Quote:
Originally posted by Dakota
Called my first games with my daughter this past week.
We did a 12U league double-header on Thursday, and four 10U games in a tournament on Saturday. (More on the DD experience in another post.) All ASA.
The point of this post is I spent a lot of time explaining the importance of a professional appearance - proper uniform, shined shoes (even though they are covered with dust soon enough), etc.
But what did we see at this tournament?
Several umpires wearing long-sleeved shirts under their powder blues - one black, the others white (yes, it was a bit chilly - but for gosh sakes, this is MN - how can you expect to umpire in MN and not invest in a proper umpire jacket)? One of the "white shirts" even had the long sleeve pushed up above the elbow.
One umpire with a bright red mask with tan pads. From a distance, it looked like he was wearing a red hat.
One clueless umpire with his chest protector OUTISDE his shirt. Thank goodness (I guess) he was wearing a jacket over the protector (not an umpire jacket, natch).
Sigh.
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I may not get all calls right, but it takes very little effort to look "right" while I'm doing it!
Wife and I worked an all day tourney Sat, between games all Blues in our association would buff shoes, change out very dirty shirts etc, but one guy (the one with the royal blue mask) looked like he had slept in his clothes the night before. Shoes not shined, his powder blue was kind of powder brown! not faded but dirty. This was even for the first game! Needless to say, there were some spectator/coach comments toward that one.
It is so easy to look professional, I cant understand why some don't even try.
Tourney went well anyway, my wife and I only had 6 games, (was small tourney). 75 min time limits, one went 6 innings, but none of them made the time limit. Run rules got them all, even the championship game!
BTW glen, My DD called last year, decided not to this year. I never got to work a game with her, but did get to watch her an her mom call a 10U game! That was a treat, and those younger girls just idolize a cute little college gal who takes time to work their games! I know you had fun working with your DD, we've heard about her before!