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I'm not, because I don't speak for other umpires.
It's not a baseball-only thing, either. I've seen plenty of rec softball umpires dressed badly, too. And rec baseball players, too.
My point is that the color of the frame of the mask and whether you use a helmet is irrelevant to the quality of officiating. It seems as though the trend is to judge style over substance in most situations -- but I'm much less interested in the headwear of an official than in knowing his head height when calling pitches, just to give one example.
Too many organizations are starting to dictate gear in this fashion and some are doing it in a blatant attempt to monopolize the clothing/equipment market (HS associations are the worst for this).
Not important to me. If someone told me I wasn't allowed to wear a helmet or something equally ridiculous, I'd just go home.
BTW, I've been a softball umpire just as long as I've been a baseball umpire. I worked my first college game on the softball diamond and worked my first state HS quarterfinal on the softball diamond. I can speak as one who's done a lot of both, even if I'm focusing on baseball right now. And never, never, did anyone care about such trivial equipment issues when I worked fastpitch.
Rich
[Edited by Rich Fronheiser on Aug 7th, 2003 at 12:28 AM]
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