{"id":14815,"date":"2011-09-28T15:09:39","date_gmt":"2011-09-28T22:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=14815"},"modified":"2011-09-28T15:10:28","modified_gmt":"2011-09-28T22:10:28","slug":"henry-st-clair-hof-umpire-friend-to-all-passes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=14815","title":{"rendered":"Henry St. Clair, HOF Umpire, Friend to All Passes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>From the NAFA website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

IN MEMORIAM TO A GREAT MAN IN A GREAT SPORT -He left us, September 26, 2011 but his spirit will carry on. <\/p>\n

\n

Henry \u201cHank\u201d St. Clair<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hank graduated from the Sun Belt Umpires School in Charlotte, NC. His officiating career began over 30 years ago in Cleveland Ohio with stoppages for military, work and family. He learned to play baseball and softball in the sandlots of Cleveland and in high school. He continued to play and learned to officiate while in the USMC. His officiating career took off when forced to replace an ill official at a little league game.<\/p>\n

He has officiated all levels of softball and baseball including youth, recreation, high school, college and some minor league assignments. He has worked several organized Adult World Series that include NAFA, MSBL, Roy Hobbs and NABA.<\/p>\n

He believed that rules knowledge, mechanics and common sense are essential tools for a good umpire. Learning what good umpires do to present themselves respectfully and professionally are necessary for all. Hank St. Clair will be missed. Once his service arrangements are made we will post it here. We are all very sad that this quite healthy individual should leave us. He had a heart attack and passed on quite quickly. He is the NAFA East Deputy for UIC Carley Parish and is in the NAFA Hall of Fame as an Umpire. He was the East Masters World Series UIC Sept. 9-11 where he was in great spirits and his smile blessed us all. We will post all comments sent in here. Here are a few already.<\/p>\n

\u201cCrew,This is particularly sad news for me..as many of you know, Hank and I were \u201croomies\u201d for the 3 years at the World Series and he spent countless hours driving me around, \u201cschooling me\u201d on the men\u2019s game, and generally helping me become a better umpire..\u201d Pete Davis, NAFA West UIC, California<\/p>\n

\u201cI just read about Hank\u2019s heart attack. Hard to believe. I just talked to him in Rockford. He always had a smile and was a pleasure to know. He will be greatly missed.\u201d Mike White, Wisconsin<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very saddened and in shock to have to tell you that Henry St. Clair passed away on Sept. 26th. His wife just e-mailed me.I will keep you posted on details in regard to his funeral.This week is a great loss to our organization.\u201d Carley Parish, NAFA UIC, from Eastern Canada<\/p>\n

\u201cVery sad news. Hank and I go way back, at least as far as Salem in 2002. Hank collected team hats and I gave him one of ours. I guess I was lucky as I got to spend all afternoon and evening with Hank at the Consolation bracket at Rockford Class \u201cA\u201d. He definitely will be missed.\u201d Jim Williamson, Washington State<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a shock. He seemed in perfect health at the Masters. His normal outgoing self. A sad day indeed.\u201d Loren Lathrop, NAFA VP, Wisconsin<\/p>\n

\u201cVery sad news!!! Thoughts and Prayers go out to his family. He will be greatly missed, but his memory and how he help\/improved those around him will be seen and passed on everywhere we go. Thank You Mr Henry St. Clair\u201d Brandon Blum, Washington State NAFA Umpire<\/p>\n

\u201cVery stunning and sad news. I went way back with Hank and we had so many great days on the NCAA and men\u2019s FP diamonds. Will definitely miss his presence and leadership on and off the diamond. His love for the FP game was unmistakable. With regret every year I always said we should get out and play some fall golf\u2013I\u2019m definitely a hacker\u2013but we never did. The flags are flying at half staff in the umpiring community today.Take Good Care\u201d Tom Ueberroth, Wisconsin NAFA Umpire<\/p>\n

\u201cMy Thoughts and Prayers go out to \u201cHanks\u201d Family a truly great teacher and fine man! God Bless! And God Bless our NAFA Family! \u201d Clark Evans, NAFA Umpire, New Mexico
\n\u201cI still can\u2019t believe it! We have all lost a friend indeed. Hank was one of a kind and will surely be missed by all\u2026on and off the diamond. My sympathy and prayers go out to his family.\u201d Steve Komorowski, NAFA Umpire Wisconsin<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t express enough how shocked I was when I got the e-mail about Hank\u2019s passing. I\u2019ve known Hank along time now. High school softball, and summer travel tournaments. I\u2019ll miss him very much. My deepest condolences to his family for their loss. \u201d Tom Grey, Illinois NAFA Umpire<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the NAFA website. IN MEMORIAM TO A GREAT MAN IN A GREAT SPORT -He left us, September 26, 2011 but his spirit will carry on. Henry \u201cHank\u201d St. Clair Hank graduated from the Sun Belt Umpires School in Charlotte, NC. His officiating career began over 30 years ago in Cleveland Ohio with stoppages for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,34],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nafa","8":"category-umpires","9":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14815"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14818,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14815\/revisions\/14818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}