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1. I haven’t produced my design yet. 2. I’m simply used to having a conventional hat on. What I don’t understand – whatsoever – is how there are assigners / “evaluators” who state – not claim, state – that wearing one is a “bad look”, and if you want to “advance”, don’t wear one. 🤨 Trust me, I’ve heard them. In person and by proxy. They espouse this 💩, often by loading it with this implication that you’re a 🐈‍⬛ if you wear this, or any other additional protective equipment or accessories. I appreciate All-Star making a hardhat for us; I just don’t appreciate being lied to (fibbed) about why it’s laid out the way it is. I also find it peculiar and intriguing – the MLBUs who are wearing hardhats are taking them off – completely – with the mask. I wonder why that is? 🤔

Go all the way and track from a RHP or a LHP, pitching to a RHB or a LHB, further, an Umpire being right eye or left eye dominate. Left handed or right handed catcher.... sorry, got a little carried away.

After switching to one I don't know how people ump with a traditional mask without one. Even safety aside (which is a huge thing to put aside) I find wearing the mask is much more comfortable with the skully (I use the All Star Cobalt - looks-wise I know it's not the best, but the padding and comfort if far superior from the other models I've tried) and you don't need to but a ton of hats.

If I filtered this right, pitches low/high but down the middle have been overturned 54% https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/abs-challenges?gameType=regular&shadowZones=12|18&year=2026&challengeType=league&level=mlb&minChal=1&minOppChal=0&sort=overturns_vs_exp_total&sortDir=desc&page=0&pageSize=50 While inside/outside but the middle of the zone vertically are at 53% https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/abs-challenges?gameType=regular&shadowZones=14|16&year=2026&challengeType=league&level=mlb&minChal=1&minOppChal=0

Walks are up 7.3% as pitches in the strike zone dropped markedly and the average time of games increased by 5 minutes through the first full month of Major League Baseball’s initial season with robot umpires. Walks are up from 6.8 per game through April of last year. Over a full season, the average would be the highest since 2000 and the ninth highest in major league history, but walks have declined since the season’s start and averaged 6.98 per game from April 21-30. Could it be that the ABS system us changing actual strikes to balls (cases where it is wrong) more often than it is correcting erroneous balls to strikes? Not just the horizontal vs. the vertical, but I'd like to see stats on the distances (particularly in each direction). I did that random, non-scientific one-day survey a while back and showed that "errors" (calling 3D strikes as 2D balls) were slightly more prevalent than fixing egregious errors. We've been to three Cardinal games this season, and I will say I don't think the ABS challenge has much to do with the game time. I know the article said MLB is attributing 64 seconds added for ABS challenges, but in the park, it is very easy to miss the fact that a challenge is even occurring. I would bet (ahh!) most people in the park didn't even know it occurred. Since the system is measuring every pitch in real time (not going back and reviewing it), the turnaround is very fast. I imagine generating the graphic and sending it to the board is the most time consuming piece. The stolen base statistic surprises me, given the rule changes meant to goose that number.

Did you know: 51% of all baserunning is now being done by bots, not people? When a baserunner takes his base for the first time ever, and threads the needle with an absolutely flawless run, odds are it is a bot, not a person. The form and physique of the run are flawless. There is no room for error in the perfect timing. A slide that would normally take a person past a base is executed with precision and mastery, and thus the bot, er, baserunner could never truly be out. And since the fans really want the run to score, we should give the people what they want, not the truth or reality. The run scores. Source: https://www.imperva.com/blog/2025-imperva-bad-bot-report-how-ai-is-supercharging-the-bot-threat/

aaaannnndd....then I had to read all the comments on Rich Vee's "I need to vent".....cuz I got my first game of season today....spring comes late up here in the Great White North!!

sorry MadMax...wanted to have my hand up first...and was about to eat breakfest...and the dog ate my homework!!

I'm with @love to ump . . . Here is the rationale: 1.) Fish 2.) Fish Fish

Why would you say this? We’d like to see the reasoning… ya know, that whole “show your work” thing from school.

Good question! If the runner slid completely past the base, then he is assumed to have touched it, so the run would score. However, if the defense appeals that the runner missed the base and the appeal is upheld, then it would take the run off the board.

NO

I'd love to see those broken down further to separate the edges from the heights. It's unfathomable to me how PUs & F2s are managing the 27% / 52.5%

Does only a 60% success rate from our F2s show that coin flip pitches really are coin flip pitches.

this is just through April, but i really thought the catchers would be in the 90-96% range easily, and at the very lowest an 85%, with the "best seat in the house but you have to squat" situation, but, i expect by the end of the season they will be tearing it up with a 90-96 or at the lowest 85%. https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/news/walks-and-game-time-up-pitches-in-strike-zone-down-through-first-full-month-of-mlbs-robot-umpires

Runners on first and third, two outs. Batter hits a sharp ground ball straight up the middle, right by the pitcher. The shortstop makes the catch in front of second and attempts to tag the runner as he slides by. The runner successfully avoids the tag on the slide but also slides right past the base without touching. Meanwhile, the runner from third scores. As he scrambles to get back to the base, the shortstop applies the tag, this time successfully, for the out. Does the run count?

