Balk or not?

[Rich]

Originally posted by Daryl H. Long

But, In your first post you said, "In FED this movement is interpreted as the start of the pitch -- it would be a ball or a balk, depending on if there are runners."

You can't have it both ways. Movement is movement. What other movements do you allow and not call the balk. If I do not know which movements YOU will allow/prohibit how can I know which movements the NF will allow/Prohibit. That is my whole point in all these discussions.

BTW: I surmise you would not balk the glove movement for the same reason David B says, ie. there is movement everyone knows is not associated with the pitch. And from both your posts it sounds like a lot of umpires share this same philosophy just like I do.

But, while I disagree with NF interpretaion on this because they have either faulty logic or no rule support for thier case I am bound to call it like they want me to. In the meantime I will continue to try to change their mind.

[Edited by Daryl H. Long on Apr 14th, 2005 at 07:50 PM]

Well, I guess this just makes you a better umpire than me. I'm assuming that you require your base coaches to stay in their coaching boxes, too.

[DG]

Originally posted by whatgameyouwatchinblue
This would be the same as F1 moving his glove to give the signals again. I'm not interpreting that as a movement to pitch


Fed says this is a balk and you dont call it?

OOO

[Daryl H. Long]

Rich,

No, I do not believe I am a better umpire than you. On the contrary, I am envious of you and David B who live in an area where judging from your posts baseball seems to be played like it should be. We are probably much alike in the way we would manage a game and if we worked together we would have no problems.

In my area they are almost 200 high schools within 100 miles that I can umpire. The nit-picky stuff most coaches expect to be called is mind boggling. I have to be picky to make the game go smooth, and as a consequence, the game is less fun than it should be. The games go fine because both coaches are on the same wavelength.

And only at a handful of them can I umpire as you would. Luckily I do a number of games at those handful of school which includes Start H.S. in Toledo Ohio,(1994 USA Today National Champions). Their coach understands the way baseball should be played and develops his players to be successful at the next level. Unfortunately I can not do all of their games.

From 1986-1996 I would leave Ohio and travel to Florida for the whole month of March to umpire HS and College Baseball. It was so much fun to be able to umpire and not be so picky. The game flow was tremendous and the talent level was high. Coaches concentrated on coaching their team rather than worrying about me as the umpire.

I pride myself on endeavoring to know the rules inside and out, not just baseball but football, basketball, and softball also. But that doesn't make me a great umpire. My greatest accomplishment is being known by coaches and those who have evaluated me as an umpire who manages the game efficiently and without prejudice. I'll take that compliment over book learnin' anyday.

[Rich]

Originally posted by Daryl H. Long
Rich,

No, I do not believe I am a better umpire than you. On the contrary, I am envious of you and David B who live in an area where judging from your posts baseball seems to be played like it should be. We are probably much alike in the way we would manage a game and if we worked together we would have no problems.

In my area they are almost 200 high schools within 100 miles that I can umpire. The nit-picky stuff most coaches expect to be called is mind boggling. I have to be picky to make the game go smooth, and as a consequence, the game is less fun than it should be. The games go fine because both coaches are on the same wavelength.

And only at a handful of them can I umpire as you would. Luckily I do a number of games at those handful of school which includes Start H.S. in Toledo Ohio,(1994 USA Today National Champions). Their coach understands the way baseball should be played and develops his players to be successful at the next level. Unfortunately I can not do all of their games.

From 1986-1996 I would leave Ohio and travel to Florida for the whole month of March to umpire HS and College Baseball. It was so much fun to be able to umpire and not be so picky. The game flow was tremendous and the talent level was high. Coaches concentrated on coaching their team rather than worrying about me as the umpire.

I pride myself on endeavoring to know the rules inside and out, not just baseball but football, basketball, and softball also. But that doesn't make me a great umpire. My greatest accomplishment is being known by coaches and those who have evaluated me as an umpire who manages the game efficiently and without prejudice. I'll take that compliment over book learnin' anyday.

My apologies.

Actually, some of the coaches aroud here are quite good and some of them astound me regularly. One asked me if I forgot to put a shirt on over my chest protector when wearing a plate coat. He told me that the WV showing on my West Vest could be distracting to his pitcher. Then he tried to re-enter a starter in a diferent spot in the batting order.