Quote:
Originally posted by Matthew F
Lifting your leg up, isn't a step; It's simply just lifting your leg up!
Lifting your leg up AND placing it on the ground is a step. The question becomes, did the leg movement go forward or backward? Forward, it's a balk; backward, it's legally disengaging the rubber.
That's my take.
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Uh-Huh. Until it comes down, it's not
"...an advance or movement made by one removal of the foot ... to advance or receed by raising and moving one foot to another resting place....". After it comes down, it's a step. If it lands behind the rubber, it's a "step backwards" [assuming you started on or in front of the rubber]. Rule doesn't say "step normally", nor even "step like 999 out of 1000 random people would step": merely "step backwards". No interpretation, using common sense or otherwise, required.
And:
Quote:
originally posted by Kalixx
Does raising a knee up high, like to your waist or chest, look like a motion associated with a pitch? It doesn't matter which leg it is, it is still a motion associated with a pitch. [emphasis added]
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...that's just silly. Lifting the PIVOT leg is NEVER "associated with ..." ANY form of pitching motion; and the rule does not ask if what F1 does "looks like" a motion naturally associated with the delivery. Pitchers, esp. LHP are allowed all kinds of motions that "look like" the beginning of a pitching delivery, and aren't.
"Naturally associated with ...", in this case, is not the same thing as "capable of fooling a runner [or umpire] into seeing ...". [Although, I have to admit, "fooling the umpire" results in a lot of called balks, many of which are not balks-by-rule, but that's the risk they take if the move is "too good"]
You are reaallly reaching, K.