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I'm curious to know which levels use 3-umpire mechanics on a consistent basis. Right now, I am a high school umpire who gets occasional 3-umpire experience through playoff games and camps. I would love to move up to eventually work Division I games, but before I reach that level, I will need to have experience working 3-umpire games (and at least a basic working knowledge of 4-umpire mechanics, since some conferences at the D1 level use 4 umpires for regular season conference games, as well as all D1 postseason games outside of the College World Series). The $64,000 question is where I can get that experience. AFAIK, junior college, like high school, uses 2 umpires for the regular season, with 3 in the playoffs. Do Division III or Division II use 3 umpires in the regular season? If so, I'll ask the local DIII and DII conferences about trying out in the next few years. Is there any non-scholastic baseball (preferably in the Mid-Atlantic region), such as Babe Ruth or American Legion that consistently uses 3 umpires? AFAIK, all of the rec or travel leagues I have serviced use 2 umpires, and I haven't gotten any invites to work as an unpaid 3rd. Of course, if I get hired to call affiliated professional baseball, this will be irrelevant, because I will be exposed to 3-man at the lower levels for postseason assignments, and consistently at the AA level. Is the 3 umpire crew standard in independent professional baseball, or is it a league-by-league thing (ALPB uses 3, but the Can-Am League does not)?

In 3-man, with R2 or R2-R3, U1 goes back to "A" with 2 outs. In the 2017 CCA manual, there are two different mechanics for a clean base hit in these two situations. With just R2, the book (pg 166) shows it as a slide (reverse rotation, push, whatever you call it) where U1 comes inside and takes the batter-runner into 2nd, and U3 has plays at 3rd. But for R2-R3, page 175 shows it as U1 staying at 1st, U3 staying at 2nd to take plays on the BR there, with the caveat that it can be a slide "by conference adoption". Any insight on why the book shows two different mechanics on essentially the same play? And which do you think is the better approach? The slide makes more sense to me, as U1 has a whole bunch of nothing to do if U3 takes the BR into 2nd. Then, if there is a misplay at 2nd on the BR, U3 now has to try and beat the BR to 3rd for any subsequent plays. With the slide, U1 can easily take the play on the BR at 2nd, and U3 is there at 3rd waiting if something blows up. Thoughts?

September 22-24, 2017. Our Kansas City Collegiate Umpires Alliance Leadership is conducting their 2017 Intro to 3-Man Umpire Clinic. Camp POC; Jon Browar, Assigner for MIAA and GLVC, NCAA Division II Conferences and Kansas Jayhawk Junior College Conference. jbrowar16@aol.com, 913-638-5212. I have attended this clinic along with many of my past and current collegiate baseball partners. Members on this board that have attended are ACPAR72, Ironman and I am sure several others. The instructor staff at this clinic are many of the same instructors that work other midwest umpire camps and clinics. All work college baseball and many worked professional baseball. There will be live games to work. In the recent past there have been both collegiate/junior college and high school level games to work. I have personally worked collegiate baseball with at least ten new to college baseball umpires that were assigned games because of their performance at this clinic. Past instructors include; current AAA Umpire Paul Clemons of Topeka, current AA Umpires Tyler Olsen and Grant Conrad. Former AAA and Major League Fill-in Umpire Seth Buckminster, 2017 NCAA Super Regional Umpires Bill McGuire of Omaha and Mark Wagers of Wichita. 2017 NCAA Regional Umpire and former minor league umpire Tim Cordill, Former minor league umpires Mark Hutchison, Carlos Martinez and others on staff in the Big XII, Big 10, Conference USA, Missouri Valley Division I Conferences. Highly recommend you attend if you are interested in learning the 3 man collegiate umpiring system. I am not being paid or otherwise rewarded or remunerated for this endorsement. I know that you will get great instruction, be treated well, meet lifelong colleagues and friends and learn a lot. It WILL make you a better umpire. PDF Flyer attached. 2017 Flyer.pdf

Here is a link to a pdf. of the PBUC 3-man manual. Enjoy! '>