Larry Barnett

Retired Major League Baseball Umpire Larry Barnett will be in town Oct. 2, to visit injured and ill veterans at the Abie Abraham VA Medical Center in Center Township.

Barnett served as umpire in the American League from 1969 to 1999 before becoming the major leagues’ supervisor of umpires from 2000 to 2001. He also visits dozens of VA medical centers each year, saying that he wants to reach out to veterans and help bring joy to their lives.

“I feel warm inside when I leave a hospital,” Barnett said in a prepared statement announcing the visit. “If I’ve made three veterans happy, I feel like I’ve accomplished something.”

Like most umpires in Major League Baseball, some of Barnett’s decisions have been criticized — like a no-call during Game 3 during the 1975 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds, for which he was excoriated on-air by Curt Gowdy, a former Red Sox who was calling the game for NBC at the time.

The no-call in large part defined Barnett’s career as a umpire — he later claimed to have received death threats after Gowdy’s on-air criticism.

But something else would define his record of public service. Two years later, Barnett became interested in Veterans Affairs after visiting a blind veteran, he said.

“It was one of the most moving experiences of my life,” Barnett said in the same statement.

During a typical visit to a VA Medical Center, Barnett will regale a room of anywhere from 25 to 200 patients with stories of his time as an umpire, said organizers of the visit.

“There are a lot of funny incidents that happen on and off the field in the course of a season,” Barnett said. “And I really enjoy sharing them with these veterans.”

According to the statement by John Kleindienst, National Voluntary Services director, Barnett usually visits 50 VA medical centers each year. Since his retirement, he’s devoted more time to the endeavor.