Platejob29

Mesh isn't a big deal. It's really not any harder to get clean than any other shoe. A large number of umpires wear Nike Airmaxes at the professional level and almost every Airmax model is mesh. I wear 2011 mesh Airmaxes on the bases and find them much easier to keep clean than the NB 950s and leather 2011 Airmaxes I have. That being said I can promise no one will ever see me wearing these new NB base shoes. Those things are just plain ugly.

Yeah I do @tpatience

Just wanted to throw this out here since so many people this year have bashed Marquez and called him everything from lazy to terrible. He worked a hell of a plate job tonight in Texas with 98.1% correctly officiated balls and strikes. That's damn impressive.

Nothing requires him to touch the bag nor stay on it is true. However that's only one part of the criteria in which we use to judge interference. The most important part of the rule is the part about "willful and deliberate act to break up a double play." Can you say that Utley's slide was anything but a willful and deliberate act to break up a double play?

I agree he made no effort to stay on the bag. But neither do most big leaguers when they go into second to break up a double play. I realize now after reviewing my original post that I wasn't clear on what I felt about the play. It was late and I wasn't proof reading to make sure I got my point across. I 100% believe that Utley's "slide" was an act of interference. I do think though that given Guccione's angle on the play would have made it extremely difficult to see in real time because from the first base side camera angle at full speed he does appear to be reaching for the base. There also wasn't much he could have done about it differently as far as getting a better angle because the way the play developed he would have had know way of knowing the throw was going to be high and bring Tejada to the backside of the bag. So in summary I do think an act of interference was made, but I also can see why it was missed. It was a bit of a bastard play for lack of a better term.

I think that Cal brought up a good point on the broadcast about how it looked a lot worse than the normal everyday hard slide that is virtually the same kind of slide you see on a day to day basis was because Tejada was turned around where in most cases you see the fielder getting hit from the front and they are able to jump over the fielder and avoid any serious collision. That being said I think there is a case for interference here but at the same time I think you could argue that it was just a normal big league slide into 2nd and that it was just a normal baseball play. In real time it looked like Utley was going for the bag especially from that 1B side camera angle.

I think that's probably just where he felt comfortable. He can get any angle he needs to on a pick off and he obviously would have time to move into position on any normal batted ball to the infield. The only thing he would have to worry about would be getting in position quick enough to see a nut cutter fair foul bounding around the vicinity of the bag. He definitely felt that he could do that or he wouldn't have used that position. Definitely a very advanced mechanic that would require a lot of instinct to use.

I beg to differ. Just last week a Nike went up on eBay that sold buy it now within a few hours of it going up for $450.

The reason that B is what is recommended now isn't because the angle is better than from C. It's because so many guys get accustom to that view from 2 man and 3 man that when you work 4 and 6 man it's easier to see because you have had thousands of reps from that angle. The guys who have been around for longer have used C forever and it's the view they are accustom to. The angle you get from both is good and on certain plays both have their pros and cons but they ultimately both get the job done pretty equally.

Not criticizing just curious. Why is it that you feel you couldn't use the verbiage of "all day long" in the games you're working?

I think you handled it well once he started gesturing but the one thing I do think you could improve on is responding to him the first time he had a grip about the zone. When he makes a comment about a called strike address it. This usually is enough to at least let the player know he is on thin ice so when it does lead to an ejection it will strengthen your report that much more. It also acts as a way out for the player because now he's heard your say and he knows you have the pitch in the zone and it's going to be called there so if he doesn't want it to be called on him he better swing the bat.

Don't know what everyone is looking at but he definitely rushed the batter with that pitch. Even if the batter had the bat back around his shoulder he still wasn't set. It's close but he definitely did. The mechanic Hamari is using is the standard quick pitch mechanic. Just point at it call it and add the ball to the count. It's pretty simple.

As it was already stated that's Cubby wearing the navy bags. He always has worn navy bags since becoming a big leaguer. He wears the same bags that he did when thy wore navy and never switched to black. He simply likes his ball bags too much to change and considering hat ball bags are changing all the time when companies change manufactures it's not that hard to understand why someone wouldn't want to change if he already has a set he likes. It's really not a big deal. No one ever notices all that much except some of us on here.

There may not be a Champro in the mix but there are 7 other masks that the Champro wishes it was. Haha I kid I kid. @JoHart10 Nice collection of masks you've got there. I really dig that chopped Wilson in the bottom left.

I love my Diamond MMA cup so much that I put their logo on my platinum just for a little extra personality. Seriously though by far the best cup you can buy hands down. Throw the shock doctors and nutty buddies away this thing takes the cake.

