I'm BU in a Frosh/Soph HS game. Home team brings out a new RHP for the 4th inning, and while taking his warm-ups I notice that he only pitches from the set. I also notice that he dangles his pitching arm down in front of his body as he stretches. I'm thinking I'm going to have to balk him when a runner gets on base.

The first BR walks. I'm now in 'B' and watching closely. F1 stretches and I notice that his arm is not dangling in front as before. He has moved his arm straight back towards 2B so that I can clearly see it, and so can R1. So I'm thinking the kid knows the rule.

Not so fast, pilgrim! The next pitch he dangles his arm straight down between his knees. So as he comes up to set I call balk. His head coach yells out for him to ask me what he did wrong, so I explain the requirement for his pitchng arm to be either at his side or behind his back when pitching from the set. After the inning the head coach asks me to explain it to him, so I walk over and tell him the same thing I told his pitcher. His response: "That's not a rule, you can have your arm anywhere you want when you pitch! Have you ever seen Rocker pitch!?" I tell him that this is a FED specific rule. He then says "We play by IHSA rules here, what is this FED thing?" Unbelievable!

Well, he(the head coach) snipes a bit in the next inning but nothing outrageous. Well his pitcher decides that his coach knows more about rules than I, so to express his displeasure at being forced to pitch correctly, with no runners on he takes an exaggerated stretch so that his pitching arm actually scrapes the ground. Since this is a frosh/soph game I think to let it go, but now I'm not so sure that I made a good decision.

I would appreciate constructive criticism first, then the destructive criticism may follow, just so I know which is which!

JMHO
 

me to F1, just between the two of us - "Pitch - knock it off. You aren't funny."

For most kids that is enough.

If he mouths off - dump him.

I'm not sure what you are saying here. Did he do the same thing again but exaggerated it by dragging his arm? If so, you should have balked him again.

Once you call it, you can't stop calling it. Call it again, then toss him when he says something.

But there was no runner on base... balk would be wrong.

PENALTY: The ball is dead immediately when an illegal pitch occurs. If there is no runner, a ball is awarded to batter.

"Hey, Pitch. I know you're trying to show me up but THAT IS AN ILLEGAL PITCH. You cannot hang your arm like that. You either knock if off and pitch correctly or I'm going to call them... and that last pitch would have been ball one."

I think you would definitely be wrong to let it go. Penalize. There is no room for smartasses - coaches or 10-year old pitchers.

Yes
 

I should have had a little 'heart-to-heart' with F1 and warned him of the consequences for continuing to act in that manner.

Thanks for the constructive, and for avoiding the destructive.

Learning all the time....