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Originally posted by DG
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Originally posted by Rich Fronheiser
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Originally posted by Daryl H. Long
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Originally posted by jicecone
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Originally posted by Daryl H. Long
Back to balks: In announcing the new rule allowing the pitcher to turn shoulders the NFHS Rules committee patted themselves on the back, commending themselves for providing ONE LESS WAY TO BALK. (See cover page of NFHS/RefereeMagazine Baseball Guide 2005)
That my friends still leaves 29 ways to balk in HS. What is wrong with that picture?
You don't see a problem with 29 ways to balk????
Quickly now...name them.
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Actually Daryl, I beleive there is 33 now, that I have counted for HS. One being applied for players not being in fair territory at the time of the pitch.
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I really did not count them up. I relied on information supplied to my state rule interpreter from the NF Rules committee that there remained 29 ways to balk. If 33 is correct it only goes to prove two things:
1. NF rules committe just as wrong about number of remaining ways to balk as they are about their interpretations of what constitutes a balk.
2. You proved my point that the complexity of just the balk rule is way too high for the skill level. Why should there be less ways to balk at the highest level of play (professional) than there is for lesser skilled high school players? I doesn't make sense to me.
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I'm still balk-free after 10 games. Only 3 were HS games, but still.....
There are balks I COULD call on a regular basis, I'm sure. But there's gotta be some common sense in the application of all this. I mean, in my HS game tonight, it was 14-0 after 1 inning. When the pitcher stepped back in the windup position and made a motion associated with a pitch I could've balked it. Since I'm not the kind of guy who likes to pick the wings off of butterflies I simply had a conversation with the first base coach the next inning.
I like Wisconsin -- we get the balks we should get and leave the really picky ones to other states.
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You did not say if the pitcher who balked was on the winning or losing team, but in either case it probably did no matter to either coach. If the winning run was on 3rd in a late inning what would you have done? Would this be a balk you should get, in Wisconsin?
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Of COURSE it matters, unless the coach is a rat. Anyone who is up 14-0 and argues for a picky balk is a rat, BTW.
Look, there are balks we all have to get -- the "doesn't come set" or the "starts and stops" balks come to mind. But many umpires seem to have an eagle eye on the pitcher just LOOKING to NAIL him with a balk call, and that isn't the right way to umpire, either.
If you're calling balks that don't need to be called with a team down 20 runs, well, you probably shouldn't.