BCBrad

This is my current Mizuno umpire and training inventory. My umpire friends call me Brazuno. They say admitting you have a problem is the first step.

https://homerunsports.com/products/force3-umpire-chest-protector-with-dupont-kevlar If this is the one @MadMax was talking about, you can order it here. Nice thing is they are a Canadian retailer. Only have to pay sales tax and shipping.

After many years at looking at the costs, I decided I had some mad money and bought a Honig’s plate coat. Unfortunately, living North of the 49th, the shipping, brokerage fees and sales taxes applied at the border made getting it in my wardrobe almost the price of the coat. It is not as thick as I thought and with the ventilating features, it is not as hot. If it got really cold (I am in the Pacific Northwest), I would just use a second layer underneath. While I can understand not wanting a yellow W ruining how sharp you look, I love the look of my race bird in the middle of mine.

On the north side of the Canadian border, I wear my Stanfields Waffle long johns. Stanfields are a Canadian icon in winter gear. (stanfields.com). They have some performance thermal gear too.

@MadMax, no harm taken. I too know the delays of cross-border commerce. As MadMax remarked, email Ray. That is the best way to work with him. If he is home, he’s on your custom work promptly and will keep you up to date. Only thing to remember is depending on what you are customizing, you may have to send him a vector image and the font you want. I have purchased many custom items from him and they were great.

Is it part of the carapace or the padding that attaches to it? Can you separate it from the carapace? Couple of ideas: 1) see if you can find an used CP online with a similar padding that would connect to the carapace. 2) take the padding part to a seamstress, cobbler or upholsterer to see if they could open the stitching, trim the foam and re-stitch the padding. I have altered a couple of CPs and always got someone with a professional / industrial sewing machine to do the work. I think it’s just going to be an on-going hassle if you duct-tape it. Do it right and not have to worry about it.

Hey @MadMax, I’m not disagreeing with you. I guess I should have capitalized PROPERLY. In Canada, our national program sets the standards for umpires - how to do it properly. These standards come from best practices from many sources on positioning, mechanics and game management. It is these national standards that all umpires are expected to follow and I believe all experienced umpires need to model to up and coming umpires. So when I say MODEL, I don’t mean what you learned in a clinic in 1996, but MODEL the standard all umpires are to follow today. That is why, no matter your experience, you should continuously be going to clinics and camps to keep learning and developing yourself. I truly believe the day you think you know everything and don’t need to keep on learning is the day you need to stop officiating.

I hope your assignor follows the principle of putting people into positions to be successful. A couple of things to remember: 1) when I moved to higher levels of baseball, I learned and got better by watching what the more experienced umpires were doing. The best teaching you can do is to model how to properly go about your business on the field. If the new guy wants to advance, they will mimic the common practices of their experienced partners. 2) With a shortage of umpires, we are not going to re-stock our ranks without newbies getting their feet wet and gaining game experience. If the new guy learns one new rotation, one new play position or one new mechanic, that may be more valuable in terms of the big picture. And who knows, you may end up with a new friend who you look forward to working with in a year or two.

https://waltersshoecare.com I use their gel cleaner, shammy and shining sponge on faux leather plate shoes and fabric upper base shoes. Great products. The gel cleaner does a real great job of cleaning the white rubber trim of your soles. https://eucalan.com/shop/delicate-wash/grapefruit/grapefruit-delicate-wash-169-us-floz-500ml this is the enzyme soap I use for my shoes and caps. I’m trying the Dawn Spraywash someone posted in another thread on the soles. my steps: 1. Brush off all mud, grass and dirt with coarse brush 2. wipe off upper with a damp cloth of water and enzyme soap 3. use small awl to clean out crevices in the sole 4. spray Dawn only on the soles, let soak in 5. wipe off soles 6. use gel cleaner or if needed, leather cleaner on uppers; follow instructions from website 7. wipe off uppers with shammy 8. Buff upper with sponge

I thought Ray @Razzer had winter gloves with exactly this. There were white on the top of each finger for giving count and signs.

Well, if you guys are going there. Bugs Bunny. Damn Bugs, you have to lose the navy.

Well the Nike Swoosh will probably be better than the FTX on all the MLB shirts.

I wonder if Jim Joyce would be in the conversation. Post-1980, I think of him first in terms of an umpire I respect and I wish I had his character on the field.

I think getting a new CP is a moot point if you are not looking at getting a good harness. I believe most people here use an UL Flex harness from Ray @Razzer because it keeps the CP up and snug to make sure your collarbone has coverage by your CP. You can have the best CP out there, but if it sags because of a crappy harness, your collarbone is always going to be at risk.

Yep. Adding ie or y to a name is a Canadian thing. Look at hockey. We do it all the time. Gordie, Bobby, Willie, Patty, Hughie, Johnny, Howie, Joey, Donnie, Larry, Eddie, Petey, Smitty, Jonesy.

