Roy passed away this morning at 4:00 a.m. Pacific time at Good Samaritan hospital in LA. I believe pneumonia will be the cause.
I was saddened to hear of the passing of Roy Stout in California Wednesday morning.
In 2006/7 my job at the ISC World Tournament and the ISC II was to work with the scorers/announcers; recruiting and scheduling for the upcoming ISCs. For that I worked with Sheila Brown and the late Paul Hutcheson. As the planning for the ISCs continued, Ken Hackmeister mentioned to Tournament Chair Tom Clancy that he was looking for some help for ISC Game Controller Roy Stout. I volunteered to find the personnel, resulting in one of the best weeks of fastball that I have ever had.
There are a lot of great fastpitch fans, players and coaches in the KW area and I had no trouble finding a crew to work with Mr. Stout.
Bob McKillop, great friend from the University of Waterloo, as well as Panther's baseball, Dan Yantzi, ISC Hall of Fame pitcher, very knowledgeable fastpitch super-fan John MacTavish, and another fastpitch legend my old pal Glenn Moeser former coach of the Waterloo CHYMr's, the forerunners of the KW Twins.
I heard that this old guy was way too demanding, was difficult to please, would pout if he didn't get his way..I would get emails from Roy...we need a carton of powdered car wash soap, we need a tent and a good position to put it where we can keep an eye on the diamonds, along the route where the umpires and coaches will travel to and from the games, we need a photocopier, we need a couple of big buckets, we need two five foot tables and at least 3 chairs, and I need to schedule a round of golf with your mayor, and a couple of others to fill in the foursome, I need a good room and it has to be close to so and so.
The tournament came, and I was getting pretty concerned about this assignment. Mr Stout might be a little difficult to deal with, but the guys on this crew I put together were not exactly pushovers either. This might be a tough week.
Then this tall older man, in his 80's I thought, my father's age with a big straw hat covering a great white brushcut, took command of the tent we had planted in deep right field of Peter Hallman #1, squared everything up on the two tables we had commandeered, pencils here, lineups there, towels in this spot, bucket of dry soap and ISC guide books there, photo-copier plugged in and checked out. He explained the rules of engagement to the complete crew and told us that the team managers would be coming to us, half an hour prior to the game, with lineups completed, dark and light uniforms already sorted out, top team on the bracket in darks, and if anyone was later than half an hour before the game time, they would be visitors, no questions or excuses.
Now, none of us were rookies at running fastpitch tournaments, none of us were shy of expressing our views, but in this part of the fastpitch world, we were usually chasing coaches for lineups two minutes before the game got underway, or waiting for the umpires conferance on ground rules....I don't think any one of us belived we would have lineups 30 minutes before the game....but right from the first game these managers of these big teams, The Farm, County Materials, Broken Bow, Riversharks, Midland Explorers, etc, etc, made the trek to the tent, and told Roy that they hoped they were on time and would be able to take the flip rather than be assigned to the visitors bench.
What respect he had developed.
As the tournament played out, we heard about Roy's United States Navy career, his service in Viet Nam, his stations around the world, that he lived just outside an US Air Force Base in southern California and watched the space shuttles return home from space from his front porch. We heard of his career as a ISC umpire, his Red Rock Idaho tournament every spring, and we heard of stories of the great pitchers, and batters he had known over his ISC career. Not a day went by, or even a hour went by that someone would come to the tent and have a visit with Roy.
John MacTavish was on our crew for 2006 and 07, and knew Roy from the many ISC championships John had travelled to. "I knew Roy as this tough, and gruff man. He was at all the championships I attended but I never got to meet him. During the 2006 World Tournament I found out that he was a charm to work with. A great gentleman"
Bob McKillop sent me a note when he read of Roy's passing:
"There is no doubt he had his way, and stuck to it. But he listened to everyone and was not afraid to say "You know what, I like that idea".
In the 2006 ISC event we held in Kitchener he left to play golf with Tom Clancy, tournament chair and the Mayor Carl Zehr, leaving me as the Games Controller.
His departing words were "Remember you are the equalizer, nobody gets any advantage over anyone else, that is our job. To do this job correctly you have to be a bit of a jerk." I guess I fit that description OK. I got along with him well and looked forward to his return. I will miss him.
We all loved the guy by the time he left Peter Hallman in 2006 and we looked forward to seeing him again the following year in 2007.
Roy stayed in touch with a few of us back here in KW, and we always enjoyed passing a note back and forth amoungst our "ISC Games Control group"
Roy was a great man to know, full of life and full of fun..we enjoyed his company and we will miss him at the ball yard.
Heads up to those ball players who have gone before us...Roy will be behind the plate and calling a great game...
Dennis
