Now onto the uniform question.
I feel that every kid and/or team in an organization should wear the same uniform. Individual expression is great, but attention should be brought on by the play on the field, not a different outfit. I'm not against the arm band or something, but excessive jewelry and warm up gear can be a little much. Often during the pre-game my team "scopes" out the other team. One thing we do look for is who "looks like a player." This is very arbitrary (spelling?) but looks often tell a lot about a team and/or player. If a kid wears abunch of jewelry, arm bands, has a warm up jacket on (when no one else does), wears his hat crooked, the team will designate him as a "hot head." A team that every player wears his shoes tucked into his pants or with the pants under the cleats will often be the end of abunch of jokes. One thing I love Tommy and my coach for is that they stress not wearing the pants in the shoes. They always remind us that we never know who is watching and once again, the only attention being brought onto yourself should be from play on the field, not your clothing.
Some kids like wearing shorts to the game, which is absolutely fine to me. When in a tournament, and waiting on a game before ours, I too will often wear shorts to stay cool. Somehow though kids will (every once in a while) feel that the pre-game should be done in shorts. This one worries me a little bit.
Post-game: There really isn't much I can say on this one. It's different for each player. Normally I never wear shorts after a game, but our catcher does. After one of our games, believe me, you want as many clothing items from the game before off him due to the foul stench that escapes from his clothes. Once again, I'm all for individual expression, but in general, anything that causes attention to be brought onto yourself anywhere outside of the game itself... for lack of a better phrase... can be done without.
One thing that KILLS me is the coach wearing pants. AHHHH it really isn't a dislike, but it simply looks goofy. All HS coaches do it and it shoots me out the window. I can't help but laugh. Whats really hilarious is when you get coaches in full uniform (wearing pants) and they look younger than some kids on the HS team. This trend is much less common in summer ball. I'm wondering if it is a UIL rule????
I could go into lots of other situations: wearing of the sunglasses on the top of the hat when it's 9pm, having batting gloves in the back pocket while up to bat (sometimes wearing batting gloves and still with a pair in the back pocket), but it's simple... let the play do the talking. Appearance is just that, an appearance. It doesn't make you better or help you throw 90mph. It DOES show a little personality, and if I'm banking on one or two things, it's my personality and knowledge (neither of which are physical
).