Purpose of extra umpires? (5&6)
 

Can someone explain the responsibilities of the two outfield umpires working a six man crew? Is it fair/foul from the base to the fence or do they also have catch/no-catch responsibility? If yes to the catch/no-catch do they have the entire outfield?

Hmmm....I believe they have fair/foul from where they are to the foul pole, and catch/no catch is the whole outfield IF the 2B umpire is inside and if the 2B umpire is outside then their coverage is from F7 to the line and F9 to the line. They are also a "second set of eyes" on outfield catches that are not their primary responsibility.

JJ

The fair/foul responsibilities of the outfield umpires are from behind the base umpires to the fence, not from the bases themselves.

RF and LF umpires do not have any fair/foul responsibility in front of them.

Yes, they do. They have any ball between the base umpires and themselves.

Depends on the mechanics being used, since the OP didn't specify.

U5 is named "Window"
U6 is named "Dressing".

Then maybe somebody should straighten that out with them. I've seen them signal fair/foul on balls that are between them and their U1/U3 partners.

In fact, in a Rays/Red Sox game at Fenway, LFU Mike Winters got hit with a fair ball as it sliced toward him. He signalled fair when the ball hit the ground in front of him, and as he was trying to move into foul territory away from the ball, it still got him.

Exactly.

Some mechanics have the ULF and URF taking everything past the wing umpires. Some have the ULF and URF taking only balls past them to the fence.

Perhaps they are making it up as they go.

I still hope the day comes when they position them near the outfield fence, where they could add value (see, e.g., Tigers/A's game 4). With expanded replay, that probably won't happen, though.

I guess that is my fault for jumping to the MLB conclusion. I can speak for MLBUM and NCAA mechanics that say ULF and URF have fair/foul responsibilities behind them and U1 and U3 have fair foul from the base to ULF/URF.

Can't say I have ever seen a book with 6 man mechanics in it, and the only game I have ever worked with 6 men I was behind the plate. The pre-game was interesting, as we went through 4 man, and then I looked at the field guys and told them "I don't know what to say, other than get the trap calls in LF and RF and Fair/Foul on any balls near you, and enjoy the game".

But, I would think a LFU could call fair/foul better on a ball that lands just in front of him than the 3BU who is turning around and some distance from the ball landing.

Come to think of it, I was at 1B for another 6 man game and I don't think the RFU had a call to make throughout the game.

I think any umpire can call fair/foul better on a ball landing just in front of him.

So what is the MLB mechanic? I would have expected a set procedure for consistency sake. Or are you suggesting that it's up to the crew to decide during pregame?

I agree that they add very little value to the game, especially since what they are primarily responsible for--determination of a HR, no HR, or spectator interference at the fence, and fair/foul near the foul pole--is reviewable with instant replay. And when IR expands, it will make them even more irrelevant.

I was commenting on the suggestion that the responsibility was fair/foul from where they are to the foul pole, which would leave out a ball landing in front of them, which seems wrong to me.

They are a vain attempt to make Bud Selig look competent. Unless one of the extras is Bob Davidson, in which case he's there to detect balks.

Please explain. I fail to see the correlation with Selig and umpires 5 & 6. They were using six before Bud. Weren't they?

I think RB's comment was a vain attempt at humor. Yes, six-man crews in post-season play were being used for quite a while.

I don't know the accuracy of this, but I found this tidbit of history on the web:

"Did you know that prior to 1947, a 4-man (or less in the early days) crew was used for the World Series? In 1947, MLB went to a 6-man crew. However, from 1947-1963, the two outfield umpires stayed in their position for the entire series and did not rotate. Only the four infield umpires rotated for the series. In 1964, MLB went to the current system of rotating all six umpires."

Not surprisingly, in 1947 they wanted to pay those outfield umps LESS that the other guys! Jocko Conlin says they almost walked out over that. Also, they tended to use that to 'break in' relatively less experienced umps into the Series atmosphere.

I see nothing wrong with that. They had used 4 umpires but were experimenting expanding to 6. If I was the 5th or 6th umpire and had to choose between working a World Series or not working the World Series, I don't think a lighter check would factor it. It also would give me the experience of working the series and make it more likely that I would work more in the future.

The point Conlin was making in his book was that they were all doing the same job, and that they had to possibly travel the same distances, and that the only reason the two 'extra' umpires were working just the foul lines was the decision of Baseball, NOT the umpires. They fought them for YEARS trying to get the full rotation of the umpires assigned.