Ben May
23 games graded behind the plate.
3,398 correct of 3,659 graded takes (92.9% ± 0.8, 95%). Best game 97.6% · worst 87.5%. Grade is accuracy on taken pitches vs the rulebook zone; ABS is the Automated Ball-Strike System challenge record (how often the robots overruled the call).
What we can't say about Ben May
This season is 3,659 graded takes, which puts Ben May's overall accuracy at 92.9% ± 0.8 (95% interval). That is a real measurement against a league spanning about four points end to end. It is not enough for anything finer, and here is the arithmetic rather than our word for it:
- how the zone moves with two strikes — about 732 takes, so ±1.9 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 305 takes, so ±2.9 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
- whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 61 takes, so ±6.5 points. (a given pitcher is worked once or twice a season.)
And a note on the number itself: an accuracy figure is a rate plus a convention for what counts as a miss. Ours grades every taken pitch against the rulebook zone as the feed reports it. Others are more forgiving — UmpScorecards counts a call wrong only when the pitch was at least 90% likely to be a strike — so two sites can print the same percentage about the same umpire and not mean the same thing by it. How the grade is built.
The overturn rate is a different kind of number and does not belong beside the grade: it is accuracy on the 83 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 83 is enough to print it with its own denominator, which is what we do — but it still ranks umpires by how often they are appealed, not by how often they are right.
The road to the plate
Ben May: The Fourteen-Year Climb
From Racine to a 29-degree debut in Minneapolis, the long road of uniform number 97.
When Ben May made his major league debut in 2014, the temperature in Minneapolis was 29 degrees. He worked both games of a doubleheader between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Minnesota Twins, and he was so nervous, he later said, that his feet did not touch the ground until the seventh inning.
May was born on January 23, 1982, in Racine, Wisconsin. He decided he wanted to umpire by age 10 and was calling Little League games as a middle schooler. He attended umpire school in Florida but did not make the cut on his first attempt — he saved up, went back for a second stint, and broke into professional baseball from there.
The Fourteen-Year Climb
The road from that second attempt to a full-time major league position took 14 years. Eight of them were spent shuttling between Triple-A and the majors, filling in at the highest level without the security of a staff spot. In January 2022, he was driving down Water Street in Milwaukee with his wife when the phone call came offering him the full-time position.
Since then, the assignments have grown. May served as an umpire for the 2023 World Baseball Classic and has officiated games in Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Germany, and Japan. He was selected to work his first MLB All-Star Game in 2024, held at Globe Life Field in Texas. He serves on Crew F under crew chief Chris Conroy, alongside John Tumpane and Brennan Miller, and wears uniform number 97.
This season, 18 of his games behind the plate are on our record.
Reporting: Wikipedia, Racine County Eye, Marquette Today. Umpire data: MLB StatsAPI, via the Fever engine.
By the Desk · filed 2026-07-24 — the profile reads as of its filing; the grading record above is live · every fact in this piece comes from a sourced research pack and clears an independent fact-check, and nothing is edited after filing.
The games
| Game | Grade | Favor | ABS | Blue Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TEX @ MIL2026-08-28 | B | 1.4 MIL | 0/1 | One dugout got the friendlier version of the evening. |
| CHC @ SEA2026-08-23 | C+ | 2.2 CHC | 0/2 | The grade leaned — the ledger says which way. |
| DET @ PIT2026-08-17 | B- | 1.1 DET | 6/9 | The robots earned their keep tonight. |
| MIA @ NYM2026-07-30 | C+ | 0.1 MIA | 4/6 | Expanded the plate a touch past its 17 inches. |
| NYY @ PHI2026-07-26 | B+ | 0.3 NYY | 3/5 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| TB @ TOR2026-07-22 | B- | 0.1 TB | 2/3 | Expanded the plate a touch past its 17 inches. |
| TEX @ ATL2026-07-18 | D | 1.3 TEX | 1/1 | The corners were friendlier in one direction tonight. |
| SD @ LAD2026-07-02 | B- | 0.4 LAD | 1/3 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| ATH @ LAA2026-06-28 | A | 0.3 LAA | 1/2 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| BOS @ COL2026-06-23 | B- | 0.0 COL | 2/5 | A small strike zone, generously enforced for the offense. |
| SD @ BAL2026-06-12 | A- | 0.2 SD | 0/1 | Borderline went to the battery all night. |
| CIN @ STL2026-06-06 | B | 0.2 STL | 4/4 | Corner-to-corner and then some. |
| CWS @ MIN2026-06-01 | C+ | 0.2 MIN | 3/5 | A small strike zone, generously enforced for the offense. |
| LAA @ DET2026-05-28 | B+ | 0.7 DET | 4/5 | An honest evening's grade: nothing loud, nothing missed by much. |
| STL @ CIN2026-05-23 | B+ | 0.2 STL | 1/3 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| TOR @ NYY2026-05-18 | A+ | 0.2 NYY | 2/4 | You could set a watch by that zone. |
| KC @ CWS2026-05-14 | A | 0.1 CWS | 3/5 | The zone kept its promises. |
| ATL @ LAD2026-05-09 | B+ | 0.5 LAD | 2/2 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| PIT @ AZ2026-05-05 | A | 0.0 AZ | 2/3 | A clean sheet behind the plate — the kind of night nobody posts about. |
| NYM @ LAA2026-05-01 | A+ | 0.1 NYM | 0/3 | Textbook top to bottom — a quiet masterclass. |
| LAA @ CIN2026-04-12 | B | 1.0 CIN | 1/2 | If it was close, it was a strike. The hitters noticed. |
| KC @ CLE2026-04-07 | B+ | 1.0 CLE | 3/5 | Expanded the plate a touch past its 17 inches. |
| LAA @ HOU2026-03-28 | B | 0.7 HOU | 1/4 | Generous with the corners — the pitchers said thank you. |