Eye Black Issue???

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Aug 27, 2015
20
0
Had a friend who is a parent of a 12u girl come up to me this past weekend and ask me a strange question about something that had happened.

Her DD was told (by the umpire behind the plate) she was not allowed to wear eye black except for 1 stripe below each eye. Now most of these girls are far into watching and trying to emulate these older college girls in a lot of ways, including eye black.

Turns out, she had her eye black like Alex Hugo (double lines, curving down the cheek at the end of the eye sockets).

Is this an actual rule? Umpires dictating eye black?
 
Jun 22, 2008
3,731
113
I think some individual states have chosen to make an issue of eye black under high school rules but I am not aware of any rule set that has addressed it or why it would even be an issue. Depending on what state you are in and what rule set you are playing under it could be an issue, or it could be an umpire making up their own rules or carrying a rule from one organization into another rule set.
 
Feb 12, 2014
648
43
I know a few years ago OHSAA limited eye black for football players. The fad then was for the kids to essentially cover themselves in it. I've never heard of any softball umpire saying this in school or travel ball. My DD rocks the Hugo and other extreme looks all the time.
 

softgabby

Gear Empress
Mar 10, 2016
1,073
83
Just behind home plate
I have not had an issue using eye black. I have had teammates that have had issues using it though. I think the reason I haven't had issues with it is because I wear one line of it under each eye where they're wearing multiple lines of it or having it as a smear down their cheek.

I remember a rec league game where I was wearing eye black and my sunglasses for the early part of the tournament and then just the eye black when we started having shadows coming through before it got dark. Before our last game on a Sunday, I had just reapplied my eye black and three of my other teammates had just put theirs on for the first time that day. Two had just done theirs one line like I did. Our third baseman had hers as a smear down her cheek along with across where your supposed to. The ump and tournament director that had a problem with it talked to our coach. He told her that (he gave the player numbers, of which mine was one) was fine but the one that wasn't had to clean off her eye black and reapply it properly.

But thats one instance I know of that it was an issue.
 
Aug 10, 2016
686
63
Georgia
Weird. Our entire All-Star team did the Alex Hugo eye-black at all of their tournament games last season. First three were local tournaments, but at both USSSA ones, we never had an issue.
 
Sep 14, 2011
768
18
Glendale, AZ
There was a proposal in ASA two years ago to limit the use of eye black to a single line under the eye, but it did not pass.

The reason given was that it was being used to "intimidate" the opponent...My thinking is that if you're intimidated by a player painting their face, softball might not be the game for you.....
 
Jun 29, 2013
589
18
The umpire shouldn't care about the eye black. The umpire, however, should care and apply the given rules.

100% agree with you on that (see my post below for an example). But if it isn't in the rule book, then I'm lost on why this would be an issue. I get the tucking shirts in rule that is enforced occasionally (50-50 in what I've seen locally), But eye black? There's no competitive advantage gained by looking like John Randall, or Roger Clemens when he drew the eye black across his nose. Even if they look ridiculous to us, that is between them and their teams. There's no safety issue. And I agree with the posts above about how laughable it is that anyone would be intimidated by eye black. Maybe if someone is spelling out words with the eye black I'd see an issue, but I haven't seen that before.
 

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