Carr (and a friend) get called to the big leagues

Anyone who has ever been to a Major League Baseball (MLB) game can usually describe what brings them to the ballpark.
The crack of the bat. The smell of the grass. A hot dog and Cracker Jacks. The chance to see their favorite player go deep. The performance of the umpires.
Wait, what?
For Gary Carr, the latter reason was the main reason he was at a pair of MLB games in Denver June 14-15. Yes, the rest of the game was fun for him, as was the draw of being at his first MLB game. But mostly, he was there to see his friend Charlie Ramos, who is an MLB umpire.
The story goes even deeper than that.
Carr, owner of A Dude’s Place barber shop in Custer, wasn’t at the game solely to watch his friend at his job. No, he was there to work as well. Carr and his girlfriend, Jenny, made the five-hour trek to Denver on short notice for the purpose of giving Ramos a haircut.
The trip was years in the making, and actually began years ago when Carr was still co-owner of a barber shop in Marshall, Mich. His business partner, Noah, was running behind on an appointment, and Noah’s friend, Chris, had come in for a haircut.
When Noah told Chris that Carr could cut his hair, Chris declined and said he would wait for Noah. That’s when another man in the shop, Travis, spoke up, and told Chris that Carr had cut his hair before and had given him the best cut of his life.
Travis is bald.
“I was like, ‘I’ve never cut your hair before in my life,’” Carr said with a laugh.
The unsolicited (and untrue) endorsement was enough to get Chris to climb into the chair, and when the haircut was done, Chris was exceedingly happy with the haircut, paid and left.
Some time later, Chris returned to the shop, saying he had a friend coming to town and asked Carr to cut his friend’s hair that night. Carr agreed, and among those who showed up was Ramos. Ramos, who at the time was an umpire in AAA baseball (a level below MLB baseball) also got his hair cut that night and the two became friends. Every time Ramos came to get his hair cut the two would talk about his some day being able to umpire in the major leagues. Ramos liked Carr’s haircuts so much he made the 2-1/2 hour trek from his home in Grand Rapids to Marshall to climb into Carr’s chair.
“He said, ‘I never get my hair cut right,’” Carr said. “‘I never get any consistency.’”
Ramos told Carr when he got to the major leagues he would have Carr be his barber. However, Carr eventually left Michigan and settled in Custer, so he stopped thinking about if that day would ever come. But it did.
Last Saturday, June 11, Ramos called Carr, saying he in fact was umpiring in the major leagues and was coming into Denver to umpire the series between the Rockies and the Cleveland Guardians. He asked Carr if he would be willing to come to Denver to deliver on that haircut. Carr and Jenny were in the car and on their way to Denver that Monday after work.
Not only had Carr never been to a baseball game, he had never been to Denver. When he told Ramos before he left he was investigating buying tickets to the game, his friend laughed.
“He said, ‘what are you talking about? You have tickets,’” Carr said. Ramos told Carr to go to will call to pick up the tickets the day of the game. The seats were behind home plate, about 27 rows up. Not bad for a first game.
“To see behind the curtain and what he does is amazing,” Carr said. “I don’t know how they do it. They are constantly on the move and constantly traveling. It’s not a lifestyle I would want. We watch baseball every day and we don’t realize how much they travel and how much they are away from their family.”
Carr said neither he—or the players or managers—had any issue with the job Ramos did behind the plate that day. The only thing Carr really noticed out of the ordinary from his friend was the wild hand gestures umpires make when they are calling strikes.
“I was laughing,” Carr said. “I said, ‘What do you practice those hand moves in the mirror?’”
Carr said it didn’t really hit him what his friend was doing until he left his seat to go to the concourse level and saw his friend on TV and heard his name announced by the broadcasters.
“It was one of the most amazing things,” he said. “I had goosebumps for him. All of a sudden you see it on TV and you’re like, there’s the legitimacy of it.”
After the game Carr, Jenny and Ramos went out for dinner, and they had such a good time that Carr and Jenny ended up staying another day and went to the game the next night, for which Ramos was the third base umpire.
Ramos did get his haircut, in the hotel room of one of the umpires. Carr had taken his entire kit with him, up to and including lights. Another umpire got his haircut as well.
“I’ve had a few high profile clients. It humbles me. I’m just a barber,” Carr said. “When someone takes that much pride in my haircuts and they talk me up the way they do it makes me feel amazing. I’m just here cutting hair. When they prize my haircuts and call for me it legitimatizes everything I thought I need to do as a barber.”
The two friends now have a standing appointment whenever Ramos is in Denver, as Carr has agreed to make the trek to Denver to make sure his friend looks sharp for the game.
And, Carr said, such an adventure makes him want to step up his game, as his haircut abilities will be on display for the entire stadium—and entire TV audience—to see.
“I don’t want my haircuts to look like garbage on TV,” he said with a laugh.