Baseball umpire pants
 

I need to buy some plate pants. Which do brand do you recommend?

There are a multitude of options available for pants. First, are you just starting out? Most of us when we first started umpiring just used a pair of regular grey slacks and didn't bother with the expense of umpire pants until we knew for sure that we liked it and was going to stick with it.

There are a number of manufacturers of plate pants out there. It's probably best to see what other umpires wear locally, though. If nobody wears Gerry Davis pants, you probably don't want to be the only one who does as the color is unlike any of the other pants on the market.

I just bought a set of the Honig's polywool pants for the first time this season. Looking forward to using them if the snow ever melts.

Get a good pair of plate pants. It's likely one of the least expensive parts of your gear...the poly-wools that Rich is writing about are the top-of-the-line and will last many years. Also, if you find out that umpiring isn't for you, your poly wool pants are an easy sell on the secondary market. Get them hemmed properly.

Honigs Poly Wool.
And have them dry cleaned.

The care tag for the polywools actually calls for washing and drying the pants.

I'll wash them, but let them hang dry. And I have them dry cleaned once in a while.

I don't like wearing dirty pants and I can't afford (mainly time-wise) to have them dry cleaned after every wearing. It would be a significant money cost, too.

Not disputing what yours say, but I just looked and mine from Honigs say "dry clean only."

I also do not like dirty pants but can get several games (usually) during a weekend tourney on a pair. $4.75 to clean ind I have other clothes at the cleaners every week.

They changed the tag recently.

and, you can wash the previous versions. Dry for about 5 minutes (with the rest of the stuff in the load), then hang to finish drying.

Yikes I wouldn't dry for that long. I can dry a full load of towels in my dryer in 45 minutes.

Sorry -- 5 minutes.

Fixed the original. You just want to get the excess water out from the washer.

(I have a top loading washer. A front loader might not need that much -- I think it spins faster)

I've been wondering recently why baseball umpires do not use the pants football officials wear these days considering baseball umpires have more foul weather games than football officials do.

I don't agree with your premise, but the reason football went to the current pants was to allow for "layering" underneath the pants. The old knickers made that difficult.

What's special about the football pants for foul weather? Maybe whatever that is could be added to the baseball pants?

Because they're not classy looking, like a sharp pair of polywool slacks.

If you umpire long enough, you'll buy the Honig's/Hardwick pants, as they are the standard. It's just a matter of when, and how many other pants you purchase in between.

I would welcome changing the notion that dress pants should be the standard for officiating anything. IOW, I think football has it exactly right. While the PW pants look great, nobody would argue that they are especially comfortable. My football black pants are INCREDIBLY comfortable.

And I say that with 4 pairs of polywool pants sitting on the desk in front of me awaiting the tailor.