MadMax

Again, contextual. I still espouse – to use your applicable term – no jackets on plates. Am I going to demerit or denigrate a colleague or a trainee for using one? No. I might scoop on some sarcasm, primarily to a colleague – especially one who subscribes to my way of thinking on most other umpiring ‘thangs’. Heck, I’ll peibably buy / supply a long-sleeve umpire shirt for him!! … especially if it gets me out of a sub-optimal plate on a bleary, dreary day. What does this matter?? Better, why does this matter??! Shouldn’t competency, integrity, and dependability matter a helluva lot more than sartorial choice??!! And if that sartorial choice, that “professional appearance” is so f#€ꓘing important, then why isn’t that assigner supplying the uniform items to his charges (umpires)??? I posted about them, but they’re not “mine”. They’re actually available via ThighPro ( @concertman1971 ). And, two of the three models have EVA foam padding in them to protect the forearms, because there are some colleagues of ours who endure despite bruising being hazardous to their health. The emasculating assigner that labels those guys 🐈 for wearing sleeves, or taking other protective measures.

But but BUT, Jonny... It's not just any-ol' "people". To my hashtag, No One Really Cares. Instead, it's Assigners – those who hold all the control and governance over "their" umpires in so far as which games they work, how often (or how rarely), where, and who with... and "Evaluators" – those designated or self-deigned "experts" who impose an arbitrary, ambiguous, inconsistent, and oft-contextually irrelevant "Scale of Value". This is done under the banner of "improving (the) umpires" (whom they evaluate), but more realistically, the feedback they give is vapid, self-serving, and occasionally simply justifies the evaluator's role (or the lecherous fee they might charge). Bottom line – Do (or Wear) What You Need to Do to Do Your Job, "Evaluations" Be D@mn3d.

They’re very likely Bruce Bolts. Bruce Bolt Compression Sleeves Where was Segal working? Cleveland? Navy is in their color palette, and the Clubhouse Manager has these on-hand. Segal opted for these instead of wearing a long-sleeve umpire shirt (which don’t breathe as well as ya think). As you say, simply to protect his skin and promote cooling. Skin that is already getting roasted by the sun’s rays, or is slathered with sunblock, is stunted in its ability to transport heat via sweat to the surface and then allow it to evaporate. Besides that, who’s the only umpire to handle baseballs? Plate umpire – Segal likely doesn’t want to slather his arms with sunblock and have it flow down his arms to his hands – and the baseballs – if he can help it. On a related, but much more sarcastic, sartorial note: “That’s (the wearing of long sleeves under a short-sleeve umpire shirt) a bad look!!! No choice / optimum / playoff assignments for you!” – Any of Several Assigners / Evaluators in Amateur (including college!) Baseball Anywhere in North America I always make a point of this – famously, Gerry Davis was working plate at Wrigley Field, on a 95°+ day, with easily 95% humidity, in sky blue, with a blaze orange cooling towel draped over his neck while calling Bs & Ks!! Every half inning, he’d escape to the tunnel to get refreshed and cooled off, while Will Little administered the official lineup cards from U1. Bright Orange towel. On national television. Is that the “professional look” we fawn and obsess over??? #NoOneReallyCares #TheyDoInMLBWhyCan’tWe?

I have no way of confirming or refuting that, besides just referring to their web-store.

90% chance I know the PU (if you had a name or identifying characteristic). 16% chance it was a Vulture. 0% chance it was me.

You’re now dining at the very table I frequent – Context & Imperatives. If/when an umpire calls Time, at the close of the play, I (as a developer / trainer / etc.) immediately identify the context. I would exhaust you guys with the different scenarios and contexts that we collectively encounter, so to your point – absolute imperatives serve no benefit to anyone. However, what I do not want to see is an umpire – especially a PU – call Time as a crutch to get back to / goto next position, or to perform some frivolous, tertiary-level “duty”… such as (directing to) moving a batting weight, retrieving a loose baseball, being brought spare baseballs, ushering a player back into the dugout… or brushing the plate because some fence-fans are sqwaking about it. Instead, what we should be doing is keeping the ball Live as much as possible, and conjoining tertiary-level duties to instances when the ball becomes Dead. HBP, Foul-ball that takes fielders out of position, Home-Run (over the fence), Runner requests Time to discard equipment, Runner or Fielder requests Time to tie their shoe 🤨… these are perfect instances to then perform one or several of those tertiary duties… Including brush the plate!

You don’t use BCs for that! … … You send check-swing appeals to them!

