Field empty on what would have been Hudlin’s day
Barbara Hudlin looked across the empty Jerry Hale Field at National Little League with a degree of sadness because of what has been lost this year.
Thursday would have been the annual Doug Hudlin Day at the park, at Cook and Hillside in Victoria, filled with games and the happy sounds of kids playing baseball on an evening honouring the late baseball official. He was the first Canadian to umpire at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
“How weird is this quietness? There should be baseball happening today, but there is nothing,” said Doug’s niece Barbara Hudlin. “I never thought I would see this almost complete stoppage of sports in my lifetime. It’s a tough day for us. Baseball is my life and it was my uncle’s life.”
Also called off is Saturday’s annual Doug Hudlin game on Wilson’s Group Diamond at Royal Athletic Park. It raises funds for Special Olympics and the Doug Hudlin Step Up to the Plate program at National Little League, providing an opportunity for kids to play baseball who otherwise may not have been able to.
Banners honouring Hudlin hang at both National Little League, where he became a fixture beginning with the park’s opening in 1953, and Royal Athletic Park.
“We established the Step Up to the Plate charity game because of my uncle’s love for baseball,” said Barbara Hudlin, former president of Esquimalt Lions Little League.
The Victoria HarbourCats pay the Royal Athletic Park rental for the Step Up to the Plate charity game. But there is no HarbourCats season, either, in the West Coast League this year as the COVID-19 pandemic cuts a wide swath through not only baseball, but all sports. Although there is no game, people can still donate to the Hudlin charity by contacting Barbara Hudlin at ilovebaseball11@yahoo.com.
Nor will there be a 2020
Canadian Little League championship tournament, which was scheduled for Layritz Park in August, with Doug Hudlin to have been honoured during the proceedings. The winner would have represented Canada in the Little League World Series. But there is no Little League World Series for the first time in its 73-year history.
Hudlin umpired twice at the Little League World Series, in 1967 and 1974, the latter also the year Esquimalt-Vic West represented Canada in Williamsport. He also twice umpired at the Senior Little League World Series in Gary, Indiana.
Hudlin, who umpired a generation of Island ball players over four decades, died in 2014 at age 91. He was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame with the Class of 2017 that included Ray Carter of Nanaimo, Roy Halladay and Vladimir Guerrero.
Hudlin, with his gentle demeanour, was known for his empathy toward the young players he umpired. “In Little League, you’re the umpire and the coach at the same time,” he once said.
“You help and guide youngsters along — that’s part of an umpire’s job at that level.”
In his later years, Hudlin said his greatest thrill was being stopped and asked by people: “Do you remember me? You used to umpire my games at National Little League, American Little League, Babe Ruth or wherever.”
Considering the events of the past few weeks, it is also notable how Hudlin overcame racism and never lost his smile and graceful humanity in doing it.
The Hudlins, Alexanders and Woods were among the first black families to settle in Victoria. They were not allowed to play on other baseball teams at the time, so Hudlin helped form the all-black Brown Bombers squad. It played at what is now named Alexander Park, near Bay and Fernwood.
“It’s a part of our baseball heritage,” said Barbara Hudlin, who took part in the Black Lives Matter rally last weekend at Centennial Square.