Who knows what this is?
 

It's an indiclickerator.

Yes... and? :)

An indicator I will not use.

Okay, I'll tell you. I was going through some old boxes that still remained at my parents' house, and I came across this indicator. I knew right away what it was.

It was the very first indicator I ever used when I first started umpiring in 1993.

You see, my dad used to umpire in the league I played in as a kid. I later offered to volunteer as an umpire for the same league, and my dad had an extra one laying around - the very one in this picture. We called some games together, and I was terrible at it. But we still had a good time.

I used this indicator for about 3 or 4 years until I was able to snag his 4-wheel model when he retired from calling ball. I tucked this one away and completely forgot about it until this weekend. The wheels are tough to move, but they still click. Some numbers are almost completely erased, but I can still read them.

I still have that 4-wheel indicator, and now, I've put both of them in my daily gear bag to remind myself of where I come from, and how far I've come as an umpire.

This story may not mean much to you guys, but I think it's good to remind ourselves now and then of how we started, especially after a tough game or three.

Why not?

Because it's mine, all mine! :)

Good story...thanks for sharing.

At least for me, the numbers aren't big enough .....:eek::eek:

because the plastic will make it slip from my hands.

I have been using a stainless steel indicator since 1966. No reason to change now.

Weird... I've never used a stainless steel indicator. Been wanting one just to try it out, but never got around to it. I've only used plastic, and the only times it ever slips from my hand is if I get lazy with my grip.

Close to my favorite +POS .........

I still have my Dad's lab jacket.......lol

Joel

All I ever use also, is a stainless steel indicator. I've used the same one for going on 12 years.

Dave

I could not possibly use an indicator with the strikes on top. Nor would I use one of those four-wheeled scoreboards. :D

So what do you use instead, Rich? :)

OK, I'll be the DA.
I prefer plastic grip to metal, but use more readable steel for night games.
I use only 4 wheel because .... ..... I like to. :)

Holy smoke! I go through two stainless steel ones a year! :eek:

Once the numbers cease locking into place, its sayonara.....

Actually, I usually have THREE in rotation. The oldest one which is my 'bad weather' one, one that is still serviceable and clicks for the bases, and a new one for the plate. Obsessive? Yes!

And I have never used a four wheeler - I ALWAYS know what inning it is! Okay, except the time in a modified FP game that was going so quick, we missed that the home team had got their 10 runs ahead in bottom 4, and we were in B5, when we realized it - game still only took 45 minutes :p

STILL looking for the four wheeler with Strikes/Balls/Outs/Hot Moms on it though :D

I only purchase indicators that I can take apart. I had a stainless that I took apart once for cleaning. Not sure what that one is, but I'm using a blue see through now as see here

I have been using that for 6 years now with zero problems. And I live dangerously, I "might" have a second indicator in my bag.

As an side, I own the "heavyweight" indicator on that page (upper left), but I have never used it. We pass it around, referring to it as the "lethal weapon", which I think would have come into use for the recent thread about handling slow pitch players :D

I am sure you do many more games than I do a year. I usually do about 25 college games and about 60 HS a year. Mine is a Marquart brand, (spelling probably wrong) stainless, 4 dial, and yes it still clicks. I prefer the four dial since it fits my hand better.

Dave

Strikes always on top. After all, a strike call always gets a thumbs up from me.

I started using 4-wheel indicators early on because the umpires in that league were also supposed to keep track of score. Since the wheel goes 0-9, it made counting real easy, even for someone like me. Just click 'em as they cross the plate.

I still kept that habit when I moved here and found that the actual scorekeepers at a particular field weren't doing their damn jobs. They'd miss runs all the time because they were too busy watching TV or reading the paper. I'd click 'em off as they crossed the plate, and if there was any dispute between the teams (rare), at least there was a neutral party (me) who could verify that yes, 10 runs did score that inning. I know, not officially my job, but it's a matter of survival since I'm the one who would end up getting the brunt of their anger (scorekeepers were up in a tower with the windows closed and no working phones).

I've got too much muscle memory in my hand to switch to a 3-wheel indicator now.

Years back, the +POS indicator fixed several issues. It required some mental reprogramming, but 1) the wheels were in the order you would give the count, balls first, strikes second, outs on bottom, 2) The whole thing is palm sized, much bigger, so bigger numbers for those past 40 and now reading impaired, and 3) eliminated unneeded numbers that never were part of an active count, strike 3 and ball 4 (when either is reached, isn't the new count 0-0??).

There have been knockoffs since that I also prefer, for all the same reasons above. It takes a game or so to reprogram the autopilot, then (IMO) much better than the older style.

I've used the +POS 3-2-2 indicator (and a similar version I got from Honigs) for a number of years. Works well for me.

I've got about five of them. I notch the zeros and smooth the twos so I can tell the count and outs without looking. (If I can't remember if we have one ball or three, I should get off the field.) :cool: