Quote:
Originally Posted by johnnyg08
I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of all the marketing on the uniforms. Is that what they have to do to make ends meet?
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While living overseas, I worked a number of games where uniform advertising was the norm. In Singapore, we were issued tournament uniforms with the Dunkin Donuts logo on the left sleeve. In China, the Baidu logo was across the back of the shirt. Collector's pins were traded by athletes and umpires. I had partners who wore hats covered with them. Gifts were given to umpires by the sponsors as well. It was an interesting dynamic to be sure.
Over there, umpires were almost beyond reproach. The level of respect was nice but your integrity was also expected to be stellar. It was not uncommon for umpires to apologize to club owners, league directors or personnel for making bad calls (post game). Likewise, umpires were not confornted and demeaned publicly. Our calls were unquestioned but we were expected to never do anything to embarass the game. Maybe that is why I ascribe to the philosophy of not accepting expected calls and doing what is necessary to get the calls right. Umpiring in Asia was often hot but refreshing. Had Yorvit behaved like that over there, he would have been put on a plane and shunnned. Karma will find him.
Edited:
ESPN just posted the story of how Yorvit will be suspended for the remainder of this winter league season and all of the next. That's a decent penalty for the Venezuelan who makes a bunch of coin playing back home. The Rangers have a year left on his contract and have stated that they are reviewing his behavior.
http://espn.go.com/dallas/mlb/story/...la-hitting-ump