THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 26, 1994 TAG: 9406240260
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 21 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Bill Leffler
DATELINE: 940626 LENGTH: Medium
``We want to recognize Bob Hood,'' the public address announcer said. ``He died yesterday.''
{REST} A listener in the stands responded: ``Who was Bob Hood?''
That's as great a tribute as an umpire could ever receive.
Officials in any sport who do their jobs without attracting attention are the very best.
Hood, a 54-year-old Chesapeake resident, umpired baseball across this area for nearly 30 years. He was the president of the Eastern Virginia Officials Association.
Our paths first crossed when I was covering the Norfolk Neptunes football team in the Continental League. Hood was among the early candidates for the team.
He was a native of Hemphill, W.Va., and came to Portsmouth in 1967 to look after his ailing parents, who had moved here earlier. That same year, Hood started playing softball.
He became acquainted with Herb Ripley, who was in charge of the Olive Branch Umpires Association, and accepted an invitation to join his crew. For eight years, Hood worked games in that association.
At that time, I was coaching youth teams in the league, and in many of the games Hood was an umpire. Sometimes we didn't see eye to eye on strikes and balls, but never once can I remember questioning a call he made based upon interpretation of rules.
Occasionally, he worked games in which his son was a participant. Never did anyone question Hood's objectivity or fairness.
Once, he made a controversial decision to call a base runner out for interfering with a throw to first base on a bunt. Not many umpires would have made that call, but Hood was never one to back down from what he deemed the proper decision.
On one occasion, he worked a Little League game in which a mother of a participant wasn't agreeing with many of his calls. Midway in the game Hood suddenly disappeared from the field.
``Where's Bob Hood?'' asked one of the coaches. ``We have to get this game going.''
``I'm right here,'' replied Hood, who was sitting in the bleachers next to his heckler. ``I figured if she could see what was happening better than I could I should move up here.''
There was little doubt that he was a man in charge when he umpired.
Umpiring became virtually a vocation for Hood. He joined the Tidewater Umpires Association and started working high school and college games.
He also began umpiring college baseball. When the Eastern Virginia Officials Association was formed, Hood was a charter member. The level of umpiring was boosted by this organization as it offered extensive training, clinics and evaluations. Six former professional umpires were in the group.
Hood worked many all-star games and tournaments, but the highlight was his selection as an umpire for the Great Asian-American Challenge Cup Games in 1990. He was a crew chief for games the U.S. team played against China, Canada and Korea.
Funeral services for Hood, who died from a heart attack after an earlier slight stroke, were held at the Chesapeake First Church of the Nazarene. The pallbearers were umpires, and three rows of pews were filled with his co-workers in blue.
Somehow I found myself thinking this was the midst of the baseball season.
Each year, for Hood, that season ran from February through August.
``When it's over,'' he once told me, ``I work more games in a year than a major league umpire.''
He was a major league umpire.
by CNB