Preventative Umpiring

[giuseppe]

i am very interested about this topic. first of all, sorry for my bad english, i'm an italian baseball umpire in league a2 (serie A2). two years ago we haved a great discussion about balk. at ours annual umpire convention we haved a great american umpire, gus rodriguez,who told us the same who lots of you have just said...see it, call it. but unfortunately italy is not usa, i mean balk is a dangerous argument, especially with kids. there is a lot of umpires here who don't knows when it's a balk and when not. i'm talking about very close balks. i think u have to separate seniors from kids. in seniors games i absolutely never give any kind of warning about balk, it's not my job, i'm not a manager. the most important thing to remember is... never wait the 9th inning to call the first balk. if u are sure that pitcher does it, call it! as soon at possible, so u'll should'nt have problems in the rest of the game.and if you call a balk, be sure to be able to explane WHY you called it. with kids is completely different, i use to be ...mmm.. blind? right word? ehehehe but i use to talk with instructor-manager at the end of the inning, he will have time to correct wrong movements of younger pitchers. and balk is not contempled with boys of 6 to 10 years old.