Getting Dressed at the field

[MidAmUmp]

After one of the high schools we service reported that they had received complaints about indecent umpires in the parking lot...

There you have it...

 

I would encourage all of you to bring it up at your next association meeting. Why are there locker rooms provided for football officials but not baseball? If your association leaders won't fight for you then vote their asses out and get people in there who will.

 

Stand up and fight for yourselves! Stop being the red headed step child. Make schools and organizations start providing appropriate accommodations - even if that means dressing inside the school and driving to the field. DO IT!!!

 

You should have a place out of the weather, out of the public's eye to change clothes, stretch, and get ready to work a game.

[Out&UglyToo]

Does the Pope get dressed in the parking lot before mass at St Peter's Basilica?

 

Please treat Baseball as a formal occaision, arrive not only dresed, but immaculate and ready to conduct the grand old game with the utmost dignity. Your dignity will be challenged anyways. Do not offer any possible opportunities for displays of disrespect for umpires, nor supply ammunition to the curmudgeons known as coaches nor to  managers. They create plenty without any slovenly habits exhibited by our lot.

 

If one must change into a uniform in a vehicle, do so most discreetly elsewhere sufficiently before gametime to walk the field, inspect equipment, obtain game balls, accept the lineups, conduct a propper pre-game meeting, and declare "Play ball" before Joe Dirt or Leslie Nielsen should happen to attempt to start a game in your absence and create a debacle for you to untangle.

[catsbackr]

Tksjewelry,

 

I'm not gonna flame on you, I don't really know what that means.  I will offer up my opinions and comments on your post above.

 

I would not work with you.  If in one of my associations that use Arbiter, I would block you, if in the summer, I would simply ask my assignor to not put me with you to work.  If you find it, "extremely awkward, etc." for me to change my clothes in your vicinity, then I don't want to work with you.  I may be in the clothing I wear under my uniform for about 30 seconds, if that bothers you, which you have said it does, I don't want to work with you.

 

We are supposed to be a team while on the field, but if we start out in the parking lot preparing for the game with the issues you've mentioned, there is no way we are going to be a team.

 

These are my opinions, I'm sure I will be in the minority.  I'm fairly seasoned and my opinions may be somewhat antiquated, but they are my opinions nonetheless.

[JaxRolo]

When I get to the field the first thing I do is get naked, run a lap around the field just to get warmed up. Then I go back to my car and dress.

[Tksjewelry]

Tksjewelry,

I'm not gonna flame on you, I don't really know what that means. I will offer up my opinions and comments on your post above.

I would not work with you. If in one of my associations that use Arbiter, I would block you, if in the summer, I would simply ask my assignor to not put me with you to work. If you find it, "extremely awkward, etc." for me to change my clothes in your vicinity, then I don't want to work with you. I may be in the clothing I wear under my uniform for about 30 seconds, if that bothers you, which you have said it does, I don't want to work with you.

We are supposed to be a team while on the field, but if we start out in the parking lot preparing for the game with the issues you've mentioned, there is no way we are going to be a team.

These are my opinions, I'm sure I will be in the minority. I'm fairly seasoned and my opinions may be somewhat antiquated, but they are my opinions nonetheless.

Obviously you didn't read all of my responses. I'll retort by saying you are legally putting you and your partner at legal risk by dropping trow. Wouldn't it be the better illumination of "teamwork" not to put either of you at risk?

I put up with a whole lot of sexist BS on the field, and I simply just let 99% of it roll off my shoulder because that's the nature of the beast. If my partner feels the need to disrespect me in the parking lot, how am ever going to think he'll have my back on the field? Dropping trow in front of a lady, no matter how much I hate the feminist BS spewed these days, is disrespectful. Period. What would you think if you saw a young lady standing next to a man with his pants around his ankles? Would you think the same of seeing a lady wearing her bra and underwear in a parking lot?

Just because things are old school isn't an excuse, especially when it comes to the law. It's the parents, coaches, kids and school officials you really need to be concerned about. Do you want to be the next guy on the 10 o'clock news having been filmed dressing as kids and parents walk by? In some states, that could cause one to have to register as a sex offender.

