jnazz

I ordered from them twice this year but made sure it was a large enough order to make it worthwhile. Both orders had 6 shirts in them; the shipping was about $40-$45ish.

Just ordered last week. Got the order sent to family in Washington State (they don't ship to Canada). It will be brought up to me at Christmas so I'll let you know my thoughts in the New Year.

I found this post on "Drug policy?" interesting and have nominated it accordingly for "Post Of The Month December, 2010"

Our Provincial and National dress codes were just posted and they both have Heather Grey for the 2011 season :>(

I did it. Ordered a pair of each (plate and bases) today. Can't wait to receive them.

I wear the NBs. I snipped them with scissors and haven't had an issue since. Wish they were clip-ons.

I cannot watch the NBA either (and this is coming from a huge BB fan and official). All I watch now is the College game. The kids work hard and play great defense.

This worries me too. I have been tucking my jackets in now for a few years and love the look. I didn't realize until now that this may not be an option with the thermabase. If I can't tuck in a jacket, I don't know if I'll purchase it.

I know this question has been asked 100 times but, I need to know before ordering. So, am I correct that Honigs' polo blue is a match to Majestic's polo blue? Thanks in advance guys.

I voted yes. Unfortunatley our provincial association jackets are black with blue stripes and our national dress code is black with white. I need both. Time to empty the piggy bank.

Boy, am I ever glad I don't own a cell phone!! As far as water goes, I always bring my 1 litre bottle of water to the field unless I know the home players run water to the umpires. And personally, I am not in favor of bringing cell phones onto the field. From personal experience, I've found that the instant your partner's cell phone goes off the credibility as a crew goes down the toilet. There is nothing more embarassing.

Why not just purchase the ones that fit from your local shop? I wish I had a local shop that stocked umpire apparel!

You will find the higher level games are much easier to do (assuming you have good mechanics). I personally find it harder to adjust and do the younger kids games. I only did 3 U12 games this season and thought my zone was everywhere (too tight to begin with and probably too big to finish with). I was also blown away by the uneducated coaches, as they brought up just about every baseball rule myth I've ever heard. And on a funny note, when you mentioned the ball called on the late swing, I immediatly thought of the scene from "Rookie of the Year" where the kid swings way late at the pitch and the umpire calls ball four.

Fair enough. But what I'm picturing is the coach popping out of the dugout and yelling, "INFIELD FLY BATTER'S OUT" and all the 13 yr olds stopping play. And I do believe the original post said it wasn't an IFF. Of course it's a HTBT situation to determine if it was in fact an IFF.

The original post asked what we'd do had neither umpire called the IFF.

Older kids (legion) and men should know what's going on. So I have no penalty -- just a chat with DC and maybe ej. At these levels the players tend to work these situations out. If this happened in a younger age group (ie. 13-15 yr olds and younger) I have no problem calling int on the DC, advancing the runners and giving BR first.

As the more senior umpire, as soon as you heard your partner say IFF, you've gotta echo that call and echo it LOUD. If you don't you're looking for trouble because I'm sure someone besides you heard the PU utter IFF. Now, I'm sure you will probably eat alot of $#!t after making the call (since almost everyone would've heard you and not your meek PU's call) but as the senior umpire on the crew you need to handle this situation and then talk to your partner after the game. He will see how you handled the situation and realize it was his mistake but you covered for him because you are a team. You need to let him know that eventhough it wasn't an IFF, you echoed the call immediatly and you have to live with the outcome. Then you need to go over the aspects of the IFF rule, mechanics of calling it, etc. Now the coach needs to, at minimum, get a stern talking to. You need to let him know that you'll umpire and he'll coach. Penalty on this would depend on the level.

What's the website address?

Never naked, yet. But she is constantly catching me practicing in front on the mirror. She doesn't see it as "out of the ordinary" anymore.

It's funny you posted this poll. I've been reading the J/R manuel along with the rule book for about an hour in bed before crashing each night. I'm suffering from serious withdrawl. My fiance doesn't get it, "Why are you reading rulebooks in November? You don't umpire until the Spring."

I was getting frusterated just reading your post. We've all been paired with "That Guy" sometime in our career. Did you have a chat postgame?

From what I remember metal is prohibitted in LL and CR (12U divisions). As far as the league you are doing, you'd have to contact the league if it's not sanctioned by LL or CR.

Fair enough. I guess it's a HTBT situation. BUT, we have umpires in our association that are constantly ejecting for comments like this and they rack up like 20 ejections per season. They are known as "nit-picky" umpires that get offended by any little comment. Managers have little respect for these guys. Coaches are going to object to calls and sometimes we have to look the other way and not let this get to us. Now, just because he has a reputation it doesn't mean he gets a shorter leash. You can't eject one coach because he says "get a life" and not eject another. Saying all of this, I know a manager's tone also plays into an ejection. This may have been the case in your ejection.

"Get a life." Is this enough to dump a coach? I guess it depends on the level, but isn't this a comment that you bite your lip at and continue the game. We shouldn't be looking for reasons to eject. If he says, "Get a life you (insert your favorite explative here)" then eject. Just "get a life" isn't enough for me.

For several seasons we've invited all the local coaches to sit in on our Level 1 clinic (Free of Charge) as a "rules refresher" for them. We've also made it known (at the excecutive meetings), that if the interest was there, we'd have a "Coaches Rules Clinic" at a $10 per head fee which would be paid for by the excecutive. This is basically the umpires clinic less mechanics and field work. So.... in the past 5 years since we've introduced this initiative, how many coaches have attended either clinic???? You guessed it ZERO.