Walmart Special
 

I've stayed out of the conversation on this until now and will mostly continue to do so. I will say I'm a union member so it's obvious which side I'm on.

At the Portland Sea Dogs, AA, Eastern League game tonight, the umpires are all wearing different colored pants and different jackets. The PU while doing a decent job calling pitches is wearing pants that he must have purchased at the local Walmart on his way to the game.

It's interesting to note that none of the umpires are from the local umpire board (which I am also a member of) but are from the board to our north. One reason is we have a guy who does a lot of fill-in games and another who is a former PBUC umpire who was released so the union is certainly getting some support here.

It's one thing if we wear slightly differnt uniforms in our games, another if they do it at the pro level.

Alex

Well, if you had Pro umpires umpiring the game your post would mean something.

Well, I guess I know which board they came from now. Thanks for the info. Sorry if I offended you, you did a good job out there.

Once again you've completely missed the point. I like how you turn things personal, Great move. No one from my board umpiring down there.

I don't know if you've heard or not but the real minor league umpires are on strike. So what you had on the field tonight was not PRO level umpires. You said that it was ok to wear those uniform in "our" games so what was the surprise when "your" (same level) umpires had the same uniforms on?

I'm sorry I misunderstood your point. I realize the umpires are on strike. The surprise is that if you're going to be working a game at that level, you make sure that everyone matches with everything, or at least tries. The color of his plate pants tonight are nothing that any of the umpire supply houses I've seen sell, hence the reason that he looks like he stopped at Walmart on the way to the game, at least buy a pair of heather greys from somewhere, it's not that hard to do.

You can be sure that if I work with someone in a high school game and they're wearing pants that are that light, a report is going to the board, there's no excuse for it. And, it's a clear violation of the by-laws.

My point is if the scabs are going to play dress up and pretend they are real umpires, they should look the part of what everyone expects from an umpire.

Is that clear enough for you?

I've been to fenway and seen MLB umpires who's uniforms didn't match. Black shirts fade over the season. I've got three pairs of Honig's pants that are three different shades of gray.

To me flaws in the scabs would be things like rotation, communication, strike zone, safe out and stuff like that. I don't think even the managers care what the scabs look like. Just having them on the field I'm sure is driving them nuts.

My point was everyone knows what these umpires are, so as long as they don't arrive in shorts and a tee shirt people are not going to see it as a "flaw".

The scab umpires have a lot more problems then plate pants color. As long as they continue to call the wrong runner out when two runners are on the same base preventing a double play, continue to use a strike zone that is much large for pro baseball, use mechanics and mannerisms that work in high school a college. Those are flaws IMHO.

Let me translate what you just wrote:

Blah, blah, blah, scab. Blah, blah, scab, blah, blah.

I'm telling you, there are a lot of people out there that simply ignore the message when such inflammatory words are being thrown around.

I've never seen anything on television or in a newspaper (excpt a few online articles) about the strike, so obviously the press isn't telling anyone that the regular guys are not working the games. So that must mean that you think that the average person who goes to a game would notice on his own that the umpires are replacements. The average guy thinks the umpires are terrible every night, there is no way he would notice a difference.