The 2010 balk thread

[mbyron]

So I called my first balk of the year the other day. Visitor was getting shellacked, probably 10-0 at that point (4th inning, so no mercy yet). Their 3rd underskilled pitcher of the day came in, and I could tell from his warm-up pitches that he was going to balk for not stopping.

Sure enough, his first batter, R2 and R3, and he blows right through the stop. "Time! That's a balk! No stop! You, score, ..." etc. Sheesh, I hate to call it at 10-0 when we're just trying to get the game over, but this is varsity baseball and the kid wasn't anywhere near to stopping.

After a couple more pitches, he had another borderline balk for not stopping. I called time and sent F2 out to make sure he stopped.

Ordinarily I wouldn't have done that, which I regard as coaching. But it was a game management choice. Comments?