I think it's great for Marine parade dress, I just don't feel it belongs on a baseball field.

I like those dark pants with every top combo, except blue shirts and jackets.

Heather grey for me.

Heather for HS, dark for college

I just got the darker plate pants for this season and I'm super stoked about them...they certainly don't give them away, but they seem to be better quality than the heather gray ones...JMO

Leather
 

I own nothing in patent leather.

Patent leather shoes and belt for plate.
Regular leather shoes and belt for bases.
I need a new regular leather belt before the HS season begins in March.
I will probably go with the 1 3/4" from Honigs, but $20 for a belt just seems wrong.
In southern Illinois, sometimes that is half a game fee.

What does one have to do with the other?

No matter what - sometimes it's a personal preference, sometimes it's what you can find at the time you need to replace.

~Sigh~
 

"Originally Posted by kylejt

"For those that pooh-pooh patent leather, yet still continue to use navy ball bags, well........ "


I do not own any navy ball bags.

Regards,

I must protest
 

I use a Patent Leather belt, and I use shoes well finished with Leather Luster. And yes, I use Navy Ball bags too. To make things even worse, I picked up a couple of Honigs Leather ball bags this year, and I will use them at least once.

I like the look and easy care of the patent leather stuff, and the leather ball bags seem to handle a lot of baseballs without flopping all over the place. I also have ump-attire and Carlucci bags, and they don't work as well as the leather ones, which surprise me no end. There has not been a good bag made since the Kangaroo Bags of the 1980's, and I still own one, but it is shot, and I have not found one that works as good ever since. Since Honig's is selling them for $5 each, I decided to try them. I stuffed five or six baseballs in one, and they did not lose shape badly, nor stick out like even the ump-attire bags do. And my ump-attire bags are only 2 years old, and they are faded like mad. They just did not last well.

I can understand those who don't like the patent leather look, but clean up is easy on the shoes, the patent leather does not stain my clothes like regular leather belts do, since I sweat a lot, and I like the look. With some of the dusty and dirty fields I work on, it got to the point I was polishing shoes every night, and going through top quality polish like nobody's business. Now, it's one can of Pledge a season, and a can of Leather Luster every two or three years.

Sadly, even Leather Luster does not seem to work with the leather shoes I officiate wrestling in, being on the mat so much wear the Leather Luster off the toes quickly, so it may be back to polish every night. Oh well.....

my state requires navy ball bags to be worn. however in the summer when i'm permitted to wear black and creme shirts, i wear a black hat and ball bags with them

Same here. One or our college associations does require high gloss belts and dark pants (Honigs polywool or Davis). The assigner equates high gloss = patent leather. Choice is patent belt or no games.

Very similar here. May be a regional thing. If your belt doesn't shine, you look terrible IMO. Either shine up your leather belt to a brilliant gloss (i.e., hard work) or wear patent leather belt (much easier). A dull belt gets a lower rating here.

Thanks for the responses. I asked this because I wear regular leather, yet when I see college and MiLB umps in my area, the vast majority of them have patent leather. I just wondered what you all thought about the two...