I'm getting to buy a pair of pants..which ones?

[DG]

I, and some others, gave good advice - wear an inside protector. Nothing more or less than your evaluator will give you, if you can get one to come out and watch after you tell him you use a raft. If you feel you need the extra protection the raft provides your evaluator will tell you to pick another sport.

Take a college age fast ball off your mask, or off your chest protector, or your bicep in the first inning of a double header and then complete both games and then you can come back and criticize the rest of us for being elitist (ie not rafters). A college catcher (I could say pitcher but it was the catcher that did not get a glove on the ball) broke my left pinky finger in the first inning of the first game I worked in 2005 and I worked two games that day, and I finally went to the doctor 2 days later. If I had a raft I would not have been hurt, and I would not have been working those games either.

And you asked, and received, the feedback you desired. You just don't like the answer.