special equipment for umpires
 

With the new head gear for the arena league umpires, I found myself wondering if I need to get special protective equipment for next season.

I've been a BJ and line official since I started 6 years ago. I've never worked as an umpire on Friday night. I find myself the umpire on my crew next season. I'm not used to being in the mix...typically I have lots of room and time to avoid contact. Thi is going to be different when I'm the big ugly in the middle. How many umpires wear special equipment like steel toe cleates or preventative knee braces?

I've never met one who does, and I don't.

There used to be an umpire in our association who would wear soccer shing guards under his socks.

As a joke one time he was presented with a lacrosse helmet painted to look like a football cap.

There have been times when my toes stepped on by the big boys on the line that I wished I would have had some type of protection for my toes. :D I have never had or worn any special type of shoes or shin guards though.

I don't wear any knee braces or shin guards, or protective footwear. I know of an Umpire who wears baeball plate shoes to protect his toes. Another U I know wears braces on both knees, but he's torn both ACL's and more in his knees in the past. I suffered a sprained knee last season when an OL fell into my left knee. A brace may have saved me from the injury, but I don't own one. I may consider it for next season.

I don't wear any shoes with cleats; just in case the big eaters get into my legs. It has helped a couple of times where I could just lean on the pile and go down with it.

The "necessary" equipment page.
Necessary Umpire's Equipment ;)

The "necessary" equipment page
 

Bwahahahahaha:)

Kewl
 

Looks like I could fit four of those under my hat easily! :o

Egg shooter logistical problem
 

I wish we had a picture because I'm having trouble envisioning a device that shoots the Snickers Egg from the Umpire's belt to his mouth. Since the belt cannot be seen from the Umpire's mouth by line-of-sight, does the shooter extend out far enough to establish a direct path or does it use the Umpire's stomach's gravitational pull to provide an orbital path to the mouth?

Also, has a Snickers patch been considered or would the lack of caramel in the Umpire's mouth make foul reporting too articulate? :confused:

Jim, you brought back an oldie but a goodie!!:D :D

I never throw one of my pages away. I even have all the "JoePa 12 Days of Christmas" pages..... Anybody remember the response to the guy from the group that wanted to make the game of football perfect by eliminating he refs in favor of replay?

Say, could this be the reason the NFL guys have started using hand signals????:p

REPLY: Jim...I think maybe the time has come to add some new features to the Snickers Shooter. How about a GPS receiver so that when the umpire re-spots the ball after an incomplete pass, a female voice with a sultry British accent says, "Other hash, dummy."

Nah, We're already working on an addition to the wrist band that uses similar technology. It remembers the previous spot and then reacts after any whistle with a locator system that guides the U to the proper spot. The hang-up is the voice recognition system that listens to the R's penalty options and guides the U in marching off the penalties in the correct direction...