Photo comments

[NCASAUmp]

Originally Posted by SRW

We asked that very question to ASA properties a few years back (the 2007 UIC clinic I believe) and were told that the way their vendor works is that they make a bunch of caps at whatever size comes out of the machine. Then the cap is measured to see what the size is closest to. If it's a 7 3/8, then the 7 3/8 tag is stitched into the cap.

So much for tolerances. I don't know why it's so hard to make a hat fit a certain size. Granted, I've never made one, but baseball hats have been around for decades.

Then again, they also had a big problem with their jackets about a year and a half ago. If you got one that was made in Pakistan, it was a size too small, and the zipper was on the wrong side.

Originally Posted by SRW

We have a dedicated local uniform sales agent that maintains an inventory of about 10 to 15 caps of every size between 6.5 and 8 for this purpose. We can then try them on locally and buy them against our umpire bank account, rather than sending them back when they don't fit correctly.

Man, I wish we could do that here. Unfortunately, I don't think our organization is big enough. My org is one of two in the area, and we're on very friendly terms with them (we don't look at each other as "the competition"). Maybe with the two of them combined, something like that could happen? I may explore this idea further. It'd help some of our umps get the proper gear without having to fork over the money upfront.