MLB umpire says that you can balk with a dead ball!

[Jerry]

Yeh, but ain't it fun to talk about it?

I was just thinking some more about it (the "dead ball balk").

Let's assume the ball is in play legally. (There hasn't been any reason for the ball to become dead.) If F1 steps on the rubber without the ball . . . even if R1 remains ensconced on 1B . . . you've got a balk. (We do, don't we?)

In our "dead ball" scenario, everyone on the field EXCEPT F1 and F5 . . . the two folks involved in the deceit . . .believe the ball is actually a live ball and in play, because that what PU has said.

To my way of thinking (which is often tempered by a Southern Comfort or two), if the PU, BU, R1 and all God's children believe the ball to be alive and well, it does in fact put R1 in jeopardy and that's why it should be called a balk.

Let's carry it to a stupid extreme . . . Dead Ball, F1 w/o the ball, PU calls "Play". Now F1 simulates a blindingly quick step and "throw" pick-off to F5. F5 tags R1 off the base and "voila", we've got a deceptive "Out" and no one's the wiser except F1 and F5. Everyone else is scratching their heads trying to figure out how it was done.

That's why I call it a balk.



Jerry