LLWS Uniform Question
 

Saw a game on ESPN yesterday afternoon (Ohio vs New Jersey), the HP ump had on black and the base guys had on powder blue.

What's the deal with that?

Some of my well connected inside contacts said the deal was this, the HP ump would wear a black jersey and the base guys would wear powder blue.

Whats the problem here?

I saw that game. I also recently saw a replay of a 97 Orioles-Mariners Playoff game. The HPU wore the red jersey and the other Umpires wore the navy blue. I thought it looked cool.
Whats the differnce? I often see the HPU wearing the blue or black jersey while the base Umpires wear the black pullover jacket.
Also HPU wearing the plate coat and BU wearing the pullover. Basically the HPU can do his own thing as long as the BU all match.

No problem, but is there a reason for it? I'd guess it was for TV, with the black being better for a baseball background.

Uni=One or Same
form=clothing

A baseball team wears the same uniform. The pitcher doesn't have a red shirt and the centerfielder a blue or white shirt.

Umpires are a team--the uniform should be uniform! It's unacceptable in my neck of the woods to not have the same color. If it's cold and someone want's a black jacket, the rest of the crew may choose not to wear a jacket, but their shirts will be black.

It is very rare to see umps not in the same color. I don't really care one way or the other, but just found it perplexing. It was obviously on purpose...so I thought I'd ask and see if there was a logical explanation.

It wouldn't be acceptable in my NOTW either, but I'm in your camp, I don't care either way what they wear....and it obviously was intentional...maybe it was so the kids would know who the plate umpire was. :-) After all, it's all about the kids right?

Are you saying that a PU should not wear a plate coat unless everyone on the crew wears a plate coat? Or if the PU wears the pull over and the base umpires wear a jacket that is not OK?

BTW, Major League Umpires have been doing this for years. It was not uncommon when all these colors were coming into fashion that the PU would wear "cream" for example and the rest of the crew would wear "black" or some other variation of the power blue or even "red" when that was in fashion? And I know of umpires that do the same thing in leagues or tournaments all over the place. Nothing new at all.

Peace

Not just one game...it has been done in every game I have watched. Personally I think it looks stupid...this isn't a volleyball game.

Wow
 

Short memories here.

For many years MLB PU wore whatever they wanted and the BUs had to be coordinated.

If what some of you say (in your neck of the woods) if on a cool day the PU wanted to wear his polo blue shirt and the BUs wanted to wear pullovers that would be unacceptable?

Pure poppycock.

This BS of the "umpires being a team" is also dumb. I choose to wear a plate coat during my career. Does that mean in "your neck of the woods" everyone of my partners would have been required to have a base coat (not pullover)?

Again Poppycock.

What about the PU wearing a long sleeved shirt and the BUs wearing pullovers?

Against your fashion sense?

Pure poppycock.

T

Yes, in my area, if we wanted to do the plate coat/pullover thing, we could do that.

In our three man games if I wanted to hear polo blue and and said that it would be okay if the guys on the bases wore black, I could never talk them into that.

In not saying it's wrong to do so...but it's a battle I don't care to fight in my area.

Then do not talk them into that if you cannot. But that does not mean that others are not used to the standard and do it that way. I would not need to talk guys into that, that is what guys do. Now at the high school level we do not have that option, but many games are played during the summer or at tournaments, that could be done and is acceptable here. Actually it is even talked about.

Peace

I don't think I ever said it was wrong. In fact, I think it's kind of cool...all I'm saying is that change is difficult in our group. It might not be in your group and that's great.

It's not my problem that my group would be resistant to that...nor is it bad that your group has no problem with it.

Some of you guys take this stuff waaaaay too seriously.
http://www.leaguelineup.com/rbvll/photos/umps.jpg

I set this crew up expressly because I knew some of these guys freak out for not being uniform. The guy at the far right is laughing really hard at the guys on the left, knowing they're uncomfortable. By the third inning, everyone was in black jackets, but my point was made. Lighten up, Francis. It's a game, usually played by kids, where 99.99% of the folks don't give a rat's @ss how we dress.

I promise you, only other umpires notice the plate guys is wearing a different colored shirt. In the above game, everyone came away with a good experience, and a lesson learned. Plus the food that night was exceptional.

You've got enough for a college football crew.

Where'd you stick the 7th guy? Centerfield?

The extra guy was an accident. The kid in cream was supposed to have the plate, but got there late. I was stuck on the stick, with six base umpires. The big guy on the left was going to working a Regional (ended up on the NW championship dish on ESPN), so I wanted him to see all the spots in a six man crew in one night.

We rotated positions every inning (well, not me), and the odd guy out got to eat dinner, and take the order for the next guy out. Plus, he was in charge of heckling the other guys on the field. It was really good fun.

The guy second on the left had the plate for Juniors World Series final game the other evening. That's a pretty good crew right there.

In my opinion...this looks like poppycock! It looks bush league. It looks amateurish. It looks dumb.

Agreed, and it worked perfectly to prove my point.

