Balk or Illegal Pitch

[Bfair]

I will try to answer abergman's original question by using a question.

How can a pitcher balk while a BR is on his way to 1st base???

The only way I could possibly think someone could twist the rules to do that would be if F1 were on the rubber and dropped the ball. I would not consider F1 on the rubber "and ready to pitch" (which is what I use as my default criteria in this call) until BR got to 1st. I would not balk him for that.

That is why Fed has added to their wording when the pitcher "intentionally" contacts the pitching rubber---to avoid BS of touching the rubber when not intended.

Just my opinion,

Steve