Answer to second one-question test

[Carl Childress]

Gentlemen:

The move you describes is the Luis Tiant move. It was all the rage among amateur pitchers during the 70s. and early 80s.

Luis had two balk moves:

(1) Herky, jerky, move to the stop. It was hardly one "continuous" motion. A National League umpire called a balk in the 1976 World Series. (Luis won 2/3rds of the games Boston won.) After that, nobody ever balked Luis again for that move. Did the Commish say something?

(2) Swivel "to second" and then deliver. That would be a balk IF he ever used that exact move and continued to second. Reason: He always used that and then pitched, so it became a part of his "natural" motion. In fact, it was many years before runners at second steeled themselves to hold their ground when Big Lou "turned" to their base. Note: This would NOT be a balk to second; it would be a balk because he began his pitching motion and didn't complete the pitch.

When Luis did it, it was intimnidating.
Nowadays, runners simply say, "Ho, hum."