Posted by GirlPlayer on September 18, 2009, 11:46 am
205.188.116.200
By TERRY TOOHEY
230terry@gmail.com
The Delaware County baseball and softball communities are in mourning.
Longtime umpire Bob Canfield, who valiantly battled cancer, has died. He was 58.
Mr. Canfield spent more than 30 years as a baseball and modified softball umpire and umpire assignor in Delaware County. He also was the modified commissioner for the Daily Times/Exelon Champs ’n’ Charity Classic.
“It’s a sad day,” fellow umpire Fran King said of Canfield. “He was a great guy. No matter how many calls he blew, you never took it personally because he was such a good guy.”
The reverse was true, too. If he had to eject a player when he or she gave too much lip, Canfield never took it personally.
I know. He once tossed me from a game in the Hoffman League and I deserved it.
I was giving him a lot of grief about a call and finally Canfield had enough. He asked me, “Are you trying to get tossed?” When I replied in the affirmative he said, “You have your wish,” and gave me the heave-ho.
We had quite a few laughs about that over the years.
“Bob was a big guy, but he did not have to use his size to defuse a situation,” King said. “He always had control of a situation and never let things get out of control.”
Mr. Canfield did more than just assign games. He tutored young umpires on the proper way to be an umpire.
“He was a mentor to a lot of young guys,” King said. “He taught you everything from how to act to how to dress. He was a stickler for that. When you worked for him you were expected to dress a certain way.”
Mr. Canfield did not let his diagnosis of cancer slow him down. He continued to assign umpires and made sure the modified division of the Champs ’n’ Charity Classic went off without a hitch while he battled the disease.
“That’s the way he was,” Champs ’n’ Charity commissioner James “Boog” Laird said of Canfield. “He stuck with us even though he wasn’t feeling well because the tournament was important to him. We’ll really feel the affects of this when softball season comes around and there’s no Bob Canfield. He’s going to be missed.”
Surviving are his wife, Janice, daughters Lisa Laffey and Pamela Myer and three grandsons.
A viewing will be held 9:30 Saturday morning at Sacred Heart Church, Manoa and Shelbourne Rds., Havertown, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 11.
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