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Yes, I see it a lot in baseball too (or, saw it a lot, as I've transitioned almost exclusively to fastpitch the past couple of seasons).
But, no, it was never taught to me and I've never seen it in any baseball umpire manual. In fact, on some of the baseball forums that I frequent I've seen threads about this topic and, just like here, guys are against it.
A true story from my high school baseball days...I'm working the bases and there is a pitching change. Warm-ups get thrown I get back into "C" position snd get ready to go. Then I notice that the plate umpire is just standing there staring at me.
I can't figure out what's going on so I give my partner a subtle "what's going on?" signal. He points at the pitcher and says, "Go tell him".
Huh? Go tell who, what? I shrug my shoulders and he points at the pitcher again and says, "Go tell him the situation". Then I figure it out. He thinks that it's my responsibility to inform the pitcher how many outs there are and what runners are on base!
I kind of waved him off, like "I'm not going to do that, let's just play ball". But he points again and says to inform the pitcher. And it looks like he's not going to re-start the game until I do!
So, I took a few steps toward the mound, leaned in and said in my quietest voice, so nobody would know what I was saying except me and the pitcher, "Okay, pitch, are you ready? Alright, here we go now".
Apparently that was enough, because with that my partner put his mask back on, got back behind the plate and finally got the game going again.
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