Talking to media
 

In the article posted in the thread titled "Interesting..." there were several quotes from umpires.

My question is - should we be talking to reporters at all about controversial calls?

bossman,

No comment.

JM

LOL - classic

thanks
David

Are you asserting that umpires should never talk to the press?

Exactly, unless you are in MLB and are required to.

Thanks
David

Silence can not be misquoted.

The only time the press wanted to speak to me, I gave them my assignors contact information and gave my assignor a written report to refer to.

Individual umpires are not required to speak with the media. If a controversy arises, the crew chief, after meeting with his crew, meets with the media. He may invite an individual umpire if he so chooses.

hahaha! I like it!

If you had no comment, you wouldn't have said anything. So what is the comment?

We'll just refer them to the various umpire boards . . then they'll get all the quotes they need. :D

And then you wonder....:rolleyes:

Lighten up, Francis!

Hey, do you two know each other?

They see each other in the mirror everyday. Two IP addresses is my guess.

Hey Seth, pretty decent game! Did you have fun? I enjoyed watching (what else) the umpires. Also enjoyed E.Y. getting to watch his boy play and broadcast the game. That was cool. Also getting to see Eric Munson bat a couple of times. I remember him from doing his and Eric Chavez' games when they went to Mt. Carmel High.

Looks like my teams went 0 for 2 in All-Stars this week.:(

pfftt it's genetic

A great time was had by all 16,000+ fans. E.Y. Jr. was a really nice guy when I got his autograph at the workout Tuesday. Our guy Huffman won the HR Derby Monday and hit a nice double to start the 9th inning rally that came up short. :(

You might have missed this on TV, but Portland's own Johnny Pesky and Padre HOFer Dave Winfield threw out the first pitches.

Mike Muchlinski looked good on the plate, like he does during the rest of the season.

Yeah, they didn't show the first pitches, but I got to see Winny get interviewed. I am a PCL fan from back in the early 60s going to Westgate Park with my dad. I wish the Pads were still minor league. They were far more entertaining and the atmosphere can't be beat.

Was that a Nike mask he was wearing with plain pads?

I don't see a reason to talk with the media. No good can come of it.

-Josh

Looked like a Nike. You can sort of see it here and here:
Triple-A All Star Game at PGE Park - OregonLive.com
Triple-A All Star Game at PGE Park - OregonLive.com

Just for fun ;)
Triple-A All Star Game at PGE Park - OregonLive.com

it's not japan. no comment.

Early in my career between innings of a game, the PU came to the backstop where I was to get some water. I picked up my crowd mic and pointed it to him to ask a question about a call and the rule. I was respectful and wasn't accusatory, just curious. He just looked at the microphone and then me like he wanted to shove the mic somewhere. I took the hint and never did that again. I'm glad there was a fence between us!

After the game the crew pulled up behind my car as I was loading the gear and he said "Now, what's your question?" He was very nice and answered my question, but he made it clear that during the game he wasn't going to be bothered by the radio guy. Understood.

Well, there always seems to be an elephant in the room when the discussion of the Nike masks that many of the pro catchers, such as Jorge Posada, are wearing, due to their Nike sponsorships. I have contacted Nike, and all I get is the runaround and everybody acts like they've never heard of them, and it's like one of those government conspiricy theories. They are as tight-lipped about the subject as the Area 51 deniers. One guy I emailed sent me links to the Nike Pro Gold helmets, which is not what I had specified in my email. One guy from customer service told me to apply for sponsorship, and gave me a link for some charity thing, not what I was looking for at all.

I want to know why Nike doesn't want these masks in the hands of the public. They would make a ton of jack, and they would still be sweet masks. All the gear junkie umpires would buy at least one.

Any of you "in the loop" guys out there know the real story here?

A guy I umpire with has a relative at Nike and says all he knows is that they are being issued to professional players only. On Rob Drake's old site a MiLB umpire mentioned he got his by asking a catcher at spring training for an extra.

Nike has to know how many of these they could sell to umpires if they were available.

There must be a reason for not wanting to make more money.