Why is it....?

[JordanF]

I don't know if anyone has noticed or even cares, but have you noticed that a lot of pictures of umpires in magazines and online show terrible mechanics? Fellow umpires with their head way below the top of the catchers head, or safe calls with with arms flailing in the air, or wearing hats backwards. Am I just lucky that almost every guy I work with in my district has gone to a regional school, umpired a regional tournament at some level, or is a regional instructor? Can there really be that many umpires out there with really bad mechanics? I just can't figure this out. My feeling is that if you are going to umpire, you should take every opportunity to further your training and reinforce good mechanics.

This is just something I have noticed lately and it kinda bothers me. Say what you will, but I had to get this off my chest.

[scobes7]

I was watching our towns Senior league last year in the state tournament and the home plate umpire was wearing his hat backwards and the field up never was in the set position. I thought to myself, you have got to be kidding me...

[mstaylor]

I have noticed the same thing. If you send a picture into a magazine for publication look at it before hand and see if you are doing something wrong.

I had a women take a bunch of pictures of me working amen's league game. I work scissors and the back leg should be straight. She had several shots of me in profile and my leg was bent each time. When I looked closer, you could see the catcher was throwing the ball back and I was coming up.

[Stan W.]

This is a problem in all sports photography.....the camera is fast...It takes a single image of a moving subject....Many times the photo can catch an intermediate movement rather than the whole or complete movement. Have you ever had a candid photo catch you with a stupid look on your face?.....

Now as to mechanics, I've been told that only we umpires notice that sort of stuff....but I do a presentation of umpire pictures to students that I call "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"....I have accumulated these through the years or culled them from the internet to illustrate mechanics.....(good and bad)...

Once you actually see the right or the wrong thing, you can go about adding/correcting it in your own games... Like MST says, I would encourage anyone who is being published to make sure that the photos show your subject in a positive light....

Now that being said, I am so glad there are no pictures of me umpiring in rural Georgia in the 80's.......blue umpire T-shirt, mesh adjustable hat and blue coaches shorts (all association issue).......i t would be quite embarassing compared to todays standards.....

Edited March 16, 2009 by Stan W.
spelling, clarity

[Umpire in Chief]

I think some people have made some really good points I have a few to add.

In professional photo shoots/commercials and things not dedicated to umpires umpires are a part of the background and 99% of people will not even notice an umpire is there. Much less mechanics or uniform standards.

Also since there is such a bias towards umpires they don't take any effort to making an umpire look good authoritative and correct, even if he is just in the background.

[Umpire in Chief]

BTW for some good umpire pictures check out Daniel's page at http://www.umpirepictures.com