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Do something like this.....

Though I have been a little less active on the site over the last few months, some nice things have been happening from an umpiring perspective: - I was asked to be our HS association's rules interpreter - I was asked to be a classroom instructor for the same association - I was invited into the local college association and will start calling JUCO ball next season. It's my understanding that from a total pool of about 45-50 that applied, 14 were selected to be evaluated and 6 were then accepted into the association. I feel incredibly lucky that a few experienced umpires have taken an interest in helping me to improve and always seem to point me in the right direction on the best ways to find better baseball and to move up. It's going to be difficult to manage work, HS games and college games in the Spring, but it should be fun!

This is the off season, so what are you lard butts doing now that Thanksgiving dinner is officially left-overs? Being lazy I'll bet. Get your potato-like bodies off the sofa and do 50 air squats, 40 pushups, and 30 6-count burpees RIGHT NOW! Brian PS: Hi Warren!

I appreciate what you guys are saying, and I realize that a warning is not required. “Coaches can still be ejected on a first offense if it is deemed to be major.” Quoting my OP from above. The problem is when this is covered as a rule change with the coaches next spring many coaches are going to interpret this as a should be warned before being ejected situation. The ruthless reality is many coaches (I work with a bunch of them in an administrative capacity beyond umpiring) don’t think they are that far out of line when many umpires think that they are well over the line. Here’s the scenario I’m most concerned about. There is a close play.....Coach "Tasmanian Devil" comes flying out of the dugout protesting the call. The umpire has had enough but has not issued a formal warning throws coach Taz out of the game. Coach Taz goes back to his athletic director and says: "This guy must have been yelled at by his wife as he had rabbit ears. I was supposed to receive a warning. I didn’t swear at the official. It was a terrible call. He should not have thrown me out of the game. It a shame that guys like that are getting paid with that brutal of a call. Blah blah blah.......Now the umpire who had a perfectly legitimate ejection is now defending why he did not give a warning to his assigner. If he’s lucky enough to have a supportive assigner no problem. But there’s a lot of athletic directors and assignors that I know that are company men and women that would throw the umpire under the bus in support coach Taz not getting his warning.

Swapped my Diamond pads out for TW this past season. Last HS game I did I took a fastball right to the face. Got my bell rung and had a headache at work later that night for a hour or so, but am thankful I spent the $45 to replace them. And to think, my wife thought I was nuts to buy them!

That is MFing GENIUS! Seriously, you waited this long to post this bit of information!? Really!?

@grayhawk if you need something to cool off with during your next game let me know. I'll send some snow out to you

I was going to stay out of this "to-saw-or-not-to-saw" debate, but I thought I'd just relay this incident as some food for thought. A young fellow umpire I know who'd been umpiring for nearly 8 years got a wild hair last year and removed the throat guard from his mask because of (as he put it) "the cool factor". He hung a Mizuno spider on it and used it regularly for HS Varsity and adult rec ball for a few weeks until one day, while calling an adult game, a 92 mph fastball was fouled back and hit the upper part of the dangler near its attachment point...the attachment on one side of the throat guard failed and the spider was driven into his larynx at an angle. His larynx was fractured and (thank God) the home team's 3rd baseman happened to be a medical doctor who was able to perform an emergency tracheotomy on him almost immediately. He was rushed to the hospital a few minutes later and recovered after a few weeks. This umpire never called another game after that, and his voice has been permanently affected. I can't help but to think that if the mask had been left intact, he probably would've only had his bell rung and perhaps a sore jaw...but nothing life threatening requiring an ambulance ride to the hospital. I realize we're all big boys (and girls) here and can decide for ourselves which risks we choose to take as far as equipment goes. I don't wanna preach. I mean, I myself can't get used to wearing a dangler at all, so I rely on the mask's throat protection bars. Sawing those off wouldn't work for me, cos then I'd have no protection at all. But I agree with @maineump when he says that the integrated throat guard is much safer than any dangler. And if you have both, that's an extra degree of protection.

Armour All (sp?) leather wipes work great after the shoes have had dirt cleaned off them with a brush & water.

The first hat I got while umpiring was a pro mesh type. It now looks almost purple but didn't notice any temperature difference. I now wear it when I don't give a crap....aka slow pitch softball.

He uses a broken one now

Assignor asks we to do a 12U game a couple of days ago. Partner shows up. Its a guy that has been around 2-3 years but has never worked a game with a partner. All he has worked is 8u pitching machine games. He had no clue! but he actually did a good job making the safe/out calls. He is in C and the batter hits a grounder down the first base line. The ball is "Foul" Partner starts yelling "Foul Ball" "Foul Ball" and pointing "foul". Partner in "A" Fly ball to right fielder who camps under the ball. Partner starts calling the out before the ball gets to the fielder. Fielder bobbles the ball. Partners starts calling "safe" Fielder regains control and catches the ball. Partner then calls the Out. He seemed willing to learn. Asked questions during the game. And we had a long post-game. This is the type of new guy I am willing to work with. Good Hustle. Willing to learn.