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Old Sun Apr 11, 2004, 08:29pm
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Join Date: Sep 2003
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I was watching the Boston v. Toronto game today and saw a ball called against the Toronto pitcher for licking his fingers within the 9ft radius of the pitching mound. A ball was immediately awarded to the opposing Boston batter. This is consistent with OBR 8.02a

However, I then went to check my FED rulebook for its ruling on the play. While I knew that if the hand was distinctly wiped off prior to stepping on the rubber or touching the ball it was legal, I wasn't sure what the penalty was for NOT distinctly wiping it off.

FED rule 6-2-1: Illegal acts include: e. bringing the pitching hand in contact with the mouth without distinctly wiping off the pitching hand before it touches the ball
PENALTY: For defacing the ball (a-e), the ball is dead immediately. The umpire may eject the pitcher. If such defaced ball is pitched and then detected, it is an illegal pitch.

FED Casebook 6.2.1 Situation A references that it IS legal if F1 wipes his hand. Situation B states that if F1 is wearing a bandage of some sort on his hand that it must be removed prior to the pitch without penalty.

My question is, if F1 licks his fingers, and does NOT distinctly wipe his hand, and there are a) no runners on b) runners on, what is the penalty? Is it just telling F1 to wipe his hand? I don't think I can award a ball to the batter without runners or balk the pitcher with runners if he doesn't pitch the ball, because according to 6-2-1 it is not an illegal pitch until the defaced ball is pitched, and if I'm calling it on the lick, I'm calling it before the pitch. The rule states that the umpire MAY eject the offender, but I know I would not eject on the first occurence of such a subcionscious act. If the action was repeated it would have to be dealt with accordingly, but for a first occurence, what's appropriate?
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