Balk? Coming to Set...

[SanDiegoSteve]

I'm late arriving here but after reading all this bickering I have arrived at this:

Don is right in that you can't straddle the rubber and bring your hands together pretending that you are coming set. That is a motion associated with a pitch, and is prohibited. Merely joining the hands together is not prohibited, but if you think the pitcher is trying to deceive the runner into believing that he is actually on the rubber, then it is a balk. But just transferring the ball in and out of the glove is nothing. And you can step on the rubber with hands together, but if you do, technically you are in the set position at that time, and you can only pitch, step off, or throw to a base.

However, this has nothing to do with the OP. The pitcher was straddling the rubber and was eyeballing R1. Nothing wrong with that. Then, he stepped on the rubber and started his motion all at once. Nothing wrong there, unless he is quick pitching the batter.