Paying it forward between the foul lines north and south of the equator

I have two daughters that are 355 days apart in age. When they were 8 and 9 they started playing fast pitch softball. For some reason they were placed on different teams. At that time I was an executive, shirt and tie job, and would rush from the office to see their games. Game after game no umpire would show up. So I would take off my jacket, loosen my tie and in my slacks, suspenders, and wingtip shoes I began my avocation of umpiring. 

The last 15 years I have been umpiring at the NCAA Division I level. I have umpired in several conferences: including post season championships.Before returning to Peru I was asked to umpire in the women's professional league. During those years, my oldest daughter continued to participate in softball, ultimately ending her career playing four years at the Division II level: on scholarship. 


Because of her involvement in softball and my umpiring we developed a second family at the Lake Lytal Lassie League in West Palm Beach, FL. Every week we were at the ball park, either at Lake Lytal or on the road playing travel ball. Lake Lytal  became an extended family: celebrating the births and marriages and grieving the deaths together. The relationships we developed there were invaluable. 

Because of what softball gave to me personally I started giving back training umpires and scheduling the umpires for tournaments. My part in these tournaments was to provide young women the highest level of officials while balancing the costs to the leagues and compensating the hard work from the umpires, taking very little for myself. I trained for several years at the high school association and became a mentor to many officials that are now umpiring at different levels of the NCAA: paying it forward as my thank you to the men and women that helped me reach one of the highest levels of the sport. 

When I came to Peru I found the  Federación Peruana de Softbol. I have been umpiring weekly including an international tournament last week for young women 14 years and under. For me it has been like finding my second Lake Lytal. I have been welcomed and made to feel like part of the family. The players, coaches, fellow umpires, and even the fans have, by their acceptance, helped me to understand that no matter where you are from, sports breaks down all barriers. Sports binds people together. Sports builds character and sets the example for those we care for most: our community and children.


One person I have met here in Peru that demonstrates these values is Marylu Torres. Marylu began playing softball in Lima, Peru when she was 15. The boys from her neighborhood all played baseball and their sisters where playing softball. She began playing for CAMAGÜEY at third base and batting fourth. She was a power hitter from the left side. She played for her high school in Lima's first interscholastic league. 

When Torres was16 she, and 40 other young women, tried out for the first Peruvian national team. After 2 years the team was formed and in 1978 Peru hosted its first international tournament. The teams that participated where from Argentina and two teams from the United States. Marylu remembers how much faster the US teams' pitching was and how playing them made her a better ball player.

One of the US teams, the Patriots, was coached by a Carol "Stash" Stanley. Stanley has been involved in softball her whole life as a participant, coach, inventor and mentor. She is the holder of four US Patents; STAN-MILL MITT is part of the permanent collection in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.Stash would return to Peru for several years with teams for tournament play. Each year she would provide a clinic for the young women of Peru. She is credited with helping establish women's softball in Peru and created the varsity softball program at SUNY Binghamton. Stanley was paying it forward to women like Marylu Torres.Torres benefited from the clinics, improving her game year in and year out.

In 1978 Marylu enrolled in the Catholic University in Peru where she continued to play for Peru on the national team. In 1982 Marylu went to the United States to attend Queens College in New York. She played softball in the states and spent more time with Stanley. Carol even helped Marylu with English teaching her the phonetics of the language. After Marylu graduated university she began teaching English in Peru. To this day Torres still teaches. Stanley was an important person in her life. .

Torres played third base for Peru until 1987 when a knee injury forced her to play first base for a year. In 1988 she went on to play right field. In 1991, her final year as a player, she was a designated hitter. Marylu had a batting average that was always in the high 300's to low 400's. She was such a great hitter that many at bats would result in her being hit by the pitch, intentionally to keep her from hitting for extra bases. 

Coaching began for Marylu in 1993 with the international team of Peru. That year the team went to Puerto Rico. She is the softball coach at the San Silvestre School in Lima working with girls from the 2nd grade to high school.

Each weekend on Sunday's you can find Marylu at the ball field: Olivares in Jesus Maria. She is a fixture in the 3rd base coaches box when the women's team Simon Bolivar Callao are playing. After each game Torres shares her knowledge, actively coaching the women of the team from the lessons of game. 

During the 14 and under international tournament in Peru last week, Marylu was a coach of one of the two Peruvian teams. She is a mentor, an example of character, she binds people together. Having received so much from the game of softball Torres is paying it forward to the young women of Peru between the foul lines south of the equator.