guitarplaya2007

This times a million. Nothing is worse for an umpire's focus (besides seeing two bikers having sex in the woods off 17...Happy Gilmore reference for you all) than walking to the field (or on the field) only to realize you forgot something whether it be sunglasses, lineup holder, pen, cup, etc. I did that twice this year during the high school season. Both times it was because I forgot my lineup card holder and pen. So I had to do the pregame meeting, run back to my car at the conclusion of the meeting, grab the holder and pen, then run back to the field and start the game without seeing any warm up pitches. Luckily, both games were blowouts, so my disorganization didn't affect the game. Precisely why I've come up with a routine as to how i get dressed, not only does the order make sense to me (it doesn't matter if it makes sense to anyone else) but it helps me to not forget anything. It also helps me do my in head pre game, this may not work for all but this is just me.

thx, i saw him work a game or two a week ago and don't remember seeing the cast... maybe i'm just blind, I AM an umpire after all lol

Anyone know what happened? Watching the cards/padres game tonight and sw ed is on first base wearing a cast... Picture isn't really clear but you can see the cast on his right arm...

I try to do as little business as possible with ump attire, never liked the uniforms they've kept in stock there, and their protective equipment is just as expensive as the next place so I would much rather do business with honigs. Never had a problem getting anything on time and have never ever had a complaint about their uniforms and they are worth the extra couple of bucks you have to pay to get them from honigs, quality is much better and will last a lifetime if properly cared for. I can count on one hand how many times I've ordered from ump attire in the past 2 years, twice. Once to order smitty food ems, and once to order delta flex harnesses as As I could never get a hold of all star to order. If I can get the product elsewhere, I generally do as I've had nothing but complaints about the product from umpnattire, as far as their uniforms go. I buy my protective equipment where I buy my uniforms....

never heard of a cup referred to as a sunflower seed and a band aid... Lmao. And yes I too spend an hour or so once I get home cleaning shoes, beating the dust out of my pants if possible and just cleaning verything else up getting ready for the next plate job.

I will have to try that... do you ever have a problem with your compression pant waistband showing?

Great Transaction with AllanA

well seeings as it's an equipment forum that's why i put all of the brand names in there. The reason we discussed getting dressed was more of how we get mentally prepared for our plate jobs, i think it all started because one guy was getting dressed and we were telling dirty jokes and he got mad because we were interrupting his routine. This sparked a convo as to how we get dressed and why we do things the way we do before plate jobs. Btw this was at the cocoa expo barracks and anyone who has been there knows that there is no t.v. to watch and nothing to really do while actually at the barracks during the day besides sleep, talk baseball, or drink beer. A lot of the last one was done there. Back on topic though, i figured this could possibly be a combination thread of the equipment you own, your pre-plate dressing routine, and so on and so forth. Didn't think anyone would be so anal retentive about it all. Sorry I was kidding, didn't mean for you to take it seriously Figured you were, but i still know people that do, don't see how they can drive to the yard dressed, I would feel awkward... but again that's my routine, it gets me mentally prepared for my game, plate or base job. Maybe we should rename this thread pre-plate routine? Maybe that would spark more on topic conversation....

I think it has to do with my very skinny ankles, I'm 6' 3" and 160 lbs, so my legs are long and skinny, hard to get the ankle straps tight enough to not spin, the cotton VASTLY helps with the shin guards spinning, this may be the shin guard's problem...

There's reasons why some people get dressed the way they do, when I stayed in Cocoa FL for 2 months working games and getting dressed in the barracks with 15 other guys we all discussed how we dressed and reasons why, I.E. putting your shoes and shins on before your pants so as to not wrinkle your pants rolling them up to get your shins on under them and so on and so forth... many of us have routines when we get ready in the morning for a day at work, why can't we have a routine when getting ready to work a game, particularly a plate job?

Oh man i can't get dressed at home, i'm just ocd because I have a routine before plate jobs, for whatever reason if something gets screwed up I feel off, I'm not ocd about anything else (besides keeping my shoes cleaned and pants pressed) in my life other than this, just something that I've come to do every plate job...

