(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
IN MEMORIAM
...Bobby Gumbs...
(1949 - 2023) |
  Former baseball-umpire (three Little League World Series) Bobby Gumbs passed away
Nederlands
 ALKMAAR (Neth.) -
Former baseball-umpire Bobby Gumbs, who led games in the Dutch leagues and has officiated in three World Series of the Little League-organization, passed away on Thursday, March 16 at the age of 73.
He is one of only two Dutch umpires to have led games at the famous Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania (USA).
Bobby Gumbs was born on Aruba in 1949, but at a young age, he moved with his parents to the Netherlands.
He went on living in Alkmaar.
When his son Leon was eight and started to play baseball, Bobby started coaching at the local baseball- and softball-club in Koedijk, which is a village near Alkmaar.
At that club, with had the same name as the name of the village, SV Koedijk, he coached youth baseball-teams and led one of them to a Championship-title.
He coached for some seven years and played baseball himself in recreational teams.
Some years later, when coaching a team during a tournament at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, Bobby Gumbs was asked to umpire a softball-game there.
,,I tried it, I liked it and I began to specialize, in softball, but later also in baseball and in 1990, I obtained a licence from the Dutch Federation'', Gumbs said regarding that game in an interview in 2011 with a Polish website from Kutno, where he later frequently would led Little League-games.
Gumbs developed into a talented and reliable umpire, who knew the rules, knew to lead a game and was well-respected with the coaches and players.
Since 1990, Bobby Gumbs was an umpire for some 24 years.
Initially, he started umpiring youth-games (11-12 years old, Little League), which he kept doing ever since.
But in later years, he also led baseball-games at the senior-level and was assigned to games in the First Division, the second highest league in the Netherlands.
In that division, he was active for a few seasons.
However, Bobby has always enjoyed umpiring youth-games, which really became a passion for him and he preferred doing those games above the national level-games.
Gumbs immediately showed that he had the talent for officiation games, especially working with kids.
And he liked to have fun on the field and to do his games with some show.
Through the years, Bobby's style attracted attention, from making the calls, cleaning his plate-brush, etc.
After having been active as an umpire for some years, Bobby attended an umpiring clinic in Kutno (Poland) in 2000 and his qualities also were noticed by Little League-officials.
In 2002, Bobby Gumbs became the first Dutch umpire to be assigned to the Junior League Baseball World Series (13-14 yrs), which is one of the tournaments that are annually organized by Little League International.
The Junior League World Series is being organized annually since 1981 in Taylor, Michigan.
Since then, only three other Dutch umpires were active in this event: Fred Tempels (2014), Rik van de Keer (2019) and Jules Martina (2022).
This year, Ric Zwanenberg will become the fifth.
2004 was an emotional year for Bobby.
In the Spring of that year, his wife passed away.
Initially, he stopped with his baseball-activities, but eventually he returned to the field later in the year.
It also was in 2004 that he was named to be one of the umpires at the world-renowned Little League World Series (11-12 yrs) in Williamsport, Pennsylvania (USA).
The first Little League World Series was organized in 1947, but since then, only two umpires from the Netherlands have led games at the event.
In 1991, Jos van der Lelie was the first.
In 2004, Bobby Gumbs was the second and until now, also the last Dutch umpire at this prestigious World Series.
Since 2001, several umpires have represented the Europe/Middle East or Europe/Africa Region.
Since then, this Region was represented by umpires from Germany, Kuwait, Poland, Saudi-Arabia and the United Kingdom.
Gumbs has been the lone one from the Netherlands since then.
This year, Arnoldas Ramanauskas from Lithuania will represent Europe/Africa.
In 2009, Bobby was assigned to his third World Series.
This time, he traveled to Easley, South Carolina for the Big League World Series (16-18 yrs).
This tournament was first held in 1968, but this category (for both baseball and softball) ended after 2016.
Gumbs was one of two Dutch umpires to have been active in this Series.
The other was Fred Tempels in 2006.
With his assignment in 2009, Gumbs became the first Dutch umpire to have officiated in three different Little League World Series.
A few years later, Fred Tempels added two more tournaments and became the first to have been active in four Series.
In softball, Wout van der Horst is the lone Dutch umpire to have officiated in three World Series since 2009.
Umpires at the Little League-tournamens are volunteers.
They have to apply for the tournaments, both for the Regionals, as well as the World Series, sometimes some years in advance.
From the available list, an umpiring committee then will assign umpires to a tournament.
Since 1999, Gumbs annually led games at the European Little League Regional Championships in Kutno (Poland).
The winners of those tournaments qualified for the World Series.
Frequently, he led games there in three different age-groups.
In the Polish interview in 2011, Gumbs said about Kutno:
,,It's my second home.
I learned a lot here, experienced a lot here.
Every year, I look forward to Summer and the signal to start my car to go to Kutno''.
American umpire Jeff Chapman remembered Bobby in a Facebook-post.
,,He was one of the best umpires on the continent, not to mention one of the kindest individuals known to man'', Chapman said.
,,He carried himself elegantly, more elegantly than the rest of us anyway, but not in an arrogant kind of way.
With a smile that said volumes.
If Bobby was umpiring, there was an adoring crowd.
He was engaging, welcoming, cute, funny and fun.
Love you, brother.
Thank you for leaving us so many special memories.
You were a remarkable person and a world-class umpire and you will be missed by everyone whose life you touched.''
For more than twenty years, Bobby Gumbs worked at professional soccer-club AZ in Alkmaar and was one of the security officers.
Most of these years at Alkmaarderhout (nicknamed 'De Hout'), the former stadium of the club.
Dirk Scheringa, who was the chairman of the club in 1993-2009, remembered Bobby in a post on LinkedIn.
,,He worked for 23 years at AZ.
At the stadium, he always was posted at the entrance of the board-room and also oversaw the entrance of the spectators.
He always called me Chief.
We had a good connection.
He was a baseball-umpire, something he was extremely proud of'', Scheringa wrote.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to the family and friends of Bobby and wishes them a lot of strength with this big loss.
(March 24)
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