RE: ASA

As a new U, I invested in the ASA approved apparel, accesories, and equipment. I want to fulfill my obligation to "look" professional. According to Rule 10.1..."a T-shirt is optional to wear under the powder blue ASA logo shirt, it must be white".

I am wondering about the ASA logo, dark blue, mock turtleneck (purchased from officialgear.com) would it be considered a violation to wear this long sleeve shirt under my offical shirt? Inasmuch as I want to adhere to a national standard, I want to be comfortable and warm.

As I have been scouting games in my area this past two weeks I noticed that many U's seem to ignore the required apparel. I must admit they do look unprofessional. I do not consider myself to be a fashion bug but want to be cognizant of the "look". Your thoughts?

Welcome to the club.

Wear a jacket or sweater. Do not wear a long-sleeve undershirt under the shirt without a jacket or sweater on.

Adherence to the standard varies. I require my guys to wear the powder blue shirt, navy hat (no logo or ASA logo), grey slacks. Occasionally, if both umpires agree, they may both wear the dark blue shirt. I don't worry much about the undershirt, and one guy consistently wears dark blue (I wear white). I do wonder how that mock turtleneck would look sticking out of a collared shirt though. For our 2 tourneys, we will be enforcing the white undershirt.

On rare occasion (over 100 degrees), we'll switch to navy shorts. I hate doing that, but when you've got 4 in a row, I don't want my guys passing out out there.

There are a few things that ASA sells that are contradictory to the rule book. Gray ball bags, Spotbilt shoes with white lettering, silver metal indicators etc. All these things I have seen umpires get dinged for. The long sleeve Mock Turtleneck white and blue I have seen worn without a jacket. Call the fashion police. I have even been told the white t-shirt could not be a v neck. A lot has to do with your local associations rules on dress. If you ever work a national tournament though, you will wear what they tell you to wear. In our association we have to have our jacket on with the long sleeve mock turtle neck and nothing has been said about the blue one yet. Here in Alaska sometimes the more layers the better. Also the navy pants and the navy shirt are another call to the fashion police.

Gray ball bag is acceptable with Gray pants. A fair amount of what ASA sells is for the convenience of the umpire (i.e. equipment without logo).

Ties use to be in the catalog, but I doubt anyone would wear one on the field.

I agree that gray ball bag looks just fine with gray slacks,but the book says "The male and female umpire shall wear: 4. The approved navy blue ball bag with ASA letters to be worn with either navy or heather colored gray slacks." I wear the gray whenever I wear gray pants but have had people question me about it. Also no logo on it. I'm not trying to be different just looking for some consistency. I have learned when in Rome do as the Romans do. It makes things a lot easier. My bag is full of everything.

[Edited by Ed Maeder on Apr 22nd, 2004 at 06:14 PM]

No problem Ed, but if you attended the UIC Clinic in Feb 2003, you would have heard that not only is the grey ball bag permissible with the grey slacks, but also when wearing the Navy blue shirt, the t-shirt should also be navy blue.

You would have also heard that prior to conducting a NT, the local association is contacted by the UIC to find out which uniform is worn locally. They try to accommodate local umpires if the uniform varies from the book version. There have been NT/NCs with navy over grey with a RED t-shirt, powder over grey, powder over navy, etc. as the official uniform.

The book sets a certain uniform, one which I happen to use in my area. However, ASA has allowed variations to exist. If questioned, Merle will even state that the local associations are free to set their own standards of uniform.

Personally, I'd prefer that they go back to the one, and only, uniform and stop playing games with it. However, I am just a servant of the association.

Thanks Mike, a person can learn something new every day from you and many others on this forum.

Is this for SP or FP? I, personally, never believe that a FP umpire should wear shorts. It doesn't look at all professional with shin guards showing...etc. The heat in this part of Texas is frequently above 100, and you don't see people dropping just because they are wearing long pants.

Now Mike, do we want to resume that age old argument about which are better, grey or navy pants??? ;)

Sure, go ahead, you start.

I have no problem telling you that I don't believe it makes the much of a difference, even in Texas. You people think that you are the only place that has a hot climate. It's all in your head.
http://www.stopstart.freeserve.co.uk/smilie/sadness.gif

I, also, have no problem telling you that when it is hot, the heather will NOT hide moisture and it looks absolutely terrible (see plate umpires in last year's LLWS).

I thought you said that I could start!!! :D

Actually, though, since I started wearing the Interawear several years back, I have had absolutely no problem with sweat making it through to my pants, even on the hottest of days.

Speaking of uni's, I wonder what all the MLB wannabes in the lower levels of BB will do now that the MLB umpires have gone back to powder blue for day games?

I like all the different colors.
Mostly, I like the black ones, cuz I don't have that color yet.
mick