[gumpire]

Please all - I really need some input here....

Our local slow-pitch wreck league has a rule that teams must have "uniforms" (defined as matching sponsor shirts or same color shirt with no sponsor, and a number) by a certain date each season. Usually for Summer league it's May 1st and for Fall Sept. 1st.

Throughout the ENTIRE summer ball season teams will not have EVERY player in uniform...regularly I will point out a player not in uniform and invariably I get, "That last umpire..." or "It doesn't fit.", etc. The only time the opposing team will point it out is around the 5th inning when they are losing. This year at the Summer league playoffs (with the league coordinator present every night), teams still were not in uniform. League coordinator's comment was that you (meaning umpires) haven't enforced it all year.

So, last Tuesday, being Sept. 1st, I asked the Park Monitor if today was the day for uniforms; they were unable to tell me for sure because they could not find their Fall league handouts.

Tonight, I was mistaken which park I was scheduled to work at and arrived 3-5 minutes late for my game. The game had started and the home teams coach was umpiring. I came in at the bottom of the 1st. One of the players on the home team was not wearing a uniform or the same color, or a number. Play proceeded, and as usual, around the 4th inning, the visiting team started complaining about the player with no uniform. I told them that I was going to allow it, they *****ed but play continued. After my game, an umpire from another field came by to tell me that Sept. 1st was the uniform deadline and that "...if it's brought to my attention, I have to call the batter out."

2 seperate issues, but I'd like input on both:

I believe that the uniform issue is left to my discretion by the league based upon their allowing discretion in an ongoing basis. Right or wrong?

What should I say to the other umpire in response? (FYI: There is NO SUCH ruling regarding "brought to my attention", and in his next game, during my pitchers warm-ups, I noticed at least 3 people not wearing uniforms on his field.)