White Plains CitizeNetReporter - Popular White Plains Umpire Suffers Serious Eye Injury in Field

WPCNR PressBox. By John F. Bailey. May 2, 2002. 10:30 AM EDT.: Jimmie Wolf, the man who organized umpiring for the upper ranks of amateur baseball and softball leagues in Westchester County, Rockland and Dutchess Counties, colleges and the White Plains Little League, suffered a serious eye injury yesterday while umpiring a college game in the field.

He is resting at home, but is out of action for weeks, perhaps months. Wolf, according to his wife, was hit in the eye by a thrown ball while calling action on the basepaths in a college game yesterday. He was hospitalized after the incident, and is now resting at home. Julie Wolf told WPCNR last night that they are hopeful he will recover 100% vision in his eye. Meanwhile, she told WPCNR, his first concern was that “his” games would be covered. She was scrambling to cover games last night.

Wolf organized the science of umpiring over recent years so that leagues could make one call to him, and he’d assign an umpire or crew to the games for reasonable fees. His umpires showed up, called before games and kept control of the game, and most of all knew the rules.

In the White Plains Little League, handling senior games and majors games, we always knew that Wolf would have the umpires there. The Umpire would be good. The game would be under control.

Jimmy professionalized umpire assignment by setting fees, at the beginning of the season, making sure umpires were paid a reasonable fee, and evaluating their competence, only taking on umpires on his staff he felt were good arbiters. He worked games with new recruits to teach them the tools of the arbiter’s trade.

His umpires are even-tempered men and women who bring a touch of class and big league professionalism to every game they call, thanks to Jimmie’s leadership.

It is a tribute to Wolf’s sense of duty to “The Game,” that he was pressuring his wife last night to make sure his own personal umpiring assignments were covered, while in great personal pain.


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