[doolok]

My first post...

Last night I was calling a game on the 14 year old field.

Runner on 1st, no outs, I'm standing somewhat behind the pitcher between 1st and 2nd..the pitcher is a RHP.

The pitcher comes set, looks over his shoulder, and then before stepping off the bag, throws the ball towards first. I call an obvious balk...

Apparently I was wrong?

What I've read is that a few things have to happen before the pitcher can make the throw to 1st..
a-he's gotta step off the bag, thus making him a fielder.
b-he has to step towards the base in which he's throwing to.

The coach argued that he can throw it anywhere he wants and it doesn't matter if he's on the bag. I told him that he has to step off the bag first before he does anything..it turned into a big ordeal and the coach was so-very-close to getting ejected by me.

What hacks me off is that it ended up going to some board members from these coaches, who I'm sure didn't get the full story, and those board members informed me and the umpire in chief that he doesn't have to step off the bag?

We use the utripp rules around here, and I've been pretty adamant about studying these rules, but this is just my 2nd year of calling.

I have no problem in admitting I made a mistake, if someone can just tell me what mistake I made? Was I wrong?