Quote:
Originally posted by heykid41
To wear sunglasses or not to wear sunglasses - THAT is the question. Damned if I do, and damned if I do not. I have not ever heard any chirping about sunglasses behind the plate. We have some parks where you take a 10 minute break when the sun is directly behind the pitcher and there is no way the ump, catcher or batter can see a damn thing. Sunglasses are not really an option - they are a necessity. As for sunshine up her in, "The true north, strong and free"... remember, southern Ontario is about as far south as the Oregon/California border.
Course here on the west coast - it rains a tad.
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When in Rome, you do what the Romans do. But from my personal and professional opinion, they do not look good when you are constantly calling pitches. On the bases I can understand, because most fields are made when the sun is not going to be in direct line with the pitcher's mound or home plate so that both a pitcher or batter will see the sun directly when pitching or batting. But the sun will be located off to the side so that the base umpire is more likely to be looking directly into the sun. One of the reasons you see outfielders wear sunglasses to begin with.
Now in my experience, I worked at only one field that had home plate facing the sun during sunset. It was a field in Fort Madison, Iowa, on the campus of Iowa Weslyan, where the local HS team plays as well. Iowa plays there games in the summer (might be the reason this was a problem) and when they play their night games, the sun would line right up right behind the pitcher. In those cases we would stop the game and wait until the sun went down to a safe level and then continue play. Because everyone could not wear sunglasses to be safe (batters, pitchers and umpires all the same). But that was a very unusual situation. All other fields I have worked in Iowa and Illinois are faced where that is not a problem. So I have never need sunglasses to see, except for that one situation.
Peace