Answer to second one-question test

[Carl Childress]

Originally posted by Hayes Davis

Gee Childress....sure seems to me what I posted is EXACTLY what you were postulating at first and then made a hasty retreat from. Couple that with the fact that you NEVER addressed FED Play 6.2.4(d) and it's [sic] relationship to the shoulder feint not including any arm motion, as you DON'T have a recourse.[Edited by Hayes Davis on Dec 28th, 2000 at 02:00 AM]

FED 6.2.4d does not refer to motion by a pitcher but by an infielder (a pitcher who has stepped off the rubber). Did you mean 6.2.4c?

I think it's bad business to quote 6.2.4c because it's the very point I'm making. Listen carefully to the points of the play:

1. Third is occupied.

2. The pitcher "then feints toward third with a movement of the shoulder...."

That language does not say he feints a throw.

He could simply twist (wig-wag) his shoulder, or drop it. That kind of movement has always been a balk at every level: Nothing new there. I'm not talking about shoulder feints but "faked throws."

3. Now comes the faked throw that I'm referring to.

4. "[F1] removes one hand from the ball and makes an arm motion toward third but does not step toward third." That is a balk.

5. Continuing with legal moves: "He might, while on the plate, step toward occupied third and feint a throw [my emphasis] there...."

6. One then wants to know what "feint a throw" means. That's at 2-28-5: "A feint is a movement which simulates the start of a pitch or a throw to a base."

What could be any clearer? What could be any easier?

Briefly:

(1) A shoulder or arm feint without a step is a balk. FED 6.2.4c makes that clear.

(2) The case book play speaks of two separate illegal moves. F1: (a) feints with "movement of the shoulder" OR "makes an arm motion" without a step.

(2) For years, umpires argued that an OBR pitcher did not have to step when he feinted a move to a base. The PBUC ruling clarified that: The pitcher must step, whether on a throw or a feint. That means FED and OBR are now the same.

That is the point I have been trying to make.