First Time Working With a 3-Man Crew

[moblue]

Last night I had the opportunity to work a Cal Ripken 11/12 y/o game with a 3-man crew. My game had been cancelled without prior notice, so I spoke with the town's commissioner and offered to volunteer as an extra umpire for the game. After all, I just wanted to call a ballgame. Both coaches agreed to it and so I became U3 (That's the guy down the 3rd base line correct?).

Is it just me, or is there not near as much to watch in a 3-man crew? I did appreciate the better angles on stealing. It also seemed like there was less moving around when the ball was hit, especially if I was already at 3rd.

A very interesting side note about this game: the other base umpire was a player whom I have called games for since he was very young. At 16, this is his first year of umpiring and he is doing a very good job at it. I had the priveledge to work with him earlier this year in a softball game, but it seemed like we had to work together more in 3-man mechanics.

[therefump]

Is it just me, or is there not near as much to watch in a 3-man crew? I did appreciate the better angles on stealing. It also seemed like there was less moving around when the ball was hit, especially if I was already at 3rd.

.

Last year I got to work at an "all star game" with a 4 man crew. First time since 2000. It's weird but you feel like you should be doing more than you are. PU and U1 are busy but myself and U3 are quietly not doing much. :yippie:

[mstaylor]

If you work three man and four man properly there still many rotations. This is because you use the extra umpire to cover the outfield better.

Three man, nobody on. Both umpires are on the wings. Ball hit to left field to center field, U3 goes out on the catch, U1 comes in and the coverage reverts to 2 man. Same thing on the other side.

No runners, straight single U3 comes in, U1 watches the touch at first, the rotates home. PU rotates to third for the play there.

Four man, No runners:

U1,U3 on the wings, U2 in the outfield. Fly ball to center, U2 goes out on the catch. U3 rotates to second, U1 watches the touch at first, then rotates home. PU rotates to third.

Same sitch but ball hit to right field. U1 goes out, U2 comes in to second. U3 rotates home, PU rotates to first for the touch. If it is a triple U2 carries him to third.

[therefump]

If you work three man and four man properly there still many rotations. This is because you use the extra umpire to cover the outfield better.

Three man, nobody on. Both umpires are on the wings. Ball hit to left field to center field, U3 goes out on the catch, U1 comes in and the coverage reverts to 2 man. Same thing on the other side.

No runners, straight single U3 comes in, U1 watches the touch at first, the rotates home. PU rotates to third for the play there.

Four man, No runners:

U1,U3 on the wings, U2 in the outfield. Fly ball to center, U2 goes out on the catch. U3 rotates to second, U1 watches the touch at first, then rotates home. PU rotates to third.

Same sitch but ball hit to right field. U1 goes out, U2 comes in to second. U3 rotates home, PU rotates to first for the touch. If it is a triple U2 carries him to third.

Yes, you're absolutely right. Back in 2000 we met a day before the regionals started and actually got on a 60 foot field and went over all the potential rotation plays, etc.

I was commenting on the feeling you get when you haven't done a 3 or 4 man game in almost 9 years.

As usual Michael, your summary was excellent. That will go in my notebook.:P

[willv28]

Yeah, right now when All-Star starts we'll be working with a 4-man crew. We'll actually have 5 on the crew but we're going to cycle everyone a day off for "rest". It is nice working in that. Like ms said, you still have to rotate and take responsibility. But once you know how it makes it a lot easier and fewer mistakes are made. We do have a guy that is in at least 80 still umpiring. I'm glad he still likes to do it. But he can't do the plate anymore and will be U3 only and can't go out or do any of the rotations or anything, so I'm going to have to try to treat it like it's 3 man anyway only knowing he will always be there at 3rd.

[1dumbquestion]

not sure how the "quote" part works, but responding to MS's post... I am new to LL and will be calling some a/s games over the next few weeks. have only done 2 man. last night I read my 60' 3 man mechanics book I got from the LL store. You were saying that with no runners and a base hit that the pu rotates to 3rd and U1 rotates home. is this for 60' or 90'? I will be reading more when I get home tonight but I didn't see any times when U1 covered a play at the plate. thanks, 1

[mstaylor]

To be honest with you I'm not sure about LL 3 man. It might be different for two reasons. One they have a tendency to keep the rotations as simple as possible. Second, the PU has all outfield coverages in the basic set so he may just stay home. In 90ft it is as I said.

[RWPatten]

I worked a 3 man crew this year for the 1st time as well. It was kind of strange.

[Umpire in Chief]

3 man takes some time to get use to but it starts to make sense after an inning or two.

[afaber12]

I was U3 in my first 3-man yesterday. After the game, it felt like the most work I did was moving from D to deep-B to C to deep-C and back again. I'm pretty sure the other two guys I worked with had more experience with it than me (definitely U1 did anyway), and both of them, and the two working the adjacent diamond, kept telling me I'd be doing all the work.

 

From Tuesday night when I found out I'd be doing it I spent a lot of time going over the ABF (Australian Baseball Federation) 3-man mechanics document, being very nervous about doing 3-man for the first time, and doing it in a 1st grade grand final. About the eleventy-squillionth time through, I realised that if I got the positioning right - deep B for R1, deep C for R1-R3 and R2-R3, and D for no runners and R3, the rest as per 2-man BU - then the rest was mostly common sense, particularly coming from 2-man.

 

I had to stop myself from making actually calling an out at 1B on a 6-4-3 double play in the top of the 1st, but we covered everything and didn't have an issue all game. (All three of us even agreed who got the MVP - the association has the umpires in a championship game decide on the game's MVP.) Maybe its more from having a good quality game with good quality umpires that's making this rookie feel pretty darn good, but it feels like the hard part about doing a 4-man or a 6-man standing on my head would be that I've never attempted to stand on my head.

[mstaylor]

U3 is known as the rabbit. Unless he is going out, on any hit he should be moving in toward C. Even if it is a routine ground out, things can blowup at first so it's important U3 is already in route to cover a possible play at second. Most of the time you will just peel off and return to third, or gear down and go to deep B.

[catsbackr]

3-man is an absolute thing of beauty when worked correctly.

In our local HS association, we work 3-man when our District tournaments start through the State tournament. If selected for the State, you could work 10-12 3-man games.