Caribbean WS

[ASA/NYSSOBLUE]

Have been watching this the last couple of days ( on YES )...must say the umps have looked pretty good so far..except for the DIRECTV patches on the shirts....but EVERYbody and everyTHING is plastered with ads,so....

Have been watching mostly with the sound off so, I was wondering if anyone knew if the crews are all locals, or do some American umps still work down there during the winter?

[LDUB]

I saw a few innings of 5 different games from the playoffs of the Mexican Pacific League a week or two back, and I observed several weird things.

1. 6 man crew, and in 2 of the games, I observed U1 using an indicator. I'm not sure if all 6 guys were using indicators, or if it is always U1's job to keep one.

2. In 3 of the 4 games I saw, the umpires wore navy shirts with red and white trim (although the trim was very different than our shirts). All the games I saw were night games, and it must have been pretty chilly as some players in the dugouts were wearing jackets. Well the umpires did not wear jackets/coats, the PU remained in short sleeves, while the other umpires added black long sleeve shirts under their navy uniform tops. At first I thought the undershirts must be dark navy, but after seeing a few shots of the umpires close up, it was obvious that the sleeves were black. Also...I did observe the umpires wearing navy pullover jackets with R&W trim, I don't know why they would go with black sleeves when they could wear their pullovers.

3. In a few of the games, the PUs had their bicep protectors adjusted so low that they completly stuck out of the bottom of their short sleeve shirts. The bicep protectors were covering their elbows. And the bicep protectors were gray. I tried to figure out what protector they were wearing, and I came to the conclusion that they were the "cheap" gray West Vest (It could have been a gray K1, but it looked more like the WV). I found it very odd that this guy would skimp on his chest protector and not buy a top of the line model.

[Rich Ives]

I found it very odd that this guy would skimp on his chest protector and not buy a top of the line model.


Probably based on cost as a percent of income.

[umpduck11]

Originally posted by ASA/NYSSOBLUE
Have been watching this the last couple of days ( on YES )...must say the umps have looked pretty good so far..except for the DIRECTV patches on the shirts....but EVERYbody and everyTHING is plastered with ads,so....

Have been watching mostly with the sound off so, I was wondering if anyone knew if the crews are all locals, or do some American umps still work down there during the winter?

As recently as last year,American umpires
were calling the Series. A local MiLB umpire
worked it, and used footage of himself in
a clinic held here last year.

[SAump]

Patches, I don't need no stinkin patches.

Please consider how much a Wilson West Vest Platinum model cost in Mexico. Using a 9 Mexican pesos to 1 US dollar conversion from my last visit there many years ago and my latest high school math class conversion method; I figure 1350 Mexican pesos cannot buy as much Platinum protection as a $150 US dollars once did. I also suppose transpotation, local taxes, import duties, other cost of living factors such as bribing local baseball officials, and today's conversion rate bring the actual costs up to about $2000 Mexican pesos or $222 US dollars.

I figure it costs more because I suppose Wilson wouldn't be all to eager to market them to Mexico where the average smitty is probably making $1 a game. I hear most of the smitties down there don't even bother to wear any chest protection or shin guards at all, just a traditional mask. At least that is what I have been told. Then again, I'm sure any smitty wearing a 2000 pesos (Yankee Woodrow) Wilson Platinumo Oeste Vestario in Mexico City late at night might want to invest in KEVLAR, life insurance and protection against theft insurance, instead.

Oh- don't get so bent out of shape. Just jolk-king with myself and others watching from lower San Diego.

[briancurtin]

Originally posted by SAump
I hear most of the smitties down there don't even bother to wear any chest protection or shin guards at all, just a traditional mask.

if only they could be wearing hockey style masks, so the back of their head could be protected and they could have the ability to see the donuts in the on-deck circle with their peripheral vision. i tell ya, umpires down there dont know what they are missing!

[piaa_ump]

Just returned from a 2 week assignment in Puerto Rico, where I just missed the league series, (Carolina won it all)...but like some, I got to catch a lot of baseball on ESPN desportes.

I saw the Dominican league championship and a few games of the Mexican league playoffs..

Umpire shirts are odd, with the red and white trim running from the collar to the end of sleeves over the top of the shoulders and lots of commercial advertising....

I learned more spanish watching baseball on TV than I did in 2 weeks of work....

Stan