Regarding rolling the glove when the pitcher is unsure of the sign, I can think of a good umpire reason that you might want to ignore this balk. If the pitcher makes a pitch that the catcher is not prepared to catch, who pays the price?
You the umpire, that's who. We're the one that gets nailed with a fast ball when the catcher thought a curve was coming. As far as I'm concerned, anything that the pitcher and catcher have to do to get on the same sheet of music is in my best interest so I'm not going to penalize them. A mild warning will do, because if I call a balk, the pitcher might guess on the signal the next time he's not sure.
|