John Nenezich, 88, Bartender Boxer, Umpire, `Feisty Character'

John Nenezich was a soldier of fortune, a soft-shoe dancer, a tiger-tamer, riverboat gambler and the last of the big-time spenders.

OK, he really wasn't. But Mr. Nenezich handed out business cards that said he was all those things and more, which is one reason he'll be remembered as what he undeniably was: a character.

A longtime minor-league baseball umpire known in recent years as the area's oldest bartender, Mr. Nenezich died Tuesday (April 29) at 88.

"He was a lively, friendly guy who could make fun of himself and loved to tell stories," said Seattle Times columnist Emmett Watson, a friend since the 1930s, when Watson played high-school baseball and Mr. Nenezich "umped" it.

His career took him from high-school baseball to American Legion to semipro to the Pacific Coast League, where Mr. Nenezich earned a reputation as an honest and fair official unafraid to make tough calls even when the home crowd disagreed - sometimes dramatically.

One Sunday in Oakland in 1951, he dared call an Oakland player out on a close play, and spectators tossed a hailstorm of seat cushions onto the field. One female fan jumped down from the stands and chased him around the field, a moment captured in a photo that ran in the newspapers across the country.

A clipping of that picture still hangs in Seattle's Metropolitan Grill, where Mr. Nenezich worked as a lunchtime host in the bar for about 15 years before retiring last November.

"He was a good old feisty character who could get a laugh out of almost anybody," said Bill Rynd, the restaurant's general manager. Even though the restaurant doesn't open until 11 a.m., Mr. Nenezich would show up between 7 and 8 a.m. every weekday "to keep everybody else here in line."

The bar's walls are peppered with John Nenezich memorabilia: photos of Mr. Nenezich with boxer Joe Louis with busty sports fan Morgana, with former Mariner catcher Dave Valle.

A South Seattle native who attended Franklin High School, Mr. Nenezich stopped by a Columbia City boxing gym when he was 16 and liked the action. He fought 50 bouts as "Dynamite Johnny Morgan" before an eye injury ended his fighting days.

Informed that his professional boxing career made him ineligible for high school or college baseball, he became an umpire, working more than 30 years behind the plate. Bartending allowed him to continue making money in the off-season. He was also a longtime member of the Washington State Boxing Commission, judging some 1,000 fights.

Edo Vanni, a popular former Seattle Rainier player and manager, said Mr. Nenezich had a side many people didn't see, one of quiet generosity. "He dug down deep in his pockets many a time to help out some of the old guys, particularly the old ball players."

Mr. Nenezich was preceded in death by Helen, his wife of 48 years, in whose honor memorials may be sent to Breast Cancer Research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He is survived by daughters Cynthia Nenezich of Los Angeles, Sharon Doleshall of Edmonds, son Bruce Craig Kuhn of Eugene, Ore. , and sister Millie Soine of Lacey.

A funeral Mass is to be said today at 10 a.m. at St. George's Catholic Church, 5306 13th Ave. S., Seattle.