Never, ever have called a balk & think that the rule is a joke!!!
i have played and umpired high school ball for the last 8 years and have never seen this rule been enforced (i.e.-as soon as the pitcher engages the pitchers plate and looks over to first set or not is a balk)!!! i, myself, have never enforced it and never will... the reason, a)it takes away the fact that the pitcher while not set could look to see where the runner is and gives the offense a higher advantage of putting runners in scoring position. making the game a little unfair and brings out the worse in coaches!!! i think that the NFHS SHOULD STOP TRYING TO BE DIFFERENT THAN ALL THE REST OF THE LEAGUES AND START TRYING TO BE SIMILAR! less problems & headaches would occur with both sides; coaches & umpires. plus, i believe more umpires would join and want to ump at the high school level!!!
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