[greymule]

Once again, I am in the midst of the annual debate over a situation that never seems to get resolved. I have knowledgeable local ASA officials telling me that a SP pitcher commits an illegal pitch if he uses a motion intended to "deceive" the batter, even if the pitch is otherwise legal.

The particular pitch in question is the one in which the pitcher takes his pause with the ball in front of his hip and then makes a full revolution of the arm before delivering the ball. (This way he still delivers the ball on the first pass of the hip.) They argue that if a pitcher has used a conventional motion throughout the game, he commits an illegal pitch if in, say, the sixth inning, he suddenly adopts a different motion with the intent to deceive the batter. In other words, it's a legal motion if the pitcher uses it consistently, but an illegal motion if he uses it as a tool of deception.

I have argued that the book does not support such a ruling, and that therefore a pitcher can deliver pitches with 17 different motions as long as each motion is legal. They admit that there's nothing in black and white, but claim that "interpretation" has laid some sort of foundation for this.

Anybody know something I don't on this subject?