New Balance plate shoes

[RPatrino]

What are you doing over here Rich??? And besides, the N on both my NB plate and base shoes looks gray actually. I have association mates that consider themselves SB umpires only, and would never be caught dead with any thing but black shoes. They still assign me my 3 or 4 softball games a season and never mention my evil baseball shoes. I make two concessions to SB though, no number on my shirt and a gray ball bag.

[bkbjones]

Originally Posted by RPatrino

What are you doing over here Rich??? And besides, the N on both my NB plate and base shoes looks gray actually. I have association mates that consider themselves SB umpires only, and would never be caught dead with any thing but black shoes. They still assign me my 3 or 4 softball games a season and never mention my evil baseball shoes. I make two concessions to SB though, no number on my shirt and a gray ball bag.

Dat's okay, I sin the other way and do an occasional BB game -- 3 or 4 a year -- just to remember my roots. And so far when I have gone to the dark side I have remembered to do my BB strikes and outs.

Had an interesting thing happen to one of our SB umpires who is working with a new-to-us umpire who has come over from BB. He told my SB buddy that when HE (the new plate ump) does BB he NEVER goes to third.

After seeing him work SB, I can believe him.

Oh yeah...I wear my all black NB shoes over there if I do bases...and no flack so far. I have thought about getting some White-Out for the N but have resisted.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by RPatrino

What are you doing over here Rich??? And besides, the N on both my NB plate and base shoes looks gray actually. I have association mates that consider themselves SB umpires only, and would never be caught dead with any thing but black shoes. They still assign me my 3 or 4 softball games a season and never mention my evil baseball shoes. I make two concessions to SB though, no number on my shirt and a gray ball bag.

Silver-ish, actually.

I'll work a softball game, but I'm not sure how my black shirt, number, silver N, black ball bags, and point-to-the-side strike mechanic would be received. Oh, I wear a helmet with no hat, too....is that a big deal in the world of softball?

(Actually, I worked softball for a while and had good success and enjoyed it when I had good pitching. Once I started working college baseball, though, something had to give, and softball was it.)

[wadeintothem]

Originally Posted by Rich Fronheiser

Silver-ish, actually.

I'll work a softball game, but I'm not sure how my black shirt, number, silver N, black ball bags,

Well the black shirts a probably a no go. I do wear my black shirt in Rec League at times. Youre obviously not talking high level Softball.. so the rest would probably fly.

and point-to-the-side strike mechanic would be received.

Theres a few that do this.. it looks just as bad in softball as it does in baseball, so not the "authorized" mechanic. Probably not much would be said for the typical game.

Oh, I wear a helmet with no hat, too....is that a big deal in the world of softball?

You'll see em occasionally. I almost bought one myself a few times. I couldnt find one that felt right and I tried several.