# Another baseball question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-baseball-question/171748>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 28, 2003, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-baseball-question/171748 "2003-04-28T19:19:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sqwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3e96dc/32.png) [@Sqwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sqwill)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2003, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-baseball-question/171748/1 "2003-04-28T19:19:48Z")

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Why do the umpires in MLB wear shirts with numbers on (it’s not like there are so many of them it’s hard to keep track!) and why aren’t they just numbered up to the number of officials on the field? Do the umpires keep their numbers when they travel between stadiums or get a new one every time?

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**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2003, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-baseball-question/171748/2 "2003-04-28T19:22:46Z")

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Umpires numbers are assigned to them by the league. Some of them have even had their numbers retired.

Why do they have numbers? I suppose to make them easier to identify (the same reason they were assigned to players to begin with).

Zev Steinhardt

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**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2003, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-baseball-question/171748/3 "2003-04-28T19:47:27Z")

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Here is the roster:

[http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/official\_info/mlb\_umpires\_roster.jsp](http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/official_info/mlb_umpires_roster.jsp)