Explaining Balk Calls to Coaches
When coaches question “Balk” calls, choose very carefully whether you respond verbally or with a body motion. When a coach is in a dugout beyond easy hearing distance and he demands a response, you might use a single small body motion. However, sometimes your response may raise more questions increasing the probability that the coach will either enter the field or start possible verbal abuse.
Think before responding. Choosing not to respond is an option.
When the coach is in speaking distance, I suggest that you do not demonstrate the illegal motion. Words work better.
Simply say such things as ‘he started his motion and stopped’, “he failed to stop”, “he did not step: directly towards the base/ahead of throw”, et cetera.
Short statements directly to the point that use rulebook language is the best way to explain balk situations. There is not a long list of rules governing balks. Please do not begin to have coaches teach you the balk rule. Let the balk rule, your experience, and your mentors help you call the balk properly and fairly.
You are serving our most important purposes–teaching the game and adminstering it fairly supported fully by the rules. Our rules are designed for school children and extra-curricular activities are an important extension of the classroom.
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I find balk calls at the middle school level the toughest ones to make, not because they are hard to detect, but because it is almost impossible to maintain game flow if one calls every balk he sees. If I notice a pitcher is consistently balking, but not in a way that would be obvious to middle school players, I go to the other coach and simply ask, “Are your players being deceived by the opposing pitcher’s delivery?” If I get “no” for an answer, my next comment is to the coach of said pitcher to ask hiim if he knows that his pitcer is balking with regularity. If he hasn’t seen it, i give him the heads up and suggest it might be something to work on in the following week. Often the coach will take his pitcher behind the dugout and do some remedial teaching on the spot. I let both coaches know that unless the balk is an egregious one (i.e. a lefty in the stretch just hanging his leg, frozen in the air, before continuing to the plate) that confuses or deceives the runners or the batter, I am going to let it go, call it to the coaches’ attention at the end of the half inning, and keep the flow of the game keep going. The coaches are educators and my hope is that they employ the “pump before you thump” philosophy, that is telling the pitcher four good things he is doing on the mound before telling him that he is balking and giving him the corrective education necessary to keep him from balking.
At the middle school level, we do well to have the kids even try out for the team. For many, this is their first foray into organized baseball. I don’t want to rain on a pitcher’s parade because I know the rules better than they. I want the kids to have such a positive experience playing ball that they eagerly seek a spot on their high school team. I think I am serving our most important purposes, teaching the game and administering it fairly with an eye on the rules. Tell me if you agree or not with my handling of balks at the middle school level
Great comment that you put in response to my post.
Your response shares a great model for calling the balk at middle school and some JV games. I have begun a post about helping a first-time pitcher pitch within the rules. I saw a crew do it so well this past Thursday. Do it together and it looks more like a discussion than a scolding. Ooops, I leaked my suggestion ahead of my future post.
Do you have any suggestions for calling the balk? Click on “Comments”.
Balks are hard to explain. Because the rule is not very clear in the book so managers and coaches have a lot of questions when one gets called. Also I don’t think we as umpires are very consistent in calling them. We’ve got umpires that call 17 “rule book” balks a game that the infraction has no impact on the game and yet some umpires who simply don’t know the rule so they don’t call any.
When a manager asks what a pitcher did we should be very short and to the point like. “No Stop coach”
“Started and Stopped”
“Faked a Throw to First”
and so on.
Anytime you get into well he did this……….Your going to get back from the manager or coach no he did this and now you’re in a situation you can’t win. Rather then talking about a rule you’re talking about actions of the pitcher and you’re going no place.
I had a JV game today in which Shawn’s son was playing and the pitcher of that boy’s team was balking on every pitch with a runner on base. He was engaging the rubber with the ball in his glove and then pulling it out of his mitt and putting the hand with the ball in it behind his back while he looked in for the sign.
At the end of the second inning, I took the coach aside and asked him if he had noticed that his pitcher was balking with every pitch when he had a runner on base. When it was clear he didn’t know to what I was referring, I told him that his pitcher was separating his hands without delivering the ball to the plate. He thanked me, took his pitcher aside, and corrected the problem. That kid will never balk again by prematurely separating his hands.
If it is not affecting the outcome of the game, we can do a great service at the Middle School and JV level by not calling balks and reporting the violation to the coach. If he doesn’t take care of the situation, and the pitcher balks again, then advancing any base runnners to the next base does wonders for the learning curve.
