Two decades ago, Major League Baseball’s umpires banded together to form UMPS CARE Charities. On Thursday in Pittsburgh, they celebrated a major milestone when they delivered their 25,000th Build-A-Bear furry friend to a child currently receiving treatment in an area hospital.
Ahead of the Pirates-Cubs game on Thursday, three members of the umpiring crew -- Dan Bellino, Mark Ripperger and Dan Merzel -- visited UPMC Children’s Hospital, where they delivered stuffed toys to young patients. The visit marked the 246th MLB umpires have made to a children’s hospital since the program’s inception in 2006.
The crew gave the child who received the 25,000th Build-A-Bear the official lineup cards from the game the prior night.
“This annual visit in Pittsburgh is always a big hit with the kids and caregivers at UPMC Children’s Hospital,” said UMPS CARE Charities executive director Jennifer Skolochenko-Platt. “It is incredible to think that what started out with a simple visit with umpires delivering 25 Build-A-Bear Workshop® furry friends to kids in one hospital back in 2006 has grown so much that we are delivering our 25,000th stuffed toy to a child in a hospital today.
“The MLB umpires have been giving back for 20 years and are looking forward to doing even more for years to come.”
Since this is a baseball story, it’s only fitting that we illustrate the magnitude of this endeavor with a few metrics (courtesy of UMPS CARE):
* If you stacked 25,000 Build-A-Bear toys vertically, the total height would be 375,000 inches, 31,250 feet and 5.9 miles.
* This would be higher than Mount Everest, by more than 2,000 feet.
* It would be as tall as approximately 4,735 Olympic pools stacked depth-wise.
* If the bears were stacked vertically, they would be 355 times taller than the highest seat at PNC Park.
And here’s one more to ponder, per Statcast:
It also exceeds Aaron Judge’s total distance of home runs during his American League record-setting year in 2022, when he hit 62. He totaled a distance of 25,520 feet -- 5,730 feet shorter than the length of 25,000 Build-A-Bears.
According to its website, UMPS CARE Charities’ mission is to provide financial, emotional and developmental support to at-risk youth, children coping with serious illnesses, military families and others in need across the United States.
UMPS CARE runs several signature programs, including the BLUE for Kids hospital visits, the All-Star College Scholarship Program, the BLUE Crew Ticket Program and the Official Leadership Program. These initiatives bring hope, joy and opportunity to children and families nationwide.