- May 29, 2015
- 3,818
- 113
First thing with baseball, like softball, is you must know what code you are using. Unfortunately, unlike softball, baseball is not as beholden to being "brand specific" and people want to pick and choose (or, more likely, don't know there are different rule sets) rather than just use a rule set.
In OBR (Major League Baseball's rule set; also the basis for Little League and, I believe, Cal Ripken) a balk/illegal pitch is not called until playing action is over. (Think "delayed dead ball" in softball, but if you use that term baseball guys will get their knickers in a twist.)
In NFHS and NCAA a balk/illegal pitch is an immediate dead ball.
A balk can only occur when there are runners on base (penalty is advance the runners one base). If there are no runners on base, the illegal action results in an illegal pitch (penalty is a ball). An illegal action should result in one of these penalties.
If I'm calling some low-level game and the kids are still learning to pitch, you may get quite a few warnings from me. High school and above ... we're balking. It surprises me they would not enforce something if that was a "World Series" tournament.
I agree that baseball feels rather loosey-goosey when it comes to pitching infractions. Strictly my opinion here ... but I believe that comes from two things: (1) MLB's orders/desires for umpires to allow all kinds of monkey play that is then seen on TV and imitated by kids; and (2) the current culture pendulum has swung to the "letter of the law" crowd who allow more of the arsing around because it is not specifically spelled out in the rule book.
In OBR (Major League Baseball's rule set; also the basis for Little League and, I believe, Cal Ripken) a balk/illegal pitch is not called until playing action is over. (Think "delayed dead ball" in softball, but if you use that term baseball guys will get their knickers in a twist.)
In NFHS and NCAA a balk/illegal pitch is an immediate dead ball.
A balk can only occur when there are runners on base (penalty is advance the runners one base). If there are no runners on base, the illegal action results in an illegal pitch (penalty is a ball). An illegal action should result in one of these penalties.
If I'm calling some low-level game and the kids are still learning to pitch, you may get quite a few warnings from me. High school and above ... we're balking. It surprises me they would not enforce something if that was a "World Series" tournament.
I agree that baseball feels rather loosey-goosey when it comes to pitching infractions. Strictly my opinion here ... but I believe that comes from two things: (1) MLB's orders/desires for umpires to allow all kinds of monkey play that is then seen on TV and imitated by kids; and (2) the current culture pendulum has swung to the "letter of the law" crowd who allow more of the arsing around because it is not specifically spelled out in the rule book.