law_reb

I coach my son's team (9 & 10 year old Dizzy Dean league) as well as umpiring. This year I coached the All-Stars as well. I don't umpire for the league in which we play. After working my real job, coaching my son's team, watching my 7 year old daughter play softball, and calling my own schedule of games I don't seem to have any more time to spend at the ball park.

Congrats Thunderheads! Not sure why some feel the need to downplay their new accomplishments. We're all at different stages in our umpiring careers for a variety of reasons. In my opinion, I think we should enjoy the new levels and not try to compare ourselves to everyone else around here. I think the variety experiences of the members here adds a lot to the discussion and makes things more interesting. We may have a D-1 guy, a local league umpire who always works solo, and a Little League volunteer discussing things in the same topic.

Congrats! It seems as though you enjoyed your weekend. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the heads up. I know I want the convertible jacket, but I may hold off on the shirts and see what changes are made.

My high school association is slow to change, and as such, we have not caught up with the pro style Majestic shirts and the convertible jacket as of yet. Some haven't even caught on with the black yet. Myself and a couple other guys decided we should set the standard and get the shirts and jacket for next year. A couple of the college guys that also work with us in the high school association have them, and I always feel a little embarassed that I don't. In looking to purchase these items it seems that everyone has them on clearance. That's good for my wallet of course. However, that makes me wonder if these items are being phased out. I know the jacket has only been around a couple years and the shirts for 3 or 4. Does anyone know if these items are being discontinued? I'd hate to spend the money to buy an item to get more "current" and then end up not being able to use them because they are discontinued.

In 2000 I bought a mask, chest protector, and shin guards from Honigs. I didn't have any back-ups. 2 years ago I replaced my mask and kept the old one for a back-up. Later that year I worked a tournament in which they gave me a mask, it is now my back-up. This year I replaced my shin guards and chest protector. I gave my old mask, chest protector, and shins to a new umpire. I guess I said all that to say gear is not my priority. I get what I like and stick with it. I'm still wearing the same Oakleys I wore playing in college. Until 2 years ago I didn't consider going to clinics, I didn't know any better. I worked high school and local youth ball and thought I was pretty good. Then I worked a tournament with "quality" umpires and I knew I wanted what they had. I've been to clinics each of the past 2 years and feel so much more confident with my abilities. I want to be one of the "quality" umpires and will continue to spend my money to make that happen.

I'm not a fan of navy ball bags. Someone previously in the thread said, "Black, because it matches your belt and shoes." I guess maybe that's why I don't like navy. I do have a set of navy that I used to wear when we wore navy shirts. Our general rule is the plate umpire picks the shirt/jacket color. So, I choose black shirt/jacket, light blue w/ black collar, or in the summer cream w/ black collar so I can wear black ball bags. Occasionally during the high school season I will have a partner who only has a navy jacket. That was our official color until two seasons ago when we added black as well. Some have not purchased black jackets yet so I don't really have a choice but to wear navy. For those games I use gray ball bags. When I order my pants I order the ball bag that matches those pants. So I have Gerry Davis gray to match those pants, Smitty gray to match those pants, and Ump-Attire gray to match those pants. I'm good with gray bags as long as they match the pants. I am not impressed with those that wear the heather gray bags they've had for 15 years (that are now kind of pinkish) with their charcoal pants.

Just looked at an email I got over the weekend from +POS. It's a summer sale flier. Chest protector is on sale for $99.95 and the flier says, "ONLY A FEW AVAILABLE!!!" So either they have been selling a bunch of them or they didn't start with many. I'm looking forward to the reviews on this one. I use a platinun now, but would like to get a second chest protector in rotation. I have given my old Honigs K-1 to a new umpire who is only calling little guys (10 and under). Need to add a back-up before next years high school season.

In yesterday's (Friday) game. Bases loaded less than 2 outs ball hit umpire that probably would have been a double play. Gave batter 1st moved everyone up a base. Vandy, of course, was not pleased.

Yep. She's been at the same school for the last 12 years. They are making her come back again next year. Maybe someday she'll get to graduate.

I've been wanting to attend the clinic in Springfield the last couple of years. With a wife in the middle of her high school volleyball season and two young children I've been unable to make it happen. My parents live 10 minutes from The Legends complex in Bonner Springs. I guess I have no excuse for not attending the KC clinic this year. Built in child-care with the grandparents and a free place to stay for me.

When Porter comes out the 1st base umire points toward home plate and says, "That's Joe's call. He called it as well."

