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Well, I saw a first last night. Not a good thing, in my opionion. I was calling Fed ball, Aledo Vs Eastland, good game. This was the first time I'd called with my partner. He had good mechanics. As PU, he would follow the runner down the line. We had an overthrow at 1st, I took her to 2nd, he switched and went to 3rd. Once play stopped, I turned to give him the number of outs and saw his mask in the dirt in the infield. This happened 2 more times during the game. I asked him if he was having trouble holding onto the mask and he told me he always dropped it when he had to run in the infield. I tried to keep a neutral face as I walked off. To me, this is an injury waiting to happen. If a pitcher or catcher or whoever stumbles over and hurts herself, that's gonna be hard to live with. Or, what if another bad throw hits the mask and bounces up into the defensive player's face? Not to mention the fact that the mask has to be filthy after a few of these tosses to the ground, what with this good ole Texas dirt ( or mud right now ) I just thought this was about one of the stranges practices I've seen an umpire do in the 8 years I've been calling ball.
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Rick
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