Beware Umpires with Unprotected Knees

Within hours of receiving an e-mail from a fast-pitch softball umpire asking about where he could find a shin guard without knee protection, I saw Cincinnati Reds' shortstop Jeff Keppinger fracture his kneecap from a hit foul ball.

Story here | Video here

As an umpire, I know there are body parts that are often exposed such as arms, hands and thighs but in my opinion knees - that have no muscle or fat to lessen the blow - are not ones I'd suggest you'd expose unless you strongly trust your catcher and/or your stance in relation to him or her.

1st Annual Wrestle Against Autism Tournament

We get a lot of requests to donate money or items to worthy causes. We honestly are pretty picky about saying "yes" to many of these for one reason or another.

One recent request came from one of our customers who is a member of the Mad River Wrestling Officials Association (in Ohio). They are co-sponsoring a K-Open wrestling tournament on May 17th with the Ohio State Wrestling with proceeds going to autism research and support.

What I was impressed with most was that their officials will be donating their time to officiate the all-day event. As a father of 2, I understand how important Saturdays in the spring are.

We decided to provide a small donation to the event and some prizes to those who will be providing their time, but in all actuality, what we're doing as one the sponsors seems so very small that I hesitate to even mention it.

One thing about autism that I didn't know was that despite autism being diagnosed in 1 in 150 children, it receives so fewer funds than other childhood diseases and conditions that are much less prevalent. (Source: Autism Speaks)

Regardless, my hats off to the people behind the tournament and best of luck.

For more information on the tournament and the cause visit http://wrestleagainstautism.com.

Thoughts on MLB Umpire Kerwin Danley's Fastball to His Mask

If you didn't hear about Kerwin Danley, MLB umpire who lost consciousness from a 95 MPH fastball he took to the lower jaw area in a game 4/27, read the article.

He was treated and released from the hospital so he's ok. But after hearing about this the first time, I looked for the video online to figure what kind of mask he was wearing. I know that's not the typical thought someone has, but I'm also the only one at a game who watches the umpires as much as I do the players.

He was wearing a Wilson West Vest Dyna-Lite Umpire Mask with two-tone wrap around pads. So, did this mask fail him? Should umpires not wear it at this level? I hear that kind of talk from time to time, where someone says "I took a really hard shot and it really hurt (or I got a bruise or occasionally even a minor concussion), and I'm beginning to think this mask (or other protective gear) is not appropriate for this level."

Although such thinking could be accurate in some cases and perhaps even in this one (hockey style helmet with more angles?), Mr. Danley's mask had the thicker-than-most-other-masks Wilson padding that wraps partially around the frame that is typical of other West Vest Dyna-Lite masks worn by other MLB umpires. In other words, he could not have been more protected in a traditional style mask.

So how did this mask not fail him if it gave him a concussion and sent him to the hospital? My answer, is simple: The mask protected him from being severely wounded or killed from the 2,400 pounds of force a 95 MPH delivers. Saying otherwise would be like saying a bulletproof vest failed when a police officer suffered a broken rib and bruised lung when he (or she) was shot at point blank range.

One last note: I had commented about some competitors wrongly claiming that Wilson's mask padding were "anti-concussion" in a past blog post titled "Are Competitor Claims Putting Umpires at Risk?". It's worthy of a re-read in light of this story.

Pant Style Trends Stir Memories of My Sears' Husky Days

When I first bought Ump-Attire.com over 2 years ago, we had 1 umpire pant style each for base, plate and combo - all in heather grey and all pleated. That was it. I suppose that was the case for most competitors as well at the time. If someone had predicted then that we'd have 9 different styles now, I would have sarcastically replied "Yeah, right!?."

But with the trends toward dark grey and the frequent requests from some of our less "husky" customers for a more fashionable flat front look, then it's no surprise we now have so many styles.

No offense to our more "husky" customers with the statement above. I remember my Mom ordering from the Sears catalog when I was a kid and her always having to get the husky and not the slim, as I believe that's what the other fit choice was. Thanks Sears for always reminding me that I was the chubby kid in class when it came time to buy a new pair of pants!

All of my unresolved issues and new trends aside, pleated pants and heather greys continue to be our most popular choices. And my crystal ball tells me that although umpires will gravitate more and more toward the dark greys over the next few years, the heather greys will continue to be the main color of choice for several years to come.

And for me and the husky umpires out there, pleats will always be a preferred pant style of choice.

