Jerry Meals

Meals was a 1979 graduate of Salem High School, where he played second base and briefly competed on the wrestling team. After umpiring local baseball for four years, Meals graduated from the Joe Brinkman Umpire School in 1983. At age 21, Meals received his first minor league umpiring assignment in the Class A Appalachian League. By 1985, Meals had moved to the South Atlantic League, where he was partnered with 20-year-old future MLB umpire Wally Bell. While working in the Southern League in 1989, Meals was featured in an ESPN documentary on minor league umpires. His family and fellow umpires Chris Jaksa and Fieldin Culbreth also appeared in the film. Meals worked in Triple-A baseball (Triple-A Alliance and the International League) from 1990 to 1997 before receiving a full-time promotion to the major leagues. Meals spent the 2014 season as an interim crew chief while regular crew chief Gary Darling was on the Disabled List. Meals was officially promoted to permanent crew chief upon Darling's retirement.

In his first full-time MLB season, Meals was the home plate umpire when Kerry Wood tied a major league record with 20 strikeouts in a 1998 game. Meals was struck in the mask by a Wood fastball on his first pitch of the game, but the umpire was not injured.

On May 7, 2011, Meals worked behind the plate for Justin Verlander's second career no-hitter. The umpire's ball four call on J. P. Arencibia in the eighth inning prevented Verlander from achieving a perfect game. However, Verlander later said that he agreed with the call.

Meals and Major League Baseball both acknowledged that he missed a call in the 19th inning of a game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Atlanta Braves on July 26, 2011. With respect to length of time, the game was the longest in Pirates history. During the play in question, a ground ball, Pirates catcher Michael McKenry received a throw and appeared to tag Braves runner Julio Lugo three feet in front of home plate but Meals called him safe and the Braves won the game. Meals received criticism for the call and the Pirates issued a public complaint. MLB executive vice president for baseball operations Joe Torre responded to the complaint and officially acknowledged that Meals' call was an error. However, other commentators have stated that the call was not obviously incorrect and that it may not have been overturned under MLB's current instant replay rules.

On April 22, 2014, Meals was the home plate umpire when Albert Pujols of the Los Angeles Angels hit his 500th career home run against the Washington Nationals.

On April 3, 2017, Meals was home plate umpire for Opening Day when the Washington Nationals faced the Miami Marlins.