A hero behind home plate: MLB umpire feeds hungry at Our Daily Bread By Maria Wiering
[email protected] Twitter: @ReviewWiering Major League Baseball umpire Mark Wegner got off the field at Camden Yards at 10:30 p.m. Sept. 6, after the Baltimore Orioles beat the New York Yankees 10-6, tying for first-place in the race for the American League East pennant. At 9 a.m. the next morning, he was at Our Daily Bread, a Catholic Charities of Baltimore program that serves meals to the city’s homeless. Wegner, 40, tries to visit Our Daily Bread every time he is in town for an Orioles series, once or twice a year, he said. On Sept. 7, he was part of the program’s 11,422nd day of uninterrupted food service. Dressed in an Under Armour T-shirt, baseball cap and a green apron, Wegner worked with other volunteers to prepare tables, mix salads and fill plates for the lunch crowd, which began to arrive at 10:30 a.m. A Catholic, Wegner first connected with Our Daily Bread 10 years ago, when it was located next to the Basilica of the Shrine of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Cathedral Street, before it moved to the Fallsway in 2007. After attending Mass at the Basilica, he inquired at Catholic Charities for local volunteer opportunities. They sent him to Our Daily Bread. “I have free time, and I try to use it productively, but nothing is more productive than, going to Mass, No. 1, but No.