Someday Is Now

A baseball lifer makes a final road trip

by Joe Mock
All rights reserved

Many baseball fans have a goal to visit multiple Major League parks during a glorious road trip around the country. Most, though, aren’t facing a deadline to complete that quest.

Nor do they have to drag around a dialysis machine on their travels.

Tim Standard of Rockmart, Georgia was a telecommunications engineer before illness forced his retirement. He was better known for his devotion to baseball, as a player in his younger days, coaching dozens of youth teams, running entire leagues and operating an umpire organization.

And before he passed away – which occurred on September 4, 2025 – he was determined to complete such a grand road trip.

Love for the game

Standard’s legacy continues through the lives he’s impacted. His widow Jamie, who honored his request for the road trip with an enormous amount of preparation, knows this extremely well and is eager for everyone to hear Tim’s story.

There was never a time when the two didn’t know each other, as their parents attended church together before the two entered the world only two months apart in 1975.

Tim and Jamie attended Clay Elementary School in Mableton, Georgia, where their physical-education teacher was Ken Vanderpoel, who also coached numerous youth-baseball squads during those years. He would later become pivotal to the couple’s life together.

The young classmates were immersed in organized sports. “I was super tomboyish, all into sports,” says Jamie. “I played basketball and baseball at a young age, then softball, tennis and cheerleading in high school.” Tim loved baseball, and added tennis and cross country to his passions during his teen years.

He got into coaching after high school, and for 15 straight years, he coached youth teams during all three of Georgia’s baseball seasons – spring, summer and fall. By that time, Vanderpoel was running an organization called Atlanta Umpires, which coordinated the schedules of about 150 umps at eight youth circuits.

When Tim and Jamie reconnected after several years apart, Jamie had a two-year-old son named Wesley from her first marriage. Tim bonded with the youngster, and on the couple’s wedding day in 2002, Tim actually took Wesley to the opening-day parade and game for his first baseball team. “Then Tim took him back home to get him ready for the wedding and met me at the church,” says Jamie.

A second baseball-playing son named Brett arrived in 2004. “Everything we did involved baseball. When we went on family vacations, it involved baseball (see photo of Brett, Tim and Wesley at a Chattanooga Lookouts game in 2010). We just had a love for the game.”

It wasn’t long before the baseball-loving couple was running Southwest Baseball in Austell, Georgia. They both served on the board for many years, and Tim continued to coach, including serving as a head coach or assistant for Wesley’s and Brett’s teams.

“Tim was a great coach and was extremely well-regarded. Everybody he associated with really looked up to him,” notes Vanderpoel. During the years the couple ran the organization, it produced many outstanding players who went on to play high school, college and pro ball. One who reached the Majors is Victor Scott II, currently the starting center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals who was just named a finalist for the National League Gold Glove Award.

Tim ran a drill at the end of all of his practices that he called Last Man Standing. He distributed the players around the infield and hit grounders or popups to them. If they failed to handle the play cleanly, they were eliminated until there was only one player “standing.”

“The kids absolutely adored it because it made it fun,” explains Jamie.

But soon it was the coach who had trouble standing.

Master of disguise

As Tim continued his efforts in telecommunications, raising his sons and developing future pros, nagging health concerns became more worrisome. Digestion problems worsened, prompting him to eat less and less. On Labor Day 2019, the simple act of getting out of his car caused him to pass out.

Jamie insisted he “go to the hospital to get GI doctors to understand what was going on.” A 14-day inpatient stay led to three-and-a-half months at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Batteries of tests were inconclusive as his weight plummeted to 108 pounds. Doctors referred to his condition as “complete gut failure,” but couldn’t pinpoint an exact cause.

His body was processing the food he ate too quickly, meaning he was unable to retain any life-sustaining nutrients. For the next four years, a tube fed nutrients directly into his intestines. When that stopped being effective, he was fed intravenously.

Amazingly, his outlook never dimmed. People who met him didn’t suspect he had such severe medical problems. “Tim was a master at disguising how sick he was,” says Jamie.

