Sponsor a MLB Umpire in UMPS CARE 100 Hole Golf Marathon

Next Wednesday, November 5, 2008, MLB Umpires meet at Augusta Ranch Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona for a 100 Hole Golf Marathon to benefit UMPS CARE Charities. That's right. They'll play 100 holes in 1 day!

You should consider sponsoring an umpire or player. Pledge as little as 25 cents a hole ($25). How? Each player has a personalized page listing donors and the amount raised. On that page, there is an easy to complete form online where you enter your name, credit card information and amount.

View all umpires/players here and pick someone to sponsor by clicking their link. This is a neat opportunity to get involved with a MLB umpire in a special way for a great cause.

We chose to sponsor 7+ year veteran Sam Holbrook (on left in photo) who also resides down the road from us in Lexington, Kentucky. Go directly to Sam's fundraising page or view his MLB bio.

Your money will go toward:

1. Memorable Build-A-Bear Workshop experiences for pediatric patients coping with cancer,
2. Big league baseball experiences for children awaiting adoption or in youth mentoring programs, and
3. Financial support for families in need

BLUE for Kids and UMPS CARE Merge

I've mentioned our involvement with BLUE for Kids on more than one occasion. I've been aware for sometime now but not mentioned until it become more official that the 2 charities that MLB Umpires were involved in, BLUE for Kids and Umps Care were combining and retaining the name UMPS CARE. There is a great press release here.

Our continued involvement with UMPS CARE is a no-brainer living by their creed that says "Helping People is an Easy Call".

To quote from their website, UMPS CARE was:

"...established by Major League Baseball (MLB) umpires to provide financial, in-kind and emotional support for America’s youth and families in need... by providing memorable baseball experiences, supporting pediatric medical care, and raising awareness for foster care children waiting to be adopted."

MLB umpires on their board of directors include 21 year year veteran Gary Darling who is President plus Marvin Hudson, Sam Holbrook, Jim Reynolds, Ted Barrett, Fieldin Culbreth and Gary Cederstrom.

The Year of the Sliver Frame Umpire Mask and the New Diamond Version

2009 will be the "The Year of the Silver Frame Umpire Mask".

Not only will you continue to hear much fanfare regarding Wilson's titanium mask, Diamond just launched an umpire mask with a silver color metal frame. We just received a supply of these masks yesterday morning.

The Year of the Silver Frame Umpire Mask has taken nearly a year and a half to materialize after MLB and MiLB started donning handout Nike titanium catcher's masks during the 2007 season.

I alerted Diamond's designers in the Fall of 2007 to the growing desire for a silver on black umpire mask at a good price and felt a silver metal frame on the popular DFM-UMP mask design would be a winner. So it's no surprise that I was very excited when our Diamond rep contacted us with news that Diamond was indeed going to be able to offer them for the 2009 season and that we could grab a limited supply of them for the Fall of '08.

Not only is this mask in the same weight category at 1 lb (harness and all) as the Wilson titanium mask, it provides a much more agreeable price point (currently at $79.95) and an alternative to those who prefer "silver on black" rather than "silver on black and tan".

I am very interested to know your initial thoughts on this mask. Please share your comments.

Great Bargains to Be Had This Time of Year

I'm honestly not a big sales guy, but you wouldn't know it by the number of items we have on sale right now. Normally our philosophy is to focus on competitive everyday pricing for a growing loyal customer base as opposed to luring shoppers who are just looking for an occasional bargain.

So why so much on sale? Basically, there are around 50 items total for the current sports of football, soccer and fall baseball (and a few from basketball) that we have a few too many of or are clearing out completely before each season ends to make room for new stuff.

We sent an e-mail with many of these deals a few weeks ago but have added several and/or dropped the price further on a few below:

FOOTBALL (All Specials)
Smitty Rain and Cold Weather Shirt - $32.95 and up
Save $10 and stay warm and dry

Majestic Polyester Long Sleeve Referee Shirt - $22.95 and up
Closeout

Majestic Referee Knickers - $27.95 and up
Through October 31st

SOCCER (All Specials)
All soccer shirts - $12.95 and up for short / $15.95 and up for long
Limited sizes remain for most

BASEBALL (All Specials)
Smitty Long Sleeve Umpire Shirts - $24.95 and up
Was $34.95

Pro Nine Umpire Chest Protectors - $54.95
Will be for a short time only for this Customer Choice product

New Balance Field Umpire/Referee Shoes - $49.95
Best price ever on this popular shoe

BASKETBALL (All Specials)
Spot-bilt Patent Leather Referee Shoes - $39.95
Through a special buy for the remainder of Spot-bilts inventory

Paul and I Attend Alumni Baseball Game

One thing Paul Nelson and I share a passion for is a love of baseball. Recently, Paul (our shipping manager and guy you recognize from many product photos) and I had a chance to step on the baseball field at our college for the 1st time in 16 years for the 1st Annual Centre College Alumni game.

