Not everyone takes pride in their appearance or has been trained to do so, and when speaking to the masses, it's probably easier to make a blanket statement than judge on an individual basis.

I personally think that having a white piece of paper sticking out of your shirt pocket or your back pants pocket looks pretty tacky. However, for those of us who care, we will put the lineup sheet in a lineup holder and make sure it is not visible.

Line-up cards, holders, pen, pencils, etc. tend to fall out of shirt pockets during the game.

I tend to keep my line-up card holder in my back left pocket. There is nothing exposed, so no one knows it's there, but me. I keep it there so I can reach for it with the left hand while the right hand is pulling the pen out of my ball bag.

I have never used a "lineup card holder." I normally get a hard cardboard lineup card and fold it in thirds. I clip the pen to my pocket.

Different strokes, I guess....

Do you supply these, or are all the coaches in your area just that considerate? :)

"Different strokes ..." is fine, Rich. But obviously you do not sweat heavily, like I do. Anything I'd have in pants pockets would be soaked, and a shirt pocket would be wetter. I'll keep mine in a holder that's in a ball bag.

As for a manufacturer's logo/emblem on the shirt - OK, no problem. I prefer the Cliff Keen shirts. I think the most durable shirt I've got is one of my older ISC shirts - made by "AIS" with a small flying 'A' logo on a sleeve.

You made me spit.

White pads in the mask, too?

I use a lineup card holder. someone "borrowed" my holder I got at my last national, so for a time I used one of those handy insurance card/registration things for your car. A little large...in fact due to a misunderstanding it got me in a lot of hot water...but it served its purpose.

I have been on both sides of this fence. Loved those pockets when I was doing "just" baseball, but I like having it in my card holder in my pocket. Anytime I "just fold it up," that's what it looks like...and that looks like $hit.

Well, I'm just lucky, I guess. I ask for the cardboard backing at the plate meeting if they don't already have it in hand to give to me.

Actually, I wear a helmet most of the time, but I think my mask (+POS AUL300) pads are tan. But if I wanted blue, red, or whatever, I wouldn't get any grief for wearing them. It's a mask. Again, I only work baseball now.

Exactly. A sport where the uniform isn't expected to be "uniform". A game where coaches don't expect the professionalism of their umpires to be displayed by their uniform, equipment, or mechanics. An association of officials who display their individualism, rather than their unity.

Thanks for coming over here to remind me why I stopped working baseball years ago. Well, one of the reasons; not to forget the 3 hour games watching pitchers trying to pick off runners almost standing on the bag, the sheer boredom of all the delay and downtime, the whiney players, and the ridiculous attitudes of the coaches.

Dakota,

Which Dakota are you from, north or south?

dh

Neither. Dakota County, MN.

Here's a story I'd like to hear

TC,
If BK's car insurance holder is like mine, It's bright red and larger than a lineup card holder. I don't think Mike would care, but I know a who lot of others that I think would care & would make a notation.

Then there are people like me, who find it appalling that umpires are expected to give up every inch of individualism, that I would be "worried" about not having the lineup card in the wrong place, etc.

It insulting to me for you to think I'm less professional than you because I can choose a mask color or have a big silver New Balance "N" on my shoes or because I point to the side when calling strikes. I dress the way I can in my sport, but my pants are always pressed, my shoes shined (I jumped on and right off the patent leather brigade), my uniform cleaned.

And how about my strike zone, my mechanics, my hustle, my rules knowledge, my demeanor, and my ability to handle situations?

Personally, I think softball umpires worry too much about things completely irrelevant to the quality of actual umpiring, but I'm not the one putting a group's professionalism down here, just noting some differences and wondering why the groups are so different.