For those of you that use one:

I like the +POS style 3 ball 2 strike 2 out indicator.

Nothin' like talkin' baseball!

I'm going to get the Honig's with the watch. I do a lot of time limit games.

Currently using Rawlings with 3K, 4ball, 3O, and inning. More than is necessary. The inning portion is nice when considering the mercy rules that are in place. Other wise - it's just extra.

MIB,

If there is no scoreboard, I usually make a little hash mark down the first base line where I stand between innings. Every other half-inning, I make a new mark. When it totals seven or nine, I figure I'm about done.

Good idea. But I can't remeber to turn the dial half the time. If I had to rely on marks on the field, I'd still be calling that game from June!!!

Okay thomas, what would you like to discuss? I started this thread because the racial ones kept getting deleted. I think the mods are trying to tell us to stick to baseball. This is a baseball thread, no more boring than all of yours have been.

Why did you reinvent yourself, did you get banned?

[Edited by SanDiegoSteve on Dec 12th, 2005 at 06:49 PM]

I looked at that once before. The watch on the indicator kept resetting every 5 minutes.

What you may want to do is buy a cheapo digital watch, cut off the face plate, and glue it to the back of your indicator. It may feel a little more bulky, but it might save you a little money in the long run.

Will

How about you just drop the watch in your pocket, or strap it to your belt and have it hang under your ball bag. No one needs to go around chopping up watches.

Why would you need a stop watch?


Tim.

In case you're working 2nd base on a televised game in the majors any time soon.

In MLB they time the between innings interval.

MLBUM

4.1 BETWEEN-INNING TIMINGS
The Crew Chief will designate one umpire on the crew to maintain the stop watch for timings between innings and for pitching changes. Normally, the timing is 2:05 from the last out to the first pitch the next half-inning. For ESPN, FOX Saturday afternoon, and TBS games the timing
is increased to 2:25.

Public address announcers will make the lead-off batter announcement at 1:40 (2:00 for 2:25 breaks), which is the plate umpire's cue to indicate "one more pitch" to the pitcher and prompt the on-deck batter to approach home plate.

The umpire keeping the watch should give the plate umpire a preliminary signal at 1:40 (2:00 for 2:25 breaks) in the event the PA. announcer fails to announce the first batter at the proper time.

Refer to annual Time of Game memos for additional details.

And the umpire that the Crew Chief designates is the 2nd base umpire.

I have mine strapped around the temple guard of my face mask. It works great and is still out of the way.

put it on your wrist and prepare to hear "you got somewhere to go blue? you keep looking at your watch an awful lot"

I sure am learning a lot here. Before coming on board here, I had never heard of there being anything wrong with wearing your wristwatch. Many of our umpires wear watches, both on the plate, and on the bases. I have always worn one (but now I won't anymore!.) Nobody has ever said any kind of remark about having somewhere to go, or anything similar (that I'm aware of.) I only use it for when to start the pre-game conference and the game. I don't look at it often, or in an obvious manner as to draw any comments. Maybe I should put it in my pocket, but then if I pulled it out to look at it, I would be calling attention to it.

Is there any rule against wearing a watch? Is it some kind of secret "unwritten" rule of which I wasn't informed? I've never seen anything in print about an umpire wearing a watch. The NFHS rule concerning jewelry is for the players, not the officials.

i dont know/work FED rules, specifically anything about umpires wearing watches, but ive just been told and have read not to do it. its another thing to to break when working the plate. some also see it as wrong to wear, as an umpire is here from start to finish and to refer to a time piece during the game can give the impression that he is speeding the game up and such.

those may be old guidelines and people might not care if you have one, but i just dont wear a watch because it leaves another door open for coaches/rats. they will end up complaining during those long games if they catch you glancing at your watch.


well, i also like my watch a lot and would hate to have it take a shot behind the dish. ill take a cup shot over a watch shot any day.

I don't wear a watch during the season, I hate the white outline on my wrist. Keep the watch in your ball bag.

As far as indicators go, I use the Honig, with 3 balls and 2 strikes. I find I never have to use any more than than that. I have no need to track innings, I figure when the teams no longer keep coming on the field, its time to go.

Now I have seen the indicators with both a watch and a "light up" feature. I'm waiting for the new ones that have have an MP3 player built in.

Bob

I've always worn a watch. I just recently heard not to. That's only part of my decision to look at the "indiclock."

Coaches won't ask about me looking at it, simply because in a time limit game, they're looking at theirs too.

I recommend purchasing the Sportline Keychain Stopwatch (you can find it by Google search, I bought mine at a Modell's store for $8). It has a digital clock, and is small enough to just throw in my ball bag and I can pull it out inconspicuously between innings if I need to check the time.

For those of you on MLB crews, it also has a stopwatch (as noted in the product name), in case you pull 2nd base duty. You, of course, will not have a ball bag, but it can go in your pocket nicely, also.

I bought one originally for the stopwatch feature for timing my kids in swimming events. The first one lasted 5 years, and I am on a second one now (one year in). The first one just ran out of juice, and I have not tried to see if I can replace the battery.

coach needs to watch his team, not me
 

I will probably get one of those stopwatches gotblue? was mentioning. But if a Rat/rat makes a smart comment about wearing a watch, he's paying way too much attention to me, and may possibly be leaving sooner than will I.

I know we cover this from time to time, but umpires should not wear watches for a couple of reasons. Coaches will wonder if you have a date, it looks bad when your skin is not tanned there, if you get injured it might be in the way and YOU COULD BREAK IT! "Time, the ball deflected off my watch and we have to pick up some pieces of metal, and crystal from the dish area." Oops...

