There are a few questions asked by every umpire before a game. One of the most important question is: “Are your players properly equipped?” This is the do your players all have a jockstrap and cup on. This is critical for a few positions and was often a battle for us as coaches. We had a practice that tested if they were wearing one. I would line the team up and walk down the line and feign hitting a kid with a bat. Every player that flinched was told to go back to their bags and put their cups on! We had one player that was hardheaded and refused to wear his cup in practices and we struggled getting him the wear it in games. He always wore shorts under his baseball pants and we never thought anything about it. One day Jim, the other coach, calls me over and asks me to look at this kid and see if I noticed anything unusual. I hate questions like these but when I looked at him I saw a huge bulge on top of his thigh. I knew I had to ask but I really didn’t want to. I went over and asked if he was okay because it appeared that his cup had moved several inches to the right. I was thinking it might have slipped but where it was located would have been very painful. He said that there was nothing wrong. I then asked directly, “Why is your cup sitting on top of your thigh?” He just looked at me and said it was because it was in the pocket of his shorts. He was following the letter of the law but not the spirit or intent. We told him it had to be in a jockstrap and wore properly by our standards not his. He complied from then on but you could tell he was uncomfortable. I never asked again and now 10 years later I still have not brought up the subject again until this post.
We had a practice that tested if they were wearing one. I would line the team up and walk down the line and feign hitting a kid with a bat. Every player that flinched was told to go back to their bags and put their cups on!