[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

It is my humble opinion that if an umpire has plate equipment he needs to have his tuchus behind the plate.

There is only one situation when an umpire should work behind the pitcher: He is in the stands preparing to watch his child play (and he did not have his equipment in his car) and no umpires show-up. And against his best judgement he is begged to umpire the game for the benefit of the playrers. And sadly I have had to do this a couple of times for games involving our two sons. The first time I did it I balked in the winning run for my son's team's opponents.

MTD, Sr.