|
PS2Man,
Thanks for posting the (partial) text of the FED rule you were basing your ruling on:
""Failing to pitch to the batter in a continuous motion immediately after any movement of any part of the body such as he habitually uses in his delivery."---Rule 6-2-4d"
Seeing the actual wording of the rule, I am still compelled to agree with cb in all respects concerning his comments regarding the legality of the delivery.
What the rule says is that if a pitcher (who has come legally "set") makes any movement which indicates (to the umpire) that he has initiated his "delivery" he must complete his delivery without stopping (i.e. "in a continuous motion").
It says nothing about him being required to complete his delivery in the same/similar way he did a previous time.
What makes this really confusing (to me, anyway) is that he's not even required to "pitch to the batter" following such an "habitual movement", despite what the wording obviously says. I say this because he may (as an alternative to delivering a pitch) make a pick-off throw or feint after making a movement with which he "habitually" initiates his delivery of a pitch to the batter (as long as he does so legally).
To summarize:
There is no requirement that the pitcher pitch to the batter or make a pick-off move the same way every time.
Doing something illegal in the delivery (e.g. coming to a complete stop after initiating a delivery) the same way every time does not legalize it.
As described, the only possible balk in officailtony's initial description is if the pitcher failed to meet the "continuous motion" requirement (in the umpire's judgement).
JM
[Edited by CoachJM on Apr 10th, 2005 at 11:01 PM]
|