MidAmUmp, Do companies, such as +POS, ever provide you products, or have representatives of the company come to your clinics, and allow the umpires test out the products at your clinics? Seems like that would be a great way to let a bunch of umpires get a look at a new product that they might not otherwise know/care about. I've been to a clinic at which a retailer, speciffically Ump-Attire, was there and had some of the products they sell for us to take a look at. But I haven't seen a specific company showcasing their product at a clinic. Just curious.

I had a partner this spring in a high school game say, "Show me the ball" on a steal attempt of 2nd base. 2nd baseman held up his glove with the ball securely in it. Then my partner gave the biggest, most emphatic safe call you could imagine. The defensive team head coach had some questions for my partner.

My 9 year-old would love to start umpiring now. He goes to every game with me that he can. He loves to sit and listen to pre and post games with my partners. I've got a couple guys that I work with pretty regularly that have started treating him like one of us. They get him involved in the conversations. He eats it up. They'll ask him questions about situations and rotations and are amazed at what he already knows. He practices plate mechanics during just about every game we watch on tv. My wife thinks he's crazy, I'm as proud as I can be.

I see all the hate, so I'll add another perspective. I've ordered from them recently and had a great experience. Decided to take a chance on some jackets they had priced very low. The jackets turned out to be great quality and fit very well. Placed my order online, got an email letting me know one of my items was out of stock in the size I ordered, sent an email back asking to change to a different size, received a confirmation email, received my package a couple days later. No problems whatsoever. I'd buy from them again.

Davis clearly stated on his site that his combo might not work with every type of shinguard. Davis clearly stated on his site that his combo pants might not work with every type of shinguard. It very well may have stated that on the website. I certainly wasn't trying to say anything bad about Gerry Davis, his product description, or his pants. I have base and plate pants from him that I wear regularly and like just fine. Some of my partners had the combos and I decided to give them a try. I was just giving my experience with the only combos I've ever owned. They are too tight in the lower leg for me to be comfortable. That is both with Honigs and Wilson shinguards. The best way to put my feeling on the combos is the folllowing: on the bases I feel like I'm wearing plate pants and behind the plate I feel like I'm wearing base pants. Therefore, I choose to wear plate pants behind the plate and base pants in the field and not buy any more combos. I recognize that others are comfortable in the combos, and as such, they should wear them if that's what they like.

I have always worn plate pants behind the plate and base pants when I'm on the bases. A while back I bought a pair of GD combo's to wear for calling tournament ball. I found that on the bases the legs are too wide, just flapping in the wind. With my shin guards on for plate games the legs are too tight. They are now my go to pants for bad weather games. I won't knock anyone else for wearing them, but they didn't work for me. A lot of guys I work with wear combos. Maybe if I had started out with just combos it would have been different.

I have seen some fan behavior the last couple of weeks that makes me wonder what causes people to believe it is acceptable/appropriate/possible to behave the way they do. I know we are to remain cool, calm, and collected no matter what the situation, but I have seen 2 situations recently where the umpires were taken to the breaking point. One instance I only saw the end of, and it didn't end well. I was outside the umpire building waiting for my partner to get baseballs to head to our field. I see an umpire walking from one of the fields with a guy walking a couple steps behind him who was obviously mad and talking to the umpire. I have no idea what happened during the game or where his partner was. I started walking towards them to try to stop any possible situation from escalating. Before I could get close enough the umpire turned around and started screaming at the guy. They got close to each other and the guy went down in a heap like he had been shot. I was coming from behind the umpire and couldn't tell if there was any contact between them. I then ran to get between them. The umpire heads for the building in tears and visibly shaken. Of course, the guy gets up and starts hollering that he needs to see someone in charge, he's been verbally and physically assaulted by an umpire. I told the UIC what I saw and don't know what happened afterwards. I do know the umpire had games at that complex this past weekend. The second instance my partner was the target. We had three games on the day with absolutely no problems until the last inning of game 3. Pop up hit down 3rd base line with LF, 3rd, and shortstop all running for it. Drops between them very close to the line and my partner points fair emphatically. Parent behind home plate starts screaming "that's two blue! two horrible calls! get off the field! you suck! you're horrible! get off the field! how can you live with yourself! you're stealing the game from these kids!" And a few other things. The score is 12-7 at that time. My partner ignores him and returns toward the plate to continue the game. The Head Coach and I make eye contact and I point towards the stands and mouth "stop him". This is a coach I've had in games 10+ times and never had any problems from him or his team. The coach walks over to the screen and the guy gets quiet. We don't hear anything else from him during the game. When the game ends the guy is at the screen waiting and starts berating my partner again. I hustle in and get between them and we walk for the exit. When we get to the exit he is waiting for us there, and wants to talk some more. I had already told my partner not to say a word, I would handle it. I was between them and we continued to walk as he continued to yell, just ignoring him. Of course, there is no tournament staff nearby to alert to our problem. All the games were ending about the same time and they were on different fields handing out trophies. Because I was between them he decided to start calling my partner a chicken s**t, a p****y, and other choice names since "he needed a body guard". He followed us for a hundred feet or so and then got in his parting shot, "I'll be waiting for next time!" I never felt physically threatened by this guy, I was twice his size. But if I wasn't there I believe my partner very well could have felt very threatened. We went to our building with no further incident and made a report with our UIC. We were returning to our cars when the guy (who was apparently waiting for my partner) drives up close to my partner and starts to yell some more. I was right there and was able to get between them with my back to him blocking my partner and telling my partner not to say a word. To my partners credit, he kept his cool and didn't do anything to get himself in trouble somehow. As he drove off I jotted down the license plate number and added all the new details to my report. This is a complex that has a police presence, but they weren't around when we needed them. They generally do a good job at this park of handling these problems, so we'll see what happens in this instance as it was a local teams parent. I just can not rationalize what makes people act this way. It's a 14 year-old summer baseball game. This is really the first time I've had to deal with this. Since yesterday I've been trying to determine what we should have done differently in this instance and prepare myself better in case this were to happen again.

