025. They'd worked a game together in the Gulf Coast League and the Arizona Fall League, but never in the majors.
“We talk to each other daily, especially about baseball and about everything, what we go through on a day-to-day basis," Tyler Jones said. "But to be able to live it together, and come to the ballpark and see him in the locker room and play cards with him before the game and share that experience was probably the best part.”
The Jones twins have joined a small group of umpiring families in big league history. There have been fathers and sons, such as Harry and Hunter Wendelstedt, and brothers, such as John and Mark Hirschbeck.
Tyler Jones jokes that he got into umpiring because “I was a really bad baseball player.”
They certainly started young, working youth games and earning some money when they were in high school.
“Baseball was what we ate, slept or thought of every single moment of the day,” Austin Jones said. “But it was to the point, I guess, after umpire school. We did umpire school together, and we roomed together. We had never really lived on our own, we were 18 years old. So it was our first time out of the house, doing things on our own, and we said, ‘Man, if this is kind of what life in professional baseball is like, this is pretty cool.’”
The Jones brothers had their parents, wives and Austin's kids at the games Wednesday.
“It was cool to look over, and that’s something my wife told me,” Austin said. “She was like, ‘Hey, when you’re out there, obviously you’re looking at your partners every pitch every play, but take a second and look at him not as just the guy working first base, your partner. Look at him as your brother.’ So I did that a little bit moreso tonight, the second game.”
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