Thread: Balk Questions
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Old Sat Oct 07, 2006, 08:24am
mbyron mbyron is offline
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1. My instruction on the first-to-third play is this: ordinarily, the feint to third takes the pitcher off the rubber (no longer "in contact"). He can then do what he wants: throw to first, feint to first, dance the macarena. Ordinarily, as I say, I would rule that the feint to 3B took F1 off the rubber, and so a balk on this move is rare.

As I readit, the MLBUM quotation above applies to a move that is uninterrupted: starting the feint to 3B and still in contact, the pitcher then throws to 1B without stepping toward 1B. This move is quite rare, and it would be hard to sell a balk on it.

2. A RH pitcher can legally throw to first with the "jump step" or "jab step." I don't follow the OP's original description: don't pitchers in the windup begin by stepping with their FREE foot? Certainly any "one-two" step combo that is slow would not constitute stepping directly toward 1B, and would be a balk.
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mb
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