I'm extremely respectful to my partners. I respect them enough to contact them before games to see if I'm working plate or bases and what color we're wearing. I'm respectful enough to show up ready to gear up, combo pants on for multi game days. I take the extra steps not to necessitate putting either of us at risk of law or simple personal offense. Frankly, it is embarrassing to have grown men dropping trow, put on a cup holder, then the cup, and maybe even shin guards before putting on pants in a parking lot with hundreds of kids and parents around at tournaments, not just because of the guys, but it's the disgusted looks received from the parents dragging coolers right behind us that these guys simply don't even bother seeing. It's hard enough for a female umpire to get respect on the field but by dropping trow in the parking lot my partner has already lessened what respect I start with. How is that being a team?

Maybe this is kind of a hot button for me, I didn't even realize it until I read your post. I'll definitely be talking to my UIC about this. Last year he already warned the guys about the legal consequences but it's time we mention the respect value, especially with more women coming in this year.

I'm not bothered by guys who are old school that don't want to work with me because I'm a female. They wouldn't ever be a good teammate for me anyways. I like being a female, long hair, pretty nails, and all. I'm not going to give up any dose of my self respect (let alone the respect to my husband) to work with any man, not ever. If that means I only do little kids games until they are reformed or retired, then so be it. Little kids need umpires too.

When I get to the field the first thing I do is get naked, run a lap around the field just to get warmed up. Then I go back to my car and change.

Pictures or it didn't happen.

[Rulekeep]

Okay going on a rant about how it was disrespectful to be semi/naked in front of your female partners and than adding "pictures or it didn't happen" to Jax's comment, however jokingly, seemed just a tad hypocritical. 

[SJA]

;-)

[Tksjewelry]

Okay going on a rant about how it was disrespectful to be semi/naked in front of your female partners and than adding "pictures or it didn't happen" to Jax's comment, however jokingly, seemed just a tad hypocritical.

Seriously, you can't see a difference between dropping trow in public and a joke? *palmface* When I'm out, I'll laugh at all types of off colored jokes, but if someone grabs my butt, I'm dropping them. Two different things. I'm actually more old school than many that say they are. Are you going to tell me that in the 60s,70s, 80s, and probably most of the 90s, a man would have ever thought about dropping his pants in front of a lady outside, nope, would not have happened. Life is full of nuances.

[Rulekeep]

 

Okay going on a rant about how it was disrespectful to be semi/naked in front of your female partners and than adding "pictures or it didn't happen" to Jax's comment, however jokingly, seemed just a tad hypocritical.

Seriously, you can't see a difference between dropping trow in public and a joke? *palmface* When I'm out, I'll laugh at all types of off colored jokes, but if someone grabs my butt, I'm dropping them. Two different things. I'm actually more old school than many that say they are. Are you going to tell me that in the 60s,70s, 80s, and probably most of the 90s, a man would have ever thought about dropping his pants in front of a lady outside, nope, would not have happened. Life is full of nuances.

 

I laugh at really horrible jokes too. But I wouldn't have made those two points in the same sentence. Just seems hypocritical is all, even if it is a joke. And yes, I realized it was a joke.

[grayhawk]

Tksjewelry, I'm guessing that you refuse to go to the beach or a public pool given your disdain for people "dropping trow?"

I see people much more scantily clad at the beach than I, or any of my partners get in the parking lot.

[JaxRolo]

Might be time to lock this one up.

[Tksjewelry]

Tksjewelry, I'm guessing that you refuse to go to the beach or a public pool given your disdain for people "dropping trow?"

I see people much more scantily clad at the beach than I, or any of my partners get in the parking lot.

If you daughters teacher dropped his pants in class and gave the same argument, would that fly?

[Rulekeep]

 

Tksjewelry, I'm guessing that you refuse to go to the beach or a public pool given your disdain for people "dropping trow?"

I see people much more scantily clad at the beach than I, or any of my partners get in the parking lot.

If you daughters teacher dropped his pants in class and gave the same argument, would that fly?

 

That's the stupidest argument I've ever heard. Umpires at the field have a REASON to change and they aren't strutting out in front of the kids to do so.

[MidAmUmp]

So a female umpire doesn't want to see a male umpire change in front of her and guys are saying they wouldn't work with her or take exception to this stance. I wonder how your wives would feel about you changing clothes in front of another woman?

