Dressing Rooms

[GarthB]

I investigated this issue two years ago locally. Here is the bottom line for us:

Ball fields at schools tend to be farther away from the school facilities than football or basketball. During the school year we are welcome to use the locker room facilities but it is such a walk, most umps prefer the parking lot.

During the summer, the school buildings are locked up and many fields are not school fields. They are municipal fields with no facilities of any kind.

In short, the facilities either don't exist at all or they are too far away for to be practical, or locked up for the summer.

So here we are, the sport official with the most gear to deal with, the only sport official who needs two different uniforms (plate and base) and the sport official who quite often works the longest (Double headers) without the facilities that even a volley ball ref (who often arrives dressed and just needs to change his shoes) gets to use.

Ah....the glamor of an umpire's life.