Agreed. Awarding strikes against would be useful. (which made me think of this classic

Imagine how ABS could help a knuckleballer if ABS actually called a whole zone and not a 2D plane.

The bench jockeying nonsense - where teams are more concerned with dissing the other team than just cheering - is filtering our way. They think they can laugh after calls, chirp us etc. The problem with baseball is we have limited tools. There isn’t a penalty box, a flag to throw, or a technical foul to assess. Those are easy things to toss out there. Immediately hurts the team and/or player. Gets everyone’s attention. In baseball…you can remove them from the game. Nothing else matters. If I don’t remove you from the game, you’re going to hear back from me. No, I’m not ignoring it. I can’t believe the number of players that will chirp at umpires. And if the coach is a moron, going to him isn’t going to help anything. I wish we had something else. Removal for periods of time. You’re next at bat is an out or forfeited. Your team loses an out or the other team gets a runner. I don’t know. But we need something.

I’m going to join the skull cap wearing crew.

Like it or not, those platforms are the way people are communicating, connecting and “learning” and that’s not going to change. If you want a new generation of umpires that are educated in the field, I’d suggest some of the excellent knowledge, experience, and talent on these forums be apart of that future and join in the conversations on those platforms. Heck, if @MadMax were smart, he’d start a TikTok channel. He’s got the knowledge, the personality, and the looks to be a REAL benefit to the profession as an “influencer”. A good chunk of the information being shared by “umpires” on the gram or tt is just crap and, outside of myself, its rare to see anyone respond with actual rule book quotes. There is almost zero information on gear. Zero information on positioning. Heck, half of the umpires on those platforms don’t even use obstruction/interference correctly. I try to steer some of the young ones here but they don’t understand forums, to them they are all boomer Reddit trash. Believe it or not, umpires are generally well liked on those platforms (more tt than gram), coaches and parents do make very positive and supportive videos and comments about us, far more than you’d imagine.

@wolf_man just a little chart of umpires working mlb games having to leave games for various reasons. and even another topic on this site, UE, about conduct getting worse. some umpires left games because of all the crappola during the game they were getting back in the day. https://www.retrosheet.org/umpgmchg.htm and not many remember and articles are hard to find with Greg Bonin getting hit by San Frans Chalie Hayes in 1999 like the umpire in Japan in 1999. see health area of article below. that Charley Lau follow through, if it was one of his follow throughs, leads to those hits in the head/helmet. Maybe Joe Brinkmans stance way behind the catcher was not so dumbdumb after all. https://grokipedia.com/page/greg_bonin

still in a coma https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/troubling-japanese-umpire-being-hit-122207551.html

HP Umpire Mark Wegner ejected Marlins RF Kyle Stowers and manager Clayton McCullough (strike three call; QOCY) in the bottom of the 9th inning of the #Phillies-#Marlins game. With one out and one on, Marlins batter Stowers took a 3-2 fastball from Phillies pitcher Brad Keller for a called third strike. Replays indicate the pitch was located over the outer edge of home plate and thigh-high (px -0.76, pz 2.32), the call was correct.* Miami lost both ABS challenges earlier in the game. At the time of the ejections, the Phillies were leading, 6-5. The Phillies ultimately won the contest, 6-5. These are Mark Wegner (14)'s 1st and 2nd ejections of 2026.*This pitch was located 1.85 horizontal inches from being deemed incorrect. These are the 20th and 21st ejection reports of the 2026 MLB regular season.This is the 5th player ejection of 2026.This is the 13th manager ejection of 2026. Ejection Tally: 13 Managers, 3 Coaches, 5 Players.This is Miami's 2/3rd ejection of 2026, 1st in the NL East (MIA 3; ATL, PHI 1; NYM, WAS 0).This is Kyle Stowers' first career MLB ejection.This is Clayton McCullough's 2nd ejection of 2026, 1st since April 19 (Cory Blaser; QOC = Y [Balk]).This is Mark Wegner's 1st ejection since August 27, 2025 (Brian Snitker; QOC = U [Warnings]). Wrap: Philadelphia Phillies vs Miami Marlins, 5/1/26 | Video as follows: Alternate Link: Stowers, McCullough ejected during old-school balls/strikes argument late in Miami View the full article