Quote:
Originally Posted by kheisner
Yes, this is a balk. Pivot foot must be the foot touching the rubber. For a right-handed pitcher the pivot foot is the right foot!!
This is a trick I used to have my pitchers pull when the opposing team had a fast runner with a big lead-off at 2nd base. We picked off a few. Our right-handed pitcher would face 1st base and go to the set-position with his left-foot on the rubber, then he would throw straight back to second base. Umpires or the opposing team never noticed the deception. I'd call the play from the dugout, code word was "Convertible". It worked great and I never had a balk called. I had opposing pitchers after the game ask for me to teach them that great move. (I never did) One umpire at a tourney who umped 3 of our games finally noticed the deception, but he didn't know if it was a balk or not.
Just recently when taking my state high school umpire's test did I learn it was a balk!!
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1st: You are an idiot. I hope you will not umpire with the same attitude and ignorance you coached.
2d: Your umpires were clueless: congratulations.
3d: The reason what your pitcher did was a balk had nothing to do with this thread. He simulated a pitching motion [coming "set"] while not legally in contact with the rubber. Where his non-pivot foot was, or which foot was in [incidental] contact with the rubber really does not matter very much.
4th: the act described in the OP [RHP, straddling the rubber, facing (roughly) 3d base, "free" foot in the crater infront of the rubber (and incidentally touching the front edge), hands at his side] IS NOT a balk because it violates none of the pitching regs which define what a balk is.