Pause after Separation
 

Had the plate for a HS Varsity game last night. One of the pitchers had a strange motion, and I'm not sure if it's legal. I haven't been able to check my rule book to verify.

She would start out with both feet on the plate and her hands separated. She would then bring her hands together waist-high and raise the front of her pivot foot so that only her heel was in contact. Then, she would remove the ball from her glove and put her hand on her hip, and stop. The stop was anywhere from one to two seconds, but clearly a complete stop. Then, she'd slowly start to lean forward, drop her pivot foot down, and step forward with her pitch.

I thought that once the hands came separated, that established her motion to pitch, and that the motion had to be continuous. Is that pause of hers illegal or not?

FED 6-2 says the pitch starts when one hand is taken off the ball or the pitcher makes any motion that is part of the windup after the hands have been brought together.

6-4-a says the pitcher may make no motion to pitch without immediately delivering the ball.

I would say separating the hands starts the pitch and would be considered a motion to pitch, requiring the ball to be delivered immediately. I believe the pause would be an illegal pitch.

IP all day/night long.

Joel

Illegal - for exactly the reason you thought.

Agree, IP in any code.

Sometimes when we get 'confused' by something that's quirky or we haven't seen before, we need to take the time between innings to go back and run through our mind the intent/rationale of the specific part of the rule involved to get things clear in our mind.

In this case, the pitcher separating her hands, we know that the way that part of the rule is written is so that the batter knows....."hey now the pitch is coming", not "OK, her hands separated, there's her pause, now the pitch is coming."

Things that make us go 'Huh?' on the field, require us to step back and give it some thought (run it by our partner) if we're not 100% sure as to what we're seeing.

My partner and I did talk about it between innings. Neither one of us were 100% sure that what she was doing was contrary to the rule. I kinda suspected, but I don't like making a call without being sure.

Agreed.......just like something that looks weird does not make it illegal......

Joel

Exactly. Many times that's the case...weird but perfectly within the rules.