[Carl Childress]

Originally posted by ozzy6900
Well, I spoke to our rules interperter in front of the membership about two things: The windup and the gorilla arm. The following is the results of that discussion (text in italics are the answers our rules interperter).

FED RULES

The Windup

Pitcher steps onto the rubber in the windup position with his hands at his sides. He then joins them in front of him and pauses.

The pitcher is now committed to the pitch. This is not a balk as long as the pitcher pitches. If he does anything else, that would be a balk.

The Gorilla Arm

Pitcher in the stretch swinging his pitching arm like a gorilla.

What rule is the pitcher breaking here? As long as the pitcher is hanging his arm at full extention and the ball is in the glove, there is no reason to consider this to be a balkable offense. If, however, he has the ball in his glove and the glove is tucked a his chest and the free arm is bent toward the chest close to the glove, that would be a deception to the runner. There is nothing that I can see that would cause me to call a balk on a pitcher with a "gorilla arm".

The membership was in full agreement and that is how we will be handling these two situations in Southern Connecticut.

Well, this makes my job easier. I have emailed your message to Elliot Hopkins at the National Federation. I'm sure he will be happy to investigate.