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MLB umpires Tyler and Austin Jones
Baseball needed more than a century to put identical twin brothers on the same major-league umpiring crew, and apparently Mother Nature ultimately had to make the schedule work. Austin and Tyler Jones finally umpired an MLB game together Wednesday because a Baltimore rainout randomly created the doubleheader assignment they had spent years hoping would happen.
Austin worked first base and Tyler handled second during the opener between Baltimore and Toronto at Camden Yards before the brothers swapped positions for Game 2. The MLB story confirms it was their first major-league game together and the first time identical twins had ever umpired the same MLB game.
A Rainout Accidentally Created Baseball History
Tyler was already assigned to the Blue Jays-Orioles series.
Austin was not.
He was preparing for a separate assignment in Washington when Tuesday night’s Baltimore game was postponed by rain. Turning Wednesday into a doubleheader meant the normal four-man umpiring crew needed a fifth member so the umpire working home plate in one game could get a break during the other.
Austin happened to be nearby.
Phone call. Short trip to Baltimore. Twin umpires.
Tyler told the Associated Press that he had actually been napping when Austin called to tell him the rainout had created the opportunity, saying, “This is something we’ve dreamed about forever.”
The odds of it happening organically were pretty terrible. Both brothers are Triple-A call-up umpires who fill major-league openings as needed, meaning simply reaching MLB at the same time did not guarantee they would ever land on the same crew.
They finally needed a rainstorm to handle the scheduling.
The Twins Had Not Worked A Pro Game Together In More Than A Decade
The whole thing becomes better once you realize this is basically where their careers started.
Austin and Tyler grew up in Summerville, South Carolina, and began umpiring youth baseball when they were around 15 because their local league needed officials. They attended umpire school together at 18 before entering professional baseball in 2014.
A recent Little League profile details how the brothers essentially followed the same career path all the way through the minors.
Then their assignments separated.
Austin reached the majors first in July 2024. Tyler followed in May 2025, which made them the first set of twins ever to umpire at the MLB level, but even then they were working different games in different places.
They had not shared the field for a professional game in more than a decade before Wednesday.
Naturally, baseball gave them two at once.
Baltimore beat Toronto 4-2 in both ends of the doubleheader, while Austin and Tyler switched first- and second-base duties for the nightcap. Their family was also able to get to Baltimore in time to watch.