We are not disagreeing. I am saying that this is an IFF. I trying to tie the play into the Wendelstedt interpretation to help in, hopefully, clarifying for some when we have an IFF with fielders in differing positions. As noted in the second footnote I quoted, the location of the flyball does not define the IFF, the location of the "infielders" and their ability to catch a flyball with ordinary effort does. I think what is interesting is the part where an outfielder say comes in to the "infield," they would be considered an "infielder" for this rule. You would know better than I how a runner is coached on a play like this, but I would assume they are going half way, then upon seeing an infielder camped under the fly, start returning to the base to tag up. If so, they are increasing the change of being forced if the ball drops and increasing the chance of a double play.

I don't know if this can be helpful in this discussion, but here are some quotes from 2015 Wendelstedt. (pg. 5) "The pitcher, catcher and any outfielder who positions himself so close to the infield as to easily benefit from the ball falling in, shall be considered infielders for the purpose of the play. (pg. 133, foot note 368) "Where the ball is hit in relation to the grass dirt lines makes no difference as to whether the fly ball is an infield fly or not. A ball could be hit into the outfield and still be an infield fly. Likewise, a ball could be hit in the middle of the infield and not be an infield fly." I do not know about other folks here, but I like this from above: "so close to the infield as to easily benefit from the ball falling in." I think the rest is judgment. I think with the Braves-Cards example, if the shortstop had not thought the leftfielder called him off and let the ball drop in front of him, could he have gotten the runner at 3rd base? This is just my judgment and you may differ, but I would say the shortstop would benefit from the ball falling in front of him and be able to achieve a force out at 3rd base.

I know that I had to significantly adjust my mask harness when moving from a regular 2" cap to the Skully. You may have done this, but I wonder if your harness is still a little tight and making it rise up. Try playing around a bit with the harness and see if loosing the harness, may be the top strap, will help you get it right. Note: I have Belgard PU leather pads on mine. I have no problems.

two Smitty XL ball bags. I have moved my lineup card holder to my breast pocket on my shirt. That works so much better. So, now only brush (Japanese style) in the farthest back pocket on my right ball bag. No worried about bristles up or down as they are to the side. As I am left handed, toss the indicator into the left ball bag when needed.

I agree. The prices don't change much. Even year to year. The Japanese gear is just a little different. Subtle little details in the way they are made. All my Mizuno gear came with their own Nylon bags. SG is again a reliable supplier with their customer service being unbelievable. I have ordered three times from them and each one has a hand-written note in the shipment (and in English). I have purchased Mizuno plate shoes, shin guards and chest protector from them in the last 5/6 years.

My foot is not a D, but it probably isn't a 4E. I have no record of width in my invoice or the shoe itself. For a 8 1/2 the sole is 4" wide.

Samurai Gears has Mizuno (sizes 6.5 - 12) and SSK (7 -12) both at $185. I have had my Mizuno's for 5 years now. Still looking great. They are comfortable.

There is a play in the MiLB manual (I have the 2019 Audio Book) that goes like this: R1, 1 out --> R1 takes off with the pitch Flyball out to F9, who throws to F3 because R1 left too soon. At the time of F9's throw, R1 is between 2b and 3b R1 has not touched 3b when the ball goes out of play. AWARD: R1 is awarded home (2 bases TOT) While the ball is dead, R1 can go back to touch 2b, 1b as long as he/she has not touched the next base (3b) to legally re-touch 1b. If he/she does so, the award is now 3b If R1 touches 3b, the right to go back and re-touch 1b is lost and even if he/she does, they are still in jeopardy of being called out on appeal, when the ball is put back in play. I hope I remembered that right.

This is always been a personal favourite of mine.

@mac266 , I'm going to take a slightly different approach, a more psychological one. I always talk to younger umpires about internal integrity and being able to live with yourself. If you call what you see then at the end of the day, you should be able to let it go and sleep at night. However, if you make a call that is not what you saw, out of fear, expectation, intimidation or revenge, those calls always stick with you and weigh on you. Those are the ones you always want back. I think we, as a profession, lose a lot of younger umpires because of this. Younger umpires get weighed down by the calls they made not because of what they saw, but because of what they thought people wanted. In the end, if you call games like that you are probably going to hear more crap and strife than if you just called what you saw. In the long run, you will never win. The kids that stay umpiring are good play callers and good game managers. The first leads into the second. If you call what you see, then you are more open to listen and explain what you have. If it was your call, once you have explained it, if necessary, you are done. Play ball. Sometimes, I think coaches come out to see if they can smell some bullcrap; looking for any inkling that you are making a call, not out of what you saw, but what you think people want. If they smell a fresh cow patty, then you just made the game a crap show because every call is going to be questioned as smelly.