OK, unless I'm blind (which, as an umpire, have certainly been accused of...), Dan Iassogna was wearing a black shirt over his protector last night. To me, as previously stated, this looks much better than a giant plastic yellow "W" sticking out under the coat.

You are correct. It was much better looking than a battle worn Riddel. And, having worn an Under Armour type shirt in between my cp and coat, it's much better fit. The coat glides over the shirt, instead of catching on the cp. It really does make a functional difference. I highly recommend trying it.

Can someone explain why it is taboo to wear a shirt over the CP as Iassogna did last night?

When it is exceptionally cold (three times a year, maybe), I have worn a Majestic thermabase pullover over my CP and under my long-sleeve shirt. It's light, very warm and looks/feels great, but is nick-worthy if you're being evaluated. Why?

Iassogna looked great, by the way.

Great. Now I have to buy ANOTHER shirt...:D

JJ

PS Iassogna looked great until he called that high curve ball....then he just looked well dressed...

One of these:

http://www.baseballsavings.com/image...cfli-black.jpg

Ump-Attire is selling a jacket from Majestic made of that material. I will never have a use for it here but it almost made me wish I lived in a cold climate. :)

Also, I agree, Iassogna did look sharp last night. The Giants, however, did not. :(

Except that curve ball was right in the middle of the strike zone, as reported by Pitch F/X.

The Ball 4 to Rollins was sold by Rollins and bought by Iassogna. To me, that was the only gross miss he had last night.

How does he nail down a strike zone floating like that? He's almost never locked.

He does look great, though.

I saw one of those jackets, and they're thicker. It's more of a trade name than a uniform type of fabric. It is similar, but not the same as the batting practice type pullover I use.

I love the finish of that jacket ... wow! And no tucking it in!

Rollins is a clutch hitter in the post-season, no matter how badly he's played this season (much of it due to injuries). That almost-slam he hit put the game out of reach.

The only question I have is why do they keep throwing inside-half fastballs to Cody Ross. He can hit them; stop throwing them.

7 more wins to the championship. For all 4 teams.

I can answer that: if you throw only outside-half fastballs, he'll cheat on those and hit them just as well. You have to throw inside off the plate to keep him honest, and you might miss. ;)

Still, I'm sure they've worked out that their strategy isn't working, and you won't see that particular mistake again. He might not see another fastball near the strike zone this year.

My point is that Oswalt has a great curveball and a decent changeup -- why not throw him some of those?

Yeah, he looks great. Except for that annoying putting his hand on the catcher thing. What's up with that? I have heard that most catchers hate that and wish the umpire would kindly remove his hand from their backs.

Remember the oafish plate umpire from Major League in the final championship game (the one who pulled the chain on swinging strikes)? He wore a plate coat and managed to set movie-actor umpiring back 100 years at the same time. Most coaches I know around here would consider a plate coat pretentious on anything but a big game.