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Why is it alright for a righthander to fake to third, but not for a left hander to fake to first.
gsf23: The "handedness" of the pitcher has nothing to do with it. Neither a RH or LH pitcher may feint to first from the rubber and they may both feint to third from the rubber.
Originally the pitching rules allowed feints to all bases. In the late 1800's that was changed and feints to all of the bases was made illegal. Soon after the rule was changed again to what we have today. A pitcher may now feint to any base except first base from the rubber.
The obvious purpose of not allowing a feint to first is to allow the runner to get a good lead. Remember, for the most part the balk rule is designed to encourage offense.
However, from what I have read, even the rulebook slant to offense has its limits and the rulesmakers decided that it was primarily important to provide for this at first base only.
My guess would be that they may have concluded that the mechanics of a throw to second alone allows for a decent lead there and that once the runner reaches third, he's been helped enough by the rules.
[Edited by GarthB on Apr 7th, 2003 at 01:38 PM]
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