It's a balk because the throw to first is not a "direct" step and throw from the rubber - there was a detour from direct when the feint to 3B was made.
Emerling is out to lunch on claiming the impossibility or the now dialed back "bizarreness" of a 3rd to 1st move made without breaking contact. It's common enough that the FED saw fit to explicitly allow the move, even though FED rules also require a direct step to a base being feinted/thrown to.
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