CAMPBELL — San Francisco Giants outfielders Joc Pederson and Mitch Haniger were among a half dozen professional baseball players honored at the 37th annual Hot Stove of Santa Clara Valley Banquet at Villa Ragusa on Tuesday evening. The athletes served as inspirational figures to the dozens of Little Leaguers in attendance and also being recognized.
The Little Leaguers asked for autographs and photographs with their hometown heroes, who happily obliged ahead of the awards ceremony. Baseball’s best South Bay talent — players, scouts, coaches, front office officials and on-field officials — was honored for their accomplishments after the COVID-19 pandemic put the annual banquet on hold for two years.
And while every Little Leaguer’s dream of making the bigs remained intact, award recipient Bill Miller, a longtime baseball official who has served as an umpire in four World Series, hoped to inspire, too. He called out the youth during his acceptance speech, challenging them to give umpiring a shot.
Before legendary umpire Ted Barrett presented Miller, his colleague and longtime friend, with the “Ted Barrett Ultimate Umpire Achievement Award,” Barrett told a story of the two working in the Arizona Instructional League in 1990, earning $19 a day and spending $11 of that on a hotel.
“So if you want to get rich, don’t go to umpire school,” Barrett said, drawing a chuckle from the nearly 400 spectators in attendance.
But Miller, 55, countered that statement after the two embraced and he took control of the mic.
“As much as Ted said he would not encourage anybody to go to umpire school, I’m going to say the exact opposite,” said Miller, a Harbor High and UCLA alum, “because there’s major changes coming to Major League Baseball this coming year.”
Miller spoke of the banning of the shift, larger bases for player safety, and a pitch clock, and continued, “I think it’s going to be a better product for all of us to watch.
“And as I was going to say with the young guys in here, the college guys, the guys that make it to the big leagues, remember, sports across the nation, at all levels, whether it be t-ball, whether it be girls soccer, whatever it is, they’re begging for officials. Because the parents, social media, the physical violence against officials, people just aren’t buying into it. You’ll see high school games now, they’re having to cancel and double up because they just don’t have the officials. And so I will encourage everybody, the little guys in the back (of the room), go out and umpire a Little League game, go to a t-ball game. Make your 10 or 15 bucks, it’s cash. Do it. It’s better than being a server or a busboy at a restaurant. But just think about it.”
Miller then extended his officiating endorsement to everyone gathered, regardless of age.
“Give it a shot, because it’s not a bad gig. It’s been very good to me and my family,” he said.
In 2022, the average annual salary for an MLB umpire was $235,000, according to tbonesbaseball.com.
Miller, who became an MLB umpire in 1999 and a crew chief in 2014, has worked the World Series in 2010, ’13, ’17 and ’20. He served as home plate umpire in the ’22 MLB All-Star Game in Los Angeles, and also worked right field at the 2007 All-Star Game in San Francisco.
Miller took the stage to applause but asked attendees to boo as he stepped off the stage, and they briefly obliged, before applauding again.
Miller was one of four Santa Cruz County residents honored at the event. The others were Aptos’ Haniger, Santa Cruz’s Tyler Gilbert and Watsonville’s Ruben Ibarra.
Haniger, an Archbishop Mitty High and Cal Poly-SLO alum, was named the 2021 Major League Player of the Year. As a member of the Seattle Mariners that season, he batted .253 with 39 home runs, 100 RBI, and 110 runs scored.
Gilbert, a San Lorenzo Valley alum who also pitched at Santa Barbara City College and USC, was honored for throwing a historic no-hitter in his first MLB start for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2021.
Ibarra, a St. Francis and San Jose State alum, was named the 2021 Division I College Player of the Year. In the COVID-19 shortened ’21 season, Ibarra led the Spartans in nearly every offensive category. He batted .381 and smacked 14 home runs, one shy of matching SJSU’s single-season record. Following the season, the first baseman was selected in the fourth round of the MLB First-Year Player Draft by the Cincinnati Reds.
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