Magic of Michael Foundation events planned
By Brian Dzenis
POLAND
For now, John Hirschbeck has seen enough baseball.
Following his last game, the Cleveland Indians’ 8-7 loss to the Chicago Cubs in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series, the former MLB umpire of 34 years said he has seen about three innings of baseball since retiring.
“I was a part of a lot of special events, but I also spent a lot of nights on the road,” Hirschbeck said. “My whole life has been on the road. I felt like I had enough. It was time to go home, relax and not do it anymore.
“I can honestly say I don’t miss it one bit.”
Hirschbeck, a Bridgeport, Conn., native and Poland resident, has been doing his resting and relaxation around the Mahoning Valley, occasionally traveling to hunt. He spends some of his time helping his daughter, Erin, run the Magic of Michael Foundation and plan its annual golf outing and dinner.
The Magic of Michael Foundation was named for Hirschbeck’s son, Michael, who died from adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), a rare genetic brain disease that has no cure, in 2014. Hirschbeck had an older son, also named John, who died from the same disease in 1993.
This summer, the Magic of Michael Foundation is hosting its golf outing on July 17 and its dinner and meet-and-greet are Sept. 13. Both events will be at The Lake Club. The guests of honor for the dinner are Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona, radio play-by-play man Tom Hamilton and former Indians All-Star Jim Thome.
Francona and Michael, a former Indians bat boy, were close.
“Some of the guys at our foundation are Michael’s best friends and they would take him to Opening Day every year,” Erin Hirschbeck said. “They would be up in their seats and my day would tell them, ‘You don’t need to come down to the locker room. It’s not necessary and just have a good time,’” Erin said. “He would be in his seats and [Francona] would text him saying, ‘Aren’t you going to come down and say hi?’ He’d make his way down there and then come back to his seat with pop bottles stuffed in his pockets.
“He would say he was hanging out with Terry.”
Hirschbeck said both Thome and Francona quickly agreed to be part of the dinner. It’ll be the first time Thome and Hirschbeck had seen each other since Thome retired in 2012.
Getting Francona to Poland proved to be the trickier task as he’s an active manager. Hirschbeck pored over the 162-game schedule and used a little umpire insight for the perfect date.
“The reason it’s Wednesday, Sept. 13 is that the Indians have a 12:10 p.m. game and then they have a night game the following night — they’re not going anywhere,” Hirschbeck said. “We could send someone to pick them up, bring them here and send them back home. It was the only night of the season where that could be done.”
The Magic of Michael Foundation helps families throughout the area navigate what it calls “the curveballs” of life. Akron Children’s Hospital, the United Way and the Boys and Girls Club are among the affiliated charities.
Hirschbeck said at some point, he’ll use that lifetime pass to any ballpark to catch an Indians game. He also has a lifetime pass to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown N.Y., which he’s never been to despite having a few items of his in there. An indicator from when Barry Bonds hit his 756th home run to set the new all-time record and the jacket he wore during the 2013 World Series are some of the stuff he remembers sending there.
The last time he’s seen a game in its entirety that he wasn’t officiating? Game 2 of the American League Division Series between the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians in 2007, a game remembered for the swarm of midges that appeared in the eighth inning. He was there with Michael.
Hirschbeck finds the game too slow to enjoy as a spectator — he marched out of Progressive Field the second it was over — but if the right person asks, he’ll go.
“I really want to go to a game with him,” Erin said. “It’s something I’ve never done in my whole life.”