T-Rav

Amen brother! I strongly dislike the grey ball bag look, it looks very smitty.

I only use grey dry lo's, your ball bags have to match the color of your pants.

Rich, he must have known that you were an accomplished football, basketball, and baseball official and thought that he could show you who's the boss on his field. Unfortunately guys like this are too much of a common place in youth softball, half the softball officials I have worked with are just plain scary out on the field.

So after about 20 games of wearing the shins, I am very pleased with them and highly recommend the UE shins to anyone. The protection is outstanding, I have been drilled several times in the knee and shin with HSV pitching and haven't felt more than some pressure. They are light enough were they do not hinder my mobility and are very comfortable. If anyone is in the market for new shins or a CP, you should look no further than the UE products. I will use the UE's for baseball and stick to the ultra light weight Bauers for softball.

12 missed pitches is a low number for @JaxRolo ; 12 missed pitches in an inning is a very good inning for him, that would explain why he's throwing coaches out every week and is banned from USSSA in north Florida.

I'll echo Majordave's comments, I own a WV gold and allstar CP and the UE is my favorite and the only one I will wear.

The MLB Honig's shirts definitely run small and are sized for the bases. They also have shorter sleeves which is the reason why they are looking so small and tight on the CWS crews. They are excellent shirts though and the material is great but I believe it is only being used on their MLB shirts not the other colors.

I have not tried any of the Ump-Attire ball bags but I own 7 pairs of the dry lo ball bags and love them. I recently added 3 black ones to my collection because the 3 I purchased 3 years ago were a little too faded for use, they looked more brown than black. I prefer to hold 4 baseballs/2 softballs in one bag but they can comfortably hold 5 or 6 baseballs/3 softballs along with a stop watch, indicator, plate brush, and lineup card holder. The JE Academy has a good deal, if you buy one for $16.95 you can add another for $12. http://www.umpireacademy.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=100

Gold, its a trend setting color and I have gotten nothing but positive remarks about my gold mask.

6 stitch and sometimes an 8 stitch.

As long as the suspenders match your balloon, your HSM that lacks TW pads, and your shirt that does not match the color of the jerseys of the teams participating; then your good to go. Seriously, you're 17 and need suspenders?

I just finished a 15 game HS showcase tournament last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and the temperature was in the high 80's and low 90's with high humidity. While it is important to stay well nourished, I strongly believe hydration is key. Here is what I do to stay hydrated, I typically work all my big tournaments with the same partner and we work well together. Before the start of the tournament it is very important to drink allot of water and get prehydrated. For breakfast I will try and eat oatmeal and fruit along with some orange juice. During the game I bring a big cooler that can hold 12 waters and plenty of ice, along with a cooler that I only use for extra ice and black ice cooling neck wraps and perfect cooling towels. I try to drink at-least a bottle of water every 2 innings, typically its a bottle of water every inning, and I will almost always run to the bathroom to take a leak during the middle of the game in-between innings, if I'm not pissing clear then I know I need to get hydrated fast. For lunch I pack PB & J sandwiches with pretzels and power bars, sometimes I will pack ham and cheese sandwiches but I prefer to keep it simple. For snacks in between games power bars and fruit like blueberries, grapes, strawberries, apple sauce and snap peas are my favorite. The most important thing to surviving these tournaments is hydration, as previously mentioned I bring coolers out on the field and always try to keep 12 waters cold, I also like to throw in a Gatorade or two, along with some coconut water from Costco and most recently I have been drinking some smart waters. But what really does the trick for me along with proper hydration is a cooling towel, I use the ones from Costco called perfect and will soak them in ice water and a Florida Water concoction in my other cooler. While on the plate on really hot days I will wrap in around my neck all game and soak in in-between innings, yes it does look like I have a blue towel around my neck and my shirt will typically be wet around the neck but I am a happy and cool camper and haven't gotten any crap about it. On the bases I use the black ice neck pads, they work really well on the bases and certainly can be used behind the plate but the ice cold feeling of the cooling towel can not be beat. Stay hydrated my friend.

