It's called a uniform for a reason: a brief rant

[misnomer]

Hi all! It's been well over a year since my last post but I need to get something off my chest. I'm in my second year of umpiring and have been enjoying it more than ever. However, the seemingly minor issue of shirt color has repeatedly blown up when coordinating with my partners. 

The association I'm a part of falls under the "as long as you match, you're fine" umbrella. Our standard colors are navy and light blue but some guys have entire wardrobes of shirts. To be clear, I have absolutely nothing against the folks who like to have two of every color, but I have repeatedly run into partners who get very snippy with me because I don't have a cream shirt or a red shirt or a grey shirt or whatever other color that they declare that we are to wear that day. Am I being unreasonable by only having the two basic colors? Currently, I own 6 shirts and it already feels like overkill. I don't see a reason why we need to have a million colors and variations. Personally, I would like to see my assn. switch to black and light blue, but that's a fight for another day. 

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[agdz59]

Black, light blue and navy should get you through.  Hopefully, you don't have OCD guys who want to match all the way down to the sleeve edge and collar.  If they are going to be that particular, your association needs to establish an account at Smitty's or Ump-Attire, or whatever and have everybody order the same thing from their account.  In Alabama it was like that - shirts came with the association patch and everything.

[misnomer]

5 minutes ago, agdz59 said:

If they are going to be that particular, your association needs to establish an account at Smitty's or Ump-Attire, or whatever and have everybody order the same thing from their account. 

My assn. isn't particular at all. it's just that other people are demanding that I have a shirt other than those three and get mad when I don't have it.

[Jimurray]

3 minutes ago, misnomer said:

My assn. isn't particular at all. it's just that other people are demanding that I have a shirt other than those three and get mad when I don't have it.

Can't blame them. When they find the color that gives them the not so fat look they don't like going out there with the color they think emphases their gut.  🙂

[BigBlue4u]

Is there anything wrong with calling your partner before the game and asking him what color shirt he'll be wearing?

[Richvee]

Text/ call the day before the game. “I have black, light blue and navy. Any one is OK with me”. 

[Jimurray]

15 minutes ago, Richvee said:

Text/ call the day before the game. “I have black, light blue and navy. Any one is OK with me”. 

A lot of us give the PU the choice of color, within the association's list.

[Richvee]

Just now, Jimurray said:

A lot of us give the PU the choice of color, within the association's list.

Yeah. PU choice of what colors we both have. 

[Velho]

If someone wants to get picky on what non-standard shirt we wear, I'll happily borrow their spare of that color/style. 😁

[MadMax]

17 hours ago, misnomer said:

Currently, I own 6 shirts and it already feels like overkill. I don't see a reason why we need to have a million colors and variations. Personally, I would like to see my assn. switch to black and light blue, but that's a fight for another day. 

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Oh, you’d love me. 

*deep breath in* 

• 2022 Fanatic black
• 2022 Fanatic sky blue
• 2016 Panel black 
• 2016 Panel sky blue
• 2016 Panel grey
• 2016 Panel navy
• 2015 All-black
• 2010 vertical stripe (VS) black
• 2010 VS sky blue
• 2010 VS grey
• 2010 VS cream
• 2010 VS navy
• 2010 VS red
• 2010 VS black w/ pink trim ✝️
• 2010 VS pink ✝️ 
• 2010 VS Bermuda blue
• 2010 VS olive green 
• 2010 VS maroon 
• Overcast camo (grey-based)
• Columbia camo (blue-based) 
• Classic (two-stripe collar & sleeves) black
• Classic “polo” blue w/ black collar
• Classic navy 

… and I’ve given away (or ragged) my Classic red, Classic white, Classic cream, Classic grey… and that hideous Classic “powder blue with navy and white trim” shirt… that softball still holds out and relies on. 

My Classic navy is buried in a Wisconsin-based tote in storage, just in case some jack@$$ wants to spar with me. Most of my more modern shirts are in Arizona. Yes, I have multiples of each, and even long-sleeved versions (black, typically) of each style shift. 

I love how my 2016 Panel navy inspires and incenses those I show it to, in equally divided (and divisive) amounts. That 🤬 stupid line in NFHS Rules that states “[shirt] shall be navy” doesn’t say anything about style… so why must it (the shirt we wear) be that arcane “classic” one??!! Hmmmm??!!! 

I’m Mad Max, and this is my (competing, apparently) TED Talk. 

[BLWizzRanger]

I would have to believe MadMax has the extended rear windows, like recreational vehicles have for living space, to be able to hang his wardrobe in the back seat.

BTW, any truth to hanging shirts inside out while hanging in the car to have the inner shirt fade out and not the outer shirt?

[Kevin_K]

@MadMax.... no Elbeco shirts? And all this time I thought you were a gear hound!

 

 

 

[Thatsnotyou]

If you have black and “light blue”, in my book you’re fine. That’s what most guys around me wear 95% of the time. If you work a ton of midday games in the sun, at some point you can grab a cream if a ton of guys have it. Red is a clown color. I’ll never have it. 
 

