[AtlUmpSteve]

Let me try to answer the reason for the rule.

When I started as an umpire in the early 70's, almost every men's fastpitch catcher in the leagues I called threw the ball to someone other than the pitcher. Every pitch. Ball or strike, or foul, the catcher threw to the third baseman, or the first baseman, or even the shortstop. That player then walked part way to the circle, made some comment to the pitcher, then flipped him the ball. I asked them why; they said it "kept them in the game". Every pitch, every time. Not making a play, just tossing the ball around.

It also kept all of us in the game, a lot longer than we needed to be; it wasted an awful lot of time. When I started calling ASA in the mid-80's, I was happy to see that this was penalized. Don't know when, but I would bet the rule was put in place to keep the game moving, and end that useless practice (like NFHS stopping on-field huddles).

The offense attempting to twist the rule and take off on ball 3 or dropped strike 2 is a more recent issue, so far as I know. It hasn't reached the epidemic point to cause the rules to penalize it; and the solution for the defense is actually quite simple. They just need to pay attention, know the count, and only react when necessary. The best defense is to throw out the advancing lead runner; they get the out and the batter back in the box!!

Is that 'cuz?