As his health declined and complete gut failure prevented his body from absorbing nutrients, he eventually had to stop working. The lack of nutrition worsened his diabetes and led to complications such as retinopathy, anemia and kidney failure. Still, he was determined to protect his quality of life and live each day fully — getting outside whenever he could, catching a baseball game, fishing with his beloved dog Smokie, hearing live music, or squeezing in nine holes of golf when his strength allowed.

“He was in pain and very sick, but never once did he stay in bed. He fought like I’ve never seen anybody fight in my life. He never gave up.”

With skyrocketing medical costs and the loss of Tim’s income, “We decided as a family to look for something that Tim could assist on from home and wasn’t time-constrained.”

The “something” turned out to be Atlanta Umpires. Vanderpoel, who had been contemplating retiring, had been impressed with the way the couple “always went out of their way to serve the umpires in their leagues (such as) cooking special meals for them.” When Jamie approached Vanderpoel about selling his umpire-scheduling service in late 2022, he agreed.

While continuing her full-time career as Managing Director of Human Resources at TSCG, a retail real estate company, Jamie transformed Atlanta Umpires by automating scheduling and actively promoting the organization to new leagues. Soon they were working with over 400 umpires, covering dozens of parks, several major tournament groups like Training Legends, and positioning the organization to serve as the Umpire-in-Chief for Braves Country Baseball and Softball. In that role, they will oversee all umpires across Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and the Carolinas beginning in 2026.

Interested umpires and leagues can check out their website here: Atlanta Umpires

Tim contributed to Atlanta Umpires whenever and however he could, lending his deep knowledge of baseball rules and in-game situations to train new umpires and resolve disputes, making their partnership a true force behind the organization’s growth.

The money generated from the business “is basically what allowed us to be able to pay for Tim’s medical care, and many times it probably saved his life because we could afford treatments,” says Jamie.

And in Tim’s case, “What better way to help than doing what you love to do every day?”

The Journey

 “We always said that someday when we retire, we are going to travel, seeing the USA and visiting as many places and MLB parks as possible,” Jamie reveals. “Well, with Tim’s health over the last several years, we decided our ‘someday’ is now.”

It was a rough year for Tim in 2024. He developed severe infections that landed him in the hospital twice for weeks at a time, causing his failing kidneys to require permanent dialysis. His other health issues rendered him ineligible for a transplant.

“He felt like he was going through medical treatments just so he could sit in our living room and stay alive. He said that wasn’t the kind of life he wanted to live, and when he came out of the hospital, he said he wouldn’t go back in.”

Realizing his time was growing short, Jamie undertook a herculean task: plan all aspects of a trip to visit ten Major League parks while transporting a terminally ill patient who needed dialysis and ongoing medical treatments.

She’d undergone intensive training to be able to conduct Tim’s hemo-dialysis treatments herself, so she outfitted an RV with the proper equipment (see above), and they hit the road July 23, 2025. “We did it all in order to give him this opportunity to go out and see some of the U.S. and visit his beloved MLB parks. We called it our Someday Is Now Journey.”

The color-coded spreadsheet she created with all of the details would impress a CPA. Every step, including the exact times for dialysis, were specified. The first game – after a day for dialysis in Nashville – was in St. Louis. Did they let Victor Scott know they were coming? “Absolutely not. Tim adamantly refused to make contact with anybody on our trip. No players. No umpires. He said, ‘I don’t want to be a Make-A-Wish. I don’t want people to pity me. I just want to go out and watch some ball.’

“It was so important to him that he not be the focus of any attention.”

Jamie says it was amazing to sit in the stands with Tim, just like normal fans. They discussed what the batter should try to accomplish in a certain situation, or where the shortstop should throw the ball. And they would observe and admire the professionalism of the umpires.

“There is so much that happens in a baseball game, in every moment, and it can go in so many different directions,” she says. “That’s part of what makes the game great and why we enjoy watching it together.”

Next was Kauffman Stadium, where the Kansas City Royals were hosting the couple’s beloved Atlanta Braves. Tim insisted that they not wear any Braves apparel, because “if you go there, you should respect the people and respect the park you’re at.”

