Founded in 2002 by Louis Profumo and based in San Leandro, Lou’s Dugout is an organization that supports sports events in its surrounding area. Due to the high costs associated with maintaining a sports organization, Lou’s Dugout aims to keep as many people in sports as possible through many generous donations.
Born in Alameda, Profumo grew up in San Leandro and was originally a baseball player drafted by the Boston Red Sox who played minor league baseball for several years. He was coached by 1966 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Ted Williams. Later, Profumo got a full-time job at the San Mateo Boys Club and worked as a garbage collector. Profumo continued his lifelong passion of baseball by becoming a baseball coach, beginning his journey by coaching Junior Varsity Baseball at Pacific High School in San Leandro. He coached thousands of San Leandro residents in youth baseball, women’s softball and senior men’s baseball; many of them professional players, such as Steve Lubratich, Gary Varsh, and Brian Smith, who played in the Los Angeles Angels, Iowa Cubs, and Bakersfield Dodgers systems, respectively. Profumo would coach many baseball players free of charge and would often pay out of his own pocket in order to fund his athletes’ competitions and equipment. “Lou never charged anyone a dime to play sports,” Principal Officer of Lou’s Dugout and one of Lou’s close friends Michael Munoz said.
Profumo and friends often hosted lunches at restaurants such as Manor Grill in San Leandro as a way for athletes to hang out and bond over the experiences they have shared together. “If you’ve played sports, you know you can make lifelong friendships, and that’s really what Lou’s Dugout is,” Munoz said. Lou’s Dugout values these experiences and hopes to foster them further through their donations. The lunch hangouts, sometimes including as many as 50 people, eventually developed into Lou creating the name of Lou’s Dugout and establishing the group as a nonprofit organization, giving out tens of thousands of dollars since its creation.
Profumo worked a total of 37 years for the City of San Leandro, such as serving as a groundskeeper for Memorial Park on Bancroft Avenue. “He was outspoken; he told people what he thought, and he’s just a local, calm town hero,” Munoz said. Profumo was later inducted into the San Leandro Sports Hall of Fame in 2017 for his service to the city. He unfortunately passed away on July 5, 2021, but his legacy is carried on by his daughters Karen and Kathy and his son-in-law Robert.
The board meets every three months at the Manor Grill to discuss future events. Their main beneficiaries are the high school sports programs within San Leandro and the little leagues along with girls’ softball programs of San Leandro and San Lorenzo. One major donation the organization awards is a Lou Profumo scholarship given to school-selected senior baseball and softball players at San Leandro High School each year. However, they donate to a variety of other sports as well, such as boxing and cheerleading programs.
In the summer of 2023, Lou’s Dugout made a donation to San Leandro High School’s first ever girls’ flag football team. The high school’s athletic director Nick Thomas said in a Tri-City Voice article (July 11, 2023), “San Leandro would like to give a huge thank you to Lou’s Dugout for their continued support. They purchased uniforms for our flag football team to help us get started and have our girls looking great. ”
“Our goal really is to get kids on the sports fields, and we don’t care what sport it is. […] I feel an accomplishment of what all of us have done — the whole board has done — to keep some of these programs going,” Munoz said.
Lou’s Dugout has a minimal overhead of around $100 to maintain their website and P.O. box. The organization is also planning a fundraiser, where they will showcase an hour-long interview with Profumo, where he talks about his love for San Leandro, to honor his legacy.
To support further charitable activities, donate to Lou’s Dugout through their website at https://lousdugout.com/ or send a check to their P.O. box in San Leandro, 94579.
