Equipment

[Kaliix]

Wow, Pete, that is alot of gear for a first year umpire!

You first year, you can officiate with one pair of combo pants, one dark blue shirt and one hat.

I have never been cold enough to need the windbreaker but I love the cold.

I still only own one pair of combo pants. Wash them every week and you'll be fine.

Invest in plate shoes when you are sure you are going to stick with it. You can buy shin guards that have extended metatarsal guards that will save you money the first year.

I have four shirts now, but I still have not bought the powder blue shirt. I just don't like the color. I'll probably buy one for next year though.

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by Kaliix
Wow, Pete, that is alot of gear for a first year umpire!

You first year, you can officiate with one pair of combo pants, one dark blue shirt and one hat.

I have to disagree. If you only have one uniform, you will have to wash it much more. I think two or three of each is good (outside uniform) is good if you can afford it. If you get one uniform you better have a washer and dryer in your home, because you might have to wash after every single game under the right circumstances.

Originally posted by Kaliix
I have never been cold enough to need the windbreaker but I love the cold.

Well that might apply to you but not everyone else. I do not like to get cold at all and I use a jacket all the time when I am working the bases. Now this of course depends on what part of the country you live. Living in the Midwest it is difficult to get decent weather during the spring and fall to not be somewhat cold.

Peace

[Kaliix]

Hey, to each their own. I made it through my first year with one shirt and one pair of pants. If the shirt started to smell, it got washed. If the pants got visibly dirty, they got washed. Managed a full season that way with no problems.

And most guys here have the jacket. I am the exception, but I rarely get cold.

Originally posted by JRutledge

I have to disagree. If you only have one uniform, you will have to wash it much more. I think two or three of each is good (outside uniform) is good if you can afford it. If you get one uniform you better have a washer and dryer in your home, because you might have to wash after every single game under the right circumstances.

Well that might apply to you but not everyone else. I do not like to get cold at all and I use a jacket all the time when I am working the bases. Now this of course depends on what part of the country you live. Living in the Midwest it is difficult to get decent weather during the spring and fall to not be somewhat cold.

Peace

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by Kaliix
Hey, to each their own. I made it through my first year with one shirt and one pair of pants. If the shirt started to smell, it got washed. If the pants got visibly dirty, they got washed. Managed a full season that way with no problems.

And most guys here have the jacket. I am the exception, but I rarely get cold.

I understand that that might be the cheap way to get a uniform. I do not know about you I could make around $300 easily in a week working baseball. I think any umpire can afford easily a couple more pair of pants and shirts for a uniform. If looking the part is not a priority then buy one uniform. Part of what we are doing as an umpire is to look like we did not just crawl out of a hole. One of the ways to do that is to have many uniforms ready for use. I know a lot of umpires that have one uniform as well, but they look like it. You are right, to each his own.

Peace

[BigUmp56]

Kaliix Wrote:


"Invest in plate shoes when you are sure you are going to stick with it. You can buy shin guards that have extended metatarsal guards that will save you money the first year."




This is just plain bad advice my friend. The first year I umpired I thought the same thing. That was until I was hit on the front of my foot by a pitch fouled sraight back and down and broke 2 toes. The cost of the medical care alone was almost 4 times the price of a pair of plate shoes.


I now recommend to our new umpires that if they don't want to spend the money on a pair of good plate shoes, they should at the very least buy a workmans type tennis shoe with a steel toe. The cost is the same as a good training shoe, and the look is the same.


Tim.

[giuseppe]

can i say something? italians umpires use from the first year plate shoes, first of all for safety, and also for a good look. the shoes for all the umpires are ONLY black, i use +pos shoes, heavy but protective. we put much attention in our look, nobody use colored socks, like red or yellow. everybody have black or blue socks, like the shirt. first thing that teams watching in an umpire is uniform aspect. a good umpire take care of his equipment, also little particulars. better if you have more than one uniform, especially for double games or tournaments. i am umpire in a2 league in italy, teams have always double game, usually we are 2 umpires and have 1 game at home base and 1 game on base. so we neeed 2 uniforms, 'cause we have always, in the season, hot temperature and is necessary to change uniform at the end of the 1st game. sometimes we are designed for 2 games on saturday and 2 games on sunday, so we need minimun 4 uniforms. my first think in the day before umpiring, is for my equipments. remember, if managers don't know you, first impression of you is coming from your uniform. take care about .
p.s. excuse me for my bad english, lol.

[Kaliix]

Jeff, if you are making $300 a week doing games, you definitely need more than one uniform. My first year, I did 13 games in the high school season. One or two a week in mostly cool weather. For someone in their first year, who is not sure they are gonna stick with it, one uniform will work for the kind of schedule a new umpire is likely to get, at least in my area. My uniform never looked dirty, but I took care to store in properly.

As far as the plate shoes go, that is an individual choice. I bought a pair of plate shoes early in my first season but I don't like taking chances and I didn't have the extended guards on my shin guards. But I also didn't take a shot on the foot all of last year. If one is looking to save money the first year, you can. You are however tempting fate.

Originally posted by JRutledge

I understand that that might be the cheap way to get a uniform. I do not know about you I could make around $300 easily in a week working baseball. I think any umpire can afford easily a couple more pair of pants and shirts for a uniform. If looking the part is not a priority then buy one uniform. Part of what we are doing as an umpire is to look like we did not just crawl out of a hole. One of the ways to do that is to have many uniforms ready for use. I know a lot of umpires that have one uniform as well, but they look like it. You are right, to each his own.

Peace

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by Kaliix
Jeff, if you are making $300 a week doing games, you definitely need more than one uniform. My first year, I did 13 games in the high school season. One or two a week in mostly cool weather. For someone in their first year, who is not sure they are gonna stick with it, one uniform will work for the kind of schedule a new umpire is likely to get, at least in my area. My uniform never looked dirty, but I took care to store in properly.

As far as the plate shoes go, that is an individual choice. I bought a pair of plate shoes early in my first season but I don't like taking chances and I didn't have the extended guards on my shin guards. But I also didn't take a shot on the foot all of last year. If one is looking to save money the first year, you can. You are however tempting fate.

All these decisions are "personal" choices. No one is holding a gun to your head to take any of our advice here. You also cannot assume that every official is that indecisive about whether they want to work baseball. Most new umpires I run into want to work as much as possible. Sorry I was not answering this question for a small percentage of people getting into this. I still think it is important to look as professional as possible and most of us have jobs or other things in our lives. We all cannot wash uniforms after every game because we have other things going on in our daily lives. So if you want to cut corners do that. I just think new umpires that want to work more than once a week will find out that washing uniforms all the time can be tedious. I know when I started working I would get called every day to cover a game somewhere. You have a right to do what you want. I just do not feel your advice on this issue is solid as it relates to the every day umpire.

Peace