Long-time umpire Mike Barbuto, a native of Columbia Point and Savin Hill, in his basement “locker room” full of mementos and memorabilia for 50 years of playing, coaching, and umpiring in the neighborhood and beyond. Seth Daniel photo.
When the talk is about calling balls and strikes and fair or foul and safe or out decisions, it’s hard to get Dorchester native Mike Barbuto’s mind off his cherished memories of playing sports while growing up on Columbia Point and Savin Hill.
One of the most prolific umpires in eastern Massachusetts, Barbuto – known as “Mikey B” – was born and raised on the Point, then later on Sydney Street. He spent his early adult years with his wife and children on Harbor View Street before moving to Braintree years ago.
Never mind his current Braintree zip code; his basement “locker room” is a museum-like tribute to decades of Dorchester sports and institutions – with collection highlights that include a 1986 state championship jacket from his days coaching basketball with St. Margaret’s Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) team; his green satin jacket from playing Park League football for Columbia Point’s Hanna Club; multiple Dorchester Baseball and Cedar Grove Baseball hats, and hundreds of balls and memorabilia from games that he umpired in the Yawkey League, at the college level, in South Boston Little League, and at his hard-scrabble childhood home on Columbia Point.
“I still officiate at McConnell [Field] in Savin Hill and every time I go down there, I get goosebumps thinking about the days playing and coaching there and growing up in the neighborhood,” he said during an interview at his home last month.
A Dorchester trio during the Yawkey Hall of Fame induction of Umpire Mike Barbuto – including Kevin George, Dave McKay, and Barbuto. Courtesy photo
His devotion to playing and then supervising games of sport was celebrated last month with his induction into the Yawkey League Hall of Fame as a player in the 1970s for the Savin Hill Stars and as an umpire who has officiated countless games for the league since the 1980s.
“I do on average about 130 games per year in baseball, basketball, softball, football, and then back again to baseball and softball – including my games with the Yawkey League and South Boston Little League,” he said. “I am hard, but I joke with everybody.”
As to his philosophy on calling games, it’s much like his upbringing and personality: practical and brash, but fun.
“Most everyone now is going out and spending $200 on a bat, so if you’re going to do that, swing it,” he said with a laugh. “If I give you [a strike zone] from top of the letters to the knees, that’s pretty good…As an umpire, sometimes you take a beating; if the catcher stinks, it can be a long game. I had one night at Town Field with a catcher who wasn’t sober. That wasn’t fun. Sometimes they say, ‘Oh great, we have Barbuto today,’ and others say, ‘Oh no, we have that asshole today.’ You take what you get. I say if you want to make it good as an ump, just be a good ump.”
Kevin George, of Dorchester, a long-standing member of the Yawkey League, first met Barbuto in the neighborhood, and he’s never forgotten him. “It was when I played Saturday morning gym hockey at the Little House,” he said. “Mike refereed the games as well as announced the goal scorers and people who got assists over the microphone, which was a really big thing for the kids playing in the league.
“Mike was everywhere, helping out youth sports around the St Margaret’s area as well and in Savin Hill. I didn’t see him for a bit, then saw him a few nights a week for about 20 years during the summer when he umpired our Yawkey baseball games. Mike is a very good ump and, more importantly, a top-notch guy all around.”
The South Boston High School basketball team, with Mike Barbuto in the back row, first from left.
Life started for Barbuto on Columbia Point in St. Christopher’s Parish in the former housing development. His parents and sisters had been born in Ireland and immigrated to Boston. His father wasn’t a steady presence in his life, he said, but his mother was a “hard worker” and dedicated to the family.
Money was always tight, and the family attended school at St. Francis of Assisi in Cambridge, with Barbuto then moving to Dorchester’s William E. Russell Elementary, ending up at South Boston High School, where he attended night school for a bit before graduation after marriage to his wife Debbie.
“It was an international kind of place, people from everywhere and all races were on Columbia Point,” he said. “We all played sports together and everyone there had their own areas, but I was a lone wolf and could go anywhere and was able to get everyone together to play sports.”
