Quote:
Originally posted by BJ Moose
Is there an official uniform that MUST be worn (ex: navy pullover, heather gray, assoc hat).
Do you allow ANY of the variations: Lt. Blue, Red?
Has your association discussed the latest colors, Cream and Black? Bottom line.. I am interested in how many Associations specifically ALLOW umpires to work games in various uniform color schemes, and what is allowed.
NOTE AGAIN: I am not ASKING if you as an individual wore a RED shirt or a BLACK shirt doing a one man Senior LL game for a hotdog and soda.. or if you violated your Assoc uniform rules. I am very curious as to what Associations throughout the U.S. are actually implementing.
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I primarily call games in a very active (and large) recreational community. Our association also provides more experienced umpires for the summer competitive leagues.
Every year we have organizational meetings and the issue of standards and acceptable uniforms always comes up.
Many of our umpires are teenagers who are just trying to earn some summer fun money. They are good kids ... many of them are conscientious and eager learners ... but they really are not dedicated to the extent that they are going to go out and purchase an array of high quality and expensive umpire uniforms and equipment.
That being said, we have finally settled on a very pragmatic solution to the annual uniform problem.
We allow our umpires to wear any one of about FOUR acceptable umpire combinations. They constraint is as follows:
1. The pants, in every circumstance must be heather gray.
2. The shirt must be an UMPIRE's shirt. Not a shirt from your closet that comes very close to looking like an umpire's shirt. Essentially, you must buy it out of an umpire's catalog or go to your local sporting good store and buy an umpire's shirt.
3. The hat must be logo-less and be an umpire's hat ... not just a blue hat from your closet. Again, it must be purchased from a catalog or from a sporting good store that sells umpire equipment and uniforms.
The net result is that we basically look pretty sharp! I don't think it is necessarily unprofessional to have the BU in the dark-blue pullover while the PU is wearing the light-blue pullover. Even if one of them were wearing RED ... big deal! Teams accept this and don't generally interpret it as non-standard or unprofessional. They have come to realize that the acceptable umpiring uniforms have evolved and expanded over the years. All you have to do is watch MLB games and see that.
The key, in my opinion, is to stay away from homemade and make-shift uniforms. That's unprofessional!