balk

[bigwes68]

Had one of these happen in a Babe Ruth (OBR) district tournament last year. I wasn't umpiring the game, but I was the official scorer and ended up umpiring the championship game between the same two teams later in the week.

Tie game, R3, 2 out, bottom 7th. Defensive coach calls time, goes to the mound, calls in the infield. Pitcher gives the ball to the third baseman, everyone returns to their positions. F1 then straddles the rubber without the ball and with the ball still dead. F5 tags R3, game is apparently headed to extra innings. Umpires confer and award R3 home on a balk. After the game when the umpires got back upstairs, I contended that there should have been no balk called because 1) the ball was not live, 2) for the ball to become live the pitcher had to step on the rubber WITH the ball, and 3) there cannot be a balk on a dead ball. They disagreed.

What do y'all think?