Mechanics And Positioning

[Always Wright]

I plan on this being my last post to this thread and I will limit my response to the history of the AL using this mechanic of having U2 working outside. Specifically I am addressing Rich and T. I asked a young man in my association to take a look at this thread. He attended the Jim Evans school this past January. He relayed to me that Evans spoke about this very topic in class. In fact, Evans told a story of how, early in his career, he and Dave Phillips were assigned to Nestor Chylak's (a pretty fair umpire) crew. Chylak insisted that U2 work outside. Evans and Phillips did not like that mechanic and worked inside. However, they quickly started complying with Chylak's directives as soon as he started fining them. Since Evans did not join the AL staff until 1971 I hope this puts to rest the idea that major league umps abandoned having U2 work outside in the 1930's. There was at least 1 AL crew still working that way in the 1970's.