LONG-TIME SPORTS OFFICIAL JOE SERRATORE WINS 2026 MILESTONE AWARD
LONDONONTARIOSPORTS.COM HONOURS ‘JOE UMP’ APRIL 17, 2026
Photo (L-R) Milestone Award winner Joe Serratore with LondonOntarioSports.com publisher and editor Jeffrey Reed.
January 6, 2026 (London, ONT) – LondonOntarioSports.com (est. 2015), London’s Trusted Source for Sports News & Information, announces long-time umpire and sports official Joe Serratore winner of the 2026 LondonOntarioSports.com Milestone Award. This new award recognizes a long-time member of the London sports community who has dedicated their life to sports in any capacity – including athlete, coach, official, mentor, administrator, volunteer and fundraiser.
Joe Serratore (left) with fellow umpire Jim Cressman. Photo: London Sports Hall of Fame.
From 1962 until he retired his umpire’s gear in 2011, Serratore, 78, dedicated his life to local sports – all the while providing a voice of reason during even the most heated of competition while keeping the game fun for all. He remains an active member of the local sports community – and a local sports legend.
“Joe Serratore, known simply as ‘Joe Ump,’ is one of the most beloved members of the London sports community – and for good reason,” said LondonOntarioSports.com publisher and editor Jeffrey Reed. “Best known as an Intercounty Baseball League umpire for parts of five decades, Joe has dedicated his life to serving local baseball, softball, fastball, football, basketball and hockey as an official, timekeeper, announcer, official scorer and administrator. In fact, he has umpired at provincial, national and international levels – all the while earning respect from athletes, coaches and fans while mentoring others who aspire to achieve the same skill level behind the plate, along the sidelines and behind the boards.”
While attending Catholic Central High in London, Serratore – a life-long Londoner – provided vocals and played saxophone for local group, The Electras. “We were a four-piece rock band who played at weddings and other special events. We had a blast,” he said. His father, Frank, was also a musician with local group, The New Modernaires. But it would be on the playing field where Joe’s vocals would best be heard.
Joe praises his father, a shoemaker who died in 1998, for encouraging him to stick with umpiring after a rocky start. “In 1962, at age 15, I umpired my first game – a recreation grade school fastball game on the London PUC sandlots. I went home and told my dad that I was quitting,” remembered Joe.
A young Joe Serratore (top row, second from right). Photo: Facebook.
“I was a new umpire, and just a kid, umpiring first base at a fastball game at Kensington Park. In the fifth inning I called a player out at first base, and he was all over me about the call, chest bumping me. I’m scared! The player was ejected. I went home and told my dad, I’m scared, I don’t want this, I don’t need this. I like it, but I don’t want the abuse. My dad said, ‘You’re going back, you’re going to do it, you’re going to listen to people who can teach you and you’re going to work on all of the things they do teach you. Doors will open for you. And when they do, you need to take advantage of it. Go back.’ So I did.”
The next year, Serratore joined the London Umpires Association, a group he belonged to until 1984 and for whom he filled the role of president in 1978 and ’79. For almost half a century, Serratore served as an umpire, an umpire-in-chief, a football official and a timekeeper, along the way making numerous friends and earning a well-deserved reputation as one of the most well-liked sports personalities in London. He has umpired local, regional, provincial, national and international baseball, and achieved Level 5 umpire status, once considered the highest level by the Ontario Baseball Association.
For years, Serratore umpired fastball games, including contests when pitching great Metro Szeryk was on the mound. He officiated minor, high school and provincial football including London Lords games in the early-1970s at Labatt Park. Hockey is in Serratore’s blood, too – or perhaps he would have gone crazy during winters without baseball or football. In 2003, the Ontario Hockey League recognized him for 25 years as timekeeper, a role he filled for 27 years with the London Knights until 2005.
But it was on the baseball diamond where Serratore shone the most, working for years in the Intercounty Baseball League, from the wood bat era, during the aluminum bat era from 1977 to 1994, and again during the return of lumber until he retired in 2011. He umpired independent pro baseball at London Werewolves’ Frontier League contests, and London Monarchs’ Canadian Baseball League games at his second home: Labatt Park. It was fitting, then, that Serratore would tie the knot in June 2005 with the love of his life, wife Bren, at the forks of the Thames in front of 300 family and friends.
Joe Serratore with another local sports legend, Ken Benjamin. Photo: LondonOntarioSports.com.
Today, Serratore recalls how he thought about his dad when he umpired first base at a 1991 exhibition game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Canadian national team in front of 25,000 fans at a baseball-converted Lansdowne Park in Ottawa. “Here I was, standing beside Blue Jays first baseman John Olerud in front of the largest crowd I’ve ever worked for. I thought then that if I had not listened to my dad – to go back and to watch doors open for me – that it would never have happened.”
Along the way, some of Serratore’s roles included member of the London Football Officials Association from 1970-75; a London & District Baseball Association umpire from 1972-2011 while umpiring in the Intercounty league; OHL official scorer, announcer and timekeeper from 1978-2005; fastball umpire for 22 years; high school football and basketball official; and umpire with the Eager Beaver Baseball Association, London’s very first minor sports association est. 1955.
Serratore said he left umpiring in 2011 “because it was my time, and I had nothing to prove. I miss the idea of being a part of the game, and not sitting on the sidelines watching. I miss having fun. But I had a lot of doors opened to me, and I gained the respect of the players. I was very fortunate. It was the time of my life.
“It’s an honour to receive the first LondonOntarioSports.com Milestone Award,” Serratore said. “Anyone – men, women, children – who contribute to sports in any capacity will always cherish their memories tied to dedication, leadership and friendship. As a sports official, I am forever grateful for the friendships I have made along the way, and I thank LondonOntarioSports.com for allowing me to inspire others who currently work as officials or who aspire to become sports officials. It demands hard work, but it is a labour of love.”
LondonOntarioSports.com will honour Serratore at its annual awards celebration Friday, April 17 at RiverBend Golf Community in London. Incidentally, Serratore celebrates his 79th birthday that day. Tickets for the meet-and-greet and awards presentations will be available for purchase soon – watch LondonOntarioSports.com for details.
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For more information and images, please contact:
Jeffrey Reed, Publisher & Editor, LondonOntarioSports.com 519/643-6334 jeff@londonontariosports.com
Joe Serratore 519/636-2922 brenandjoe@gmail.com
About LondonOntarioSports.com
Est. 2015, LondonOntarioSports.com – London’s Trusted Source for Sports News & Information – is a project from publisher and editor Jeffrey Reed, senior member of the Southwestern Ontario sports media. Since 1980, Reed’s byline, play-by-play voice and photography have helped him capture nine awards for sports journalism excellence. A much in-demand public speaker and three-time author, Reed is a disabled athlete who coached and pitched with the London Majors of the Intercounty Baseball League, and later worked as a golf professional and brand ambassador. Since its launch, LondonOntarioSports.com has been home to LondonOntarioGolf.com (est. 2004), the Voice of Golf in Southwestern Ontario.