Whether we like it or not, at the Middle School and the JV level we Boys in Blue are also teachers. Keep that in mind when processing your next balk.
Steve,
What did the pitcher do to deceive the offensive team? Did he come set and then separate or was it clear that he wasn’t pitching? By rule you’re 100% right and I’m happy you went about correcting the problem the way you did.
Rob,
The pitcher didn’t do anything to deceive the offense. The situation was akin to the one I described in an earler comment to this post (See Comment #1) He engaged the rubber in the stretch position with the ball in his mitt. Then he reached in to take the ball out and put it behind his back as he looked in for the sign. That is not deceiving anyone and I did not want to trivialize the game by calling the balk. However, at the higher levels of play, he will be balked for doing that. I want the kids to enjoy the game and play it by its rules. If not calling the balk and instead, letting the coach deal with it and teaching his student the right way to engage the mound, allows a kid to learn the rules without embarassing himself in front of his peers and his parents, then I think I have done the game a service.
You can’t be a walking rulebook and a good umpire at the same time. If a kid’s balking is not deceiving anyone, why not honor the rule by telling the coach, and honor the kid and his effort on the mound by not making a a Federal case out of it. My personal opinion is that we’ll keep better informed, excited player on the field by the low key appproach to fixing the situation, while still noting that the rules call for a different behavior. I saw you do that very nicely in a game where the batter inadvertently threw the bat twice, causing pain to both recipients of the thrown bat, but you engaged the coach’s help substituting for the young man, rather than flexing your muscles and ejecting him yourself in front of all his peers.
At the middle school and JV level of play, as umpires who care passionately about the game we officiate, we owe that kind of alternative action in order to acknowledge the existance of a rule while preserving the offending player’s dignity and self-confidence.
I am a coach and occasionally an umpire. Yesterday I was coaching a team of middle school boys in a city semi-final game and my son was on the mound. We were leading the game 5-4 with 2 out in the bottom of the seventh inning, a runner on third and 2 strikes on the batter……..the umpire calls “balk” and the tying run scores. I run out and the umpire was telling my son “you did not come to a complete stop”, my son and team were devastated. The next pitch was strike three. We lost in extra innings.
I handled it like a gentleman but feel my son and the team were dealt a long lasting blow that took away all their efforts of the previous two and half hours (not to mention the previous two and a half months that got us to that point).
My son is feeling like he let the whole team down.
The ump may have been technically correct but I don’t believe he served the game of baseball any justice by the timing of his call. I am still upset but know the game is over and the outcome won’t change. As a coach and an adult, I can deal with it but the boys and mostly my son, I want to find the words to best explain it all.
Rob Armstrong
Rob,
Tough one to handle but without being there would be hard to give an opinion. I would hope that the ump in question had mentioned something to your son before he made the call, espicially given the relative importance the call had on the game. But there is no regulatory guidance that requires a warning so he was within his rights to make the call.
This is one of the great life lessons that sports teaches so well, losing with class and dignity. No one player ever loses a game for a team. Had your son’s teammates scored more runs, the team would never have been in position to lose on a balk call. A team is a team in winning or losing and, in either case, the net result is the SUM of the team effort, not the play of any single player.
Steve,
I was agreeing with what you did. I was simply stating that we have a lot of umpires who call balks because the rule book says so. You’re right you can’t be a walking rule book. That’s what I was trying to say. Now you’re always going to have the easy call every time balks like not stopping. But if the batter and/or runner(s) are not put at a disadvantage why give them something they otherwise wouldn’t have gotten?
I have a balk question. A right handed pitcher can throw to first base without stepping off the rubber. When he does that, he slides his right foot toward 3rd base, then spins, steps toward first base, and throws. This is the right-handed pick to 1st base. Question: Can a lefty do a similar quick move to first? Can he slide his left foot toward third base, then step to first and throw, all in a quick movement?
The right-handed pitcher in your situation has committed a balk. If he steps with his pivot foot (right foot) first, he must step directly back off the rubber (NF 6-1-3). This balk is not an easy call, but it is unfair and deceiving. Right-handed pitchers often use the legal jump-turn in which their front/non-pivot foot lands beyond half way towards first (step “directly towards” NF 6-2-4b). Plate umpires seem to be the best person to call these balk situations. However, a strong “balk” umpire in a 2-person or 3-person umpire system in the “B” or “C” position might be able to see if the move is a two part motion with the pivot foot moving towards third before the non-pivot foot steps toward first. Some pitchers just step towards third with the pivot foot and throw side arm across the body to first. Tough call, but “Call the balk!”
