Umpire Communication
 

Some things are picked up with experience, so I ask... When you have a scheduled game, and you dont know who the other umpire is, what is the etiquette for shirt color and who will have home plate? If i find out the other umpire, is it OK to text him and ask "hey we have tomorrow game together, you OK with plate and Red shirt?" Or is there a more honored tradition for this?

Yes it's okay to ask (but most here would use email over text)

If you don't know who the partner is, ask the assigner.

Check local listings.

I always confirm assignments/partners over email, mainly so I have a "paper trail" if something happens. If you don't have an email, a phone call is probably in order. If you don't have an email address or a phone number for your partner, call your assigner.

Personally, I bring all my different shirts (Navy, Black, powder-with-dark-trim, powder-with-white-trim, thankfully we don't wear red around here) with me, because you just never know. But I ended up wearing Navy or Black for all but 1 of my games this year.

Plate/Bases: For this spring's playoffs, my assigner had a "first one on the list works the plate" rule. For regular season games, he left it up to the individuals. Usually, I'd state my preference and it worked out pretty well in most cases. If i worked with the same person multiple times, we'd alternate plate/bases. If I was working with someone I'd not worked with before, I usually volunteered to take the plate... one time I didn't do so, and let's just say it didn't end well.

Thanks
 

Thanks for the info.

Maybe this forum/site could have a page of "Newbie Stuff" that goes over general questions like this that might be helpful. Not situational of course, just "what to have in your hip bags" "what not to call a dead ball" "How to ..."

I know everyone is busy, but I would read it. lol

I umpired with a guy with two bags (is that what they are even called) on his belt and i have no idea what all he carried around in them.

I use two bags.

The right-side one carries the lineup card for the team in the 1st base dugout, my brush, and 2 extra game balls.

The left-side one carries the lineup card for the team in the 3rd base dugout, misc items (gloves and chapstick on a cold day, etc) and any extra balls beyond the two that stay in my right-side bag.

For some games, of course, this means the left-side bag only carries the lineup card...that's ok, it makes it easier for me to pull out the proper card when recording substitutions and courtesy runners.

I always use two bags.

The numbers of bags is dependent on one or both of two things. One being fashion, short umpires one, tall umpires two. The other being what you carry in your bags, number of balls, venues where 4 is optimal, two bags, me I carry brush and indicator and one ball if necessary in left and three balls in right. If you carry brush somewhere else and never carry more than three balls then one bag is good, especially if you are short. But just don't make them gray.

I wear two ball bags when working the plate (NONE on the bases!). I always wear BLACK ball bags, since 99% of the games I work require me to wear a black hat and either a black shirt or a light blue shirt with black and white trim. If I wore a navy shirt I'd wear a navy hat and navy ball bags.
I carry two baseballs and a plate brush in the right bag, and three baseballs in the left ball bag. I carry my lineup cards in a small "wallet" in my right rear pocket. Many umpires carry them in their shirt pocket, along with a pen.
Hope this helps!

JJ

I still keep a pen in my shirt pocket, even after the hit to the pocket.