Legendary neighborhood figures like the late Rev. Lawrence Wetterholm of St. Christopher’s parish, who had been a minor league baseball player before entering the priesthood,and John Quirk – as well as the CYO network of sports and teams – kept him focused while he was working at Patty’s Pantry on Dorchester Avenue or hanging with friends at Little House on East Cottage Street.
“CYO was the best, no question,” he said. “Everyone played against everyone else in the area – St. Peter’s, St. Francis, and Most Precious Blood. It was such a huge thing…I enjoyed coaching there as well. I was able to talk to those kids because I was one of them. I wasn’t that much older. I didn’t yell at them; I just gave them the consequences if they didn’t do something right.”
Many of them still stay in touch with him to this day, he said.
Barbuto and the Columbia Point based Hanna Club Park League football team in the 1970s. Barbuto is #41 is in the center.
During those growing-up days, things got really bad in the development and a lot of families went to St. William’s in Savin Hillo or to South Boston,” he said. “Then one morning, I woke up on Sydney Street and didn’t know where I was at. When you lived on Columbia Point, you didn’t know anything outside of Columbia Point. I soon realized I could cut across the salt yard under the highway, and I would be back in Columbia Point. I kept going back.”
Though hockey was his game, and he “crossed the line” to play in South Boston, he loved baseball and basketball as well, all of it feeding into his coaching and officiating careers.
Among his colleagues and former players, Barbuto came to be known for his insistence on teams having the proper uniforms for his players, and on umpiring crews following strict dress codes. In his youth, he said, he and his mates never had uniforms until Father Wetterholm used a connection to Harvard University, and they would get old wool uniforms and cover up the Harvard logo.
Nowadays, he carries a wardrobe of paraphernalia and sports equipment in his truck in case someone doesn’t have something. There are cleats, gloves, socks, helmets, and any number of items a player or umpire might need in a pinch.
He noted that people might not understand his insistence on proper clothing protocol, which goes back to those childhood times.
“When we grew up on Columbia Point, we could barely afford shoelaces, let alone uniforms,” he said, fighting back emotion. “I had to get everything myself. I didn’t have a father…Some of the teams I coached at St. Margaret’s – we were terrible, but we were the best dressed team in the league. It’s because we didn’t have uniforms growing up. It’s tough when you see kids that have nothing. Maybe we didn’t have much, but I was always going to make sure we had uniforms.”
While he sat and talked at his kitchen table last month – going over memories of Dorchester and St. Margaret’s – his phone pinged numerous times with umpires from around eastern Massachusetts reaching out about various games coming up. There were high school games on the South Shore, and softball games in the city, as well as Little League and Yawkey. He listed off recent Fridays where he had three games in three places stacked up from afternoon to evening.
It’s a passion, and one that the Yawkey League felt deserved their highest honors.
“I don’t do it for the money – no,” he said. “I think it’s that every day you have the chance to touch one person, one player’s life. Maybe they were having a bad day and maybe you’re the one to help them out. That’s the reason for me.”
Other Dorchester people inducted in Yawkey Baseball League Hall of Fame include players Rich Sexton, Dan Elliot, Kevin George, Doug George, Dan Kazmouski, Mike Kazmouski, Sean O’Sullivan, Tony Urso, John Riley, David Proctor, Dave Bonnell, Chris Anderson.
Also, Ray Muise, Jeff Potenza, Scott MacPherson, James Whitfield, Wayne Selden, and Brian Connors.
Coaches include John Quirk, Billy Cunningham, T.J. Burke, Buzz Buzzell, Ed Neal, Dave McKay, Jim Drury, Steve George, and the McKay Club. Umpires include John Glynn and Barbuto.
The 1986 St. Margaret’s CYO state basketball champs celebrating the big win under Coach Mike Barbuto. Pictured with the ball is Jim Brett, and next to him is a young Frank Baker.
