Mr. Little League: Bobby Tuggle has given 50 years to organization

The year Bobby Tuggle started volunteering for Little League in Lynchburg, no one had really heard of steroids in the major leagues, and Roger Maris was still a year away from hitting his then-record 61 homers.

In 1960, several seasons removed from playing in his last childhood game, Tuggle embarked on a course he has not left for 50 years — a course that took him from coach to administrator to umpire, and then some.

He’s crossed paths with some of the city’s most-talented youngsters along the way, like Brandon Inge, now the regular third baseman for the Detroit Tigers, and Ken Clay, who pitched relief for the New York Yankees in the 1970s.

Earlier this month, Lynchburg’s Little League program presented Tuggle with the George Nash award for his half-century of service.

“I’ve done a little bit of everything,” Tuggle said.

Over the years Tuggle has witnessed generations coming and going, and coming back, to Little League.

“I’ve seen a lot of children that I’ve coached come through, and they’ve got grandchildren all coming through the program,” he said. Some of the kids he coached now coach their own children.

“It makes you feel old but it keeps you young, too,” he said.

One of those kids is his son Dwayne Tuggle, who played ball for his dad as a kid and now fills the administrative role that Bobby Tuggle held for years. Dwayne Tuggle also coached his son Matthew in the Dixie Youth program, simultaneously working with Little League.

“He coached two seasons before I was even born,” Dwayne said of his father, adding, “ever since I was a little kid, everything I remember was there at Miller Park.”

His father’s devotion to the sport stands out in his memories.

“When we were playing, he had me call everybody before the games,” Dwayne Tuggle said, “then he would ride through the city and any of the kids that didn’t have rides to the ballgames, we would always pick them all up.

“He was kind of like the taxicab driver.”

At 47, Dwayne Tuggle has been involved with Little League almost as long as his father — 42 years, counting the time he played in the league.

His volunteer experience goes back 35 years, ever since he grew too old to play.

“I started scorekeeping when I aged out (at 12),” he said, adding “I (kept score) for a few years, then started umpiring, then just went on from there.”

Dwayne Tuggle said his own service in Little League has been “just kind of something that I’ve stuck with because I enjoyed it.”

He said his father’s service outshines his own.

“He lives and breathes Little League,” he said.

“There’s a lot of people around the country that are diehards, but there’s not a lot of people that have been in it, and actively involved as long as he has.”

Bobby Tuggle said he first experienced teaching baseball to boys in the late 1950s, when he and some other volunteers would hold a clinic at Miller Park for kids not yet in Little League.

“Two or three of us guys would go out there and just work with those kids (who were too young to play),” he said.

His journey through the system began with a stint as a coach that lasted about 17 years.

From there, he moved on to administrative duties. Then he took a break to head up the district’s umpires, even serving as an umpire himself.

After several years in that capacity, Tuggle said, he moved on to become the administrator of Virginia’s District 2, which stretches from Lynchburg to Danville.

He left that position in 2005, when his son took over.

Bobby Tuggle said he’s still active as his son’s assistant, and chuckled, adding that sometimes he’s forced back into the old administrator’s role.

“The League presidents call me. They forget the Dwayne is the man on the spot, and they call the old man,” he said, “me.”

“I get them all straightened out and they’re happy,” he said.

George Nash, himself a long-time volunteer in Lynchburg’s Little League system, said he began volunteering in 1976, and first met Bobby Tuggle through Little League, though the two didn’t become well acquainted until the ’80s.

“He was Little League. His job was to run Little League and to make sure that everybody does their job,” Nash said, adding “He expected for it to be done and done right.”

Nash said he respects Tuggle for that attitude, but the two don’t agree on everything, particularly gray areas in the rulebook.

“Him and I get in a lot of arguments sometimes,” Nash said.

“The rules are made to be broken, but Bobby didn’t see it that way,” he said, but added, “he was good at what he did.”

Looked back at the last 50 years, Bobby Tuggle chuckled at the general perception of volunteer jobs, particularly with Little League.

“A lot of people think it’s an easy job. There’s a lot of responsibility.

“Fifty years,” he added, “is a long time to be associated with anything.”