Umpire Larry Vanover wore his umpire coat yesterday

Nice Picture in the D etroit News Sports Section of Ramon Santiago sliding home as Thames and Larry Vanover[ wearing an old school style umpire coat] watch.

You won't see that at Comerica this season.


Too hot for that. And even if it was cold, Umpires that kick it old school [ when they work the plate] like Vanover, Joe West, Ed Rapuano and Alfonso Marquez won't be working games at Comerica Park. Selig have them working Cleveland, Chicago or New York.

Last time that happened was when Marquez worked Game 2 of the 06 World Series

Tigers always get umpires for games at the COPA; like Tim McClelland,Derrryl Cousins, Bruce Froemming, Wally Bell or Doug Eddings who all wear short sleeve black shirts knit shirts [ forget the light blue ones] no matter how cold it is behind the plate

or Chuck Merriwether or Mike Reilly who wear those long sleeve knit black shirts when it is chilly while the base umpires wear softball style pullover jackets


Get rid of the softball garb and go back to wearing light blue dress shirts and coats

59 in Lakeland yesterday; Be 85 Opening Day here

I like those outside chest protects the best. Those were cool!

Can't wear those no more! Jerry Neudecker was the last ump in 1985 to wear the Big Balloon style protector. According to wikipedia, Since 1977; every umpire that has entered MLB has to wear the inside chest protector; Joe Brinkman, who recently retired, was the last umpire [ among current MLB umps] to have worn it wear it earlier in his career back in the 70s. He switched in the early 80's.

Don Denkingker and Larry McCoy were the first AL umpires to make the switch in the mid 70s


The NL umpires always wore the inside ones.

I like old-fashioned umpires with ties, too. Those were cool.

They stopped wearing ties in the 70s in the NL; and early 80's for the AL. Bill Haller and George Maloney were among the last AL umps to wear ties.


Mike Reilly and Derryl Cousins are the last current umpires that wore burgundy umpire coats in the late 70s

Now that's a cool look for an umpire! That's Cy Rigler (NL 1906-1922 1924-1935).

I like the turtleneck shirts they wore in the 80s under the coats myself.


They need to dress like that again!

Sure is Catbox!


Thanks for the photo

Here's HOF Umpire Al Barlick:



In case you thought that was a type-o, yes, they DO allow umpires in the HOF.

gs78 wrote:

Thanks for the photo

No problem. I added another one.

Here's some umpires in blue. On the left is Chuck Meriwether. At center, Mark Hirschbeck. At far right, Tim McClelland - my favorite MLB umpire (and native Michigander!)

How tall is Hirschbeck? 5 feet 3 ? He looks like a midget

gs78 wrote:

How tall is Hirschbeck? 5 feet 3 ? He looks like a midget

5'9'' 180 lbs.

Damn I am 5-9! I would be that small compared to Merriwether , McClelland and the Reds player in the background;


Were those guys Basketball Ball players?

Maybe they're standing on their tip toes to make him look shorter than he really is?

I'm somewhere in the 5'10'' range myself (give or take an inch) so I wouldn't be much taller.

Of course I weigh 235 pounds! But that is another story

LOL!

I haven't weighed myself in years. My driver's license says I weigh 150 but I highly doubt that's right. When I filled out the form when I was 15 it was probably close, but that was 5 years ago.

Don't have that in Michigan! Just height, eye color and of course address, city etc etc

What's stupid is they ask for all that stuff, but don't verify its accuracy. Hell, even sex they don't verify - you just fill in a bubble.

I'll bet I could get a license that had my address, name, and then said I was female, 7'10'', 90 pounds, blonde hair [mine isn't], blue eyes [mine aren't] and they'd print it for me.

With our govt slowly going to a national Drivers Lic, we will see them checking a lot more stuff. Ohio is getting very picky now. I have to renew mine in April and I have to bring my birth cert. and proof of residence. We also have to have a special card to vote now.

CA doesn't do any of that. When my license expired last year they sent me a new one no questions asked.

Wow we still need to take vision tests to renew. Which is actually a good idea. Don't want blind people driving!

I think you can be blind and still pass the one in CA. The letters are like 8 feet tall and you stand like 5 feet away.

Okay, it's not that easy but your eyes would have to be so bad it's not even funny to not be able to read it.

Wow!

But then again, all kinds of stuff has changed in Ohio since we got our liberal new Dem. Govnr. Strickland.

Change is not always good either!

No, the first thing he did was freeze medicaid. If someone gets sick and really needs it, tough luck. If you have it, you can keep it, but they took away over half the benefits. Really hurts the poor ill residents.

Ridiculous! Yet we continue to put people like that in elected office.

Makes me sad that Ron Paul was not successful!

But that is another story!