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Back to the subject at hand...
I was discussing this with my colleague Mr. Jenkins before our game Tuesday evening. As much as MLB umpires are rather testy when it comes to stuff like instant replay, Questec, and similar technological wonders--cough, cough--if I were an MLB umpire, I would welcome a microphone on an umpire, but here's how IMHO it can be done professionally:
Give the microphone to the crew chief only, like the NFL does to its Referee. When there's an unusual ruling or similar, like there was in Sunday's White Sox game, he can turn it on, explain the ruling, and that's that.
The CC would do this only for rulings and not for disputed judgment calls or calls essentially based on judgment. For example, he wouldn't go to the mike to explain that after discussion, the "foul" ball that went around the foul pole was determined to be a home run and not foul, or that after discussion, F3 pulled his foot off the bag, etc. Such situations would not result in the mike being used.
As I told Bob, I'd bet that when all is said and done, if the CC were to use a mike in such limited circumstances, the number of times during the entire MLB season would probably be minimal. I don't think that the umpires or MLB would find this intrusive or bothersome at all, and it would go far to clarify things, especially in this mass audience, television-driven age in which we live.
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