Four long-time major league umpires retired:

Ed Montague, Randy Marsh, Rick Reed and Charlie Reliford have retired from the major leagues in a significant departure of veteran umpires.

The four, who combined for 110 years of big league experience, have been replaced as crew chiefs by Brian Gorman, Tom Hallion, Jeff Kellogg and Jerry Layne.

We’ll see how this loss of talent effects games early on.

Update: A friend of mine who is an expert on umpires tells me that the four promotions are all strong choices.