[jdmara]

Last night I got a text asking me a NFHS baseball rule and thought I would run it by the board to see how others call this as well.

A pitcher from the stretch would start to bring his hands together and continually pulse his foot until his hands came to a complete stop in the set position. They wanted to know if this was legal.

Under NCAA rules, I would not call this a balk. NCAA requires (9-1-b) that the pitcher shall come to the set position using a continuous hand motion before pitching to the batter.

However, under FED rules, I do call this a balk. The pitcher is not coming to the set position without interruption and in one continuous motion (6-1-3). Additionally, this move is obviously trying to keep the runner off balance in an attempt to simulate the start of a pitch or a throw to a base (2-28-5). I have not seen this for years at the high school level but I'm sure like all things, it's coming downhill from MLB and NCAA.

How does everyone else handle this differently? Any thoughts?

-Josh