When did they change the balk rule?
This is more for amusement than anything else.
NCAA D3 nonconference doubleheader (two 7s). Top of 7th in game 1 with the home team trailing 6-4. They've made a slow comeback on Senior Day, where graduating seniors are being honored with their mothers, since it's also Mother's Day. Runners are on first and third with 1 out. Pitcher is throwing back to first base a few times to hold R1 on, for obvious reasons. He finally delivers the pitch, only to race right through the Set without stopping. At all. I call the balk, the pitch isn't hit, and I award bases. R3 consequently scores. I turn around and find the home team's head coach already at the plate yelling, "Why do you have to call a balk in every game you work?" I replied rhetorically, "Why does your pitcher have to commit a balk in every game?"
"You can't call a balk in a tight game like this! You can't call a balk in a situation like this," he tells me. I purposely look to the field where R2 is now on second and say to the head coach, "It's instinctive for me. Your pitcher sees it and I call it. I am not concerned about the position of the runners or the score of the game, but before I call a balk again, I'll be sure to check the score of the game or where the runners are, because I didn't know balks are called dependent on the game situation of runners' position."
"You're phucking...!" He never did finish that comment, which was irrelevant, because as soon as I heard the word "phucking," which followed "You're," I tossed him. He gets madder and asks why I ejected him. I tell him, to which he replies, "Oh yeah? Well, you're phucking horrible! You're phucking terrible!" as he's chest-to-chest with me now.
I literally had to prevent myself from laughing, because I kinda thought this was amusing (I don't get so worked up over such arguments and ejections). I've got to check Evans's manual or the J/R book to see where they changed the balk rule to be dependent on runners' positions or the game's score.
|