I know of a guy who buys the cheapest Casio digital watch at the startof each season. It's really thin and he sticks it to the back of indiclickercounter. No one can see whether he is glancing at the count or the time. It was a neat trick and it looks better than fishing the watch out of the pocket or ball bag. It also helps those of you who are required to carry a watch out there for time limit games.

Ok I'll bite, why do you need 3ks 4b and 3o showing on your indaclickercounter?

Hey Blue what's the count?

Two strikes , 4 balls. son you can go to first now.!!!!!!
"Son, batter, oh I guess he already left."

Then again, why do you need an indaclickercounter anyway, oops, thats another discussion.

I don't think you do. The two I have are just that way. It's another click of the dial to get back to zero, but you adjust when that's what you've got!!!

Why do they continue to make/sell indicators that from top to bottom read strike/ball/out, and have 3 strikes, 4 balls, and 3 outs? When +POS first came out with the logical indicators, I loved them. They also had larger, easy to read numbers. I could never see going back to the old style.

No. You buy another one. Why put up with nonsense for the cost of an indiklicatator?

I see a lot of football officials, doctors, and people on the street wearing watches too, but what does any of that have to do with what you wear on the baseball field?

PWL,

Why is it that you insist on arguing every time the majority of the members posting in a thread try to help you out?

If you want to wear a wristwatch, fine, you go right ahead.

When you get hammered on the wrist by a foul ball and the thing explodes on you, or a senior partner pokes fun at you for needing to be some place, you might change your mind.


Who knows, maybe you wear it to count the amount of time it will take you to have your first ejection.


Tim.


BTW- Do you actually know who RulesGeek is? I can say with certainty that Luke ain't him!

Because people buy them. ;)

It's hard to teach some of us old dogs new tricks. I still have the first indicator I got when I was about 10. I carry it as my back-up.

Hahahaha,
 

Never, ever wear a wrist watch on the field.

Carry a time piece in your ball bag, back pocket or hidden elsewhere if you work timed games.

BTW, NEVER wear a wrist watch on the field when you umpire.

UNLESS you're the base umpire and want to time yourself when you are dusting off the bases or the pitcher's plate.

Don't wear a watch, please.

Tee

You still didn't answer my question.

How does what coaches, football officials, doctors, and people on the street wear have anything to do with what you wear on the field?

that sounds like a hell of a job perk to me! they are such an elite group of individuals that they are allowed to wear watches on a baseball field.

Someone needs to tell me why in the world would you need to wear a watch on your wrist to work a ball game?

Primarily, it is a safety hazard to wear one at the plate. Secondly, it looks amateurish, in my opinion. If you need to time the game for some reason, put the watch in your pocket, or your ball bag, or under your damn hat.

By the way, I'm glad sanity has been restored to this fine forum.

Bob

Bob,


Does your original indiclikicatorcounter have Roman Numerals on it? http://www.officialforum.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Tim.

deleted-see below post, this was a waste of time

[Edited by briancurtin on Dec 17th, 2005 at 08:03 PM]

Brian:

You're trying to reason with an individual who displays a child like mentality. There is no reason to a childs thought process.


Tim.

You wrote "I see coaches wearing watches all the time."

How does what a coach wears on the field have anything do do with what you wear? Do you wear stirrups too?

Nice job avoiding the original question again.

And this is a stirrup

http://twincityknitting.com/baseball...n-Striped2.gif

[QUOTE]Originally posted by PWL
[B]Just buy you a a digital watch with stop watch in it if you want to keep exact time. Much easier to keep up with and more handier, too.

Oh yeah, put on your wrist like your suppose to.

[Edited by BigUmp56 on Dec 17th, 2005 at 10:05 PM]

Since it has become quite apparent that you've not seen enough baseball games to know what a stirrup is that's worn by a baseball player or coach, I'll help you out, PWL

http://www.anacondasports.com/wcssto...s/at10_med.jpg


Tim.

You still don't understand what you've been told here. None of us cares if a coach wears a wrist watch, unless they are a player coach, in which case, they would need to remove it.

You're the one who attempted to relate a coach wearing a watch to an umpire wearing a watch. They are two different animals. When Luke asked you what a coach wearing a watch had to do with the price of marbles, you resorted to your usual low brow tactics of insulting people or changing the subject.

No one here is trying to berate you the way you berate others. They are just trying to help the helpless I guess. You won't be reasoned with, and that's a tell tell sign of an immature mind.

All you needed to do in order to avoid all this controversy was to either not respond, or respond saying you understand where the members of the board are coming from.


On the attempted softball insult. This summer, our district will be hosting the girls Indiana State Big League Softball Tournament. I've already been asked to work the tournament even though I've only called one girls softball game in my life, and that was almost 13 years ago. I consider it an honor to represent our district association in the tournament. I know for sure I'll need to brush up on the rules of softball, but I would imagine the games will be similar to what I've seen in the past.

You can flame away about me still working games in the LL organization. It won't change the fact that although you claim to be an experienced umpire, you don't know how to call a simple balk, and believe that make up calls are appropriate.

Tim.

I was told every thread ends up talking about hitler before it dies; so here it goes so we can get rid of the endless banter...Hitler. By the way guys at least trim your posts so that I don't scroll through the same entire post 15 times. Thank you.

So.......what kind of indicator do you use?

\
I use the 3/2/2 large print Honig indicator. It is more of a crutch that anything. I hate having to depend on it, but it has saved my bacon a time or two when things hit the fan and I forget what the count is. I actually have 3-4 different indicators in my bag that I have used throughout the years and have just settled into this one in the past 2-3 seasons. For what it's worth.

Brian