Is this a balk?

[Bfair]

Originally posted by dcasimir
No men on base. No count on the batter. Pitcher begins his windup.Just about to release pitch when his coach yells, "time!" Pitcher does not throw the pitch. What is the call? Is it a balk and the batter now has a count of "ball one?"

It cannot be balk without baserunners under all rules.
In OBR, it's nothing with no runners.
Without runners in Fed, it's an illegal pitch, although I've never seen one called for a ball not delivered with nobody on. Umpires I know and have seen enforce as per the OBR rule---it's nothing.

The pitcher has reacted to the defense, not the offense, in stopping his pitch. While the book addresses the issue if the stoppage is caused by the offense, it states nothing regarding the defense.

In most amateur games, CSFP says that if no advantage was gained (a runner was not breaking on the pitch), call time and ignore the happening except to warn that the next time it may be balked. He needs to continue to pitch.

If the runner was breaking on the pitch, enforce the balk.
The action stopped the opportunity of the runner to steal.


Just my opinion,

Freix