MVUA History

In the late fifties there wasn't an abundance of baseball leagues. Little Leagues, Babe Ruth Leagues, and PONY Leagues were the only summer ball assignments, consequently there wasn't a big demand for trained umpires at the local level. High Schools and American Legion Baseball Teams needed umpires and at that time used umpires that had the most experience. As Babe Ruth and PONY Leagues became more popular there also became a demand for qualified umpires.

As these needs became more prevalent a few Haverhill guys who had umpired decided it was time to organize an umpires group and the MVUA was born. Bill Pike, Bob David, and Ray Veins were just a few of the founders of the Merrimack Valley Umpires. Other original members were: Lyle Connors, Joe Fanzone, Dick Hazeltine, George LaGassee, Dick LaPierre, Hap Makin, Jack Moughan and Steve Malandski.

The name Merrimack Valley Umpires was chosen because then, as it is today, the membership came from all over the Merrimack Valley. The members came from Haverhill, Methuen, Andover, Lawrence, Lowell, and some came from the New Hampshire towns right over the border from Massachusetts.

Jack Moughan joined in 1958. Hap Makin was the first member from New Hampshire. He joined the MVUA in 1961. He took his first test at the Roma Restaurant in Haverhill. Fred Coco joined in 1967. Hap, Jack, and Fred have been members of the MVUA together for over 37 years. When they first umpired a High School baseball game back then they would wear the balloon type chest protectors. They didn't like those big bulky things, but the inside chest protector had not yet been invented. A typical high school game would pay around $8.00 for umpiring the plate and $6.00 for the base umpire.

The MVUA grew to about 30 members and had consistently had between 30-40 members for years. Not until the 1990's did the membership grow to 50, then to 75, and then all the way to the 135+ members active in the year 2004.

Today the MVUA has five Life Time members: Jack Moughan, Hap Makin, Fred Coco, Dick Tibbetts and Minnie Dakos. Combined they have almost 200 years of umpiring experience. They have been the cornerstones of this association.