After missing the bulk of 2025, Hunter Wendelstedt is ready to resume his long umpiring career in 2026.
“I’m ready to go. I’m cleared,” says Wendelstedt, who was sidelined after taking a line drive to the head in late April last season.
“The doctors did such a fantastic job. I’ve been blessed.”
Wendelstedt was umpiring first base in Minnesota and standing in foul territory when a liner off the bat of the Mets’ Tyrone Taylor struck him in the left ear. Doctors spent two hours fully reattaching the ear before Wendelstedt could begin dealing with the effects of the concussion — he believes it was the fourth concussion of his 28-year career.
“I couldn’t work because I couldn’t hear,” he says. “Hearing is a really big part of umpiring, believe it or not. Eyesight is obviously up there, but hearing is, too.”
Effects of the concussion eventually waned, and the pain subsided, but a steady ringing in his left ear remained.
“They gave me a device to balance the ringing in the ear,” Wendelstedt says. “It sends signals in my brain to try to trick it. I have no ringing right now when there’s any noise around me.
“At night, when I turn the TV off, I hear a faint ringing. But nothing like before. It was driving me crazy.”
Wendelstedt, who lives just north of New Orleans, spends winters in his native Ormond Beach and operates the Wendelstedt Umpire School before the start of MLB spring training.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Hunter Wendelstedt, recovered from liner to ear, ready to umpire again
Reporting by Ken Willis, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
