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Judy Stupak, ‘First Lady’ of city’s youth baseball, dies at age 72
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| Judy Stupak |
By ROBERT AVERY
Judy Stupak, the unofficial First Lady of youth baseball in town, died Sunday afternoon at Bayshore Medical Center at the age of 72.
Summer after summer, the sight of Stupak sitting in her lawn chair behind the backstop at one of the city’s Little League fields or Gardner Field or Stuckey Field, was as common a sight as fans eating nachos and cheese.
“We’ll miss her. She was a fixture at the ballparks,” David Turner said Monday.
The last game that Stupak attended in town was a Memorial High School District 22-5A contest this past spring. On a rainy afternoon, she was there to cheer on a Maverick ballplayer she watched grow up from an infant.
From the city’s Pee Wee league to Little League all the way to high school select teams, Stupak kept close tabs on the progress of Aaron Baker, Memorial’s outfielder this past season.
“I believe they thought that she was going to live forever,” Susan Baker said of her children. “It breaks my heart.”
“When I first met her, I thought Judy was their (Baker’s) grandmother,” said Turner.
Stupak became heavily involved with supporting the city’s youth leagues when her grandson, Brian, began playing ball at the Pee Wee fields. She served on the Pee Wee board and her title as the First Lady of youth baseball in Pasadena had been born.
Her heyday were the years in the 1990s and earlier this decade before grandchildren and great-grandchildren and a move to Pearland began to take up most of her time.
Monday through Friday, if not more, Stupak could be found at a game. She often followed the successful all-star teams out of town to places like Austin, Beaumont and Conroe with that lawn chair of hers in the trunk of her white car.
But she did more than just attend games. When the heat was on, Stupak routinely brought a cooler of rags soaking in a solution of ammonia and cold water, the ammonia acting as a cooling effect on the skin for the Little Leaguers to apply to their arms, face and neck.
She would also take tickets at the game for various youth tournaments, making sure every fan paid their $3. If she noticed someone trying to slip by without paying, Stupak would routinely say, “Excuse me!” to get them to return to the ticket table.
“She would take no bull from anybody,” Vicky Talton recalled. “She would sit out with the mosquitoes with me.”
One of Stupak’s favorite fans was none other than longtime Dobie High School head basketball coach Scott Talton, whose son, Scott Talton, Jr. played his youth ball during Stupak’s heyday.
“She loved my husband. She just thought Scott ruled the world,” Vicky Talton said.
“She took all of us under her wings. She had big wings,” Scott Talton said.
Stupak was also fond of expressing her thoughts about a pivotal play in a game to the coaches she got to know. But she never expressed them that would be construed as rude.
“I got plenty of feedback from her on why you did it this way or that way,” Turner said.
“You listened and did what she told you to do,” Talton said.
“You’d think she was mad, but she wasn’t,” Vicky Talton said.
Susan Baker who was at Stupak’s bedside hours before she died, recalls how they took Stupak to Georgia last summer for a wood bat tournament and what it meant for her to make that baseball trip.
Visitation is scheduled for Thursday from 4-7 p.m. at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church at 18223 Point Lookout in Nassau Bay. A funeral mass will be conducted on Friday at 10 a.m. also at St. Paul.
Summer after summer, the sight of Stupak sitting in her lawn chair behind the backstop at one of the city’s Little League fields or Gardner Field or Stuckey Field, was as common a sight as fans eating nachos and cheese.
“We’ll miss her. She was a fixture at the ballparks,” David Turner said Monday.
The last game that Stupak attended in town was a Memorial High School District 22-5A contest this past spring. On a rainy afternoon, she was there to cheer on a Maverick ballplayer she watched grow up from an infant.
From the city’s Pee Wee league to Little League all the way to high school select teams, Stupak kept close tabs on the progress of Aaron Baker, Memorial’s outfielder this past season.
“I believe they thought that she was going to live forever,” Susan Baker said of her children. “It breaks my heart.”
“When I first met her, I thought Judy was their (Baker’s) grandmother,” said Turner.
Stupak became heavily involved with supporting the city’s youth leagues when her grandson, Brian, began playing ball at the Pee Wee fields. She served on the Pee Wee board and her title as the First Lady of youth baseball in Pasadena had been born.
Her heyday were the years in the 1990s and earlier this decade before grandchildren and great-grandchildren and a move to Pearland began to take up most of her time.
Monday through Friday, if not more, Stupak could be found at a game. She often followed the successful all-star teams out of town to places like Austin, Beaumont and Conroe with that lawn chair of hers in the trunk of her white car.
But she did more than just attend games. When the heat was on, Stupak routinely brought a cooler of rags soaking in a solution of ammonia and cold water, the ammonia acting as a cooling effect on the skin for the Little Leaguers to apply to their arms, face and neck.
She would also take tickets at the game for various youth tournaments, making sure every fan paid their $3. If she noticed someone trying to slip by without paying, Stupak would routinely say, “Excuse me!” to get them to return to the ticket table.
“She would take no bull from anybody,” Vicky Talton recalled. “She would sit out with the mosquitoes with me.”
One of Stupak’s favorite fans was none other than longtime Dobie High School head basketball coach Scott Talton, whose son, Scott Talton, Jr. played his youth ball during Stupak’s heyday.
“She loved my husband. She just thought Scott ruled the world,” Vicky Talton said.
“She took all of us under her wings. She had big wings,” Scott Talton said.
Stupak was also fond of expressing her thoughts about a pivotal play in a game to the coaches she got to know. But she never expressed them that would be construed as rude.
“I got plenty of feedback from her on why you did it this way or that way,” Turner said.
“You listened and did what she told you to do,” Talton said.
“You’d think she was mad, but she wasn’t,” Vicky Talton said.
Susan Baker who was at Stupak’s bedside hours before she died, recalls how they took Stupak to Georgia last summer for a wood bat tournament and what it meant for her to make that baseball trip.
Visitation is scheduled for Thursday from 4-7 p.m. at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church at 18223 Point Lookout in Nassau Bay. A funeral mass will be conducted on Friday at 10 a.m. also at St. Paul.
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