GerryB

Heh, heh, I liked the split screen. What all fans don't see; Eddings taking a bunch, giving Wieters the stop, lets him go on some more and then dumps him.

Similar last night...semi-pro, pitchers throwing hard. Inside passed ball, catcher elected not to try, right off my left hand which was mostly absorbed by my indicator, breaking it, although my fingers are swollen too. Two fouls balls, one to my stomach, the other a bar bender to my Wilson mask, and then another no-effort by the catcher who let a high one come through to my mask. Uncharacteristically, I told the catcher to catch the *&%$@ ball. He replied "what's the problem, you got equipment"....

Yes, the PU needs to make the call but it is a call that you can't always see clearly. In the games I work the base umpire will signal catch or not on these by opening his hand, or making a fist (with his hand still down by his side). It is the PU's option to take the BUs version or not. Don't know the communication level here; maybe the same. Hugging the F2 is a way of conveying that he, the PU, might not have had the best look, setting up that check to U1. I don't know what Leyland said but if he's FBombing or similar, someone has to get him.

I wore that exact same Nike shirt on the dish two weekends ago. Loved it. Kept me cool and dry on a 72 degree day. But then again all I had worn on the plate up to this point were cotton Ts!

I prefer the jock outside the pocket as well; with the SD is the empty pocket noticable with the cup outside?

Very significant changes in 3-man.

Let me be contrary here, Honig's silver w/ Team Wendy's

Great question, good ideas. My wife retired from doing mine, and all the tailors in my area have English as a second language; good service, just not much baseball knowledge so I had the same quandry a few weeks ago. Wore my pads w/plate shoes, and then my base shoes with base pants. I brought a picture of an MLB crew standing at home plate and told the tailor to make them like the picture. Plate pants wokrd out great, base pants just a little long.

Took my first square on shot with my Wendy's today. Nothing. No head jar, no jaw clencher. Pretty amazing. Catcher asked if I wanted time...nope, right back to the game.

My partner yesterday had a modified Douglas WV. He put a (long) strip of velcro over the t-hook openings. To the inside of his straps he sewed the other velcro side. Very clean and smooth, body conforming. And the WV was plain as day under his plate coat .

I'm warming up to the idea kyle - what kind of shirt? I know I've said this before but I can't get this image out of my head...

This http://www.itempost....l/1/cioinc/4212 or this, http://www.itempost....l/1/cioinc/4208 New Era too...

Is it a Donzis (sp?) his Dad wore one. I believe a guy named Donzis built his own, out of football (Easton?) pads. They were precursors to the Riddell, et al. hard shells. I think they are referenced in the West patent. Saw one in person; really solid neck (extra neck piece) and shoulder protection, maybe not so much for the ribs. Bruce Froemming had one too if memory serves.

Joe's Patent on the original Riddell design: http://www.google.com/patents?id=DUcgAAAAEBAJ&printsec=drawing&zoom=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

When I first ordered a Riddell (too late by days) I was told that Joe wanted more money from Riddell (his original design). They wouldn't give it to him so he took off for Douglas then sued Riddell to stop production. Rinse, repeat; same deal with his move from Douglas to Wilson.

Read page 1 (oops, my bad, missed the on them).

Is that a 15"?

Let me second Kevin's comments. Really great protection, and light. My only issue is my pair has a tendency to squeak.

I own an original Douglas WV. Absolutely love it...but the gap IS a no-padding gap. I took a Big Boy shot right between shoulder "cap" and the curved over the shoulder piece. It was bad, ball on shoulder but could have been worse. I got a WV Gold the next day. Now, given the discussion here I am considering the possibility that on my Douglas the cap may have been manufactured too far away from the clavicle piece. I always thought it dangled funny and seemed to slide down. Maybe Jeff would tighten it, but once burned... Having said this the Douglas was/is awesome to wear. Light, easy to move in, low-profile. I wore it in all NCAA divisions and all impacts on it were fine. More comfortable than the Gold. But my Gold is starting to unravel...and I am considering a Douglas-Douglas but I'm a t-hook guy and how expensive would that make the rig? I did send my CP and LGs back to Douglas for yearly reconditioning and that is a nice bonus to have the actual manufacturer "make it new"! Wednesday I worked a DII tilt. My partner, the plate guy, wore an off-the-shelf black Douglas. Looked good under a plate coat and he's never had a problem.

Wow! Looks great! More umpire porn! What was the extra $$?

Having used some of the older +POS chest protectors with the plastic stays in each cell, I'm concerned about "closed cell" design. Each cell may be fine, but there always is that ball that hits squarely between the cells - on the seam. Ouch! For now, I'm with kylejt.

Saw those Nike iniforms yesterday with the colored short sleeves that make them look like the "vest" uniforms - but they are not. Cold afternoon, pitcher had a long sleeve black compression shirt underneath. Opposing HC complained that it was distracting to have two colored sleeves on, and was rules violation. By rule, the pitcher had sleeves of uniform (non-white) color underneath his uniform shirt. Yes, if he was wearing a true vest he'd have on two undershirts of differing colors. But that is not what we had. What do you think?

Let me vote for the Honig's/Team Wendy's. Light enough, great protection.

I started wearing that exact set last summer. As boyinr said the frame is not the lightest but very solid and is designed to deflect off of every surface. I have Zorbium pads. They feel much smaller than the Wilson wraps which is just something to get used to. I have only taken one square hit off them and the pads worked as advertisd. I recommend the combo.

Washing them in the dishwasher might help.