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In another thread I posted a situation that happened to me. At the time I had a different reason for posting the scenario, but now I want to examine it more thoroughly.
Here's the situation:
"The pitcher was in the stretch position. He received his signs. The third base coach was yelling at his batter, "Jason, step out and get your signs. Jason! Step out!"
Well, Jason stepped out with one foot and begun taking his signs. The pitcher did not disengage from the rubber. Instead, he stood up and relaxed. He reached in his glove with his pitching hand to toy with the ball, and then reached up to adjust his glasses. Yep, this pitcher's hands came together and then parted.
"Balk!" called the lone voice from my partner. I left my mask on hoping that no one could see my face."
The above situation received the following response from Dave Hensley:
"I think there is black letter law to govern this situation, it's 6.02(b) CMT, which says:
> If after the pitcher starts his windup or comes to a "set position"
> with a runner on, he does not go through with his pitch because the
> batter has stepped out of the box, it shall not be called a balk. Both
> the pitcher and batter have violated a rule and the umpire shall call
> time and both the batter and pitcher start over from "scratch."
You had all the ingredients - pitcher has come set, batter steps out, pitcher does not go through with pitch because the batter stepped out - call time and do it over. No balk call.
So, your partner wasn't "technically right" and just making a rules-nazi type call, as you suggest. He was, in fact, technically and substantively wrong.
I don't think I could disagree more with Mr. Hensley's assessment of the situation. OBR 6.02(b) does not apply to my situation whatsoever.
To begin with, the pitcher in my scenario never took the, "set position." He remained in the stretch.
My pitcher never began his motion to pitch, and therefore could not fail, "to go through with his pitch."
The illegal act of stepping out by the batter was not the cause of the pitcher's balk.
To believe Mr. Hensley's ruling in this situation would require us to believe that any balk committed after a batter has stepped out of the box should be ignored.
It seems to me that in order for a do over to be called for under 6.02(b) the pitcher must have either begun his motion to deliver, or at least been in the set position. And then the batter's illegal act of stepping out must have caused the pitcher to fail to complete his delivery to the plate.
So the question remains: Can a pitcher balk after the batter has stepped out of the box?
The answer: Yes!
Some may argue that the plate umpire should call, "Time," when the batter steps out of the box. That would prevent any possible balk from being called after the batter has stepped out. I'm not sure I agree. It's a great idea to call time when a pitcher is completely unaware that a batter has stepped out, but in my situation, the pitcher knew exactly what the batter did, and it was obvious.
I argue that the batter in my scenario did not even step out illegally. The pitcher had not come to the set position or started his wind-up. Since the pitcher was in the stretch, this afforded the batter a reasonable delay in the game action, and stepping out was legal.
In conclusion, it is sometimes simply the right thing to do under some circumstances to ignore an infraction based on what's happening in the game at the time. In the above situation, even though time was not called, even though the batter stepped out, even though 6.02(b) does not apply, it is the right call to ignore the very technical violation by the pitcher. Everyone understood what was happening, game action was relaxed, the pitcher made no attempt to pick-off runners, and runners made no attempt to advance.
So, what do you think?
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Jim Porter
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