At the spry age of 78 Aldergrove umpire Gord Hanly is retiring after 40 outstanding years of work in local, provincial, and national baseball levels.
Hanly joined the umpire community in 1978 while he was living on Vancouver Island and has continued to officiate in his retirement community of Aldergrove.
Hanly has worked with many outstanding umpires at all levels and has been a greatly respected umpire – competency on the diamond combined with a professional and positive personality. Gord has also given back to the umpire community as he has mentored many younger and youth umpires.
Hanly has umpired in the Langley Minor Baseball Association for a short period of time and the young teams have greatly enjoyed having him on the diamond where he has made LMBA games enjoyable for everyone.
Hanly requested two games over the weekend of August 18-19 as his final games on the diamond.
On the Saturday, Hanly took the field at Queen’s Park Stadium in his vintage 1978 umpire attire of jacket, white shirt, tie, and dress pants – his original shoes wore out many years ago.
Hanly’s final game was on his home diamond in Aldergrove where once again, he wore his vintage outfit.
Dan Harder of the Aldergrove Giants men’s team expressed kind words about Hanly and players from the Aldergrove Giants and Surrey Sentinels offered sincere congratulations to Gord for an outstanding career.
Home plate umpire Barrie Redekopp was thrilled to work Saturday’s game with Hanly. The White Rock Eagles and White Rock Legends offered congratulatory handshakes and sincere compliments following their game.
“On behalf of the LMBA and the entire baseball community, congratulations, Gord, on a job well done,” said Dan Taylor. “In the event you change your mind, there will always be a spot open in the LMBA.”
