South Dennis’ Bob Mauger Inducted into ASA Hall of Fame

Bob Mauger has instructed thousands of umpires that their goal is to always “concentrate on each pitch and each play, hustle all of the time, and put themselves in the best position for each call while hoping to work a perfect game.”
Last week the South Dennis resident became just the third umpire inducted into the New Jersey Amateur Softball Association (ASA) Hall of Fame. A retired state corrections officer, Mauger has officiated the sport since 1976. He didn’t stop playing the game until 1988.
“A couple of the veteran umpires at that time told me they thought I’d be pretty good at it,” said Mauger, who started assigning Cape May County softball umpires in 1978. “I thought I would enjoy it and make a few bucks at the same time. Back then it was $10 for a one-umpire system and $8 for two umpires. So until 1988, I played and umpired.”
Mauger was nominated for the ASA Hall of Fame by his long-time colleague, ASA 6th District umpire-in-chief (UIC), Gary Van Camp. “Bob’s commitment and dedication to ASA is second to none,” said Van Camp, a Seaville resident. “Bob hit some home runs as a player, but he hit many more as a UIC for ASA. He’s done a great job!”
Entering this, his 39th year “behind the dish,” the 64-year-old has served on the ASA National Umpire staff since 2006. He was deputy UIC for the Garden State in 1993 before being elevated to New Jersey’s highest ranking ASA official five years later.
“Bill Jennings brought me into it,” said the Columbus, Ohio, native. “He and John Burke, the game assignor in 1975, were from Pleasantville and they came down here to umpire. There was also Sam Douglas who came down from Brigantine. These guys showed me the way.”
The mention of Douglas, who passed away almost a quarter century ago, still brings pause to Mauger for the impact and guidance his mentor passed along.
“They called Sam ‘All World,’” said Mauger, who travels the region and the country giving instruction to ASA umpires. “He made it more professional once he became the chief umpire of this district. He was more into other people than himself. Sam was the first local umpire selected for a national tournament assignment and he worked the plate for the final game. He was a tremendous umpire and mentor.”
Forever passionate about the game of softball, Mauger’s nostalgia for his own impressive credentials is surpassed by the obvious emotion he feels for the development of younger umpires he’s mentored all the way to prestigious National Tournament officiating.
“Getting umpires to take that next step toward national tournaments is very rewarding for me,” said Mauger, who shares a home with his spouse, Jill, and their son, Matthew. “When my guys take the field in that environment I feel like I’m back out there in those types of tournaments.”
Tuckahoe’s Mike Jones is vice president of ASA 6th District and one of many Mauger pupils.
“Bob is a great mentor because he teaches you the right way to umpire a game,” said Jones. “He’s a stickler for the rules and mechanics of the game. He strives for perfection out of all umpires. If it wasn’t for Bobby taking the time I wouldn’t be where I am.”
Mauger, a stand-out multi-sport high school athlete in Ohio, has umpired five ASA National Championships. He served as crew chief for the Coors Light/ASA Championships in 1997. He is a member of the prestigious ASA National Indicator Fraternity and has achieved all four levels of the Association’s medal program.
“The National Championships were always awesome,” said Mauger, a charter member of the ASA slow pitch Elite Umpire program. “You work very hard to be the best you can be. I’ve always been on the championship crew since my first national tournament in 1985. I’ve been on the plate twice for championship games. I was assigned the ‘if’ game once. The 1997 Coors Light event in Fort Myers had a $100,000 prize. Part of my game was televised on ESPN.”
Winner of the 2003 Mid-Atlantic ASA UIC Memorial Award, Mauger is relentless in his teaching and demands that all umpires do the job the correct way.
“You must concentrate on each pitch and play,” said Mauger, who serves as a high school and collegiate softball umpire and as softball rules interpreter for the Atlantic and Cape May County high school umpire group. “You must hustle all of the time and be in the best position for each call. You must always hope to work a perfect game.”
One of Mauger’s few local contemporaries is fellow ASA Elite slow pitch umpire Larry Blohm, a well-respected multi-sport official and retired Ocean City teacher and coach.
“Bob has risen through the ranks of ASA by a commitment of hard work and dedication to the art of umpiring softball at many levels,” said Blohm, a Palermo resident. “He’s spent nearly four decades and countless hours traveling to workshops, clinics, meetings and tournaments to improve his craft. His induction into the ASA Hall of Fame is well deserved.”
A retired N.J. Department of Corrections officer, Mauger walks four to five miles per day and also works part time in landscaping. Outside of sports,
the former nine-year Atlantic/Cape May County ASA District UIC, maintains a passion for Christmas decorating.
“Last year we counted and there were more than 53,000 LED lights, all computerized to music,” he said proudly. “My son, Matt, wanted to put me in a contest.”
Over the years, especially in Mauger’s early days on the field, confrontations between coaches or players and umpires were common. Such verbal altercations were made famous by the likes of the late Baltimore Orioles’ manager, Earl Weaver, who enjoyed making umpires the source of ridicule. When you think about it, no other sport allows coaches to come onto the area of play to confront the game official in the way baseball or softball does.
For that topic, Mauger again turns to the memory of his mentor, Sam Douglas. “If you are umpiring the game properly you can’t be concerned with comments,” he said. “If a team had a problem with an umpire such as me and that umpire did not mess up a rule or play, Sam would not move you from that team for its next game. You would be right there again.”
On that topic, Mauger, who has worked two national invitational Special Olympics softball championships, recalled a proud moment from early in his officiating career.
“It was a 1981 tournament and I was working a York Barbell game with Sam,” Mauger recalled. “York was an eastern power. The first game I had their plate and they were upset by a local team. I was on the plate for the fifth game, a losers’ bracket contest with York. About the middle of the game, the York third base coach came down the line and said he wanted to speak to me afterward. The next half inning Sam asked me what ‘Charlie’ wanted. I asked Sam who Charlie was. He told me the third base coach and owner of York Barbell. I told Sam what the coach said and asked if there was something I was missing. Sam said no and went back to his position. After the game the York coach said I had the best concept of the strike zone and arc he had seen for a young umpire. York lost that game too and their coach made sure to say it wasn’t the plate umpire’s fault.”
Mauger, who also has two adult children, Bob III and Amy, along with two grandsons, says when he retires from the ASA national staff he’ll “just continue to be what I’ve always been, an umpire.” He’ll also continue to impart his vast wisdom of the vocation.
“Game management is most important and that entails rule knowledge, positioning and controlling the players,” said Mauger, “The one word to use is integrity. An umpire must maintain integrity throughout his or her career by never taking short cuts.”