MikeSafari

Kept mine. I'm 5'9", 180.

http://m.mlb.com/video/v34223663 Really interesting.

I wear two. I generally get three new baseballs and ask coaches for a couple more good ones to keep with me during the game. I also keep my brush in the right and indicator in the left.

Makes sense. Thanks.

I'm also going to assume you wouldn't mind being charged with Copywrite Infringement, as well. I'm sure Evans and Harry each had their manuals protected by U.S. copywrite laws. Yes, you are correct in that it's sharing knowledge with others. But, the method by which you're sharing the information/knowledge is illegal. The word you're looking for is copyright, not copywrite. Just FYI.

If you look at the replay angle shown at the 52" mark, you can see that he pretty clearly stepped towards home (at least IMHO):

What a class act.

Doesn't have to be. @grayhawk, do you know what the actual rule is on that? 8.05 doesn't address throwing to a fielder not at the bag except for intentional delay.

Don't like the gold, personally. Looks entirely too ostentatious and hot rod-ish. But to each his own.

Sometimes you just have those games. I had one on Tuesday. Totally wasn't in the right frame of mind and the game was just... terrible. Poor ball all round, pitchers unable to hit spots, fielders not making routine plays. To top it all off, we had a rain delay in the 2nd inning (after the game started late because of earlier rain), which meant we hit the time limit. I felt bad enforcing it 'cause the home team was rallying in the bottom of what would be the last inning, but it's not fair to the VT to not enforce the time limit I established at the plate meeting. Also didn't help that parents were F*#King mental and chirping me the whole game on my strike zone (the catchers knew what was up, though, so they were on my side). I actually walked back to my car thinking to myself, "Sometimes I wonder why I started umpiring again."

It'll cost me more to get TWs into Canada than this entire mask has cost me.

Consider that you might also interfere with a runner whilst crossing the baseline to get out to make the catch/no-catch call. I'm with @maven that the only time you should be going out on that sort of ball is in three- or four-man system. And even then each umpire has to know where he needs to be. I've worked a couple three-man games this year already and the first one was a shambles because U3 didn't know where he had to be half the time. The second one was much better.

Got the mask on Tuesday evening but haven't had a chance to wear it in a game just yet. It's very light compared to my old steel Rawlings mask, and I love the fabric/foam pads--much more comfortable than my old leather ones. Though they do make a funny crackling noise, like the foam inside is wrapped in tissue paper. Not sure what that is, but pretty confident it'll disappear with use. Vision is much better through this than it is through my Rawlings, but that's about all I can say at the moment. Might jump back in this thread after a game with it to do a bit more thorough review.

Also, the fact that every plate is riveted on means you'll never be able to clean it properly so it could very quickly end up smelling something foul.

Bought a CP and shinguards from @Majordave. Everything was great! Thanks

Honestly, I'm not sure how I didn't see it. Maybe I was moving my eye, maybe the batter's shadow obscured it hitting the plate, I don't know. But it was a total mindbender for me because it looked like a standard weak pop up, but half the field reacted as though it bounced. It was a very weird play.

Official uniform now has no logo, but it used to have the Baseball Ontario crest on both cap and shirt. I'll see if I can snap a pic of it sometime.

I've found a great little thing to eat in between games that you can make the night before: chicken and avocado "salad". Take a regular chicken breast, cook and season as you'd like. Chop it into strips or dice it. Take a normal-sized avocado and dice it as well. Mix the avocado with 1tbsp of lime juice to keep it from going brown. Next, in a bowl, mix 1tbsp lime juice and 2tbsp mayo so they form a dressing. Pour this over the chicken, then plop in the avocado/lime juice mixture. Make sure it's all well mixed, and then shove it in the fridge overnight. If you want, chop and add some spring onion. One of these lasts me a full day on the diamond, so about three or four small helpings between games. Just enough to keep you going, not enough to make you lethargic. Also, if you stick it in a small cooler with some ice packs you get a nice cool bite to eat rather than a lukewarm sandwich.

I'm starting to feel like I say this a lot, buuuut... Worked with a guy last week who wore orange and black metal-studded cleats. He's been an umpire for four years.

I want that job! Currently I'm an IT consultant. So basically I sit on my ass for eight hours a day talking to people who don't know how to computer.

I didn't pick my option, he did. I straight up told him that I did not see it go off the plate, but if he did, to go with it. My partner said it did, but I didn't see it. The coach asked for him to get help from me, and I told him what I saw (or rather, didn't see). I didn't want to call the runner at 3rd out without knowing that it was a catch, and I didn't hear my partner call it as a catch.

I generally wear black with pretty much everything. Navy's a good bet as well. I tried out grey ball bags, and they're alright, but I don't really see the point as they blend into my pants.

I had a partner like that last week, except it was a HSM and he stuck his neck out when getting set. Granted, he was a second-year umpire, but he should have been doing much lower levels of ball. Every half inning I was going over to tell him something else. I could see his neck between his mask and CP from in the field. Man, if I can see it from way the hell out there, the ball can find its way there. He also escalated an argument with a coach for no apparent reason. Coach wasn't happy with the strike zone (fair enough, it was a bit tight), and was chirping the whole game. Eventually, partner called time, walked over towards the dugout and started yelling, "What was that?! What'd you say?!" (Me: ) And stood there waiting for the coach to apologize. Like... damn, man. If you're gonna dump the guy, dump him. But there's never a good enough reason to escalate an argument like that.

This past weekend working a bantam tournament. I'm in P4 with runners on 1st and 3rd, 1 out. Batter swings and it looks like a very soft, off the end of the bat pop out to F1. F1 goes to 1st, but his coaches are shouting at him to go to 3rd instead because the runner didn't tag and so he misses the throw at 1st. Eventually the ball heads to third, but now I don't know wtf happened so I'm hesitant to make the out call. Partner calls time and comes out to chat as he had the ball hitting the plate and bouncing to F1. I didn't see the bounce and told him as much, but it may have bounced so quickly that I didn't see or hear it. He went with the fly ball. BR out on the catch, R3 out on appeal. Inning over. And, of course, at that point all hell broke loose. Three coaches came out, two yelled a lot, and one went to the parking lot early. I've never seen that happen, and probably never will again.