Stan W.

I had 2 pairs of TW pads and to be honest, I could never get any satisfaction from them. My first pair I got came in a trade I made with a retiring umpire. The quality of manufacture was poor as the stitching was amateurish. I changed them into my gamer mask and gave them a good try. I never could get them to fit my mask correctly and they never softened up to fit my face. I eventually passed them on for free to someone who wanted to give TW a try. I bought another pair and I found them better in most aspects, but they just didn't wow me in any way. I went back to Honig's Doeskin mask pads. Just my .02

Aghhhhhh............won't this one ever die....

I had one of these...( a long time ago) back when everything I wore was +POS) absolutely excellent protection..... a regular furnace!..... used it for a few years, sold it......saw it last year still in service.....

I never needed a throat guard until the day I needed one....and haven't worked a game since without one........

between McGriff's and Officiating.com those were the days of "Dodge City" internet sites. Rough and tumble, yes! and it was clearly the deep end of the pool but there were some amazing contributors ....and some good information was made available. Ultimately the personal issues made it untenable.

absolutely! which is why you often hear the infielders yell out TAG! once the bag is touched to remind the other players the force is removed and a tag is needed.

The only person I know who definitely had a pair of Nike Plate shoes was Tim Christensen. Tim C. or Tee (internet names) worked with NIKE to develop a prototype plate shoe. Now this was a long time ago, but if I'm not mistaken NIKE felt the market was too small for the effort and return on investment. That being said, Tim still had the prototypes.......

oh how I miss my friend Mike....

and my favorite.....Day game or Night game?

I remember that as well.......and I hated that interpretation.....that was early in my FED career and I'm glad they changed it

Mine isn't funny but it's something I'll never regret. I called the Police. I umpired his game on a storybook beautiful day. It was Blue sky, sunshine and baseball. I know he was nine or ten years old. My memory of him is not all that clear until he came to bat. I was umpiring a kid game as a favor for my assignor. I saw the pitch that came hard at him, I cringed knowing he was going to be hit and I watched him crumple when the ball hit him square in the body. He went down and the tears flowed..... I bent to help him, and try to comfort him. His coach ran out and we lifted his shirt to see the mark the ball made. And then we saw it, it was already red and angry looking. But when lifting the shirt, I saw the other marks the angry purple bruises that only fists and adult hands can make and way too many to be accidental..... He tugged his shirt down and got up and he said he was fine. He took a moment to dry his tears and kid like ran off to first.The game, of course, was more important than his getting hurt. I was the one who called the police. I'll never regret that. His coach bought the hotdogs after the game, more to delay the departure of the team, while I called the police. I heard later he was taken out of the home and his parental abuser was charged. I heard he moved to live with relatives. I never saw him again. I wonder so much about this boy. How could anyone do that to a child. On TV now there are ads for reporting child abuse....and the reason most don’t is "how can I be sure?". I can tell you that I was, that day, and remain today, 100% totally sure. The evidence of the beatings that boy was taking left me no grey area.... I wonder if baseball was his refuge from the monster. I wonder if he is ok. I wonder if he ever knew how much he has affected my life and my relationship with my son and with the boys I umpire. I wonder if the coach and I will ever be able to meet and not talk about that day......so far its the first thing we mention when we meet after a long off season. I wonder how many others are out there. I wonder if he is happy. Best thing I ever did on a ball field?.....I called the Police.

all done by ZOOM

I got to add my all time example... HS player strikes out on a smoking fast ball right down the middle....takes his bat and slams it on the plate 3 times very loudly saying F@&K..F#$%..F*&^...( everyone in the complex heard him) I look over to Coach and told him he needed a replacement for # 18....he had been ejected for profanity.... The Player Dad says: whats going on? The Player says: I just got FING ejected! The Dad say: what the F&^% for? The Player says: for something I FING said! The Dad says : what did you FING say?........... Coach just looks at me and shrugs his shoulders....