Uniform colours
 

Historically, Ontario softball umpires wear the powder blue Softball Canada shirt and navy pants.

This year Slo Pitch Ontario is introducing red and navy uniforms, as well as its own powder blue (no red in the trim), worn with navy pants.

Next year Softball Canada will be introducing red and navy jerseys as well as grey pants.

Do you US umpires have a colour preference?

I do, but many do not agree. :D

I just wish they would pick one and stick to it.

YES PLEASE !!!!! I will second that motion.

Anything but pink (unless it's something for breast cancer)! :eek:

Me too! Over here in the Neth.'s we changed about a decade or so from baby blue shirts and navy pants to complete navy. This year however we changed again: black shirts with navy pants (real ugly combination).
Next year we might adjust the pants to black or grey.:mad:

Lucky the European federation (ESF) hasn't changed in 10 years! Still baby blue shirts and navy pants. I.m.h.o. the most beautiful combination for an umpire.

7in60; Why was that change necessary in Canada?

Well, there is one on my side :D

Not speaking for our brethren to the North, but I would think it is to be different or be more stylish, to provide the umpire more options. IMO, an umpire doesn't need to look dapper or be attired in the latest style, just be there doing the job in a simple uniform. Looking cool and hip ain't for **** if you cannot do the job.

We see this in local associations for all levels, including HS & college. And I've never heard, because it works better or is a better product, but have often heard, "they look cool or stylish" or "we'll look smart in these on the field", etc. Locally, I wear what the local assn. designates, but 99% of the time it is the powder over navy ASA uniform.

JMHO

I'll say it again:

Just to be clear, I am always and strongly opposed to changing uniforms just for a different color, different style, different insignia; when a current uniform component is just fine and not deteriorated.

But you can sell more shirts when the colors change

Count me in the minority, I guess. I like having options (assuming your partner has the same thing you do). I like the cream over grey or cream over navy look especially when it's near or over 100 degrees. I like the navy over grey when it's colder. Powder blue over grey is the rule around here, but we are allowed to wear what we like (other than red) provided our partner matches.

ASA in these parts is light blue over navy- no exceptions and no other options. And, for the guys that do slow pitch, long pants only, no shorts.

High school is navy shirts/grey pants only. The state association changed their logo and that requires mandatory new shirts beginning next year. The cost of buying a shirt with a logo adds about 15 bucks to buying just a plain old shirt. At least they gave us about three years advance notice on this one. They also approved the charcoal grey pants last year- one year after I went out and bought three new pairs of heather!

Individual local leagues...just about anything goes. Guys bring it all and I've worn it all at one time or another- creme, red, black, etc. You should at least match your partner and not look like a bum!

For ASA or high school, I would support having one MANDATORY/DEFAULT uniform color, but allowing other combinations if both umpires match. Probably not going to happen anytime soon...

In my association (ASA only), we use powder blue over heather grey for all levels of play, whether it's SP, FP or MP.

We do allow umpires to wear shorts, so we do request that umpires try to coordinate with each other should they make that choice. I switch back to navy pants (with my assignor's permission, of course) if my partner wears the navy shorts.

Black over Navy? Uggh. I agree with you on your assessment.

Powder (baby) blue over Navy? Agree again -- a nice looking combination. :cool:

I must be in that same minority.

I know a number of our MN people read this board, so this post may be impolitic, but I'm going to rant anyway.

When I started umpiring, it was "summer" girls fastpitch teams only and everything was ASA. The state ASA association required us to wear their shirts (ASA-like powder blue, but with the state association's logo on them) and heather gray pants, official ASA hats with a "current year registered" iron-on patch on the hat. After a few years of ASA only, I started doing high school ball. Their uniform required powder blue shirts, but with red/white/blue trim and no logos on anything (hat, ball bag, shirt, jacket... no logos). So, I bought new shirts, hats, ball bags and jacket.

Then, politics and power plays started in summer girls ball. First, a number of the local teams/leagues started an organization and affiliated with AFA, and after a couple of years using the high school uniform for AFA, they required that we use THEIR local shirts (ASA-like, but with their logo) and then a year later required we use the AFA shirts (black and gray). AFA promptly folded here due to more politics (involving the same people who started it here in the first place) so I got to use my new AFA shirts for one season. The local group that brought in AFA then started up a female division of the former all-male NAFA and required that we use their shirts and hats. More politics ensued and several leagues / communities went back to ASA and/or went to USSSA (which required red U-trip shirts and U-trip hats).

Understand, I haven't moved; I'm with the same umpire association; the local leagues / towns that I umpire girls fastpitch have not changed, I'm still pretty much calling in the same tournaments, but now to get a decent number of games and to umpire in all of the same tournaments I used to umpire in, I need uniforms for ASA, NAFA, and USSSA, while I have in my closet obsolete uniforms for AFA and the local organization.

