Thread: Fielder Balk??
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Old Sat May 28, 2005, 08:27pm
Dave Hensley Dave Hensley is offline
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In the NCAA rule quoted above, the penalty applies only to section (a) of the rule, which deals with a catcher leaving the catcher's box during an intentional walk. The person who cited the NCAA rule in support of the mythical "fielder's balk" is not correctly parsing the paragraph breaks in the rule, just like everyone else who gets this rule wrong.

The OBR version of the rule, 4.03, is similarly misunderstood by many, but the balk penalty only applies to the catcher leaving the box before the pitcher pitches when giving an intentional walk.

As you noted, in FED, one foot in and one foot out is considered "in" fair territory. In OBR, one foot out is "out" of fair territory; however, professional instruction is that this infraction should be ignored unless and until the opposing team complains, and then it should be enforced strictly for both teams.
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