New Hampton ump named state’s best

Bill Boyd wanted to “stay in the game” and umpiring gave him that opportunity.And now, years later, the New Hampton man is Iowa’s umpire of year as Boyd was bestowed the honor this past weekend at the Iowa Baseball Coaches Association annual convention.“I was shocked and really humbled,” Boyd said before making a pitch to the reporter interviewing him. “If you have anything else, you can bump this.”So Iowa’s umpire of the year probably isn’t going to like the placement of this story.But New Hampton High School baseball coach Cory McDonald probably won’t mind because he knows Boyd has touched a lot of lives while calling balls and strikes and deciding if runners are safe or not.For the complete story see the 1/27/2017 New Hampton Tribune.