Now, the MSHSL (high school) has decided to obsolete the power blue w/red/white/blue trim shirts and go with the power blue with navy/white trim, but no logo (maybe not coincidentally, the same as our local NCAA umpires wear). So, next year, I'll have another set of shirts joining the obsolete stack in my closet.

Now, I decided to call high school ball, so the initial HS uniform is on me. But when the same summer leagues / teams in just a few years time go from ASA to AFA to local to NAFA to NAFA+ASA+USSSA uniforms, all for (as this umpire on the outside looking in sees it) political reasons (not to mention money), and, (perhaps at the request of the NCAA umpires???? - pure speculation there...) the MSHSL changes shirts, it gets old (and expensive). Next year, when the red/white/blue high school shirts are no longer legal, I will have almost as many obsolete shirts in excellent game condition as I will have active shirts... and I would have more except I now need to have 3 completely different shirt / hat sets for the same set of teams and tournaments that used to be covered by one.

Maybe I'm supposed to feel grateful, or at least lucky, they all use heather gray... but that's the ONE thing I wish they would change since heather gray promptly fades to brownish-pink well before the pants themselves become unserviceable.

Options? Spare me.

I can understand your frustration. I'm actually a proponent of the OPPOSITE of what you are complaining about. Our association lets us wear (nearly) ANY of the combinations as long as our partner wears the same. If we were required to wear exactly one uniform all season, and that uniform changed, I'd be as upset as you. I like that our association offers options... not that it requires constantly changing uniforms with no options.

O.K., so the shops do well by selling more uniforms if the federations change every two to five years. But, at least here in Europe, most sport federations are having trouble keeping the head financial above water-level. They have less income and provide us, umpires, with the uniforms. So who's the idiot?

Let's have a look to law-men and the battle forces; they also wear uniforms. How often do they change the uniforms? Is that to give the officers a choice what to wear? I think not! Last time the dutch police changed the uniform was the first time in over 30! years. The dutch army, navy and air-force only add specific parts to their collection. Mostly only for safety reasons...

Two weeks ago I had two games at a tournament. One, of 8, umpire didn't found the time in 5 months time to collect his new uniform at the fed.'s-office. He mailed the complete group to bring also the old dark blue shirts. Then we got an extra mail by our UIC, to bring also our ESF-uniform. Since we were all ESF-licenced, we all have that uniform aswell. And we had to bring the new black. I ended up having 6 top shirts and 6 T-shirts to wear underneath. Only had two games. My 9 year old son declared me for a fool! During the games I wore only the black shirts! We ended up to have a split in 2 crews of 4 each. one crew wore blue, the other black...

I must look dressed well as an umpire. Ironed T-shirts, pressed pants, shiny shoes. I don't need to look cool. The best umpire, is a saying over-here, is the one you don't notice! After the games, the athletes mustn't know who the umpire was simply 'cause they had no reason to pay any attention to him (M/F). Do your job and still be invisible.
I don't need any choice in color to go with the weather. If it's cold: add the wind-breaker and extra shirts underneath. If it's hot, bad luck and enjoy the sun! Just add sun-cream/blocker and ditto glasses and lots of water. We have no Texas-summers, 25C is mostly the maximum temperature...

Mike, is this the high school chapter you're referring to? That is good to hear that they give you folks choices. What's the prevailing uniform? Still light blue with heather gray?

Teams, leagues, communities, etc., can affiliate with whoever they want to; with whoever works best for them. But, when to umpire the same community's teams or the same league's tournament over the space of a half dozen years requires 5 different shirts and hats because they keep changing their affiliations, it gets very frustrating (and a bit expensive).

I haven't really had that problem here, with leagues changing affiliations and forcing a uniform change. The rec league I work in the summer is independent, in that they aren't affiliated with any particular sanctioning body. They run both baseball and softball and as long as the umpires match, they don't care what you wear. Most guys show up with every color under the sun hanging in the car, then pick one depending on the weather or what his partner has.

High school baseball and softball here have identical uniforms, so one set works for both.

I did have a buddy beg me to work a few of his NSA tournaments the past few years. I had to pay to register with them, plus buy a shirt and hat. The first tourney I worked five games and netted about 25 bucks! But I've worked a couple more for him, so the new uniform paid off. And, of course, this was by choice, not something forced on me by some organization.

I joined the 'other' association, Slo Pitch National last summer, to work a quad every Monday ($88). In addition to registering ($90), I splurged on 2 shirts and 2 ball bags ($140). I was only clearing $13 a night over what I would have made doing 2 FP games, but the 2 tournaments I was able to work put me well into the black.