Mayor Bob Lanier, personally phoned Stern to complain about O'Donnell. The league responded to the incident by not assigning O'Donnell to officiate any additional playoff games that year, including the 1995 NBA Finals, which ended a string of 23 consecutive appearances in the Finals. The league also rescinded the standard $1,000 ejection fine to Drexler. The NBA never formally announced the suspension of O'Donnell, but paid him for working the first three playoff rounds, although he did not work past the second round. Both O'Donnell and the NBA have denied the impression that this incident led to O'Donnell being forced out of the league. At the time, O'Donnell claimed there was no feud between him and Drexler, stating, "I just don't take any crap from anyone, and he couldn't handle that. If he thinks it was personal, fine, but it wasn't from my standpoint." However a year later in an interview with ESPN O'Donnell commented, "I wouldn't give Clyde Drexler much leeway because of the way he reacted with me all the time. I thought at times he would give cheap shots to people, and I just would not allow it." MLB career As an umpire, O'Donnell's first game in the American League was September 17, 1968 between the Washington Senators and Cleveland Indians. O'Donnell was called up late in the 1968 season, along with former major league player and NBA referee Bill Kunkel, after two AL umpires, Al Salerno and Bill Valentine, were fired by league president Joe Cronin for attempting to organize a union among Junior Circuit umpires. During his short career in the majors, he worked 489 regular season games, the 1971 American League Championship Series between the Baltimore Orioles and the Oakland Athletics, and as the second-base umpire in the 1971 All-Star Game at Tiger Stadium. This game was most notable for Reggie Jackson's home run which hit off the right-center field rooftop transformer. He was also the third-base umpire for Jim Palmer's no-hitter on August 13, 1969. O'Donnell resigned from the AL after the 1971 season to concentrate on his burgeoning basketball officiating career. O'Donnell's final regular season baseball game saw him at second base when the Washington Senators were forced to forfeit their final game at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium to the New York Yankees on September 30, 1971. The Senators held a 7–5 lead with two outs in the ninth inning when