I saw the game in person. From my seat the pick off move in question was odd, but I couldn't tell that it was a balk. It almost looked like in his motion he turned his leg toward 2nd, started the turn back to home, and put his foot down right behind the rubber. There were 4 D-I umpires looking at it and didn't call it. I haven't seen a tv replay. Just because it's odd doesn't mean it's a balk. And, by the way, I am an Ole Miss fan. Glad to be back in the supers. The announcer was Dave Perno, the former coach of the Georgia Bulldogs.

I just gave mine away a couple weeks ago to a new umpire. I used it for 12 years and it served me well. Love my new platinum so much I gave the Honigs away.

Assistant District Attorney (prosecutor) for the State of Tennessee.

High school varsity playoff game. Runners on 1st and 2nd 0 outs. Line drive back to pitcher, hits his glove, goes 10 feet in the air straight up, he catches the ball as it comes down. Runners both took off once it bounced in the air. They both start to scramble back after the catch. Pitcher throws to F3 touching 1st base and gets the out there. F3 throws to F6 at 2nd base and he attempts to tag the runner. The runner beats the tag and F6 never touched 2nd base. Had he stretched out like an F3 taking a throw we would have had a triple play. The catcher thought it was a force out that had been removed by retiring the runner at 1st, had no idea it was an appeal play. I would guess F6 thought the same thing. Still haven't ever had a triple play turned in one of my games.

That's why it's important to communicate with your partners. When I move up to 3rd I make sure my partner knows I'm there. A simple, "Bob, I'm at third" takes out all the guesswork. I appreciate it when my partners do the same when I'm in the field. If I don't hear them I prepare as though they aren't there until I can get a look. Just because a signal was exchanged doesn't mean he's going to automatically be there.

A couple weeks back I had a playoff game with a partner who struggled a little bit with 3 man mechanics. We had a thorough pregame, but he froze during the game. I had the plate, and twice I made calls at 2nd base when he failed to take the batter-runner when the 3rd base unpire went out on balls hit down the line into the corner. Both times he was still back behind 1st base watching me make the call. The first time I was caught off guard and really had to bust it there to get in a good position to make a call. Between innings my partners had a chat, and I was hoping things got straightened out. The second time I was ready just in case, and it was a good thing I was. Outside of those two plays everything went well with rotations and positioning. Later in the game, with a runner on 1st, ground ball to F4 and they attempt a double play. The runner at first was safe. Defensive coach walks out slowly towards me and asks for "time". I grant "time" and ask him what he needs. He asks me if there was interference by the runner at 2nd base on the turn of the double play. He said the runner threw his arms up in the air as he was sliding. I informed him that the call belonged to my partner and he would have to ask him what he had. He said, "I know it's not your call, but neither were the two calls at 2nd base earlier and you nailed both of those. Can't you take this one too." We had a brief chuckle. Then he just walked slowly back to the dugout.