The only guys that grind my gears are the “I only have navy” guys. Buy a second shirt. Preferably black. I can also predict what the rest of your uniform will look like when you only have navy. 
 

As for “light blue” (and even black to some degree) there are just too many options now. I’ll do my best to match up in a HS game as far as style and color. Travel and summer ball? If you have light blue or black, I have stopped caring if we match. It’s just not a big deal. Wear what you have and it’s likely no one notices or cares anyway. Same goes for hats. Wear black or navy, whatever goes with the shirt, but we may not have the same logo. Whatever. 

[Richvee]

5 hours ago, Thatsnotyou said:

The only guys that grind my gears are the “I only have navy” guys. Buy a second shirt. Preferably black. I can also predict what the rest of your uniform will look like when you only have navy. 

Affectionately know as "Sub Varsity Lifers"

[wolfe_man]

12 hours ago, Thatsnotyou said:

As for “light blue” (and even black to some degree) there are just too many options now. I’ll do my best to match up in a HS game as far as style and color. Travel and summer ball? If you have light blue or black, I have stopped caring if we match. It’s just not a big deal. Wear what you have and it’s likely no one notices or cares anyway. Same goes for hats. Wear black or navy, whatever goes with the shirt, but we may not have the same logo. Whatever. 

I have every color, except pink, but I have to agree with you on this.   Why do we need so many options for a blue shirt?  Light blue with navy trim (softball), light blue with black trim, light blue with black stripe, MLB shirts I, MLB shirt II and so on. 

FWIW, I wish they'd stop making the old style shirts and only make side panels going forward.  It'd make things so much  easier to match up.

[Richvee]

9 hours ago, wolfe_man said:

I wish they'd stop making the old style shirts and only make side panels going forward.  It'd make things so much  easier to match up.

I'm not sure about this. All my summer ball across multiple leagues all have Black and Light Blue with the panels as their "Mandatory" uniform.  Yet I repeatedly run into guys (especially high school development stuff) who still don't own any side panel shirts......And it's certainly not because they recently purchased any new old style shirts. 

[wolfe_man]

33 minutes ago, Richvee said:

I'm not sure about this. All my summer ball across multiple leagues all have Black and Light Blue with the panels as their "Mandatory" uniform.  Yet I repeatedly run into guys (especially high school development stuff) who still don't own any side panel shirts......And it's certainly not because they recently purchased any new old style shirts. 

I know what you mean, some guys... smh

[Kevin_K]

Next season I'm going to be an "I only have black" guy

[Velho]

This threads raise the question: How much do folks pay attention / care about teams jersey colors? Does that opinion change in post season?

[Thatsnotyou]

20 hours ago, Richvee said:

Affectionately know as "Sub Varsity Lifers"

Oh some of them unfortunately get varsity games, just don’t dare give them the plate. 

[Thatsnotyou]

1 hour ago, Velho said:

This threads raise the question: How much do folks pay attention / care about teams jersey colors? Does that opinion change in post season?

In regards to what color the umpires wear? No attention on my end. We have limited options (IMO mainly two). I basically wear black every game all spring. 
 

If someone thinks we’re biased because we’re wearing black and one team is wearing black…that’s absurd to me. 

[Velho]

3 minutes ago, Thatsnotyou said:

If someone thinks we’re biased because we’re wearing black and one team is wearing black…that’s absurd to me.

😳 Is that a thing?

[Jay R.]

1 hour ago, Velho said:

This threads raise the question: How much do folks pay attention / care about teams jersey colors? Does that opinion change in post season?

If I'm being paid by one local rec association and their team is playing a team from another association, I try not to wear the home team's colors. Some of the parents in the smaller leagues where I am assume the umpires are in the pocket of the hosting organization.

For the tiny association I schedule umpires for, they only use teams in the Texas Rangers' color schemes (royal, red, and powder) plus navy. So it was easy to make black the official color for our umpires.

For my son's rec association, I was solo umpiring a preliminary game in a travel tournament hosted by their all-stars (my son was not on the team). I wanted to wear white for heat reasons and had no idea who was playing and what colors there would be. Turned out to not be an issue but if the hosting team was wearing white with navy trim (like my shirt) I would have gone with powder blue.

10 minutes ago, Thatsnotyou said:

If someone thinks we’re biased because we’re wearing black and one team is wearing black…that’s absurd to me. 

It is absurd, but it happens in small-town rec ball.

[Richvee]

1 hour ago, Velho said:

This threads raise the question: How much do folks pay attention / care about teams jersey colors? Does that opinion change in post season?

To me? I dont even look at the player’s colors to decide what we should wear. I have worked with guys who do. I’m not sure why. 

[Richvee]

27 minutes ago, Thatsnotyou said:

Oh some of them unfortunately get varsity games, just don’t dare give them the plate. 

Around here, they not only getting varsity plates, they are getting some of the better varsity plates. That still doesn’t make them more than a sub varsity lifer.