Therefore the answer to you question, “Can a lefty do a similar quick move to first? Can he slide his left foot toward third base, then step to first and throw, all in a quick movement?” is no, absolutely not for the reasons I stated above. Here’s another chance to call the “balk”.
I have a question for you concerning a balk call (or no call). The RH pitcher is in the stretch, glove in left hand on knee, ball in right hand resting on right leg. Pitcher comes up to a stop and puts the ball in the glove. He then disengages his hands, starts to wind up making a complete circle with his hands and slaps the ball back into his glove twice (tap, tap). He thens pulls the ball out of the mitt again and throws to home. Is this a balk because he separates his hands and then brings them together again hiding the ball before the pitch? Plate umpire calls a balk while the field umpire says it isn’t because he wasn’t intentionally trying to deceive. Plate umpire says he IS TRYING to deceive because he is hiding the ball by putting it in his mitt again before throwing. What is your call?
Brian, thanks for contributing to the blog. If I understand the situation, the pitcher has engaged the rubber with the the hands separated. Then he brings them together in the set position. From that point he can do only one of three things. He can disengage from the rubber by stepping back with his non-pivot foot, he can throw to an occupied base, or he can deliver a pitch to the plate. If he separates his hands before attempting any of the above, he has balked. The plate umpire is correct because once the hands separate, the pitcher is committed to going to the plate. When he doesn’t do that, the batter is being deceived.
Thanks for the reply Steve. The pitcher was called for a balk, but as I mentioned, there was an argument to wether it was intentional deception. I agreed with you stating that once his hands were seperated, he had to pitch, throw to first (occupied) or step off the rubber. Thanks again for the help.
Frankly, I would like to see the pitcher that Brian mentions above (Comment #11). If he pitches to the plate and does it much of time, unless it is rediculous, I cannot be sure that it is a balk. Remember what Luis Tiant did in his stretch was said to be illegal but he did it consistently so it was deemed legal. It almost sounds like one of those things that would never happen, but it did. It almost seems like the pitcher is doing more than is possible in the 2-3 seconds that it takes for a pitcher to release the ball to the plate after coming to a legal stop.
Can a pitcher balk if no one is on base?
No such thing as a balk when there is no runners on base. It would be considered an illegal pitch and handled accordingly.
Can a pithcer throw to an unoccupied 3rd base if the catcher Stands up and Screams he going from 2nd base after the pitcher come set without stepping off the back of the rubber ?
I would have to answer yes. Until he has come to the set position, there is nothing that keeps the pitcher from looking to first as many times as he wants, within the 20 sec allowable time limit.
With a runner on first, can a pitcher, while his foot is on the pitching plate and has not come to the stretch position, turn his shoulders towards first base as often as he likes to look at the runner. Can he keep doing this in a fast motion or does the rate of his turn even matter
Thanks
Sorry, wrong post. I would have to answer yes. Until he has come to the set position, there is nothing that keeps the pitcher from lookng to first as many times as he wants, within the 20 sec allowable time limit.
A left hand pitcher in the set position with a runner on 1st base. After coming to a complete and discernible stop he begins his motion towards the plate with his lead foot raised he stops momentarily(approx a few secs) looks off the runner and continues his motion towards the plate. During the course of the game this was not his normal motion with runners on base. Is this a legal move? Or is this considered a balk for decieving the runner? A pitcher may pause only once in the set position, would this be considered a second pause and a balk?
As you describe it, I would have to say it is a balk. Once he raises his foot after coming set, the pitcher is committed to throw in a continuous motion either to an occupied base or to home. This would be a clear attempt to decieve the runner and should be an easy call.
My son (13) developed a Luis Tiant move to freeze runners on 2nd base. The first time he delivered a pitch with a runner on 2B WITHOUT that move, the umpire called a balk because “if he doesn’t do it every time, it’s a deception to the runner”. Was he correct?
I would say the base umpire is wrong with his comment it is deception if the pitcher doesnt do it every time. The pitcher does not have to have the same motion each and every time. Now was the balk called for freezing the runner by stopping his motion? If so than it would be a balk, but I would need to see your sons motion to say for certain.