Quote:
Originally posted by Dave Hensley
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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Amen Dave. An official just calling that to call it is "picking for boogers". Tell F3 to make sure he stands with both feet in fair territory as a preventive before the other team complains. If they already have then worry about calling it. I have called hundreds of games tho and have heard 1 person complain/comment about it. I'm sure there are other that have called even more and can probably count on 1 hand how many times it is complained about.
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Jim
Need an out, get an out. Need a run, balk it in.
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