Year Inducted – 2016

Bob was born in Barberton Ohio in 1953 and has bled purple his entire life. He graduated from Barberton High School in 1971 and attended Malone College and the University of Akron. He has lived in the Magic City since birth. He is married to Jean Spangler and has a son Robert. The game of baseball has always been important to Bob. He has great memories of sandlot games and attending Cleveland Indians games with his family. A special treat as a young person was watching the Indians on TV. Bob began umpiring in 1984 and was fortunate to umpire many high school games as well as umpiring in tournaments. He umpired games in the Double AA league as well as many games in the Roy Hobbs leagues. Bob really enjoyed umpiring and, although not umpiring now, still enjoys rules and mechanic discussions. Bob was elected business manager of Summit Umpires in 1990 and has served in that position for 27 seasons. He has assigned over 60,000 games at all levels and there are almost as many stories as games assigned. He also has been very active in training and recruiting new umpires, working with Brian Harrell and Ron Reed since 2000. It has been a privilege to work with Ed Galloway all these years as he has served as secretary, Bob said. Bob was elected to the Ohio High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 2012 as well as the Game Hogz Hall of Fame the same year. This group is the premier tournament crew in Ohio and he was privileged to mentor Larnie Martin in its formation. He has served as the Umpire Assignor for the Roy Hobbs World series in Fort Myers Florida since 2005 when Tom Giffen made him an offer I couldn’t refuse. It has been his favorite scheduling experience as it is a great opportunity to work in an event that highlights the international flavor of the great game of baseball.