Jim & Lynn Wagner

 

Local Officials

 

Inducted 2002

 

Jim and Lynn Wagner were associated with TVASA in some capacity for over twenty-five years.  They each began playing softball in the early ‘70s.  In 1977, they were asked to serve on the Players’ Advisory Board as a single member becoming the first husband/wife participants.  In 1980, Lynn was appointed by Tom Beck to the position of Deputy Commissioner for Virginia Beach becoming the first female Commissioner of a men’s program in the Central Atlantic Region.  Jim worked with her, as District Commissioner, and they became the first husband/wife team to organize an ASA softball program in Virginia.  Together, in the first year, they increased the Virginia Beach program by 700%.

             In 1983, Jim took over the Virginia Beach program and served in that capacity through 1996 for a total of fourteen years.  During his tenure, Jim hosted twelve Metro tournaments, two Class A National Qualifiers, two Class A Regional tournaments, two Class B Regional tournaments, two Class C Regional tournaments, and one Class D Regional tournament.  He also hosted the largest Invitational tournament in the area with 160 teams from seven states.  Under Joe Baines as Tidewater Commissioner, Jim and Bill Myers started the first Class C Regional Tournament.  Three years later, Jim worked with Bill again to start the Class D Regional Tournament.  Both are still the two strongest programs in ASA nationwide.  Jim served on the TVASA Classification, By-Laws and Executive committees for many years and in the office of TVASA Vice-President in 1982 and President in 1983.  In 1996, he was appointed as the TVASA At-Large Player Representative to the National Council as a voting member and served seven years.  In 1999, Jim served as Assistant Commissioner under TVASA Commissioner Bill Myers.  He was also a registered umpire for twenty years and played softball over twenty years.

             Lynn served with Jim on the TVASA Classification, By-Laws and Executive Committee, but also held the office of Metro Secretary for many years, TVASA Treasurer for five years, and Finance Committee member for three years.  She organized, printed and distributed the TVASA Softball Schedule until 1999.  She also wrote, printed and distributed a monthly newsletter (The Line Drive) with tournament results and human- interest stories.  She has edited and printed the TVASA Hall of Fame Banquet booklet for seventeen of the twenty years it had been held at the time of her induction.

             Jim Wagner was innovative and came up with many new ideas that are still in use at the time of his induction to make tournaments more successful; and, Lynn played a big part in making our organization operate on the top level.

             They were inducted into the Hall of Fame as they started with our program…our first husband and wife team.