Balk Ruling. Judgement or Rule?

[His High Holiness]

Originally posted by Coach&Blue
I understand that umpires at this level should know the basic rules of pitching. I guess I found one who didn't. I guess I am wrong for wanting to play by the rules of baseball.

As an assignor, I saw hundreds of umpires come and go over the years. Before I tell you about their capabilities, let me tell you a story from my NCAA playing days. The year was 1969.

In practice, our coach was teaching us to swing late and step across the plate on a steal in order to interfere with the catcher's throw to second. One of the our players raised his hand and said, "But coach, that is illegal!"

The coach said "Yes, but the umpires that we have will never call it." Let's fast forward to the the present.

50% of all umpires don't understand or know how to call balks, interference and obstruction. Half of the rest won't call that stuff because they don't want the manure that goes with it. That leaves only 25% of umpires who call interference, obstruction, or balks on any kind of consistent basis. I am talking about 90 foot umpires here. I did not deal with LL umpires where the numbers might be even worse.

No good NCAA coach ever complains about balks. (publically anyway) He makes a note of what the umpires are allowing, and instructs his pitchers to do likewise. The surest way to get a balk call in NCAA ball is to complain about balks. Trouble is, the umpires will call the first one against your team!

Coach, you are tilting at a windmill on this one. Get over it and have some fun instead.

Peter