[rwest]

Are these scenarios legal? Assuming all other preliminaries are met.

A) Hands apart; ball in hand. In one continuous motion, the pitcher brings her hands together above her head. She then, without pausing, separates her hands and delivers the ball. The hands are coming together at the top of her delivery. There is no pause after they come together. Legal or illegal?

I ruled this illegal. It was in a development league where warnings are given for the first offense. We don't enforce the illegal pitch rule at this time. For the next offense of the same type we would.

B) Same scenario, but this time at the top of her delivery when her hands come togther, there is a distinct pause of at least 1 second.

I ruled this legal.

These scenarios occured in the same game, but different pitchers (one from each team). No one argued, just wanted to know if I got it right.

Couple more questions. Does the pivot foot have to remain in contact with the plate during delivery or can they slide it along the ground? Also the rule book says that the pitcher must take a step toward the batter simultaneous with the release, however, I don't believe this is how it is called. The step is simultaneous with the delivery. I've never seen a pitcher step simultaneous with the release of the ball. They are always stepping with the forward movement of the arm. Am I being too technical with the wording?

[Edited by rwest on Apr 29th, 2005 at 10:02 AM]