Bfair,
My only intentions in posting this question in this forum were to:
1. Try to convince the other coach that he was not properly instructing his pitcher in regards to what is and is not a balk.
2. Instruct the umpires on the same subject.
I didn't mention this before, but the umpires at the game were "youth" umpires. I may be off by a year or so, but I believe one of the umpires is a HS Senior & the other a HS Junior. In my opinion, the PU is a very good umpire and the BU is OK, but needs some work and is not as good as he should be.
I was very surprised that neither recognized the pitcher's complete stop in the middle of his delivery as a balk. In my mind, it was an "elephant balk". I will be contacting their Supervisor, who I know quite well and have a very high opinion of, regarding their understanding of balks.
This particular league is an "open" league - anyone who signs up is put on some team. Some of the players are quite good for their age, some appear to have never played baseball before in their young lives. This can make for some "interesting" baseball to say the least. I coach in this league because I think it is better for these adolescents to be playing baseball (or at least trying to play baseball) instead of playing video games and watching TV. Besides, I really like baseball.
When I coach in this league, I "dial it back" quite a bit. I had no interest in protesting the umpires' incorrect ruling on this matter, and I am quite confident that it had no material impact on the outcome of the game - which my team lost, by the way.
I think it is a good thing that we have a youth umpire program and some of the "blown calls" and lack of rule understanding comes with the package. It's frustrating at times, but I have come to hold the position that it is OK for the umpires as well as the players to have an "instructional league" where they can develop their skills.
The only reason I bothered to call it to the umpires' attention during the game was that I thought the pitcher might be illegally "setting up" my runners for an illegal pick-off move. He was, as you cogently observed, restricting their lead-off.
Thanks for responding to my question.
JM
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