Pain in th a-- coach

[David Emerling]

Excellent stuff below!

People get so upset about balking young pitchers suggesting that it "ruins the game" and doesn't allow the pitchers to learn.

Ruins the game? C'mon! I've seen the most outlandish and ridiculous things occur in youth league games that I find it hard to accept that an umpire's invoking of the rules could possibly be a significant contributor.

I balk now and then on some young pitcher hardly seems to matter much when the kid already has 9 walks to his credit and we're still in the 2nd inning.

My suggestion that if you're going to balk a young pitcher for something he's doing wrong ... do it early; preferably when a runner just arrives at 1st base. Don't keep analyzing the fault in his delivery and wait until R1 becomes R3 and then yell "Balk!" Now a run scores. In youth leagues, balking a pitcher with a runner at 1st is hardly no penalty at all. Maybe 5% of the runners get thrown out stealing 2nd, and that is usually because the runner did something stupid like, start-stop-start.

The most common balk I see with little kids is this. They always step onto the rubber in the stretch position. No problem. Then, when they commence their pitch, they initiate a rocker step with their free foot, as if winding up. It is incredibly illegal and it completely confuses the runners. In fact, with a righthanded pitcher and a runner at first, it is not uncommon for the runner to lean back toward first when the pitcher commences his "windup" because it looks as if it is the beginning pickoff attempt. Then the pitcher delivers the ball! Although unintended to get an advantage, the pitcher's improper/illegal technique is putting the offense at a disadvantage.

When I see one of these kids warming up and pitching this way. I just say to myself, "On the first pitch with a runner on base, I'll balk him, explain it ... and that will be that." And that is exactly what happens. He pitches correctly the rest of the game. It becomes a learning experience with really no penalty. Big deal, R1 gets awarded 2nd base. He was probably going to steal that base standing up.

Originally posted by DDonnelly19
I don't see the purpose of giving warnings on balks. It causes too much inconsistency on how the game is called.

Say the pitcher fails to come set. Balk, first offense, he gets off with a warning. Good, now little Johnny knows that he must come set before pitching. Later, little Johnny feints to 1B. Balk, already had a warning, so we move the runners up. If we use the "warning" as a vehicle to teach the pitchers, how is Johnny supposed to figure out that a feint to 1B is the same penalty as failing to come set? At this point, the "warning" really becomes a "get out of jail free" card.

If you want the "warning" to serve as a teaching opportunity, then you should issue a warning for each type of balk infraction. But then is that per team or per pitcher? Is a throw to 1B without stepping the same as if the throw were to 3B? Coaches will argue that every balk deserves a "warning", so why call them at all? Of course, I'm sure we've all given the pitcher "secret" warnings, so should those count as "official warnings?"

I was going to suggest that at some levels balks should be called but without penalty, but then I'm sure some manager will have his pitcher pull this -- R1 stealing on the pitch. F1, seeing this, purposely balks. R1 goes back to 1B. If runners are allowed to lead off and steal bases, balks almost have to be enforced. You can't try to emulate "real baseball" at the lower levels while removing any responsibility from the pitcher to execute legal moves.

Also, from a practical standpoint, any umpire you put at a lower level likely isn't going to have the training or experience to know when it's appropriate to call a balk. If he sees the pitcher fail to come set, he's either going to call it every time (because he knows the rule) or he will never call any balk at all (because he doesn't know the rule).

If any leagues wants this level of game administration, they better start shelling out the $$$ for the big dogs, because nobody else will be able to keep up with all the convoluted local rules these leagues create.