Quote:
Originally posted by fwump
Our organization held its annual field clinic today. Clinicians were Minor League guys, one from Texas League and one from AAA PCL.
We were rotating in and out of a scrimmage game between a couple of 14U local teams. During my turn as PU with R3 I balked the pitcher for not coming to a stop. At the conclusion of the inning during my evaluation the PCL ump told me he probably would'nt have called that balk. His point: Is R3 going anywhere? Probably not. Was there any real attempt to deceive? Also probably not. He went on say in essence, that balking a pitcher with R3 should be treated differently than in other situations.
I was wondering what you guys think. Do you consider things like age of players or the inning or the score before you call the balk in this sitch or does it or should it matter?
Mike
|
A balk is a balk no matter what the score is, the inning, the age of the players or the location of the baserunners (if you're playing with rules that have balks)....BUT.
I do not work many games below HS level but when I do and I see a balk I'll go over to F1 check the ball, kick the dirt off the rubber and quietly tell him what he did wrong and if he does it again I'm going to call the balk. If I'm working the dish I'll talk to F2 and have him relay the message. I hate to call balks on young F1's but they need to learn. I also hate to see a balk allow the winning run to score but rules are rules.