I own 3 sets, 2 black and 1 tan, I bought a tan and black set back in 2012 and I love them and haven't had any issues. My newest set was bought in February 2014 and I only took one hit since then while wearing them but it did stun me like I got hit but I had no ill effects though it was enough for me to buy into the notion that something is different about the 2014's compared to the previous years. As far as the protection goes in the 2012's, the hardest hit I've taken was a BBCOR bat to the mask in a HS game, it really rung my bell and I was able to finish the game. All of the mask shots I've taken haven't left me with any ill effects so the TW pads must work. For the mean while until we figure out what the deal is with the 2014's, I'll keep them sidelined until my 2012's can no longer be used.

I don't own one but I would imagine the cool factor, the lack of availability, the welding, how lightweight it is, and just the Nike name makes it oh soo special.

How do you clean your mask after each use?

What, no gold harness? Don't half-ass it man! I've been meaning to get my TG and harness painted gold....

Here she is, this gold Rawlings LMXTI will be my day game mask. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bym1kEV9xh2OSVVBVEFlRnVYeFNFMXhQdXVNMTMtQURLZTNZ/edit?usp=sharing

Major Dave I thinking of pulling the trigger on the Unequal CP and Shin Guards. Have you taken a shot in the shoulder area? Do you feel like there is ample protection up there? I have talked to people who have the Unequal and they absolutely love it. But no one can say if you take a shot on the shoulder it has enough protection. and by shoulder area, I am more concerned with my colar bone being covered. Thank you in advance. Took a shot in the shoulder the other night. No problems and it was a college game. As far as the collarbone, adjust the CP tightly around the neck area so your collarbone is covered. Get the All Star delta harness and you will never have to adjust the CP. I also use the UE mask and I love it. When I was finally hit in the mask it was more startling than anything. Just a ting and almost like a slight tap. Kind of hard to explain. I second everything the Major stated, I have owned the UE CP since last July and have taken numerous shots with no ill effects. While you at it, pull the trigger on the shins and get the CP for $150, I paid $200 for mine and would have loved to have been able to take advantage of that deal. Make sure to get a Allstar delta flex harness and remove the neck/collar bone attachment so that you have the center plate covering your collarbone. You will not be disappointed. I have looked into adding my gold plates to the UE but until I take a shot that makes me doubt the protection offered by the UE I won't try to modify anything.

WOW! The Force 3's weigh about 1.5 pounds. Too heavy? Compared to the Bauers I had been wearing, its a sizable difference. My experience may have been over exaggerated because of the amount of games I worked this weekend which made every ounce of gear feel significantly heavier.

I wore my new UE 18.5 shins this weekend for 7 games and I am very happy with the protection they offer. I took 5 shots to the shins this weekend, all in 18U summer ball showcase tournament, 4 of the shots were glancing and I barely felt the impact, just some slight pressure. I did take a direct shot on a fastball in the dirt that hit me mid-shin and just a loud whack sound and some pressure, I am sold on the protection these shins offer. However I have been using the Bauer hockey shins and was slightly disappointed with how much these things weigh compared to the Bauers, with the Bauers I don't feel like I am wearing shins, with the UE's I definitely know I am wearing shins. They also seemed to have a much greater profile than my Bauer's. I think the ankle protection could be improved, at-least for me, it seems that the UE's protectors are a little to far back to cover the front of my ankle with the circular plastic/kevlar ankle protector. In summary, I believe the protection offered by the UE shins is second to none and I will rely on them for the majority of my baseball games but will stick to the Bauers for softball. I believe they are very comfortable and hopefully will break in more after I work more plates using them; one of my fellow brothers this weekend said to his partner "here comes Robocop", so I must be walking like Robocop while wearing these, plus my shined shoes, pressed polywools, clean ballbag and shirt certainly aided in him rendering this observation. I will say that I wished the UE shins had a lower profile and felt less like I was wearing shin guards but there are some obvious trade offs that would need to be made in order to accommodate that but these shin guards in my opinion are better than their competitors.

I had the same issues, I've taken several hits with the NB and they are not fun at all, I use a shock doctor steel cup now and it seems to do the job better than the NB due to my build.

It is best to size up with the Reebok zig plate shoes, they run small, in my case I am a size 12 in everything else and the 12's were way too tight so I had to get 13's which fit perfectly.

I would imagine they just sew it over the TW logo.

I had this happen to my first pair of zig plates, I never contacted Reebok about it but I just went to home depot and picked up some glue and Velcro and Velcro'd them the plate on and it has worked great for 8+ months without any issues. I originally tried going to a cobbler but they said they couldn't reattach it because of the protective plate. I'll post some pictures later today.