Twins umpire MLB games together

Tyler Jones umpired the first game of this week’s series between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Baltimore Orioles and was napping the next day when his brother Austin called and told him that the middle game of the series was rained out.

A doubleheader on Wednesday meant that Austin Jones — who in addition to being Tyler Jones’ identical twin is also an umpire — was on his way to Baltimore to work the games alongside his brother.

“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.”

MLB umpires Tyler Jones, left, and his twin brother Austin Jones walk on the field during the second Baltimore Orioles-Toronto Blue Jays game in Baltimore, Maryland, on Wednesday.

Photo: AP

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 Jones umpired his first MLB game in 2024, Tyler Jones last year. They had 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, 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,” Tyler Jones said.

Tyler Jones jokes that he got into umpiring because “I was a really bad baseball player.”

They both started young, working youth games and earning some money when they were in high school.

“We did umpire school together and we roomed together,” Austin Jones said. “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.’”