I wouldn't call this a rebuttal of David Emerling's article, but just additional commentary on the subjects he discussed. I agree with most of what he says.

Editor's note: In fairness to David, we want to point out he didn't endorse all of the "tips for looking better." He simply put them on the table. 

Sunglasses

David wrote: I've heard that an umpire should never wear sunglasses.

Don: I had never used sunglasses while working a game until two years ago. I'd always heard comments like David. But my eyes are very light sensitive. If I'm not working a game, I'll always wear sunglasses outside on a bright day; and I see better because of it. Well, two years ago, I worked a high school game in early spring at 4:00 in the afternoon, with the sun setting in center field just behind the pitcher.

As most high schools do, they had put the field where they thought best, not so that "the line from home base through the pitcher's plate to second base shall run East-Northeast." For the last three or four innings of that game I had a very difficult time seeing the pitch coming out of the pitcher's hand because his hand was coming directly out of the sun. I'm sure the batter and catcher had similar problems. Oh, my.

Continued...