Umps honor 'deeply missed' coworker with patch

Across the Minor Leagues this season, umpires will be wearing "JP" patches on their hats, paying tribute to the impact of Jay Pierce on the profession.

Pierce, 40, who passed away in September after a four-year battle with colon cancer, umpired for seven seasons from 2006-12 in the Gulf Coast, Appalachian, South Atlantic, Carolina, Eastern and Southern Leagues. In 2010, he added instruction to his résumé, joining the Harry Wendelstedt Umpire School and teaching at camps and clinics across the country.

The school, the only independent umpire school recognized by both Major and Minor League Baseball, has trained dozens of umpires who work throughout professional baseball.

"He's deeply missed within our group," said Dustin Dellinger, senior manager of umpire development at Major League Baseball. "He was the life of the group, and he's just a very jovial guy. The umpires loved him just because his passion for the job and passion for teaching was like none other on our staff."

In 2014, Pierce joined the Minor League ranks as a part-time umpire development supervisor. He was upgraded to a full-time role in 2018 and joined the MLB staff in 2022. As a supervisor, Pierce continued to mold up-and-coming umpires. He would observe, train and develop the next crop of officials, setting a strong foundation through repetition and helping them problem-solve different situations.

• Subscribe to Ben’s Biz Beat Newsletter

Dellinger remembers fondly how Pierce treated everyone equally and often gravitated toward the least experienced trainees to give them hands-on, one-on-one instruction to help build their confidence.

"He loved people, for one thing, and he always liked helping at the grass-roots level," Dellinger said. "He did a lot of local youth umpire clinics in his local area in Georgia. That just spoke volumes of him because a lot of times we get into the professional world and we don't give back to the younger folks that are trying to start off because we get so busy with our lives and all that stuff. But he always found time to do that. He just fell in love with umpiring, and when he got this job, he was meant for this job. If there's one person that I've ever met that was meant to be a supervisor, it was Jay Pierce."

After Pierce's passing, the umpire development group searched for a way to honor him. At the Winter Meetings, Dellinger was touched to see many on-field umpires felt the same way, pulling him aside to ask about paying tribute to Pierce.

Major League umpires can wear commemorative patches on their uniforms, but Minor League umps wanted to take a slightly different approach. For the first month of the 2023 season, the group wore a "TW" patch on the side of their hats to honor the passing of fellow umpire Taka Wada, so a "JP" insignia for Pierce felt like it would be fitting this season.

"He was a big guy, a big teddy bear," Dellinger said, "and we miss him dearly."