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Each year we are issued an "Officials Handbook" by the Ohio High School Athletic Association. It has the requirements for officials in all varsity sports, such as what permits are required, qualifications for officiating different levels (middle school, high school, JV, varsity), qualifications for officiating state playoff games and proper uniform requirements.
Neither baseball nor softball uses a clock in Ohio. Oddly, the "Officials Handbook" allows watches for softball umpires, but forbids them for baseball umpires. I adhere the guidelines for whichever sport I am calling.
One summer league that I umpire in is not "officially" affiliated with any governing body, though it does use modified FED rules. We have a bit more leeway on uniforms. For instance, in two-man games the umpires might be wearing dark blue, light blue, red, tan or black shirts, depending on which shirts the guys bring to the game. However, they both must match.
Since there is no official affiliation, I have been wearing a plain black "sports watch" since this league uses time limits in all their games.
Last week, I took a foul ball directly on the wrist, and it squarley hit my "shock proof" watch.
Much to my surprise, when I glanced at it when nearing the time limit, its display was flashing all zeros! My first though was that the stopwatch had been activated, but it turned out that the foul ball must have momentarily jarred the battery loose and reset the display.
Luckily, the inning ended and the time limit didn't come into play.
[Edited by BretMan on Jul 21st, 2005 at 03:26 PM]
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