A product of Layritz Little League, Rich attended Central Arizona College on a baseball scholarship, during which time he led all Division 1 college pitchers and was selected All Conference. Drafted by the Oakland A’s, he rocketed through the minor leagues, reaching the majors after only two years. Rich made his first playoff appearance in the 2003 post season, pitching in relief and getting the win. In 2008, he was traded to the Chicago Cubs and was instrumental in helping them make the playoffs. It was in 2008 that he pitched an “immaculate inning”: a first inning when he struck out three batters on nine pitches, only the sixth time that has been done to the first 3 batters of the game.

Rich played a total of nine seasons in the majors before injury forced retirement. His final major league stats: won 59, lost 38 for an outstanding winning percentage of .608. He finished with a stellar 3.76 career ERA and a remarkable 949 strikeouts in 928 Innings pitched which ranks him 14th all-time in the history of Major League baseball.

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Ian started umpiring at Lambrick Park, becoming a member of the B.C. Baseball Umpires Association (BCBUA) and Baseball Canada nationally certified. In 1988, Ian first attended the Joe Brinkman Umpire School in Florida but was unable to get a US work visa. He later won the Ken Van Hatten Memorial Scholarship for Umpires, was top graduate at Jim Evans Academy of Professional Umpiring, and again attended the Umpire Development Program in Florida and was a top six graduate.

Ian worked the Northwest, California, Texas, Arizona Instructional and Pacific Coast Leagues, plus Hawaii, Arizona and Dominican seasonal leagues. In 1998-99, he became the first Canadian in many years to work the Majors as part of the National Baseball League’s umpire staff.

Leaving the Majors in 2002, Ian spent a year as Supervisor and also umpired the professional Canadian and Chinese Leagues before retiring in 2007.

In 2002, BC Minor Baseball and BCBUA founded the Ian Lamplugh Award to recognize the top umpire prospect in BC and, in 2010, Ian was the inaugural inductee into BCBUA’s Hall of Fame.

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