This year’s honorees are Jim Reboulet, an Alter High School grad who also was a prolific championship coach; players Gay Orr of Miamisburg and Centerville high schools and David Lamar Cramer of Fairmont East High School and UD; umpires Bob Bass and Johnny Cunningham and Marc Katz, who covered several levels of baseball from Little League to the Dayton Dragons during 43 years at the Dayton Daily News.
Cramer, a DABC Hall of Fame umpire, was also a catcher, who said, “I was a good ballplayer, but I didn’t get drafted (out of high school).”
The numbers say the retired Dayton policeman was better than just good, leading his team with a .519 batting average during one Class B season and playing three years at UD, where he was team captain as a senior.
In all, he played on five championship teams and was chosen for five All-Str teams.
He also took up Senior Olympics marathoning following his playing days.
Bob Bass was a four-sports varsity letter winner at Fairview High School, including cross country, football, basketball and track and field, but not baseball.
He did, however, umpire baseball from Jesse Haines to NCAA games for nearly 25 years, becoming known as being fair-minded and consistent. Now retired, he worked as a certified auditor and consumer credit counselor at Standard Register for 27 years.
He played amateur basketball for many years before becoming an umpire.
“I liked baseball officiating,” he said. He attended an umpires’ clinic in Columbus and a neighbor enticed him to become involved in T-Ball.
Eventually, he worked amateur games at the Dragons’ downtown Fifth Third Field, now Day Air Ballpark.
Johnny Cunningham began his umpiring career as a youngster of 14, and he worked behind the plate for 40 years, starting in Little League in 1977.
He attended Xenia High School and Central State University while also umpiring in a variety of leagues, including five NABF World Series, and in 1994, the initial year of the Frontier League of Professional Baseball.
In 1998 he became a charter member of the Elite Dayton Leagues Umpires Association. He is a licensed insurance broker.
Gary Orr was a four-sport athlete in high school, participating in baseball, football, basketball and track and field, first at Miamisburg, then Centerville.
He went on to hit .393 (third in the nation), at Sinclair Community College, before becoming All-MAC at Toledo for three seasons. He is director of sales and marketing at Dynamix Energy in the Toledo area.
Jim Reboulet followed a spectacular amateur playing career by being drafted in the 20th round of the 1983 pro free agent draft and playing six years in the minors, reaching Class AAA, one step from the majors.
Returning to more regular work, he turned to coaching summer teams, winning 80 percent of his games and at least one local and or state championship every year for more than 30 years.
He works for IT Sales Logicalis in Indiana.