How do you get dressed for a plate job? Post the order you get dressed in and any superstitions you may have as far as getting dressed (I.E. left/right shoe first) 1.) Compression shorts 2.) Nutty Buddy 3.) Under armor Jock (The one that comes with the nutty buddy I don't like as much as my under armor jock) 4.) Compression Tights (Runners Leggings, whatever you want to call them) 5.) COTTON black crew length socks (Cotton gives better grip to the ankle straps on shin guards to keep them from spinning) 6.) Honigs Poly Wool Plate Pants (Pants unzipped with inner retainer button fastened, outside fasteners undone until shirt is on) 7.) Reebok Field Magistrate Mid Cut Plate Shoes 8.) Boston Patent Leather Belt (leaving belt unbuckled until uniform shirt and chest protector are on) with Honigs Ball Bags (Left and Right Ball Bag) 9.) Honigs k2010-17 shin guards over the tongue of the plate shoes and obviously under my plate pants, ankle plates removed (And if you must know, I put my left shin guard on first, superstitious) 10.) Undershirt (Color of undershirt depending on color of uniform shirt i am wearing that day obviously) 11.) Wilson Gold Chest Protector/ Wilson Platinum Chest protector depending on my mood for the day (Both With Delta Flex Harness and "Peck Pads" removed on the gold) 12.) Uniform shirt 13.) Zip and fasten pants 14.) Buckle Belt 15.) Put plate brush in back right pocket (of my pants, can't stand digging in ball bags for anything but baseballs) 16.) Indicator in Front Left Pocket 17.) Pen in front right pocket (I've kept them in shirt pockets before, a couple foul balls and ruined shirts later I've learned to keep it in my pants pocket) 18.) Walk to field with Wilson Shock FX Titanium in left hand.

just ordered 2 delta flex harnesses from u a a couple days ago, should be here tomorrow, tried a buddies on a couple months ago and loved it. He also had the team Wendy retrofit done to it, I'll be sending in my gold for the team Wendy retriofit as soon as I can get my deltaflex harness for the platinum, takes 3 to four weeks for the retrofit... Definitely worth the 120 dollar investment if you ask me...

thanks for the input, Steve wouldn't of had anything to do with me if I called him over to chat between innings though, he's not the kind of guy that's going to take an umpires warning seriously, I've worked with him before and he is just "that guy". I hate to sound pessimistic here but that's just the guy he is. But yes I probably should have said something else rather than I told you there was nothing to see back here when he glared at me going back to the dugout but at the time I felt that was the best thing to say. Like I said before though I've learned and will not handle these situations like that again. This game just seemed to be the perfect storm for situations and my head just wasn't in it...

thanks everyone for your input, i've moved on from this situation, learned from my mistakes and I can assure you those wont be happening again. Like what was said at umpire school, the ejections you miss will make you sick, but you wont miss the same one again. Thing is i'm not new to this, I've handled these situations before anin my opinion I've handled them well before, not to toot my own horn. For whatever reason on this day I decided not to eject, it was the wrong decision, I tried things their way and they don't work, so from now on I will handle them the way I always have and put up with the reprocussions.

I agree, I should've run the kids on the spot, and i'm not a "young guy" as some may think, I've just always gone with what my supervisors say they want. If they want me to call balls and strikes standing on my head I will do my damndest to do it and do it well. That is how you advance in a group, you do what you are told to do and handle things the way you were told to. Thing of it is when what you are told to do is obviously not in the best interest of game management and it is only what you are told to do should it really be done? My answer after this whole situation is NO! This situation has made me sick to my stomach, because not only do I now know that my association president does not have my back when I screw up, which we all do, but I know how gutless he is ultimately. I spoke with our assigner, who is not the association president, about this whole situation, he agrees with me that my president should have run him, but he also agrees i could have dumped him way earlier. I told him why and he sympathized, apparently this policy was put into effect by our president and everybody else on the board went along with it because he is the president, blind obedience is never a good thing. Hopefully this opens his eyes as to why we should eject in situations like these and not simply turn the other cheek. My best guess is that he wont see it. I apologize to all of my umpiring brethren for not standing for what I knew was right in this situation and just going with what I was told to do, because I did an injustice to the game of baseball for allowing this to go on without taking care of the situation right away. This will never happen again. I remember what Joe West told us at umpire school and this is really hitting home with me right now, "Our first duty is to the game of baseball, our second is to the league, and our third is to our careers" I didn't fully understand that until just now, we should do what is best for the game of baseball in every situation and then consider what is best for the league and our careers, but our priority is what is best for the game of baseball.

