Umpire Dale Scott retired siting his concussions:

Rather than risk yet another concussion, Scott has decided to retire at 58.

“I’m done,” he told The Associated Press.

The veteran crew chief missed nearly the entire 2017 season after a foul ball off the bat of Baltimore slugger Mark Trumbo in Toronto on April 14 caught him hard in the mask, causing Scott’s second concussion in nine months and fourth in five years.

I’ve now had two in four years, and they are not fun. Scott was going to hang it up anyway at the end of the season, but for the same reason:

Especially when he asked three doctors about the possible long-term effects if he got jarred again.

“They said, ‘We just don’t know,'” Scott said. “But they told me that the more times you get hit, the more probability that you’ll have issues.”

Here’s wishing him a happy retirement!

Umpire Dale Scott is gay.

Scott, who has been a big league umpire since 1986, was profiled in the October issue of Referee magazine. When he was asked to submit some off-the-field photos to run with the story, he sent in one of himself with his longtime partner, Michael Rausch, who he married last year.

In this quiet way, Scott became the first openly gay umpire or referee in the NBA, NHL, NFL or MLB.

“I realized that it could open a Pandora’s Box, but this is not a surprise to Major League Baseball, the people I work for,” Scott told Outsports. “It’s not a surprise to the umpire staff. Until Mike and I got married last November, he was my same-sex domestic partner and had his own MLB I.D. and was on my insurance policy.”

My guess is it was not a surprise to the players, either, which is a good thing.