Angel Behind the Plate

We tend to forget that coaches and players are people, too. We forget that they are capable of mistakes, have families and a life outside of their sport. What about the officials? We forget they’re human, too, which means they won’t get every call right. Furthermore, we forget they are also capable of greatness in their own way.

MLB umpire has been called one of the worst by various people throughout baseball. Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington said “Angel is just bad,” reported by NBC Sports. Washington Nationals’ rookie sensation Bryce Harper got into a full-blown argument with him during a game. But what each of these Angel bashings failed to mention was Hernandez’s incredible charity work in south Florida.

Hernandez is the Chairman of the Board of the West Pembroke Pines Miracle League. The Miracle League was formed in 1998 to enable disabled children to participate in little league baseball. The Miracle League is a nationwide group started by the Rockdale Youth Baseball Association in Rockdale, Ga. The slogan of the league is “Because every child deserves to play baseball.”

“I am blessed with the opportunity of seeing children who normally wouldn’t have the chance to play baseball do just that,” Hernandez wrote on the Angel Miracle League website. “[This is] a cause very dear to my heart.”

Remember Dick Bavetta? Of course you don’t. Like most officials he is not known—until he really messes up. Let me jog your memory with the 2007 NBA All-Star weekend in Las Vegas. The race against Charles Barkley on TNT was a pretty interesting event. Ah, now you remember. Well that little race against the Round Mound of Rebound raised $75,000 for the Las Vegas Boys & Girls Clubs.

Despite grumblings Bavetta is a bad referee, he is 72 and has been an official for 37 years without missing a game. In addition to being the ironman of officiating, Bavetta established and finances the Lady Bavetta Scholarships for minority students, which he started in 1986. He has also volunteered with the Double-H Hole in the Woods Ranch which helps with childhood cancer and HIV.

It’s a shame that these are the conditions it had to come under, but Shannon Eastin is breaking history. If we can recognize in the great acts officials have done off the field, we should also recognize refs need to be taken care of financially and the NFL refs are on strike because they’re not satisfied with the money they’re receiving from the NFL.

Although the gloomy business side of the game has led to replacement referees, it has opened the door for Shannon Eastin to become the first woman referee. Thursday during the San Diego Chargers and Green Bay Packers preseason game she made her debut on the NFL level. Eastin, an official in lower level college football for years, is one of the many replacement refs under scrutiny during the 2012 preseason.

With the news that the replacement refs may continue into the regular season many fans and players are less than thrilled, but it is nice to see these refs, like Eastin make their personal dreams come true by refereeing at the highest level.

I know it’s tough for us to remember, but the officials you want to call “idiot” “blind” or other derogatory terms are people, as well. They can achieve great accomplishments and are susceptible to downfalls, too. As much as we don’t care about refs and their personal lives, it’s nice to the human side besides the “stripes” and the good side behind “blue".

Fake umps put on show in Cincy for charity

CINCINNATI -- They received national attention for their act last year, and now Tim Williams and Joe Farrell have come out of retirement for charity and are back ringing up batters from the stands as part of the "Four Games for Bears" tour.

Williams are Farrell are best known as the "fake umpires" for dressing up in full Major League umpire outfits, sitting in the first row behind home plate and mimicking the calls of real umpires on the field. They retired the act after one year in 2009, but at the request of real umpires, they brought it back to raise money for MLB umpires' UMPS CARE Charities.

"We like to come to the game, have a few beers and have some fun, and then we met these umpires and they said, 'I think it would be cool if you could raise a little money,' and it's amazing," Farrell said. "If you can do all this, have fun and raise a little money, what the heck, you know what I mean?"

The fake umpires planned a four-game road trip, covering their own costs to games in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Boston and their hometown of Toronto from Thursday-Sunday. The two work in the investment business, and clients, family and friends helped them raise money for the trip. More than $7,000 was raised beforehand, all going to the Major League umpires' children's hospital program that brings Build-A-Bear Workshops to the beside of children with cancer or other serious illnesses.

In addition to the money raised, Williams and Farrell each pledged $10 to the charity for every strikeout they see in the four games.

"We enjoyed it last year, and we weren't doing it for any charity angle whatsoever," Williams said. "Now, to have the opportunity to come out and support UMPS CARE, which we've seen personally the impact it makes, it's great."

Their first appearances in Toronto in 2009, followed by trips to stadiums like Yankee Stadium, gained them national notoriety, first through blogs and then through an ESPN story. Before the game at Great American Ball Park on Thursday, Reds fans approached them and asked to pose for pictures, and Williams and Farrell happily obliged all the requests, putting their masks on and pumping their fists in strikeout motions.

The fans enjoy the act, and so do the real umpires. Williams and Farrell were invited to the umpires' charity golf tournament in Arizona in January - which they help sponsor -- and were approached to do the ballpark tour to raise money.

Although they constantly get asked when they're going to appear at a game again, they know it's not a long-term thing. But doing it for charity is a different story.

"We kind of tell them [people who ask] that it's a bit of a novelty act, it'll get old pretty fast if you're doing 20 games in the same stadium," Williams said. "But we're happy to come out of retirement for UMPS CARE."

Matt Brown is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.