guys i understand, i missed the ejections, got that moved on from that. What they mean about "let stuff like that go" is you are supposed to "turn the other cheek" when a player is showing you up in a non-verbal way such as staring you down while walking to his position. this is high school ball, i would've ejected both of these a$$ clowns in a heartbeat had I been working any other level of baseball for any other assigner/ association who I knew had my back. My only problem here is that the player did verbally "show another umpire up" which was clearly addressed by the association president, my partner in this instance, as an automatic ejection. I got it, i clearly missed the kid jumping out of the box, should've run him right off the bat, pardon the pun, and in any other league/ association i would have run the kid the moment he threw the baseball in my direction, let alone let him walk to his position clearly showing me up while dragging his feet within feet of me. I agree that i handled the situation poorly, but what do we do as umpires, when one of us misses something, I.E. a pulled foot/ swipe tag/ catch no catch etc. we give them help on the call where we can. in this situation I feel like my partner could have "given help" in this situation where he allowed a player to clearly say that his partner, me, sucks. Yes I missed it initially and I don't expect anyone else to clean up my messes, but i just feel like he could've had my back a little more ina situation like this. Thus the reason I am leaving this association and moving on, they have the mindset that it is the umpires' fault when there are ejections, which in some cases it is i'm not denying that, but in this situation both players "ejected themselves" at least once, and the one player my hands were proverbally "tied" in the situation because of directives given to us by our assigner. I'm in no way trying to justify me f***ing up and missing the kid jumping out of the box on me, but i'm giving what was going through my head at the time. I've always had the mindset that if you miss ejections you feel like sh**, and i feel that way now because I did those kids and the game no justice by letting them stay in the game.

Ok let me clear something up real quick, In any other situation I would have run the first baseman when he threw the baseball in my direction and hit the catcher. However, we have been told as an association to warn more and let things like that go, I understand I missed the ejection. But when somebody says that I or my partner "sucks" they are going to get run without missing a beat. That is something, I'm sure, that we are all conditioned to do. I let him go as he stared me down walking and dragging his feet to first, probably at the least should've said something along the lines of "There's nothing going on over here" or "Don't stare me down, go to your position and play ball" however i opted to let it go and give the kid the benefit of the doubt, but my partner clearly saw all of that happen and then still let him stay in the game after he said I sucked.

like i said, i should've run the kid for throwing the baseball in my direction, but I preferred making it a "learning experience" for him by just lighting him and his manager up. the kid who jumped up and out of the boxand started yelling I didn't run mainly because I missed the ejection, instead of running him right away I decided to tell him to get a foot in the box and more or less to shut his ratty, and no that is not supposed to be "bratty" mouth

