Mudisfun

3 minutes you may not get back true... but I have wasted many minutes on far worse things! This guy was original I'll give him that.

Other than sports underwear I do all of the gear once I am in the lot. Often I am going from my kids game to a game I am officiating and don't relish sitting in the stands in slacks and other uniform attire.

Bored with the rain so I was perusing old, old, old posts and found this almost same thread from 2009. http://umpire-empire.com/index.php/topic/527-little-test-on-balk-rule/?p=3124

Thank you all for the warm welcome. Hoping this weekends games do not get rained out... have a double header scheduled on Saturday morning but the storm that is barreling down on us has me worried.

Good morning! I guess it is time to stop being a lurker who every once in a while posts a comment while selfishly absorbing all of the experience and wisdom of the veterans on the site. I have spent many hours reading and reviewing the information, advice and suggestions and have learned a ton from many of you. A little about myself... I have been umpiring for the past 3 years mainly in the Little League Arena. I am a certified umpire for California District 62 as well as the UIC for my local league which has been a blast. In the past 6 months or so I started working some Travel Ball and have signed on to do High School this year by joining OCBOA. I have worked with several of the umpires on this board who are staff guys for D62. I look forward to working with many of you (OC/So Cal folks) and learning from all of you! Thank you all for what you do on this board. Your knowledge and experience is in-valuable! Sincerely, Kevin R.

I agree with grayhawk. I interpret the remark to mean they hope you do not block them as well. I doubt an AD would express in writing that he or the coach have such little faith in your integrity that you would purposefully begrudge their team on the field for a late payment issue that they obviously are trying to handle.

As luck would have it I could not grow a beard, goatee or any other facial hair if my life depended on it! I am literally one of those people who could name their facial hairs and keep track of them... and at 40 that is saying something.

I think you mean 9.01b not 8.01b

They may also be extending the rules for unannounced subs and making the leap that once though incorrectly set the order straight.

Our league and district require that we inspect all bats, helmets and catchers gear prior to each game. We are not just looking for illegal bats but dents, cracks, worn out helmets/padding, cracked helmets and proper catchers gear. We interpret the inspection requirement as an absolute and being in the 'sue me state' just adds to the reasoning to insure we check all the gear every outing. As stated many of the coaches are uninformed as to what constitutes proper equipment and condition.

My son's LL has communal gear at all of the fields which include a Diamond mask, Pro Nine chest protector and Diamond shin guards as well as a plate brush and indicator. We provide a navy blue shirt and black cap as well for each of the team volunteer umpires so their out of pocket cost as a volunteer is zero other than time to learn. In our district if you attend all 6 rules training nights, 1 four hour fast start umpire clinic (basic mechanics), the 8 hr mechanics course, the 1.5 hr advanced mechanics course and work 2 mentor games with a staff umpire then you qualify for certification,. With our league if you obtain certification and work 10 games for us we will reimburse the umpire up to $150 for the purchase of gear which means that most folks can get into officiating for little out of pocket and actually have a decent setup by the end of the season. Is this going to get them plate shoes, base shoes, several pants and full gear, no of course not but it is a good start for most of them. The nice part of this is that there is little excuse for not helping out due to not having gear available and we typically replace the old gear after a season or two. Luckily a good chunk of the games get covered by folks who actually want to umpire and who have their own gear so our 'loaner' stuff is in really good condition typically when we finally retire it out and donate it to a Junior umpire for the next season. This works for us but again we have a fairly good volunteer umpire core in our district.

Warehouse area manager in the cable/internet industry...

Your runs score... you only had 2 outs once the B/R was retired...