The star of a Saturday softball game wasn't holding a bat, a ball or a glove. The fan favorite of the noon game was the man behind the plate.

Richard Green joked around with the players as they came up to bat and with the crowd in the bleachers during the game. He told the crowd, after several good defensive plays, the arms of the players on Jamestown's Hofmann Trucking team reminded him of orangutans, and he struck body builder poses after a player on Bismarck's City Air Mechanical team dribbled a soft ground ball up the line for a single.

The game was one of the last for Green, who collapsed on the field before the start of a game later Saturday afternoon at the Men's Rec III west state tournament. He died at age 58.

Mike Wolf, state umpire-in-chief, said Green's performance Saturday was typical of the popular Minot umpire. Wolf, who had known the umpire for many years, said Green combined good umping skills with a likeable personality.

"He was a perfect example of how umpires can have fun," Wolf said.

Bismarck Police Sgt. Dwight Offerman said officers, along with the fire department and Metro Ambulance, were called to Cottonwood Park field five at 4:54 p.m. Saturday for a medical emergency. Green had collapsed while waiting for a game to start. He died despite attempts at CPR and the use of an automated external defibrillator, Offerman said.

Offerman also had known Green since 1991, when they met at an M.C. Hammer concert. Offerman, who was on duty at the concert, struck up a conversation with Green, who had brought his children down for the hip-hop event. The officer said he made a point of going to see Green, whom he described as "funnier than a rubber crutch," as he umped at the McQuade's tournament each year.

"He was a very pleasant man to talk to,"Offerman said.

Green grew up in the Baltimore area and came to Minot while in the Air Force, Wolf said. After he retired, he stuck around.

Wolf said Green had worked games at McQuade's for more than 20 years. Green and his friend, Carlos Wick, also of Minot, would come to most Bismarck tournaments, as well as other tournaments around the state when they were available, Wolf said. He said Green probably was more well-known for his umping in Bismarck than in Minot, because he worked so often in Bismarck.

People around the state would ask whether Green and Wick were coming to a tournament, and tournament directors request their services, Wolf said. The pair never asked for gas or expense money - they showed up for love of the game, not money, he said.

Wolf recalled when his daughter, now 18, first met Green. He said she was 2 or 3 years old at the time and thought Green, who was black, was Minnesota Twins' star Kirby Puckett. She began calling him Kirby then, and he wanted her to call him that from then on. Wolf said his daughter saw Green Saturday morning and met "Kirby" with a big hug.

"It goes beyond the ball field," Wolf said of Green's affable personality.

Green told players Saturday that he was hanging up his blue uniform.

"This was pretty much his last year of umping,"Wolf said.

Green planned to ump at the United Tribes John Thunderhawk Memorial Softball Tournament in September, then retire at McQuade's next year, he said.

Wolf said Green taught many people about being a successful official by the way he umped games. Green was a good ump first, and he hustled and made sure to have fun with the players and spectators. He said people were unlikely to "get all over him" for a bad call, because they gave him the benefit of the doubt that he got most calls right.

"That's what made people want him to come back,"Wolf said.

Green is survived by his wife, Judy, two sons and a daughter. A funeral is planned for noon Friday at the Minot Auditorium.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@bismarcktribune.com.)