Then again Hickcox sold the hell out of an out tag at home after the ball sailed over the catcher's head, and went to the backstop.

Uh, no. Did you see how far he had to move to make the play?

Mike, don't let my Join Date fool you. As of until June or so, I hadn't visited this board for nearly five years. :)

I kinda figured that's what "NF" stood for. But since there are so many differences between OBR and FED when it comes to the balk rule, I didn't think what the big boys did on the pro field made much of an impact on high school umpires. ;)

Yes I did. Quite a ways... but how could one say that he was too far away to make a legitimate play when he did, in fact, make and ACTUAL play?

I think that's Matt's point. F3 couldn't make a play initially, which I believe is the thought behind the MLB guidance on balking this scenario. The moment F3 caught the ball, he still had to take two or three steps before he was close enough to make that actual play.

I mentioned an extreme example earlier, where F3 is playing way in for the bunt. If F1 throws to him, and then F3 has to run a significant distance to make the tag on R1, that would be a clear case where F3 wasn't initially positioned to make a play on R1.

On the play in question, F3 was much closer to R1 than in my example. But he still had to move an appreciable distance to make the tag attempt (which, if memory serves, is required to be considered a "play"). That's enough to judge that F3 wasn't in position to make a play when he received the ball.

Make UP Call?
 

Sheesh, those umpires erred. That was not a balk. Both are BAD calls and embarrassing to the profession.

Of course, I didn't hear the word protest come UP, so I guess I can't lean on the umpires too hard.

Here's a balk: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=3287297

Nope. I only balk pitchers.:D

Rita

It's amazing how much this post comes across as completely clueless. There is quite a difference between throwing to first and throwing to any other base.

Clueless Ump?
 

In the umpires judgement, the throw was off line. In the umpires judgement, there was no play being made at first base.

The first baseman may play off the bag within the cutout. It also qualifies as within proximity of the base. The first baseman may play in front or beside the runner. The first baseman may stand still or flat footed before the throw to screen the runner and he may step back to first (2 steps) ahead of the runner. This is a legal pick off attempt. Get it right next time!

There's a reason for the ignore list.

He can't use that anymore. :eek: