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Originally Posted by JJ
When I first started umping, many seasons ago, the question of taking the sign off the rubber came up. One grizzled vet said "Don't worry about it". A catcher said "I'm not giving him signs - he only throws one pitch". And what if the "signs" are not standard signs (fingers) - what if they are touches of other body parts? If I can't figure out which signs are legitimate, I can't penalize the pitcher for taking signs off the rubber. Of course, if it's obvious, I'll tell him "Hey, take the sign on the rubber". But I'm an umpire, and not a very smart one at that (according to some coaches), so IMHO it's much ado about nothing....that mountain out of a mole hill thing.
JJ
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I DO enforce this ("Hey five, take signs on the rubber!") because it conceivably confuses runners, espcecially R1. He wants to take his lead, and sees F1 leaning over to get signs. On the slab or off?
In the CS&FP rule book, runners need to know when they can semi-safely take a lead.
Ace