Highlights
Paul was able to pitch an inning where he struck out a recent All-American, and I was able to squeeze in a single while putting in 9 innings at 1st base... not bad for a couple of has beens.

In the above photo are class of '92 attendees with our Coach Ed Rall
From L to R is me, Coach Rall, Dave Harr and Paul

New Grey Ultimate V-Neck Referee Shirt

It's finally here. Our ultimate shirt for basketball (and wrestling) referees is now available in a grey with pinstripe.

We made the decision a year ago to add this for Fall '08, so we've had a year of "when are you guys going to make that ultimate shirt in a grey?"

I think it turned out really well, and as with all of our men's ultimate referee shirts, we expect this one to become a popular item.

You can view product information here.

Referee Magazine Features Ultimate Long Sleeve Referee Shirt

It's always nice to open Referee Magazine and see one of our products featured there. This month's Tools section has our shipping manager/model Paul Nelson standing proudly at the top of page 42 in the ZX9 Ultimate Long Sleeve Referee Shirt.

The first line is especially nicely worded,

"As temperatures fall after the start of an evening game, maintain warmth with the new long sleeve ultimate referee shirt... "

Umpire Mask Buying Guide Changes

I have made a few changes to our umpire mask buying guide chart.

• Added new Wilson titanium masks
• Added information on frame materials for each mask (e.g. titanium, steel or alloy)
• Given that not all synthetics are now vinyl, listed more specific synthetic padding material such as vinyl or poly satin instead of the generic "synthetic".
  

Note that I have not yet incorporated the titanium masks into the text that is most of the guide itself. We will be be adding 1 or 2 new masks in near future and will likely hold off until then.

New Titanium Standard Profile Umpire Mask and Shock FX Throat Guards

We've made some modifications to our umpire mask and accessories section today.

Standard Profile Titanium Mask Available
The new Wilson titanium mask is now available here in a standard profile. Thanks to everyone who e-mailed, called or posted comments with their input and stated their desire for us to carry this mask.

The mask is more curved and thus more likely to overcome the concerns that some college, MiLB and MLB umpires have with lower profile umpire masks. If you read my post about my mixed feelings about the Wilson titanium umpire mask in a low profile that arrived in July, you'll see why I now feel better having the standard profile umpire mask as an option. My guess is that we'll outsell at least 2-1 the standard profile over the low profile just based on sales in general. I'll let you know how it goes.

The mask is actually listed in Wilson's catalog as a catcher's mask, but it's identical to the one listed as an umpire mask except for the shape of the frame. So it has the same sandblasted thin but solid lightweight titanium frame, single-bar design, two-tone wrap-around padding and embroidered Wilson logo as the low profile titanium mask and the same shape as our 3 or 4 other standard profile Wilson West Vest Dyna-Lite umpire masks with the exception that the bars are thinner offering better vision and that the throat guard extends 5/8ths of inch less in the titanium

New Categories
Regarding categories, we added 2 new ones to accommodate two-tone umpire masks, now that we have 3, and for titanium (or silver) masks of which we will have 3 after adding a Diamond umpire mask with a silver frame/metal alloy for '09.

Shock FX Throat Guards
We also have added the Shock FX 4 inch and 6 inch throat guards, of which many of you have asked about, to the face mask accessories category. These are engineered nicely especially in how they attach to the Shock FX umpire helmet (and they will attach to the Shock FX helmet only and not other umpire helmets). When attached, it looks more a part of the helmet than as an add-on.

They are more expensive at $18.95 but the price is a reflection of Wilson's cost to us. My hunch is the culprits are both new design costs and running a small batch as opposed to a large run you'd see of standard throat guards.

But from a safety standpoint, the additional protection offered to the throat is highly recommended.

Price Changes
We've been playing around with prices on the following big ticket items. For now, we have settled on new prices below:

• Wilson Shock FX Umpire Helmet - From $249.95 to $219.95
• Wilson Titanium Umpire Masks - From $224.95 to $198.95