Reflections on Planning Seasons in Advance

For those of you who've read enough of this blog, looked around our website or read some of my posts on the discussion boards, you know I'm pretty passionate about what we do.

But one thing I honestly hate about this business is the seasonal aspect of it. I am realistic enough to know it comes with the territory but oh how I wish we could simply sell the same number of Wilson platinum chest protectors, b/w basketball referee shirts or football referee knickers month after month. It would sure make things much easier for us from a planning perspective.

Inventory management is tough for any business. Buy too little, and you can't meet demand leaving your customers to go elsewhere. Buy too much, and experience all the negative aspects of cash flow issues. For a sporting goods company faced with multiple seasons during a year, whether it's one who caters to officials or to players, knowing how much of what to get and when to get it is quite the challenge.

The when to get it part of that equation typically starts 2 seasons in advance. For example, although we've been hot and heavy in the middle of baseball and softball (lacrosse, too), we've been behind the scenes planning ahead for 2008 football and basketball seasons. We'll also plan ahead for baseball 2009 during football season.

This planning normally includes making decisions on our product selection and placing purchase orders for what we can buy in bulk ahead of time.

If it were up to me, I'd rather complete a season, sell the last of every item for that sport, then start planning a week before the next season starts. I might even declare a 1-week moratorium on all officials' sporting goods sales worldwide for a little forced in-between seasons rest and relaxation.

Not practical...
I know...
But a kid can dream, can't he?!

Special note only to those considering opening your own officials sporting goods store, thus becoming potential competitors: Please re-read this article as many times as you'd like.

Spot-bilt Going Out of Business

When I think of long standing manufacturers of officials apparel, I think of items like:

• Wilson Protective Gear
• Sansabelt Referee Pants
• Fechheimer Umpire Pants
• and Spot-bilt Shoes

Perhaps you have certain other brands or items in mind as well.

Spot-bilt, a division of Saucony, has supplied us with shoes for all sports for much of our short existence. From patent leather basketball shoes to grid stud field shoes to low and mid-cut plate shoes, Spot-bilt has provided us with something like 12 shoe styles if you include both D and 2E wide widths.

Somewhere around last summer, the word from Spot-bilt was that they were purchased by Payless Shoes. Shortly thereafter, with each time we attempted to purchase shoes, we found fewer and fewer sizes available in-stock. Things got worse when the answer to "when will those unavailable sizes be available" was that there were none scheduled for production. None in production!? Did they not realize that basketball season was soon approaching and we needed patent leather shoes to resell?

To make a long story short, and many phone calls later, the company that bought Spot-bilt eventually decided earlier this year that making officials' shoes was not worth their time from a profit standpoint.

At that time, we made the only decision we could make in the short term which was to purchase as many shoes as we could afford - at least of what was remaining - to allow us time to transition to other suppliers (see New Balance and Pentagon)

For now, you'll find from us some of our Spot-bilt shoes with availability in most sizes. Others have only a few. With some of those, we elected to offer a closeout special to free up some needed shelf space. See those on our specials page.

Yet for others, such as plate shoes, Pentagon Sports is making identical shoes for us except for a difference in the logo. Consequently for plate shoes, some sizes have the Spot-bilt logo and some have the Pentagon one. Even then, Pentagon is out of many sizes in several styles for the year, too. Oh well, perhaps the title of this post should have been "Get Your Spot-bilt Shoes While You Can".

For later, you'll find a dwindling size selection of grid stud shoes and patent leather shoes. You'll also find that we'll completely switch over from Spot-bilt to Pentagon in the plate shoes arena.

An interesting footnote is that Pentagon is owned by Chip Strapp who is the same person that ran Spot-bilt before he was let go ahead of the Payless Shoes' decision to end Spot-bilt's existence.

So now you know the rest of the story regarding Spot-bilt.

New Balance Shoes Get Customers' Choice Seal

After 2 months, it's obvious how well-liked the New Balance plate and base shoes are. They each have become the best selling shoes in their categories. And comments on comfort, fit and ease of cleaning have been plentiful.

Therefore, we've added them to our customers' choice list for baseball and softball. Up until now, the only umpire shoes with this distinction have been the Spot-bilt low top plate shoes.

Although we started with D width only, we are adding plate shoes in 2E (on order for resell within about 2 weeks). 2E is available in the base shoes as a special order for now. 4E is available as a special order in both styles.