Anybody see the Oklahoma/Oklahoma St. game on ESPN yesterday? Appears THEY called a balk to second. I thought from the chatter here that calling a balk to second was a near impossibility.

Apparently, according to the announcers, the pitchers entire foot did not "clear the rubber" on his spin to second, thus the balk, although from the angles show on the replays, his foot planted behind the rubber on his spin to second (maybe not the tip of his heal???).

Any comments on the call?

Nobody has claimed that a pitcher can't balk while making a move to second. Only that the balk is technically for something else -- perhaps stepping toward first in your example (I didn't see the play).

There is a post about halfway down this page with 3 pages of people discussing balks to second. This pitcher clearly had his foot toward second base, but the heal was still on the edge of the back part of the rubber.

Unless I'm mistaken both Tim and Garth were supporting a "no balk to second" philosophy. I probably should go back and re-read.

1. The position that Tim and I and several others have taken is that it is impossible, at least 99% of the time to balk to second base. One can commit a balk while attempting a pick off at second, but nearly always that balk is technically for a different reason.

2. You listened to <i>announcers</i> explain a balk? My Gawd.

3. Yes, you should re-read the thread.

GB,

While your statement certainly reflects <b>my</b> position on the question, I believe that in order to reflect Tim's position you would need to "add" 1% to your first sentence and "subtract" a "nearly" from the second.

JM

And,
 

I do not feel that I can comment on the "TV" balk as I did not see it nor is there an explanation of it in the game summary.

Since I cannot comment on the balk I could not say if the umpires were correct in what they called.

And having seen the first three innings only I have no idea of the quality of those umpires.

EDIT:

So now I am receiving more information about this crew.

It appears on a Batter's Interference they returned a stealing R1 to first after calling BI but called no one out?

Again, I did not see the play so I cannot comment on the crew quality. Or if this play happened as reported to me.



[Edited by Tim C on May 16th, 2005 at 12:23 PM]

The you would be wrong.

While Tim, I believe, invented IIITBTSB, in many threads he has also discussed not only the semantics issue and factual probabilities versus the practical world. In the non-TWP practical world, IISTBTSB. Tim and I are in complete agreement on that. If he were not so tired of this subject coming up again and again and people trying to invent balks to second that are either not balks or just do happen in the world that has a blue sky, he would let you know himself.

Re: And,
 

Tee, I saw this last night, and I was wondering what they ruled. R1 was stealing second, and the batter moved in front of the catcher without touching him. F2 never threw the ball, or never brought the ball up like he was going to throw. R1 was sent back to first, and the batter was not called out. I could not figure out what the ruling was. I reviewed the NCAA book and that didn't help at all. Am I missing something?

Also, in the next half inning, I thought U3 missed a clear FPSR violation. F4 was touching the third base side of 2nd base, with his other foot also on the third base side of the base (his entire body was in the "fielder protected zone"). R1 slides into F4 and knockes him over. R1 never touches second base except with his right hand.