Clearing equipment at the plate..

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by kylejt

Interference? No, but you've got a heck of a case for obstruction.

As for clearing the bat, I'll say what the rest of you won't. Many umpires can't clear the bat because they're unable to bend over to do so. Case in point: Just watch some of the blimps working the Little League World Series. We sometimes forget that baseball is an athletic event. And the fact that some of these rotund fellows are tilting the field, well, you might was well put a Pall Mall in their mouth and set them up in a Barkalounger. Mix in a West Vest Gold, and there's no way on Earth that these guys are seeing a bat, much less picking it up off the ground.

I suspect that's the reason some here won't stoop to being a "grounds keeper" or "bat boy". They can't stoop.

That is one of the most asinine and totally bigoted things I've ever read. One out of 3 Americans are overweight.

I'm a stout fella myself. I have degenerated discs from L-2 to S-1 from a bad car wreck in 1981. I have a hard time bending, but I have no trouble reaching down to the ground to clear a bat, dust the plate, or pull weeds. Plus, I can run around a ball field just as quickly as a little skinny Nancy boy can. What you said is patently false. And I'm quite certain that any fat umpire can see just fine over his West Vest.

Big people can be athletic. Haven't you ever watched pro softball or the softball HR hitters that tour the country. These guys are very athletic. How about all the tubby pitchers in MLB. Bartolo Colon comes to mind, and there are many fatties at the F1 position all around the league.

I like what John Kruk once said, "Hey lady, I ain't no athlete, I'm a ball player."

Way too much emphasis is being placed on being thin in this society, all due to the ideal "Hollywood" perception of what a person should look like. There was a time in the not-too-distant past where a man of girth was considered handsome and even sexy. This was before the big push towards anorexia we have seen in the past 30 years.

I will say it again. I am sick of people taking cheap pot-shots at overweight people. It's the moral equivalent to making racist or anti-semitic comments, and should not be tolerated.