After a game in Minneapolis watching the Twins and Red Sox, Jamie pointed the RV toward Iowa. “One of Tim’s favorite parts of the trip was going to the Field of Dreams. We sat there (at the movie-set playing field) as two grown adults. We watched people of all ages, all abilities, all races, pick up a ball and bat and glove and play a pickup game. It’s what baseball does, right? It brings everybody together.”

The day before a Brewers game in Milwaukee, Tim was feeling up for a round of golf, another sport he loved. Their campground in Milton, Wisconsin was near the Coachmen’s Golf Club. Originally intending to play only nine holes, he kept going, all the way through 18. Against seemingly all odds when you consider his illness and his drastically diminished eyesight due to retinopathy, he shot a 70 on a par-71 course.

Stop and think about that for a moment. “I can’t hit it far, but I can hit it straight,” he used to tell Jamie.

Creating the experience

Following games in Milwaukee and Cincinnati, the couple arrived in Cleveland on August 15.

Acting on behalf of Jamie, a Guardians season-ticket holder asked his senior activation rep at the team to sell him two tickets, mentioning that they were for a couple where the husband was sick and they were trying to visit as many parks as possible. That rep was Kim Gordon, who says “we had to make this special for them.” She offered to Jamie to take them to meet broadcaster Tom Hamilton or go down on the field for batting practice, but Tim didn’t have the energy.

So Gordon arranged for them to watch the National Anthem and ceremonial first pitch from the field (see photo at the top of this page), and had a gift bag delivered to their seats. She even reached out to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, also in Cleveland, to give Tim and Jamie a VIP tour.

“Between the Guardians’ warm welcome and their getting us in touch with the Rock Hall of Fame, they made us feel like we got the keys to the city,” recalls Jamie. “Those were two great days for Tim.”

Jamie called Gordon to tell her when Tim passed away. “I did cry when I got off the phone,” Gordon reveals. “I was just happy that we were able to create that experience for Tim and Jamie. I feel like I was blessed to be given that opportunity.”

After games in Detroit and Pittsburgh, Jamie felt her husband was weakening. She decided to call an audible and push up the itinerary, electing to attend games in both Washington and Baltimore on the same day, August 21, creating their own unique doubleheader.

The last game of Tim’s life was the Orioles hosting the Houston Astros. Despite it being such a rainy summer, the only precipitation they encountered on the entire trip was light mist at Camden Yards. “The game in Baltimore was just another day at the ballpark, nothing crazy. It was just enjoying America’s pastime and spending it with the person who enjoys it as much as you.”

Before departing the Baltimore-Washington area, Tim wanted to play another round of golf. He did it with Smokie by his side (see photo).

On the final stretch of their trip back to Georgia, though, Tim developed a fever, indicating he was fighting another infection. They hoped it would be minor and that he would recover, but within two days it was obvious they were facing a different reality. Rather than pursue more hospital interventions, Tim made the decision to transition to hospice care.

Eight days later, having played his last round of golf and attended his final baseball game, Tim Standard passed away. He was 50.

Lifer

An umpire who made his Major League debut this season is Dexter Kelley. “Atlanta Umpires is where I worked my first games in the amateur ranks, so they mean a lot to me,” he told USA TODAY Sports. “They taught me how to be professional on and off the field.”

While he didn’t work any of the games that the Standards attended, “I would’ve loved to have met them, because of the great people that they are and the memories that they’ve brought other umpires. They treated everyone well and everyone the same.”

To Vanderpoel, Tim was a “baseball lifer. He had one of the best outlooks on things of anybody I’ve ever been associated with. And he loved the things that baseball could teach you. He used it as a teaching moment when he worked with kids. Baseball was a vehicle for Tim to positively influence others.”

The baseball lifer gave everything to the sport during his too-short life. The sport gave back to him during his Someday Is Now road trip.

This article was originally published in USA TODAY Sports Weekly. It appears here by permission. Photos provided by Jamie Standard. Feel free to comment on this story below.