[amusedofficial]

I think the reason the unbelted look is preferred, encouraged or demanded.it is not because there is no belt or it meets the hot moms' definition of good-looking, but because among those wearing belts there is a wide variety of styles, colors, widths and buckles that make them non-uniform; it is virtually impossile to achieve a uniform appearance with a variety of belts and pant styles in play

If you have a crew of two or three all wearing belted pants, each belt will be different. There is relatively little style difference among the major suppliers of non-belted pants, save the issue of pleated vs. non pleated which is no more different than baseball players choosing to wear pants to the ankles or knicker-style.

Shoes and lanyards are another matter; all of sports gives leeway for personal preference in shoes as long as basic parameters (i.e. all black, no logos) are met. And you'll never get me to use a lasso-style lanyard while working a game of overgrown adolescents who have flying arms and legs and varyign degrees or coordination. Let them break my clasp, not my neck.

Unbelted pants are, by default as much as style, the uniform and irrespective of how it got that way, its adoption by those working the higher ranks is really the only way to have officials who are uniform and thus professional in appearance. It's not about looking sharp (how "sharp" can one look in stripes) as much as it is about looking like a corps of officials, presumably one held to a set of standards, rather than a bunch of Janes and Joes off the street.

It matters because the evaluation of what we do is so subjective. MickeyMantle could make fun of the K.C. A's kelly green and fort knox gold colors ("they should be holding hands and singing") but three world championships put that issue to bed. We, on the other hand, are judged almost entirely by perception, if we dress in a predictible and unifrom style, our image improves and we are respected as what we are, trained people who take what they do seriously and who have standards that are enforced within the cadre of officials