A sad day...

[Dakota]

Two years ago, ASA announced that little flags would be a part of the official ASA umpire's hat, even though this violates proper flag display protocol.

Since the use of the flag was optional for the first year, I went to our local vendor of ASA hats and bought several new hats without the flag.

This year, our local association kept the flag optional, so I continued to wear my existing hats. Since a couple were beginning to reach their end of "professional look" life, I checked with our local ASA vendor again - but no luck - all they had were flag hats.

I was chosen to umpire at one of the Northern National tournaments, so (as I said in another thread) I decided to buy 2 new hats for the tournament.

A sad day - I finally had to wear a flag on my hat.

I wish ASA would keep the flags optional and offer hats without flags.