Ok, yesteday had a district game, Bottom 1st, I'm PU, R1 2 outs, batter hits an easy double possible triple to the right field gap. I start to rotate up to third, once i recognize there won't be a play into third i begin to head back home stopping when R1 rounded third to assure that he touched, sure enough he missed third by about six inches, plain as day. R1 scores and BR is standing on third after a potential time play. Catcher for DT calls time, DT Manager asks if i called time, I say yes. He then instructs his pitcher to step on the rubber so i can put the ball in play, I call play, knowing what is going on, and begin to walk towards third, pitcher throws to third I call R1 out, 3rd out of the inning and no run scores. OT Manager then comes down asking if i really saw it, i explained to him that his runner missed the base by about 6 inches and I saw it clearly. The runner who I just called out then starts towards his position at first base arguing the call, I tell him I already explained it to his manager and that I wasn't going to talk to him about it and he knew as well as I did that he missed the base. Bottom of the 6th inning rolls around, I call a pitch at the bottom of the zone a strike against the team who I previously called out on appeal at third. Batter then jumps up and out of the box yelling "That's not a strike!" I then instructed him that he needed to keep one foot in the box and that it's been a strike all game, he then began to argue back while his first base coach came down and calmed him down. The next pitch to the batter was a foot above his head, he then swings at the pitch and looks right back at me, I then told him that nothing was going on back here and he needed to turn around. The next pitch was clearly up and away which i balled. The 1-2 pitch is a curve ball down the middle which the batter takes for a called strike three. As I call strike three he turns around and stares at me as he heads back to his dugout, i then said to him "There isn't anything going on back here that concerns you so you need to turn around and go back to your dugout. During the next batter's at bat, the runner who I called out earlier for missing third base throws a game ball, without getting my or the catcher's attention after a foul ball, in my direction. The ball bounced off the ground and hit the catcher in the back of the leg, the catcher then began to yell in the direction of the dugout, I instructed him that I would take care of it, in lieu of ejecting the player i kicked the ball off the ground back in his direction and told him that if he ever throws a baseball in my direction again he and his manager are getting run. He then scoffs at me as he leaves the baseball laying in front of the dugout and walks into the dugout. I then instructed the on deck batter to throw the baseball to the catcher. Following the third out of the bottom of the 6th, the same player who threw the baseball in my direction strolled to his position at first base making it a point to walk within feet of my postion while dragging his feet through the dirt and staring at me. I continued to look at him as he made his way toward his position so as to make sure he did not make any unsportsmanlike gestures. When he got to first base my partner, who just so happens to be the president of my association, told the first baseman that he and his third baseman needed to straighten up their attitudes because I could have ejected them both. The first basemans response, which was inaudible to me at the time as my partner told me what he said when we got back to our cars after the game, was "You need to talk to him (referring to me), he sucks." My partner then told him that he couldn't say that. That is pretty much the extent of the situation. I just needed to vent that, if I were in my partner's shoes in that situation I would have immediately ejected him for talking about my partner like that. Maybe I'm just a red a$$ and I know I gave both of these players a little too much of a leash and am regretting it in hindsight, but seriously, I think my partner should've handled that situation a little better. That being said I'm now looking for a new local association, not just because of this situation, but this puts the icing on the cake. If my league president isn't going to stand up for me or anyone else for that matter on the field then who's to say what he is going to do off the field when situations arise where he needs to defend our members when they were just doing their jobs.

What I love is when I'm on an all turf field and they tell me no seeds so I pull out the copenhagen and throw a dip in no one has ever said anything to me about the dip, mainly because i'm respectful and throw it in the dugout trash can when i'm done with it.

btw took about 3 weeks to get my mask replaced from the date i shipped it to them to the date that I received it.

More on topic, i've sent 2 wilson masks in to be replaced, one was the shock fx ti and the other was my traditional ti. Both were replaced no questions asked and both were dented very slightly and hardly noticeable (of course the concussion which ensued in the case with the traditional was noticeable) both times was not instructed to send in a receipt. The only concern i had was the fact that there was no contact made as to when i would receive my replacement mask. Luckily I keep a spare in the bag.

obr rule 7.08 (e) "Any runner is out when- he or the the next base is tagged BEFORE he touches the next base, after he has been forces to advance by reason of the batter becoming a runner." same wording on 7.08 (d). To me, this is just my lowly interpretations, says that if the throw does not beat the runner to the base that the defense has failed to retire the runner. Therefore the hypothetical " tie" technically does go to the runner. However in going to get outs whwere I can...

think I'm gonna make this investment after I get a couple of checks from my Hs association. The shock FX is getting a bit old as the doggone shock absorbers keep breaking and I would really like to be able to remove the pads... I've read that you can put the team wendys pads designed for the military helmets inside of the mask to replace the stock ones...m anyone have any experience with this?