To Balk Or Not To Balk, That Is The Question..

[nine01c]

OBR
Everything the pitcher was doing was legal (looking over his shoulder, turning his shoulder, fixing his hat, swinging his arm back and forth) while he was in his "stretch." None of these are considered part of his pitching motion. Even though he wasn't really stretching very much (usually you see F1 bent way over forward) he still has not come to his "set" where all those actions mentioned above would be a BALK with runner(s) on base.

The mistake he made was "throwing or feinting a throw" to a base without first stepping toward that base. He has BALKED by not stepping first. This is a blatant BALK and you called it right by your instincts and knowledge. Hearing it yelled out by someone may have "reminded" you, but YOU still had to call it. Ignore what the coach says since he doesn't know what he is talking about.