MLB Umpires John Libka, DJ Reyburn and James Hoye take time out for kids at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh

Typically, on the morning of a game day, Major League Baseball Umpires are busy hitting the gym, reviewing the game from the night before and preparing for the next game at hand.

On this morning, however, the crew working the Pittsburgh Pirates game against the Houston Astros, Major League Baseball Umpires James Hoye, DJ Reyburn and John Libka took time out to visit with young patients and their caregivers at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Throughout the season, UMPS CARE schedules about 15 to 17 such hospital visits for the umpire crews, and the experiences are as valuable to them as they are to the kids and caregivers they meet. MLB Umpires are on the road most of the summer, and away from their families, and these visits keep them connected to the communities in which they work.

And they know they are delivering so much joy to kids and families facing medical challenges.

The visit at UPMC has become such a tradition in Pittsburgh that UMPS CARE Charities ordered 150 Build-A-Bear furry friends to deliver to kids this year – 50 more than the umpires usually deliver!

All of us at UMPS CARE are so grateful to our generous donors, sponsors and grant supporters who have made this possible.

“We actually bring about 50 more bears than we typically bring to a hospital visit because it’s such a popular event, and that’s a direct response from the donors that we have,” MLB Umpire DJ Reyburn told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “We are a non-profit organization, and the people donating money to us allow us to bring more bears. People all over the world donate money to our charity, and that allows us to purchase the bears and have events like this around the country.”

Including the visit today, UMPS CARE Charities has delivered Build-A-Bear® to 23,215 children in hospitals across the country and in Canada since 2006. The hospital visit today marks our 228th visit.