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Originally Posted by AtlUmpSteve
Now come the armbands; and even more than when taking catcher's signals from behind, pitchers looked at the armbands, stepped on and their arms were even already in motion toward "together" before both feet had even stopped. It became repeated points of emphasis to call illegal pitches if the pitcher didn't come to a complete pause with hands separated after stepping on and fully engaged "to take or simulate taking a signal".
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Is part of the problem that pitchers are keeping momentum from taking one or more steps onto the plate, like cricket bowlers getting a running start? Or is it just a psychologic problem of what batters see and/or are deceived by?
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But, across the country, UMPIRES DID NOT ENFORCE THAT. Not even on ESPN big series, not in postseason, not even in the WCWS. By the big names, no one wanted to be "THAT" umpire, when no one else had been calling it, all season.
NCAA tried to reinforce the full stop and pause; they made the rule a TWO SECOND pause, so no one could consider anything that wasn't absolutely a clear and obvious stop to be adequate. But umpires still never embraced it, there was essentially zero change as pitchers continued to walk right thru, and umpires still did not call it, even when clear.
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Same in football, where early in the 20th Century a requirement of a "complete stop" was put in, then after a few years changed to a 1-second stop, and now many years later some teams get away with not only not pausing for a full second (which was never enforced exactly, only to the spirit of not retaining momentum), but keeping their body momentum as they put the ball into play after shifting position, even though their feet are in place.
Come to think of it, there's even more these ball games have in common. At one time in football they tried to limit delaying tactics by putting a 15 second limit on the time the team with the ball could spend in a huddle prior to putting it in play. Then they saw that wasn't so effective when there was still no limit to the time they took after breaking the huddle before putting the ball into play, and they imposed a 30 second overall limit, on top of the 15 seconds in the huddle. Eventually they said, why do we care how much of the time they use up huddling when it's only the total time that affects the game, and they abolished that 15 second limit, so they could spend their 30 seconds communicating any way they wanted to.