Stealing Home

[tibear]

Here's a real strange one, that I thought of with regards to stealing home. If a pitcher is simply standing on his rubber and looking in for signals when the rubber starts running for home.

The pitcher immediately throws home without coming to a stop.

The catcher steps in front of the plate, catches the ball and tags the runner before the runner touches home. The plate umpire would probably call a balk or CI but could a defensive team use 8.05 d) where it states that a pitcher can throw to an unoccupied base(in this case home) while touching his rubber to make a play.

8.05 If there is a runner, or runners, it is a balk when-

(d) The pitcher, while touching his plate, throws, or feints a throw to an unoccupied base, except for the purpose of making a play;

I guess it comes down to whether 8.05 d includes home plate as a base or not.

I've never heard of using this rule in this situation but what do you think??