Quote:
Originally Posted by mbyron
So I called my first balk of the year the other day. Visitor was getting shellacked, probably 10-0 at that point (4th inning, so no mercy yet). Their 3rd underskilled pitcher of the day came in, and I could tell from his warm-up pitches that he was going to balk for not stopping.
Sure enough, his first batter, R2 and R3, and he blows right through the stop. "Time! That's a balk! No stop! You, score, ..." etc. Sheesh, I hate to call it at 10-0 when we're just trying to get the game over, but this is varsity baseball and the kid wasn't anywhere near to stopping.
After a couple more pitches, he had another borderline balk for not stopping. I called time and sent F2 out to make sure he stopped.
Ordinarily I wouldn't have done that, which I regard as coaching. But it was a game management choice. Comments?
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I frequently do that -- and if I see it during the warmups, I send F2 out before we resume.
It's not coaching, and it's not "warning." It's preventive umpireing. (Warning would be when you send F2 out to say "if you do that again the umpire will call the balk.")