 

I would be extremely uncomfortable changing in front of a female umpire. But I guess if you're not worried about becoming a sexual predator for changing clothes in a public/school property parking lot, I guess you're not too concerned about sexual harassment either.

 

This has turned into a massively stupid discussion. Lock it up and get a damn dressing room while you're at it!!!

[JaxRolo]

@Thunderheads @Majordave @somebody

It's getting personal here.

Better lock it up before I get involved! lol

[MadMax]

@Tksjewelry's point, @grayhawk, isn't the inter-umpire dynamic, but the pervasive, litigious public dynamic.

 

I've been on numerous co-ed soccer, hockey and basketball teams, and at tournaments, you routinely have to "flip over" and change jerseys and uniforms in just a few minutes so as to start the next game. When you're a team, you just try to be as quick, considerate and "mindless" as possible. You go through the motions of what you have to do (take that off and put that on) in the shared space you're afforded, and if it means you see your female teammate in her underwear, big deal. You don't let it register, carry on, and ignore it. (I'm not speaking down to you... you know this). A similar dynamic is between police assignment / "beat" officers... You are likely going to spend hours together, and you're going to see each at your best, worst, and everything in between.

 

The vicious variable – that Tks is basing her perspective on – is the "when the public sees it" one. _Any_ action today is being captured on a smart phone, no matter how innocent it may appear. And then it gets picked apart mercilessly and misinterpreted, often with the entire, innocuous intent or reality of the situation completely and utterly skewed. People who weren't even there suddenly feel offended and bring whatever additional, unwarranted gravity they can and suddenly, what goes from being a middle-aged man stumbling a bit while trying to fish his foot through a pants leg with his uncovered arse cheeks hanging out, captured by a passing male teenager on a smartphone, who thought seeing a naked arse is funny as hell, posted to YouTube, becomes an inquisition as to why that man was showing his buttcheeks on a school parking lot and charges of indecent exposure are drawn up.

 

Sound absurd? It happens far too often.

[grayhawk]

 

Tksjewelry, I'm guessing that you refuse to go to the beach or a public pool given your disdain for people "dropping trow?"

I see people much more scantily clad at the beach than I, or any of my partners get in the parking lot.

If you daughters teacher dropped his pants in class and gave the same argument, would that fly?

 

 

It was a serious question.  There are guys that choose to wear speedos at the beach or at pools.  Since this happens, do you avoid these public places?  Is there a difference between a nylon speedo, and cotton boxer-briefs, or compression shorts?

 

Look, if guys are nuding up in parking lots, then they need to stop doing it.  Public nudity is not legal.  I show up to the game with my undergarments already on, which means the most you will see prior to the game is me in a t-shirt and black leggings while I am putting on my poly wools.  After the game, I change my shirt before taking off my leggings, and will discreetly take off my leggings and cup/jock and quickly put on a pair of shorts.  So, at worst, someone who looks in a 5 second window, with just the right angle behind my car door will see me in a t-shirt and boxer briefs (which I do not remove until I get home) which is more clothing than a speedo.

 

My point is that changing in the parking lot can be done discreetly and quickly and it shouldn't offend anyone that's not looking to be offended.  I think there is a ton of validity to the notion that since almost every person now has a video camera in their pocket there is more potential then ever for problems to surface.  It probably makes sense to take this issue to the board to see if they can press the issue with the schools.  The problem for us here in Orange County is that we are talking about a huge number of schools to address this with.  I suspect that it will take years to affect change.

[bam]

I go away for a few months and I come back to this?

😷

[Kevin_K]

When I get to the field the first thing I do is get naked, run a lap around the field just to get warmed up. Then I go back to my car and change.

I don't believe this for a second.

 

If you were already naked while you were returning to your car, you would not have to change. You would have to get dressed.

[Majordave]

@JaxRolo

@MidAmUmp

 

Actually guys I think there is still some reasonably intelligent discourse still continuing.

 

@Tksjewelry  @ Grayhawk  Ya'll play nice now, ya hear?

 

How's that?

