Marcus6

There are going to be a good number of retirements coming up, so there’s that.

Correct about the outlet store. Don’t forget dealers are established businesses with relationships with customers. Most of us have vendors we go to if we are casually shopping. Most officials wouldn’t think to google Smitty and order from them. The dealers have an “in” in the marketplace. A big part too is having a good relationship with dealers who sell and push your product. Selling direct destroys that.

Picked one up and it’s quite impressive. Very low profile and the padding is thin. It’s a hard/firm padding (not exactly like the Team Wendy retrofit chest protector padding but nothing like the soft Wilson and Douglas padding either.) I was surprised how light and comfortable it is. The G hook attachments are a bit difficult to work and I worry about them not lasting.

It amazes me how much John Bacon has worked, how old he is, and how long he has been a fill in and he keeps getting passed over evidently.

So what are your impressions of this compared to the Davis DX protector with the D30 pads? Understand you haven’t worn it for a game yet but just curious.

Sheesh high praise indeed!

Price?

Was confused by this. Did Purchase Officials Supplies (also coincidentally POS) buy the +POS name because the acronym is ironically the same (long time umpires remember +POS was Parsons Officials Supplies and hard to believe they used to be the official supplier for MiLB). Will they also be bringing back the old +POS sweater?😂

Does anybody actually buy these?

I recall years ago a blurb about Davis thinking about making their own plate shoe again.

They let umpires skip levels - see Traynor’s experience who got his first MLB game as a call up during 2025.

Not surprising on those two - Riggs was only up for 2 games in 2025. I think it’s still up or out but MLB has changed the timeline and umpires can advance quicker through the minors than the old system. Bacon has been at AAA for a long long time and has been up almost full time for the last year or so.

Can anybody shed light on why the crew chiefs would have different starting assignments on ALCS and NLCS crews?

Really enjoyed watching him all night. Nails is a great description

GDS is a class act. Got my package today - the quality seems tremendous. Little hard getting the pads into the socks but got them in without destroying the zipper on the socks.