Cleaning Archives

Umpires are many things… we are judges, athletes, babysitters… but we are NOT clean. And don’t try to deny it. I’ve worked with enough of you to know that your gear is foul smelling and I don’t know the last time you’ve washed your socks.

Well, this episode of the podcast is dedicated to those of you whose equipment stays in your equipment bag throughout the summer while those little bacteria grow and smell starts to set in. Today, we talk about cleaning umpire equipment.

Today, we end the smelly umpire. Today we talk with Jolie Kerr, columnist for Jezebel.com and Deadspin.com. She writes a column called “Ask A Clean Person” and she’s here to help our profession smell better. Seriously.

Jolie got her start as being the cleanest person she knew. She turned that into a writing career and now handles questions from the public that include how to clean up urine stains from carpets to cleaning blood off of a million items. She has a new book out called “My Boyfriend Barfed in My Handbag… And Other Things You Can’t Ask Martha.”

She took some time out of her writing to talk with UmpTalk.com about how to properly allow equipment to dry between games, clean it periodically and avoid nasty staph infections from the crap growing in our equipment.