Balk or not

[frozenrope22]

I knew I had read the rule somewhere about the pitcher being on the rubber to take their sign and the umpire just reinforced it by saying only if baserunners. As I couldn't remember where I had read it I came here for help. I did find it mentioned in the MLB rules but there is no elaboration or penalty listed.

This was never a situation of quick pitch and I wasn't yelling from the dugout about the situation. When returning a foul ball to the PU between innings I asked the him about it quietly and that is when we discussed it. Later he told me he called it instead of the BU because the BU was a rookie and didn't know the rule. I guess he didn't know the rule either.

[bigjohn]

Umpires should bear in mind that the purpose of the balk rule is to
prevent the pitcher from deliberately deceiving the base runner

it says nothing about the batter.