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In 1989 I was the first state-wide clinician for Texas. The four-man system I devised and taught the 100-plus local clinicians worked on five very simple principles.
1. The umpires should rotate exactly as they do in a three-man system, i.e., clockwise. When U2 stays in the outfield, U3 takes second, PU takes third, U1 takes the plate. For amateurs that's more important (easily remembered) than for the MLUs, who rarely work three-man.
2. Since we never sent U1 to second (except if U2 went to sleep in the outfield while U3 covered down the left-field line), we abolished the pivot without ever talking about it.
3. We always placed U2 in C with R1 only. Reasons: less likely to mask an infielder, less chance of getting hit by a throw, easier pivot to look between base and sliding runner, more working room to bounce for tags on great slides.
4. Whenever a wing umpire goes out, U2 covers second and PU takes the vacated base.
5. U2 returns to the infield following every obvious base hit but remains in the outfield for every catch/trap.
Any group of experienced umpires can learn those in 20 minutes and avoid the snafus that often occur when a two-man crew doubles its size.
I'm glad to see that professional baseball is finally catching up with the Texas Umpires Association.
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