The spirit or letter of the rules?

[greymule]

That same play happened to me not two weeks ago. I called a strike and nobody said a word.

Maybe some posters remember when, in the 1972 World Series, the catcher for the A's, after Johnny Bench had worked a 3-2 count, stood up and put his right hand out as if they had decided to walk Bench. But the pitcher instead threw a regular pitch, the catcher quickly moved left to catch it, and the ump called Bench out. Bench and the Reds screamed, too—the pitch was obviously low.

Once when I was pitching in a Legion game, I threw a strike when the catcher had called for a pitchout. The catcher had to reach back in fast to catch it, the ump called it a strike, and the catcher naturally came out to talk to me. I pretended that I had been crossed up on the signs, but it was really that I wanted to get ahead of that batter.

Well, I was only 15.