 

I am one of those insane guys who occasionally gets 100% strip-stark naked, pours a bottle of water over myself and towels off then dresses after a hot sweaty game IN THE PARKING LOT when they don't provide me a dressing room.  I am as discrete as I can be.  I park away from everyone.  I back up into the treeline or against a fence.  I open doors and stand between them.  I sit in my chair with a towel over my lap when I remove my soaking wet undies, jock, tights, socks.  I am not ashamed. I don't broadcast.  I have faith in the American Jury System of law.  Of course I won't have to pay an attorney to represent me so I do what I do.  Works for me.

 

By the way,  after I prosecuted criminals, both adults and juveniles, for a couple of years I taught high school for four years.  I overheard things. I chaperoned dances and ball games and I finished up last two years as Assistant Athletics Director.  I saw things.  If any of you have teenage children and think they aren't doing stuff you wouldn't approve of you need to wake up.  The raging hormones of teenagers trump all the great advice, good examples, scary stories and any other tactics you try to make them not do what you wanted to do or did when you were their age.  Except they do even more stuff than you did or can imagine..........

 

My .02.............

[Rulekeep]

Sidebar

@Majordave, you're wrong, actually...I don't really do anything my parents aren't aware of and I have the worst raging hormones in my class. Unless it's using their bandwidth to watch Gomer Pyle-USMC on YouTube.

Although that's not because of their horror stories and advice, it's my mentors. HA. I'm still a teenager three years and two weeks, though. That might change.

[Majordave]

@Rulekeep

 

You are a bit on the low side of the age spectrum.  You've got plenty of time to go nuts.  Maybe you won't but peer pressure is a terrible thing.  My advice to many was for them to stop being sheep.  Think for yourselves!  Don't let your "friends" decide your fate for you.

 

[Rulekeep]

@Rulekeep

You are a bit on the low side of the age spectrum. You've got plenty of time to go nuts. Maybe you won't but peer pressure is a terrible thing. My advice to many was for them to stop being sheep. Think for yourselves! Don't let your "friends" decide your fate for you.

Oh yeah ask my teachers how much I think for myself SMH.

AND as much as third-fifth grade group counseling sessions would have me believe, peer pressure is non-existent at my high school. I've walked into a room full of stoners and our conversation went:

"Hey freshy, we're about to go get baked, wanna come?"

"Nah. I got a test in bio in like five minutes."

"Alright, good luck."

I'm fifteen on the sixth, that's right in the middle age wise. Besides I'm too broke to do drugs, too cowardly to skip class, too anxious to party, and too nerdy to be running around stealing cars.

[Tksjewelry]

Tksjewelry, I'm guessing that you refuse to go to the beach or a public pool given your disdain for people "dropping trow?"

I see people much more scantily clad at the beach than I, or any of my partners get in the parking lot.

If you daughters teacher dropped his pants in class and gave the same argument, would that fly?

It was a serious question. There are guys that choose to wear speedos at the beach or at pools. Since this happens, do you avoid these public places? Is there a difference between a nylon speedo, and cotton boxer-briefs, or compression shorts?

Look, if guys are nuding up in parking lots, then they need to stop doing it. Public nudity is not legal. I show up to the game with my undergarments already on, which means the most you will see prior to the game is me in a t-shirt and black leggings while I am putting on my poly wools. After the game, I change my shirt before taking off my leggings, and will discreetly take off my leggings and cup/jock and quickly put on a pair of shorts. So, at worst, someone who looks in a 5 second window, with just the right angle behind my car door will see me in a t-shirt and boxer briefs (which I do not remove until I get home) which is more clothing than a speedo.

My point is that changing in the parking lot can be done discreetly and quickly and it shouldn't offend anyone that's not looking to be offended. I think there is a ton of validity to the notion that since almost every person now has a video camera in their pocket there is more potential then ever for problems to surface. It probably makes sense to take this issue to the board to see if they can press the issue with the schools. The problem for us here in Orange County is that we are talking about a huge number of schools to address this with. I suspect that it will take years to affect change.