As always, context matters. Age, game type, etc. are all factors to consider. Remember, back 2(?) seasons ago, when a MLB batter got Ejected for tapping the helmet w/o ABS Challenge being implemented in MLB yet? Where’d he pick that up? Atlantic League (at the time)… which was using ABS on MiLBUs. That batter had just been called up, and he did it out of learned reaction. Is that an excuse? No. Is that an explanation (as to why)? Yes! Should he have been ejected? Yes, he’s a pro – he should know better. But these are amateurs we’re talking about, and kids at that. Adults (eg. Men’s Amateur)? Eject ‘em, absolutely. Kids, though, are morons. I’m going to give the coach(es) an opportunity, albeit brief, to “rescue” and discipline the kid before I dump him. If we look at college ball, for example, I operate in an environment where I have a churning confluence of levels and rules. Not only do I have a hybrid of OBR and NCAA, but I’ve got NAIA and JUCo players playing alongside D-1 talent, who just came from a season / post-season that has video review. We don’t have video review (yet). Am I supposed to dump a Runner because he starts doing “the headphones” when I call him out at 2B? I don’t dispute the warrant; I bristle at the automatic, the imperative – “I (we) must eject you (amateur < adult)”.

It’s not, in lieu of a complete accounting report. We don’t know what goes on to support those umpires. Are they housed? Fed & watered? Access to medical while employed? Laundry? Uniforms provided? All those things are important; furthermore, they’re overlooked variables when we start comparing these… “Destination Events” against travel, tournament, and local leagues. Tournament umpires get lured in by $75-$100 game fees, but then have to pay for their own housing, food, laundry, etc. So “to soften the dent”, assigners will put guys onto 4-6, 7 games per day! The registration fee is because there is a lack of a vetting umpire organization / association in that region Another factor is that the entity hosting the PerfectGame -brand is anticipating either a skeleton crew of support staff (TD assistants, field marshals, etc), or they’ve been burned before on umpires leaving / forfeiting games. Adjacent to that, PerfectGame is very cognizant and protective of their brand; as such, they’re trying to dissuade (or prevent) umpires from invariably wearing sub-par, sub-optimal, or competing-entity uniforms. Ideally, those uniform items should be provided; however, if anything is provided, there will be umpires who will abuse that generosity. Purchase of those items compels umpires to take care of them, to an extent. Of course, PerfectGame’s brand gets affected, later, when those same umpires invariably wear those uniform items on rival events (“Buh! I paid for these! Buh!”).

Because as soon as we form a “collection” (ie. association / organization / union), any power we have begins to erode due to squabbling about “who should be in charge”, and “who gets assigned to which games”, and “who is “better” than who” (and should get paid / assigned more). Leadership takes (a cut, a rake, a skim, a fee), and invariably and inevitably, someone gets butt-hurt about the operations of said collective. That someone forms their own entity, and subsequently under-&-out-bids the existing leadership in due time, likely sniping umpires from the previous entity by enticing with “better” pay and assignments. Then you get the “loyalty wars”. The machine churns on.

The entire amateur baseball ⚾️ (and softball 🥎 ) community needs education on this simple point – any time when a batted ball (liner, pop-fly, fly, et. al.) is caught, the force is off. Thus, any subsequent outs will occur via tags, appeals, or INT by a member of the offense.

@Kevin_K, I read your story... twice... and I'm "peering around the edges", looking for Rod Serling to walk into the frame. And he went to 3 (Umpire) Schools?? Even at HWUS, where they teach and drill the "Pro Way" into you with such... impression... that 2 umpires should be able to co-operate without signaling, they still cover signaling. Ya'd think that a guy who is all about military protocol would adopt something as rudimentary as hand signals. Did he serve on an aircraft carrier? Improper or non-use of hand signals will get ya killed. If guys ever wonder why I deplore pre-games (I think they're a waste of time and an echo-chamber for poor skills and practices), what you just experienced is Exhibit K. Tub doesn't match the tile. There's no way – no way – he umpired in the Armed Services League, but yet, is declaring "some noise" during a pitch to be "unsportsmanlike". Absolutely not. Nothing of the Armed Services League is "sportsmanlike". Camaraderie-building? Sure. But the Armed Services extend the adage "All's Fair In Love and War" to include ".. and Inter-branch (Athletic) Contests". You're right, but do ya know what two other professions get jaded, and treat others with distrust, contempt and disdain, primarily because they themselves were disrespected in their past? Law Enforcement officers and umpires.

@JonnyCat absolutely nailed the meat of my point. I'll get down to the bones of it... What you speak of, here, is context. Within the context of the specific game you were working, considerate of level, ages, location and everything else, and using the authority you are vested by the rules (and, rules that fit/match the context), you adjudicated it in that way. You used authority; you did not impose authority. There's a difference. In no way am I against what you adjudicated on that (singular) game. What I am against is codifying it as some kind of overarching generalization, or worse, campaigning for it as some kind of imperative protocol... to use in all cases. Case in point: Imperatives in bold. And who is this "trainer", and what makes him an authority so as to dictate what's "correct" and "incorrect"???

And they never* will. It's just not important (enough) to "them". Huh! What a shame! Wouldn't it be nice & effective to have a device that did exactly what we (umpires) needed it to? With digital interface? And reprogrammable to the intervals that "they" keep changing / futzing with / modifying? 🤔 Huh! Maybe it's something the NCAA/NAIA/NJCAA could look into, or commission?