Remember the good old days, perhaps with your parents or friends, when you would head to the baseball field, grab a hotdog and watch your favorite players attempt to overcome their opponent? Between the hollering, carbonated drinks, homeruns and the laughter of your friends, the idea of the umpire’s underwear never crossed your mind, right? Although baseball is littered with eccentric personalities, wild plays and athletic explosiveness that make their way to the highlight reels, umpires are the upholders of regulation and fair play. Today, we explore the somewhat comical nature of uniform requirements umpires must uphold to maintain their position among the MLB’s greatest players.
Take Me Back to the 60s
Many things have changed since the 1960s, but the adherence to a strict dress code has remained a pillar of professional baseball. During this era, umpires sported light blue dress shirts, dark gray pants and navy overcoats to match their undershirt. Furthermore, umpires customized and contorted their look to adhere the seasonal changes; if the temperature was scorching hot, they opted for short-sleeve variations of their blue-gray regalia. And for cold climates with frigid temperatures, long-sleeve modifications kept the umpires warm while they completed their duties.
Fast forward to the early 2000s, and we began to see a unification of all umpires within the professional league, giving each referee a standardized uniform to sport during games. In 2017 and beyond, each variation used a blue or black top with dark slacks and a jacket, if weather permitted. Although slight variations crop up with each passing season, the color combination of blue, gray and black seems to be the underpinning of the league’s official uniform.
Addressing the Elephant In the Room: What Kind of Underwear Are You Wearing, Ump?
Let’s cut to the chase: if there’s one sport that requires its players to bend, move, jump and contort their bodies in fractions of a second, it’s professional baseball. Although opinions vary, we challenge you to find a professional sport that requires more explosiveness and hand-eye coordination than baseball.
As an extension of baseball’s high-speed play, umpires need a uniform that not only protects them from flying balls and bats, but also provides optimal movement. When an umpire, say, bends down to lock his gaze upon a speeding fastball headed toward a batter, he needs to center himself in a crouched position and calculate whether the trajectory falls into the “strike” or “ball” zone. And as anyone who’s squatted too quickly in a pair of ill-fitting pants cant attest, rips and tears happen when you least expect them, and they never make you feel confident.
To counteract unwanted wardrobe malfunctions and accidents, umpires who officiate professional games wear black underwear that matches the color of their pants. And the rule makes sense, too; if a rip occurs in the backside of an umpire’s pants, patrons seated behind home plate won’t notice anything out of the ordinary because of the matching black material. Although this sounds like a tongue-in-cheek requirement that makes many fans chuckle under their breath, it gives umpires the confidence and tenacity to engage with each play, giving viewers and players the competitive back-and-forth they adore.
How Are These Rules Made?
While the professional league now allows for more customization and flare in their umpires’ uniforms, they still adhere to specific rules — like black underwear — every time they officiate a match. However, the aesthetic appearance of an umpire’s uniform changes based of variables from each game. For example, most umpires opt for light-colored shirt variations during day games to keep the heat from the sun’s rays from making their job unfomfortable. However, umpires behind the plate can dictate their uniform in any way they please. Umpires on the field keep their colors matched and organized between other officals on the turf, keeping visual distractions at a minimum and allowing players to focus on the ball.
