Earrings and a ponytail.

[Kevin Finnerty]

Originally Posted by MrUmpire

I have no problem some that locales don't consider a professional appearance to be important.

In my area those gentlement would be highly regarded for their mechanics knowledge and ability and perhaps their rules knowledge. Again, they would not be considred great umpires without the complete package.

Appearance, professionalism, grooming, and athleticism all appear on our rating sheet.

It does not cause us to use inferior umpires, rather, our members understand the importance placed on those traits and make them part of their umpiring. Your arguement that these guys would get short shrift in other areas in speculation. If they are that good, and if umpiring is important to them, I would speculate they would follow the rules of their association.

Different strokes. We are not California casual here. And from my experience, none of the pros I've run into are either.

California casual ...

Do you prefer a clean-shaven, egotistical, immobile hack to a humble, diligent, knowledgeable, mobile umpiring devotee? Because our assignors often make that same choice. And our evaluators often weigh 15 different criteria against grooming, and rate great umpires with goatees accordingly.