Larry Young after receiving the All-Heart Award at our sold-out 20th UMPS CARE Charities Golf Classic last month.
UMPS CARE Charities is celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year. On the 20th of each month, we will share some stories and memories of the charity. This is the second installation in our series about the charity over the past two decades.
Gary Darling (left) with current UMPS CARE Charities President D.J. Reyburn with the City of Phoenix’s proclamation that January 24, 2026, officially was “UMPS CARE Charities Day.”
Larry Young still has some of the letters as a reminder of how UMPS CARE Charities got started 20 years ago. Letters would come from widows of retired MLB Umpires who were days away from being evicted. Some wrote saying their electricity was about to be turned off in their homes. Pension plans for retired MLB Umpires made it tough on families.
“These are really emotional letters,” Larry said. “If we didn’t help, a lot of people would really have been in dire straits.”
Larry did not really know much about the trying situations of the retired umpires and their families until the mid-1980s when he attended the annual MLB Umpire retreat and heard about the challenges.
“The generation and two generations before us had a horrible pension plan, and there were a lot of World Series umpires and crew chiefs – guys who had 25-year careers in baseball living in near poverty,” Larry said. “It was just unacceptable. We wanted to help.”
Larry, along with fellow umpires, Gary Darling and Jim Reynolds, put their heads together and thought about ways they could help. The result was a golf tournament in 2006 at a golf club where MLB Umpire Larry Poncino was a member. Among others who attended were Rick Reed, Joe West and Steve Rippley.
There were no hole sponsors. The golfers munched on sandwiches for lunch. It basically was a few umpires combing their pockets to help out some folks.
Larry laughed when asked about whether he recalled playing well that day.
“I hit a house with a golf ball,” he said with a chuckle. “I try to forget that.”
“We didn’t really know what we were doing that first year – we were just a couple of umpires stumbling around wanting to give back. It’s just grown to proportions we never imagined.”
(Above) Larry Young, second from left, at the UMPS CARE Charities Golf Classic in 2010.
(Below) Larry Young, far right, at UMPS CARE Charities Golf Classic in 2026.
But like most organizations, it didn’t blossom overnight. The first Golf Classic was a pretty no-frills affair and raised about $3,000 for retired umpires and their families. We asked if there were any photos to commemorate that tournament and Young laughed and replied, “Sorry. My flip phone didn’t take photos.”
That is the truth. The first Apple iPhone was released in 2007 – a year after UMPS CARE was officially incorporated as a non-profit organization.
From those humble beginnings, the charity and the tournament grew. In 2006, Larry, Gary and Jim joined forces with Samuel Dearth and Marvin Hudson – who had started philanthropic programs bringing kids to meet umpires at the ballparks and delivering Build-A-Bear stuffed toys to children in hospitals – to form UMPS CARE Charities. Among others who were there from the early beginnings were Mike DiMuro and Bob Davidson.
Just last month, UMPS CARE celebrated its 20th Golf Classic at the Foothills Golf Club in Phoenix. To get an idea of how much has changed, every hole had multiple sponsors, all 19 MLB Umpire crews supported the tournament, and the event has been sold out for the last several years. This year, the City of Phoenix honored UMPS CARE with a proclamation and declared the day “UMPS CARE Charities Day.”
“We didn’t really know what we were doing that first year – we were just a couple of umpires stumbling around wanting to give back,” Larry said. “It’s just grown to proportions we never imagined.”
The night before the tournament, the charity honored Gary and his wife, Cheri, with our All-Heart Award. Also receiving the honor was longtime volunteer, Staci Marquez, whose husband, Alfonso, is an MLB Umpire crew chief. Larry was honored with the award at the Golf Classic banquet. Cheri Darling is famous at the golf tournament for baking her mouth-watering cookies. Joan Young has been out on the course as a volunteer, too.
Gary and Larry have been to almost every Golf Classic since the beginning. Larry missed one year, in 2016, when he was battling cancer. Jim and his wife, Deanna, were instrumental in getting the Golf Classic to the level it is at today. They literally turned the event into a family affair, with family members traveling cross country to help volunteer at the crack of dawn to make sure the tournament started without a hitch.
“It was a collaborative effort at the beginning between Jim, Larry and I,” Gary said. “Larry did a lot of the ground work, and Jim had a vision and wanted to bring us all together.”
Mission accomplished.
(Above) Joan Young, left, with Cathy Manning, volunteering at the UMPS CARE Charities Golf Classic.
(Below) Cheri Darling, center, with longtime friends, Julie Wickham and Barb Blasek –
Today, the issues that plagued retired umpires and their families have long been resolved. Major League Baseball leadership has changed.
“The primary reason we started was that there really were a lot of people who needed help, and the charity was really a lifeline for them,” Larry said.
UMPS CARE continues to support families of umpires with short-term financial needs. Over the years, the charity has helped umpire families who lost their homes to fires and flooding. Some umpires needed extra support with family illnesses. The charity was there to help the city of Mayfield, Kentucky, (hometown of MLB Umpire Tripp Gibson) rebuild after being destroyed by tornados in 2021. And the program has expanded to support umpires at all levels of the game.
But the charity has expanded to help others. Gary credits former MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent with suggesting the charity extend its reach to the community at large. In addition to the ticket program and hospital program, UMPS CARE now runs the Official Leadership Program teaching umpiring mechanics and leadership skills to teens and a college scholarship program that has awarded more than $600,000 to children adopted later in life. The scholarship program has grown to support two to three students per year and has added a mentorship program that helps ensure long-term success. Since 2015 when the mentorship component was added, UMPS CARE has had a 100 percent graduation rate.
Larry was the charity’s first president, and he remains a committed board member. Gary served as the longtime president of the charity and is now the chairman; Gary passed the baton to MLB Umpire D.J. Reyburn a year ago to handle the president’s role. Jim was the charity’s vice president for many years. Many of the umpires who participated with the charity in the early years are now umpire supervisors, and the supervisors have continued to support the charity and the Golf Classic.
After a recent board meeting, Larry shared that he was awed by the charity’s accomplishments. As the charity enters its 20th baseball season, we are excited to see the joy in a child’s face when we deliver our 25,000th Build-A-Bear in a pediatric hospital this summer. We are approaching another milestone this season of welcoming our 11,000th participant to meet umpires before a game. More than 1,000 teens have already been trained to work as umpires in their local communities through our Official Leadership Program.
What makes Gary the most proud is seeing how the MLB Umpires jump into action to help throughout the season. Having 100 percent participation from all of the umpire crews is perhaps the biggest milestone reached. Umpires pitch in by attending hospital events, taking time out to meet kids and veterans at ballparks, being a mentor to one of our scholarship recipients or attending our fundraisers.
“It is impressive, to say the least,” Gary said. It just goes to show the generosity of everybody. That all of them are part of it shows the giving spirit.”
And it truly shows that the charity’s mantra – “Helping People Is An Easy Call” – is alive and well.
(Above) Gary Darling (right) with now retired MLB Umpire Paul Emmel delivering a Build-A-Bear during an early hospital visit.
(Below) Jim Reynolds, (center) at the 2009 UMPS CARE Charities Golf Classic.
A poster celebrating the 20th Anniversary of UMPS CARE Charities signed by the MLB staff of 2026.
At the first Golf Classic, there were no hole signs. Here are some of the sponsor signs in 2026.
Every MLB Umpire crew stepped up to the plate to sponsor a hole.