Guys that wear speedos to the beach aren't looking to harass me that's for sure. I'm in flyover country, we don't have beaches. I haven't seen a speedo since 1990 on an old European, and yes, trust me, it was so offensive that it offended a large portion of Las Vegas. Don't think about it, no need for all of us to have nightmares tonight. Now, Would I allow my teenage son to wear a speedo to the mall, to school, to a concert, to work? Hell to the no. That might fly in NYC or LA, but not here. Umpiring is a job, a profession. A profession mostly working with children (and they may not necessarily be from your area), even if you don't, most do. Your experience of wearing compression pants and having "quick change" isn't universal. I've seen a whole lot of tighty whities this year and for much longer than 6 seconds. From umpires from all over the country. My all time favorites, tighty whities, putting on a jock strap, then putting the cup in, all while eating a hot dog, taking their time to pull up the trousers, national tournament, middle of the main drive out and into the only parking lot for a ten plex with teams, coaches, parents, siblings, grandparents everywhere. This didn't happen once, or even twice. I was shocked no one called the director from the looks we got. Would you want your five year old daughter to walk by my partners like that? Would you want your wife or daughter treated like that at their place of employment? Would you want a man walking around in his underwear, affixing his junk, in front of her at her office? I can tell you that my father, an umpire, and my husband, a steel worker, were more than not thrilled.

Now, what about the 12 or 14 year old boy partners with my partner. I see these kids working games all the time on YouTube, so it could happen. Many haven't yet learned the skills to deal that level of discomfort. That whole list of scenarios is an after school special waiting to happen. Just the words "position of authority" in that situation should give good grown men nightmares.

Baseball isn't the only sport going on at the schools. Track, cross country, tennis, cheer leading (yes it's a sport!), golf. And trust me when I say, not all females will recognize that you're an umpire dressing out, and some won't care. You'll be the pervy old man taking his pants off in the parking lot. And there is always a few who will relish the over dramatic, tearfull, attention they would garner off of your misery.

Decorum, professionalism, and respect are expected on the field, but the job extends to the cars. Pre-game/post-game discussions are part of the job, and they happen at the cars in most cases. Don't the fans, coaches, and especially the athletes deserve to be shown and see all those qualities exhibited off the field too? (and not always just one games worth)

I think schools and tournaments should provide shelter for umpires. It would be protecting themselves also. CCTV is already in some major cities, which puts everyone at even greater risk. People today don't sue just an individual, nope, they go after every deep pocket they see. That means schools, districts, organizations, parks and recs, assigners and partners could all be on the chopping block.

[Rulekeep]

I'd say more guys on a beach would harass you at a ballpark, really. Really.

I'm in a full-credit swimming class at my high school and nobody says anything about the guys that wear speedos to class-and those are BOYS, in the same room with GIRLS! Sometimes they even have to SWIM TOGETHER! *gasp*

The fact of the matter is, if you're female, you're gonna get harrassed in your workplace. It's SH*#ty, it's life. If you're the guy parading around in your briefs, well then you obviously don't care and OBVIOUSLY don't treat it like a profession, like you say it is. Smitties, and oblivious or attention-whore ones at that.

I can not list the number of times I have seen players change in parking lots. I have seen my partners do so maybe four times, and never as bare as the players. As a female on an all-boys wrestling team, I have walked out of the lockers and seen one boy yell "Hey! That's my jock!" Then proceed to grab it from the other boy and stuff it in his uniform. Yet the referees are the ones getting in trouble for changing from their stripes to their grays in the corner of the gym behind the bleachers. It's the same in baseball. Instead of blaming the umpires who HAVE NO CHOICE, those parents should be worried about why they're a.) letting their child that's of an age that they are worried about seeing a bare chest run free across a parking lot, b.) bothered by something they haven't tried to fix, c.) not worried about those baseball players walking about with their shirts off and pants around their knees, and d.) looking anyways. From reading these replies and personal experience there is not a SINGLE person who takes his umpiring seriously that doesn't at least do his best to be as modest as possible.

In some cases, cities and/or organizations can't afford to put in locker rooms, period. The high school fields and the adult softball fields here in JNU don't have them, much less the little league fields. I've seen boys show up in their football gear, strip, and put on their baseball gear right in the dugout. But nobody's worried about how the teenage umpire or their parents are going to react. Families already have the idea that umpires are bad guys. The maybe 1% of them that don't find modesty important are the ones that further ruin our image.