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Do the Players and Fans care how the umpires are dressed?

piaa_umppiaa_ump5,000+ posts
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?
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coach2709coach270910,000+ posts
Does it affect your performance or capability - not really. You can look like a slob and still know what's going on but it's bad business.

Imagine you need an attorney for some reason and you go into their office and they are wearing cut off jeans and a wife beater with bar b que stains. I would guess most will not use this person's services.

Imagine you need a serious operation and the doctor has on the same outfit. I doubt anyone would use their services either.

Those two may be the greatest at their job but they would have to overcome a lot of negative stereotypes to get clients. It is just very counter productive to your goals.

It is called professionalism - not only do you have to know something but you have to project an appearance of you know what's going on.

I get students all the time who dress - let's just call it - "different". I tell them they can get away with it right now but at some point in their life they have to start dressing like the rest of us to be taken seriously. I ask them if they saw someone of my age dressed like them what would they do / say? They say laugh at them. Well one day they will be my age and kids then will be laughing at them.

You look good, you play good. You look good, you work good (yes I teach history and not english).
B BaseballMom10100+ posts
I vote yes. First impressions matter! If an umpire takes the time and effort to be uniformed correctly, I would think that he or she would also take the time to learn and apply the rules...

Though I am sure there may be exceptions... Smile

I also appreciate umpires that show up BEFORE game time, inspect the field and talk to the coaches before things get going. I hate seeing the car come peeling into the lot at the last minute.
tychcotychco1,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by coach2709:
Does it affect your performance or capability - not really. You can look like a slob and still know what's going on but it's bad business.

Imagine you need an attorney for some reason and you go into their office and they are wearing cut off jeans and a wife beater with bar b que stains. I would guess most will not use this person's services.

Imagine you need a serious operation and the doctor has on the same outfit. I doubt anyone would use their services either.

Those two may be the greatest at their job but they would have to overcome a lot of negative stereotypes to get clients. It is just very counter productive to your goals.

It is called professionalism - not only do you have to know something but you have to project an appearance of you know what's going on.

I get students all the time who dress - let's just call it - "different". I tell them they can get away with it right now but at some point in their life they have to start dressing like the rest of us to be taken seriously. I ask them if they saw someone of my age dressed like them what would they do / say? They say laugh at them. Well one day they will be my age and kids then will be laughing at them.

You look good, you play good. You look good, you work good (yes I teach history and not english).


Well said, coach2709, took the words right out of my mouth.
F 3FingeredGlove1,000+ posts
piaa_ump,
"Does the Uniform appearance of the umpire in any way effect your opinion of that official?"

Of course it does. At the least, it affects my opinion of the official's appearance!

The poll question, as phrased, is almost certain to elicit "yes" answers. I've already answered on the other forum, and I expected to be able to give a similar response to the poll question here. But I think the poll question compels an answer of "yes". My response in the other forum was roughly "the participants' opinion of the umpire's competence isn't affected by his or her appearance."

I'm no pollster, but I suppose a different question might be: "Think of the last umpire you saw that was bad. How was he dressed?" Actually, that's not a very good question either, because most umpires, regardless of competence, dress well, so most honest answers would have to be "well dressed", because the sample is skewed.

Maybe a better question would be: "For the last three games you have seen/played/coached, rank the umpires by appearance." I think you'll find that very few people could carry out such a ranking, because they wouldn't remember anything about the official's appearance.
Last edited by 3FingeredGlove
fanofgamefanofgame5,000+ posts
I persoanlly love the professional way an umpire looks. one of my favorite things is seeing the impires walk in with their matching shirts and their caps,I think it of course doesnt effect their calling the game but I think it adds to the overall atmosphere. I love the uniforms in baseball on the players and I like seeing the umpires dressed in unis as well.
piaa_umppiaa_ump5,000+ posts
quote:
Maybe a better question would be: "For the last three games you have seen/played/coached, rank the umpires by appearance." I think you'll find that very few people could carry out such a ranking, because they wouldn't remember anything about the official's appearance.



3FG,

Maybe we should have gotten together to refine the question....thought this would be a great source to see what opinions we can take back....
J jdfromfla100+ posts
Maybe they wouldn't remember..I guess levels make a difference, in my umping experience the professionalism is directed towards taking and keeping control of the game/crowd. Shabby dress is an invite to not keep me set apart and that is just opposite of what I want. It's why the Marines worry about every thread, it's easy to be lax, the pride represents professionalism and with that goes a certain expectation of respect..Fla State Troopers have every bit buttoned down and the get respect...of couse the 9 mill makes a great enforcer..same as my boot. Wink
Last edited by jdfromfla
Bulldog 19Bulldog 195,000+ posts
I don't really notice an umpire's appearance. As far as I'm concerned, he could show up looking horrible and I wouldn't think anything bad about it unless he royally screwed up a call.

There's really only two times I'm going to get upset at an umpire. First, if he blatantly and I mean BLANTANTLY misses a call. As in everyone else in the ballpark (both teams) thought he was wrong. Or when he half-a$$es through a call that is a close call.

Doing one of those two things will cause me to find things "unprofessional" about the umpire's appearance.
RJMRJMHSBaseballWeb member since 2007
The appearance of the umpire tells me something of how he respects himself. I figure if he respects himself, he respects the game and has done as much as possible to become a good umpire. The handful of umpires I've experienced who looked like slobs left me with the same impression when the game ended. Someone a few posts back mentioned looking sharp to lead and be in charge. I feel the same way.
Last edited by RJM

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