In a recent post at an UMPIRE ONLY website, an Umpire I respect greatly came up with this question.

Other than our umpire peers and umpire association mandates regarding dress apparel ie; HS, College etc.

"Do people really care how we look out there?"

All of higher level baseball has an Umpire dress code. And a good segment of our evaluations are attached to how well we keep a professional appearance.

For example:

Matching Jerseys
Pressed pants
Shined shoes
Correct caps

So let's take away umpire associations for a minute in which we are mandated to dress a certain way. Is apparel that important of an issue for the fans and participants or is it more of an umpire vs. umpire issue?

I thought that the HSBBW website may be just the place to come for a thoroughly experienced opinion. The number of programs, travel leagues, tourneys you all have gone to, allows you to have seen a wide variety of umpires....good and bad, well dressed and not to have formed an opinion.....

your thoughts?