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Virden's Senff to be inducted into Man. Baseball Hall of Fame

Bob Senff did not exactly envision himself being an umpire and certainly not for 30 years. On June 1, Senff will be inducted into the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame in Morden for an umpiring career that spanned three decades.
senff
Bob Senff

Bob Senff did not exactly envision himself being an umpire and certainly not for 30 years.

On June 1, Senff will be inducted into the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame in Morden for an umpiring career that spanned three decades. He spent a lot of his time umping in the Manitoba Senior Baseball League, but also worked a variety of levels of baseball and softball -- an estimated 2,000 games.

Although he hung up his mask in 2010, if he is around a game even today, he is invariably asked about a rule. While Senff has a strong understanding of the rules and how they apply, he also appreciates what else baseball has to offer.

“The game itself is a beautiful game,” Senff said. “So often a lot of these principles and values that are part of the game are part of life.”

Hailing from the outskirts of St. Vital, Senff came to Virden in 1970 to teach. He spent the next decade as a player – primarily men’s fastball but also a couple of seasons with the senior Virden Oilers baseball team.

When he stopped playing, Scarth’s Jim Wright asked if he would help out and umpire fastball. Perry Kalynuk of the MSBL’s Virden Oilers heard about this and asked Senff if he’d do the same for the MSBL squad.

“I said, ‘Sure, I can do this for a while,’” he said.

Thrust into umpiring at the senior AAA level, the highest amateur level in the province, Senff learned on the job and from clinics put on by such Manitoba Baseball Hall of Famers as Larry Nicholls, Ron Shewchuk, and Merril Kiliwnik.

He also received some good advice from players, especially Mike Labossiere, a Virden product playing for the Hamiota Red Sox. One lesson Senff learned is that it is the players’ game and not the umpires’.

“A good umpire is there to keep the red team from cheating the white team and the white team from cheating the red team,” he said.

Over the years, Senff umpired national, Western Canadian, and provincial competitions. He worked the first national women’s tournament and a couple of seasons in the Prairie League of Professional Baseball, for which he would at times sing the Canadian and American national anthems before umpiring.

“Bob was very passionate about umpiring and the development of umpires,” Shewchuk said. “He spent countless hours umpiring, teaching, mentoring, and assignments.”

The veteran umpire recalls umpiring with Senff an MSBL game that went 16 innings in four hours. The home team had loaded the bases in the ninth, 12th, 14th, and 15th innings, Shewchuk recalled, but could not push the winning run across the plate, which Bob was working.  

“As we were leaving the field, a player from the home team said to Bob, ‘You missed a pitch in the third inning that cost us the game.’ Sometimes you can’t win in umpiring,” Shewchuk said.

Senff and his wife Maureen, who will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary six days after his induction, have five children. He coached and umpired all of them. In the 1990s, son Danny’s Neepawa Farmers were to play a senior game against older son Joey’s Winnipeg-based Legion 141 squad due to an interlocking schedule between their leagues.

“When Legion 141 was going to be playing in Neepawa, there was only one place I wanted to be – right behind the dish. … Totally a family highlight,” Senff said.

He also had the thrill of umpiring his grandson, the son of eldest daughter Libby, in the Manitoba Summer Games. Senff did not umpire but was an announcer when his daughter Rebecca played fastball at the 1997 Canada Summer Games in Brandon.

“Those are the greatest moments to me,” said Senff.

As well as his on-field work, Senff held such positions as assignor of umpires for senior leagues, MSBL Umpire-in-Chief, and a member of the Disciplinary Committee of Baseball Manitoba.

In 1992, he was sent to the Umpires Caravan in Calgary to be certified as a clinician. He spent the next 17 years conducting clinics. He also supervised and evaluated umpires.

Senff greatly enjoyed developing and mentoring umpires. One of those who was taken under his wing was Virden’s own Dwayne Barkley. Barkley umpired his first game with Senff – a bantam boys contest – when he was 14 and for the next 12 years they would work many games, including two Western Canadian championships, together.

Senff had the confidence in Barkley to have him work his first MSBL game at the age of 15. The veteran umpire was always available to answer Barkley’s questions or give him advice on how to improve.

“Bob brought passion to every game or umpire clinic he would give for the game of baseball,” Barkley said. “A positive attitude made working with him fun and the countless hours we would spend together every summer night and tournaments on weekends hold a special place in my memories to this day.”

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