Quote:
Originally Posted by David Emerling
That makes more sense. I just saw it briefly on TV and I think the announcer said a "balk" had been called. He was probably wrong, though.
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Yes, the announcer was wrong. It was an award for a fielder (F1 off the rubber) throwing the ball out of play.
As far as exchanging baseballs, this has been a practice for a long time. RPatrino hit the nail on the head when he said that anything on the ball can be an advantage to these pitchers. Also, we are used to working with filthy baseballs whereas MLB can afford to keep a nice clean ball in play.