Selection Committee
A nine-member Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame Selection Committee determines each year’s class of Michigan Baseball Hall of Famers. These committee members were selected for their expertise spanning the range of the Michigan baseball landscape, representing the different facets, levels and generations of the game.
Joe Block
Joe Block is the voice of the Pittsburgh Pirates, joining the team this offseason after four years in the Milwaukee Brewers radio play-by-play booth. Hailing from Roseville, Michigan, and a graduate of Michigan State University, Block joined the Brewers in 2012 after working for more than 10 years in TV and radio in the NBA, Major League Baseball, and Minor League Baseball, which included stops in Los Angeles; New Orleans; Jacksonville, Florida; Great Falls, Montana; Billings, Montana; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Charleston, South Carolina. Block is a devout baseball historian and a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).
Fred Decker
Fred Decker served as head coach at Western Michigan University for 29 seasons, retiring in 2004. He finished his career with a record of 791-505-5 and 401-337 in Mid-American Conference (MAC) play, setting new MAC records for both career wins and career league wins. A native of Colon, Mich., Decker starred in the outfield for the Broncos and earned 2nd Team All-America and 1st Team All-District honors in 1963 and 1964. After taking over the Broncos’ reins in 1975, Decker led WMU to 18 winning seasons and 12 seasons with 30+ wins. In 1982, the Broncos finished 34-17 overall, took first place in the MAC West and won 20 consecutive games over the course of 10 doubleheaders. He was inducted into the WMU Hall of Fame in 1993.
Mark Ditsworth
Mark Ditsworth’s distinguished umpiring career stretches back over three decades, ranging through all levels of amateur baseball. He currently serves as NCAA Division 1 Regional Advisor, covering and evaluating Division 1 umpires in the Midwest. Ditsworth has umpired Olympic qualifiers, the Division 1 College World Series, Mid-American Conference Tournaments, Big Ten Conference Tournaments, the MHSAA State Finals, the 2007 World Cup in Taiwan, the 2008 World University Games in the Czech Republic, and the first World Cup of Women’s Baseball in Edmonton. He also serves as a basketball official at the NAIA, junior college, Division II and Division III levels. Ditsworth starred in both baseball and football at Lansing Eastern High School, where he played on two Diamond Classic championship teams, later serving as Lansing Eastern football and baseball coach.
Fred Heumann
Fred Heumann was Sports Director at WLNS-TV in Lansing from 2003-2019. A native of Detroit and graduate of Central Michigan University, he served as the scoreboard operator at Tiger Stadium from 1979-1988. Concurrently, his television career began at WJIM-TV in Lansing in 1980, moving shortly to WILX-TV in Jackson, WJRT-TV in Flint, and then 17 years in Detroit reporting and anchoring at three different television stations and six different radio stations. In total, he has over 30 years of experience covering Michigan sports. In 2007, Heumann was married in front of home plate following a Lansing Lugnuts game.
Mario Impemba
Mario Impemba served as the Detroit Tigers’ lead TV play-by-play announcer on Fox Sports Detroit from 2002-2018. After graduating from Michigan State University in 1985, Impemba moved up through the Minor League ranks to the Anaheim Angels in 1995. Impemba has been well recognized for his work, receiving the 2006 Emmy Award for sports play-by-play, the 2011 Michigan NSSA Sportscaster of the Year Award, and the 2013 Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association Ty Tyson Award for excellence in sports broadcasting. In the offseason, he delivers the call of the MHSAA football and basketball state championships.
Rich Maloney
Rich Maloney is the current head coach of the Ball State Cardinals, the winningest coach in program history. Maloney was a three-year letter-winner and two-time captain at Western Michigan, where he is a member of the WMU Athletic Hall of Fame. After serving as an assistant coach at Western Michigan from 1992-1995 and head coach at Ball State from 1995-2003, he joined the University of Michigan from 2003-2012. With U of M, Maloney won 341 games, leading the Wolverines to Big Ten Championships in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and earning Big Ten and American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Mideast Region Coach of the Year honors in 2007 and 2008. He currently serves as the fourth Vice President for the ABCA.
Tim Staudt
Tim Staudt is the “Dean of Sports,” broadcasting and reporting on sports in the Mid-Michigan region for 45 years, the longest streak in Michigan on-air broadcasting history, news, sports or weather. A graduate of Michigan State University, Staudt served as Sports Director at WJIM-TV in Lansing from 1970 through 1980, when he assumed his current role as Sports Anchor at WILX-TV. He is also the host of “Staudt on Sports” on The Fan 730 AM, a morning sports talk show dating back to March 1993, and the author of several books, including “Tales of the Magical Spartans: A Collection of Stories from the 1979 Michigan State NCAA Basketball Champions.”
Mark Uyl
Mark Uyl is the Executive Director of the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA), where he has served since 2004. He has umpired at the NCAA Division I level for the past 17 years, working primarily in the B1G, Conference USA and American Athletic Conference and arbitrating at seven NCAA Regionals, three Super Regionals and the 2014 College World Series. Uyl was the sole American umpire selected to work the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Prior to joining the MHSAA, he was a teacher, coach and athletic director at Caledonia High School and Middleville-Thornapple Kellogg High School. Uyl was a four-year starter and team captain at Calvin College as a first baseman from 1993-1996.
Clyde Weir
Clyde Weir has worked as an amateur scout for the Detroit Tigers for over 30 years. His first position in baseball was as an unpaid bird dog for the Cleveland Indians, where he rubbed shoulders with Tigers scouts while watching fellow Mid Michigander John Smoltz at Waverly High School. Those encounters led to a job offer from general manager Bill Lajoie, with Weir joining the Tigers’ organization in February 1985, seven months before Detroit signed Smoltz. Weir’s beat has brought him throughout the Great Lakes State, watching and evaluating high schoolers and collegiate ballplayers both in league play and in summer baseball tournaments. Weir entered scouting after a long career in amateur baseball and softball, with a first-ballot election to the Michigan Amateur Softball Hall of Fame.