Great picture

[CS-Blue]

Trout - let it go my brother. He argues just to be contrary. Umpires are aware that looking professional when stepping on the field is extremely important.

It's importatnt to other umpires. I'm OK with that.

It's not that important to the managers/coaches. You need to comprehend this.

It may not be important to coaches where you are, but here in NKY, we have coaches complain to our assigner all the time if an umpire is anything less than professional looking. Had one guy get a complaint because he and his partners pants weren't the same shade of charcoal gray. Seriously.

[Rich Ives]

Some vols are good umps, some paid umps suck. Human nature.

Would you honestly not prefer a good ump to look professional? Prefer - yes. Require - no.Why do they bother with a dress code at LLWS if it doesn't matter? Because they're on TV and people judge a book by it's cover despite advice not to. How come there's an eval on "Dress and Appearance?" The umpires put it there, not the coaches. Umpires should dress in a manner befitting of the profession. This guy may be a jam ump, rules quoting, mechanically solid as anyone can be. He looks retarded. He looks retarded to some other umpires . Probably doesn't look retarded to the members of the league he's part of. Shorts, grey hat turned backward, cp outside. Looks more like a men's league F2 than HPU. If you were to choose umps for a game without knowing anything about their training, knowledge, or experience and your options were this cat or a guy in polywools, dalco, NB plate shoes all shined up, wilson pro gear, 2 matching ball bags, etc. which would you gravitate to? If I knew the sartorical genius (SG) was from the [name deleted] association I'd take the guy in the picture for sure. If I knew the SG was from the {name deleted] association I'm not sure without knowing the reputation of the "xyz" leagues umpiring staff. Honestly? Yes.

Why is this so hard to grasp - performance counts. Appearance may get you in the door but at the end of the game it's only the performance that matters.

[CS-Blue]

No one has said that performance doesn't count. They are just saying that appearance matters too. It may not be nearly as important as knowing what you are doing, but people will assume you don't have any idea out of the gate if you look like you have no idea what you're doing.

[Rich Ives]

Trout - let it go my brother. He argues just to be contrary. Umpires are aware that looking professional when stepping on the field is extremely important.

It's importatnt to other umpires. I'm OK with that.

It's not that important to the managers/coaches. You need to comprehend this.

It may not be important to coaches where you are, but here in NKY, we have coaches complain to our assigner all the time if an umpire is anything less than professional looking. Had one guy get a complaint because he and his partners pants weren't the same shade of charcoal gray. Seriously.

Are their umpires that good that they can waste time discussing how the umpire is dressed?

Are their teams that good that they can spend time contemplating the umpire's adherence to a dress code?

Betcha Joe and Bob wear their team hats differently - that's usually OK in coach's books - so who are they kidding abiut umpire appearance.

[Jocko]

Trout - let it go my brother. He argues just to be contrary. Umpires are aware that looking professional when stepping on the field is extremely important.

It's importatnt to other umpires. I'm OK with that.

It's not that important to the managers/coaches. You need to comprehend this.

Again, we come to the point in the conversation where you remind me what coaches think, and I remind you that UMPIRES don't give a s**t what coaches think.

[Jocko]

RichMSN, I only infer that he maybe coached the previous game or will coach the following game. For those who volunteer, Salud! I'm not at that point in my career where I will pass on making $500 a weekend to volunteer. Maybe someday, but not in the forseeable future.. I will call a game or 2 now and then for fundraisers or community stuff.

[renegadewolf]

All I can say is that I think sometimes perhaps we forget that this is a game and take ourselves a little too seriously. Those were kids playing a game in that picture, and because of some "scrub" these kids get to play a pretty great game called baseball. When I ask myself what is more important, how someone looks, or that some kids got to play ball the answer seems pretty apparent. Just because we are on the "business end" of baseball doesn't mean everyone else is. This thread has been kinda buggin me for a few days with it having a rather malicious nature, just thought i might throw in my buck fifty.

[Jocko]

Wolf, it didn't start that way. It actually started with Jax razzing me. All good natured and light hearted. Being an UMPIRE site, it would stand to reason we would discuss UMPIRE issues. Rainman gets his depends all wadded up when we crack on smittys.

[JaxRolo]

The pictured I posted was never originally meant for umpire bashing. I just loved that it was kids playing ball having fun! The expression on the kid as he slides is priceless! The coaches in the background watching excitedly. The kid on home plate is great. Even the umpire watching the play!

Baseball as it should be for little kids!

[boyinr]

When my son was playing we had a couple of primary umpires tha worked our league. One was similar in appearance to the guy in the original post. He busted his ass, knew the rules and had a great demeanor with everyone. The other guy looked the part, was always out of position or looking the wrong way, made rules up and got peeved pretty quickly. Every game the kids would announce "Look, its that umpire". I will let you figure out the inflection. Even 9 and 10 year olds figure it out pretty quickly.

[wek29]

Maybe it's better the picture won't open for me...it's probably me!