3rd to 1st Move Becomes a Balk

[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by egj13

My account for the motivation of the rule change came thusly...sitting at a dinner with the father of a MLB umpire last summer he brought up to me that MLB umpires had been informed that this rule would be eliminated because...wait for it...inconsistency in application.

to the extent that's true, I think the inconsistency is in not calling a balk when the pitcher didn't step toward third (either stepped more toward home, or didn't mov ethe free foot enough toward third -- left it in "the same footprint")