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Took an 80-ish mph foul straight to the eyes wearing my Mirage with Cloud pads yesterday. Felt the impact, sure. 3-4 fans and both varsity coaches asked if I was okay. Honestly? It was a non-event. Thanks for a great mask, @DerekGDS and team!

The first thing about the newsletter is not to speak about the newsletter. You can pick out who is who below...

Nice. Haven't heard that one in a while.

There’s a confession – by the industry – to make on the Adams XV. The orange foam on that one? It wasn’t D3O. 😲 Yes, the Schutt XV was true-blue (err, orange), genuine D3O. Schutt was able to employ it on the XV, at a relatively scandalous price point (≈ $89), because they had sourced it from D3O for their football helmets and high-end shoulder pads. Schutt has had a terse, toxic rivalry with market-competitor Riddell, and has lost several lawsuits between the two. This put Schutt in a precarious position in 2018, when they were acquired by a private equity holding company. The PE firm restructured them, and their assets, and split their departments up (ie. sports). Officiating gear was relegated to the Adams sub-brand. As a consequence, Schutt lost its relationship with D3O, and their Adams gear could not use it. So, starting in 2018/19, the Adams XV’s were equipped with a generic EVA foam, dyed orange. Here’s where I need to disclose a secret, and confess – I didn’t use it. When my original Schutt XV plates gave out (cracked) in 2019, I was given a “new” set of plates from an Adams XV, sans the foam jacket, and transplanted my genuine D3O foam vest to them. To its credit, that D3O has lasted 10 years of near-constant use, primarily in SW-USA environments, and in MLB velocities. Not. A. Hiccup. So we’ve disclosed, the Adams XV is not real, genuine D3O. Only a Schutt XV from 2015 (debut) to 2018 has it. But even then, the D3O being used on the Schutt is not the same D3O on Davis gear today. It has evolved, of course. Same “mechanics”, but it has certainly improved. One of the big telling points, as you’ve noticed, is pliability. It’s less springy, more… spongy. More like putty than trampoline. That allows it to conform to the user’s shape more/better than simply sitting atop it. Someone a page back mentioned heat-bending the plates, and the XV wasn’t particularly good at it. Like its football pad cousins, the XV’s plates were primarily cast in ABS, but with a twist – because they shared the same molds as shoulder-pad plates, Schutt had “perfected” their shape to be as low profile, curved, and thin as possible, and likely optimized the recipe with a hardener so the resulting plate held its shape instead of creeping (flattening out). That, or they might have used polycarbonate (which is used for football helmets), which would explain the high-shine gloss finish on a brand-new XV. Note that Douglas, Wilson, Champro, Champion, and pre-Cobalt All-Star CPs all were… semi-gloss… more like satin. Telltale ABS (without an additional lacquer or finishing spray). Point is, polycarbonate is a b!+€h to heat-shape. I know… it took me many, many hours to shape my original XV, cycling between a heat gun and a freezer. Yup, the freezer. However, the +POS Cobra, the All-Star Cobalt, and now Davis DX-family CPs use HDPE (high density polyethylene), which while more expensive, retains its shape better with less material required.

So there I was... ...working the bases at a JuCo game (NCAA rule book). R1, outs don't matter. The pitcher altered his delivery by stopping his free foot during the "kick," but -- this is important -- HE KEPT HIS HANDS MOVING and never did a "double set." The batting team's head coach went ballistic. "THAT'S A BALK! BLUE! BLUE! THAT'S A BALK!" I ignored him and continued to umpire. He kept going as if I didn't hear him, confidently and wrongly exclaiming: "He can't alter his delivery for the purpose of deceiving the runner. That's what the rule book says...VER-BA-TIM!!!!"

I'm still mad at Diz-knee for ruining this show. It started out with so much promise and then went off the rails.

On a side note, advanced to gold medal game in a tourney in this exact scenario - bottom of last inning, bases loaded zero out, tying run on third - short hopped to F5, tagged R3 (who returned thinking it was caught), touched third, throw to second with R1 still standing on first base. First triple play I was ever part of in a game.

Thanks all -- just the powdercoated Wilson frame and harness (no pads) left. $60 shipped?

This is why I wear my sexy, thick framed sports glasses behind the plate. I also keep an older backup pair of BCGs in the car for emergency use. Learned this the hard way when I lost my good glasses after coming off the plateand had to drive home wearing my prescription sunglasses in twilight.

Tell me you are over the age of 55 without telling me...................

I like my Adams XV a lot. It fits well after I modified it extensively. The D30, besides adjusting the throat portion (velcro so simple), fit well and felt good out of the box. After tightening the harness, and then tightening it some more, it fits like a properly broken in glove.

I can only speak to my experience with the Adams XV and moving to the Davis D3O, and will explain it this way: The Adams was a rigid plate system with D3O pads mounted to the inside. The Davis is a D3O pad system with plates mounted on the outside. That's the best way I can say it. The harness design doesn't seem particularly special. But when you get the harness adjusted properly, the protector is "clinging" to you. I tried limited heating, bending of the XV, but it never held my desired shape no matter how much I tightened the harness.

That's fair. But "dialing in" the Enduro felt more permanent and straight forward. Full disclosure, my AS Cobalt is still my backup. I like it. I like the Enduro more.

I'll take the GD pads and cores

Same experience for me with the Mirage frame on Sat in a Varsity game. Fastball fouled straight back to the middle of my mask. Mask on ground at my feet and dead silence from the crowd, waiting to see if I'm good or not. Coaches start telling F2 to walk the ball out, but I just tell my partner he jinxed me because he asked me how it felt to get hit in the new mask prior to the game and I hadn't had it happen yet of course. So he's apologizing from C and I'm laughing it off behind the plate and calling F2 back so we can keep moving. Buy the best and stay safe out there!

I took my first glancing blow in my Enduro on Saturday. Varsity ball, batter fouled one back off my arm/shoulder guard - I didn't feel a thing beyond the impact! CP fits great, is aerated for cooling, is comfortable to wear and protective. Everything that one could ask for in a great CP!

Tangent -- I will die on this hill: continually in motion is not the same thing as a continuous motion. Anyway. Heard about a recent local EJ where a usually docile parochial school coach had some issues all night with a base umpire. It started getting dark (no lights), and there was some ongoing back and forth about whether to call it or not. They kept going. The game took a significant change, and then the umpires decided to call it mid-inning. The coach screams from the dugout "You haven't seen a f###ing thing all night, why does it matter now?!"