"Balks while Stealing Home"

[scarolinablue]

Originally Posted by MD Longhorn

Don't get hung up on "natural motion". Instead, learn what is illegal. If it's not illegal, it's legal. Lots of "odd" motions are, in fact, legal. And there's nothing stating that a pitcher's motion from pitch to pitch must be the same. In fact, if there was such a rule, it would take away one of the tools very good pitchers use to hold runners on.

Deception, by itself, is not illegal. As long as you don't do one of the many things proscribed as NOT legal... it's not illegal.

I like the way you put this post. Just last night, in a rivalry game that was 5-1 in the sixth, the losing team had the bases loaded and one out. A relief pitcher came in, with an unusual (I think he was amped up and nervous) pre-set motion. Basically, the kid had a kind of "shoulder shimmy" BEFORE coming set as he was lowering his hands. Once he came set, he didn't have any extra movement. However, the FANS were yelling the usual "that's a balk" and "don't you know what a balk is, blue?" garbage. Their coach didn't say a word, though, because he's actuallly pretty knowledgable and knew there wasn't an issue.

The strange routine caused the uninformed to scream, yell, and sound like a bunch of idiots, but there was nothing illegal about what the pitcher was doing in his pre-set motion. He certainly wasn't deceiving anybody!