After 39 years as a professional umpire, 34 of them in Major League Baseball, Joe Brinkman has retired.

Brinkman’s retirement took effect December 31. MLB has announced that Bob Davidson took Brinkman’s spot, effective January 1.

“Retirement was a long time coming for me,” said Brinkman from his home near Chiefland, Florida. “So it was kind of anticlimactic when it came. I had considered retiring as early as 1999 and 2000, depending upon how the labor strife and the new contract turned out, but it didn’t materialize. After that the time was just not right until this summer.”

Several factors, one of them medical, contributed to Brinkman’s decision.