He's moving himself out of a blind spot and into a position that puts him perpendicular to the tag. side note not in direct reply to Jeff. In 4 man and a lot of times in 3 man you can take tag plays at any base just like you would at the plate. Most people I'm sure already know this but I said that to preface the logic and technique behind the mechanics you see the pros work on plays like this. Darren Spagnardi teaches an incredible plays at the plate mechanic that if you ever get the chance to hear it'll really change your perspective on how you see plays developing and how to get in position. He uses what he calls the Pizza Method which basically is thinking of every play having a circle around it in which you rotate around as the play develops. So in that circle no matter where you are standing in it, on the other side you have a mirror image of the same angle you have now. Those are what he calls the pizza slices. Then he takes two basketballs and holds them together and shows you this from an angle that is parallel to the two basketballs so that you have to look through his hand and a basketball to see the other ball and asks if you can tell if they are touching or not. Then he opens up and shows the view if your are looking at the basketballs at an angle perpendicular to where they are touching. This is obviously to show what angle it is you're looking to try and be in for a play. So then he goes back to the pizza and shows how to find the slice you need to be in you need to look for the perpendicular to where the runner and fielder are going to make contact on the tag or miss on the attempted tag. So then from there you just decide which of the two identical slices will allow you to not interfere with the play and in some cases when both slices are open to you without interfering you can go to the one that will be easiest to move to.

Except that MLB has specific rules regarding the neighborhood play as well as rules for replay use on the neighborhood play. So to say it's never coming back when they just wrote brand new rules specifically for it is a little bit of a false statement I think.

4 man is based on 3 man just as 3 man is based on 2 man so making the adjustment isn't that hard. Especially considering that a good number of spring training games are 3 man.

Mizuno 2QA-121.

Rule 8.05(d) reads.... If there is a runner, or runners, it is a balk when- (d) The pitcher, while touching his plate, throws, or feints a throw to an unoccupied base, except for the purpose of making a play PBUC umpire manual (same as current MiLBUD) 6.2 Appeal Plays 5. An appeal is not to be interpreted as a play or attempted play. So there's your answer. It is a balk because Hamels threw to an unoccupied base while in contact with the pitchers' plate.

Good ejection here. Obviously we don't know exactly what was said but the broadcast team clearly pointed out that whatever it was they heard it in their booth which means it probably wasn't a very nice comment. As for Fonzi chewing on the field who freaking cares! He's a grown man who can make his own decisions and he's involved in a game being played by other grown men that can make their own decisions. I think sometime in the amature world there are too many things the pros do that are nitpicked just because it's pro ball and everyone who hasn't been at the professional level wants to find excuses to not work like the pros.

I've used the new-view Wilson frames before and they have great vision but I think the Nike has a better view even with it being a little deeper frame.

Here's the pictures of the mask I got my Dad for Father's Day 2014. I mentioned in an above post that I thought I had already posted it but I think it was on my other account that I accidentally made and deleted so here it is again. Sorry I can't get the pictures to turn around the right way up. So anyway the mask is a Nike non retail steel frame. I stripped off as much of the plastic coaching as I could before taking it to the powder coater who then sandblasted the last bit of plastic off. The second picture is the mask assembled before taking it to the powder coater. The last picture is the completed mask with the frame finished in a custom powder coat blend that my Dad helped to "design" with the powder coater. It's a metallic grey base with a little metallic denim and a little flat silver with a matte clear coat over it. Loaded with black TWs which i think he has since switched with Wilson Memory Foam pads for this last season. The harness is a Wilson MLB logo harness. Now if he would only let me chop the chin and put a killer throat guard this thing would be really cool but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

They are very light are at least everyone I've ever come in contact with. I've heard some guys say they have found a few heavy ones. As far as why it's special, there a number of things. First being that it is made by Nike and with Nike comes a cool factor which like it or not makes it special. Second it's very light but not so light that it feels unsafe. Third it also has great vision, just as good as the titanium counter part but just ever so slightly narrower due to the thicker cross bars. Fourth it's the same profile and shape as a titanium with slightly wider ears on it which means it deflects a ball about as good as anything else out on the market. There are a few other reasons here and there but those 4 are probably the biggest reasons why. I got my Dad one for Father's Day the year before last and he loves it. I'll post pictures in the mask porn link so we don't jack this thread.

Tripp can get this because he knows it's a swing. In real time I saw it as a go as did many others I assume. Guaranteed that almost all MLB umpires saw this is as go. When you see it that many times year in and year out by the time you get to the big leagues this call isn't that close. There's also no such thing as a ballsy call when you're a professional umpire. It is either this or that no in between. So if you see one thing call it. If you see another call that. That's the only true way to call what you see. Also as I mentioned before I think Joyce or Hallion would have had this is a swing as well.