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As I've heard, it started when the extra umpires used to just sit in the stands and one of the field umpires missed a fair / foul call at the foul pole. SO, instead of having them sit, they put them to (some) use.
I doubt if the union is going to let it go away.
ANd while it might be unique to pro sports, other levels of baseball also tend to add umpires during season-end tournaments (going from 2 to 3 or 3 to 4 for example)
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