It's just little kids, playing baseball. We need to step back sometimes, when we start taking things a bit too seriously. That's what we did here. Took a step toward the absurd, funny, dumb if you will. Some guys will dance with rodents, or do the YMCA ( I know the words to that song, and the meaning behind them, so I ain't dancing to that diddy). I chose to have everyone wear different colored shirts for two innings. In the end, we all thought it was pretty damn cool, and so did the kids and parents.

Now if we did it every night, or on some sort of "big" stage, I'd agree with the dumb statement. But it was my house, my rules, and it worked to perfection.

I don't get this. How did it work to perfection? Do you mean it didn't intefere with the performance of the umpires, or do you mean it looked right?

It certainly doesn't work to perfection from a professionalism, appropriate or appearance standpoint.

And, unlike the crowds you apparently have, the fans here would assume that we just picked up umpires off the street who neither knew each other nor belonged to the local association. They would be starting out with zero credibility.

I have personally been exposed to a tournament that the officials did this for certain games to fit a theme of the tournament. No one cared about that. And I hope you are not equating professionalism of a summer baseball game to a real game at the high school or even college level. Half the time these leagues are just happy they have anyone there to work the games, let alone what color the uniform they have on. This is why the brass of Little League does not even care what guys look like working those games (mechanically, fitness, positioning). A lot of the times you can be dressed very well and all look the part and coaches and fans do not know the difference. So please stop with the "you will have zero credibility" crap. That is just not true at many of these functions and almost never will be the same.

Peace

I'd be more concerned about the players. I wonder if they have permission from MLB to use those names. Wasn't there an article about a league in the Chicago area and they were getting sued because they were using pro team names and logos for their league.

While I believe that everyone should match while on the field together, I agree with the bolded part here. Even though I always wear poly wools, the best shirts, crease my caps, wear pro gear, clean my shoes, etc., the fact of the matter is that a significant portion of the high school umpires around here don't do this. I see a lot of guys in faded shirts, some off brand of heather pants, etc. and no coaches or parents would even notice. I know this because I have watched high school baseball for a long time and even coached for a short while and I never noticed what the umpires were wearing. I also know this because I've talked to coaches who say so and so is a great umpire, all the while knowing that he dresses like a slob and doesn't use correct mechanics, positioning, game management techniques, etc.

College games are obviously a different story.

The kids get their uniforms from an official Majestic dealer. Trust me, my son works there. They're good to go.

As for attaining the effect I was looking for by dressing in different colors, the point was to lighten up the stiff collars of some of my fellow umpires. This is Little League, and regular season game at that. Sure we had a pretty big crowd, and an MiLB mascot on hand, but they didn't come to see us.

That picture was taken by one of a bunch of folks who wanted to get a shot this. Umpiring, at my field, has been made a "cool" thing to do because of the culture we've developed at our park. I've got 30+ kids who work for me as Junior umpires every year, and I usually have a waiting list. A WAITING LIST FOR UMPIRES! I put three man crews on every game, and turn away volunteers most every night. I also have WR guys come out to specifically work with my kids. Like those guys in the picture.

As for credibility, I guess that's subjective. But some of the kids that come out of my program get asked to do some pretty high level (for LL) games. I know that our program as the respect of the folks up at WR. They know we turn out pretty good umpires. The managers and coaches for this particular game knew all these umpires, and their credentials. Half are WR instructors, all have been to the one week, a couple have TV games, etc. Trust me, that's a good crew, and there are rarely any complaints about my umpires.

I get that doing this wouldn't work in most places. It does in mine though.

How many 15 year olds have you taught to umpire well enough to work Section championship plates? I've had several, and those are my credentials.

Mostly, in cool/cold weather I wear long sleeves on the plate (with or without long sleeve cold gear depending on temp) and partner wears jacket. Sometimes I wear short sleeve on the plate and partner wears jacket. I have never worked a game with different colors, but don't see a problem if PU is colored different on a 3, 4 or 6 man crew. I would not do it on 2 man crew.

I can understand using the logos, but I doubt MLB has a copyright of any team names. After call, the bird were called "cardinals" long before it became a team name.

Great job with your Jr. umpire program. I tip my hat to you (and any others who do the same) as I feel that running a program such as yours is a great way for experienced umps to give something back to the game...developing young umpires.
I started and ran a similar program in my local LL back in the years that when I was actively involved in LLBB. in a 35+ year career, it is still one of my best umpiring experiences.
While I can't say one of our young umps ever made it to a sectional (or even district) plate job, we did have a few 16 yo's who filled in on an emergency basis as BU's in the districts. And like your guys, they handled themselves quite well.
We had a good size league, five 11-12 yo (majors) games three days a week. plus all of our lower divisions the other three days (25 games on Sat. starting at 8:00AM last games began at 7:00PM). Needless to say, training and developing competent plate umpires was critical to the success of the program.
And yes....they all had uniform shirts. The crew matching though was nver an issue....they all worked solo.

The trouble was the supplier of the uniforms. Someone was printing those shirts at a local shop, and not going through the correct channels to attain them (Majestic holds those rights). The league was saving a few bucks by buying counterfeit shirts, and got caught for it.

My league doesn't do that.