Where do we begin when coaches and players do not know the balk rule?

What is the balance between enforcement and teaching? Does it depend on the level of baseball? Absolutely, but in all my years, I have learned that I can offer no advice that will make it easy to teach coaches and players how to pitch legally without getting them upset or taking time for longer discussions before or after games. Despite the responsibility of knowing the rules being upon the coaches, teaching is an umpire duty whether we like it or not.

The following comment came from an experienced umpire north of the border. Recently, we have received several comments from around the world stating that this blog is helping individual umpires improve. Learning never ends! Thanks John for getting me back on track. I have been a bit busy lately.

Hey all, I am a senior ump here outside of Toronto and in doing MANY high school games this year, balks are getting out of hand. Pitchers and coaches up to this level have no idea what is and isn’t a balk. You hear ‘em screaming from the bench when a pitcher steps off the rubber and his arm goes towards first. Almost in stereo the balk roars come from the crowd. Any ideas on education tactics?

John, thanks for reading the blog and asking your question. I remember right after my pro umpire career ended I offered to assign all the local Little League Junior League games for 13-14 year-olds. When I went to watch the first game, I was amazed that the pitchers were balking on almost every pitch. I was assigning newer umpires that I had trained or worked with from our local umpire association. What a tough way to learn the balk rule, how to enforce the balk rule, and how to help players and coaches to play within the rules! After this first game as the experienced and respected umpire, I told the coaches of one team, Stephen King (yes, the famous horror author who provided our area with a beautiful stadium) and his close friend Dave Mansfield, “Those pitchers are balking on almost every pitch. They don’t know the difference from the windup or stretch position.”

To my surprise as naive as I was about 13-14 baseball at that time, their response was, ‘When can you teach them how to pitch (legally)?” After spending many hours trying to find umpires and answering the dozens of questions almost daily, I was shocked thinking that my young umpires would have to figure out the balk after having limited training and little experience.

I know that this is not John’s situation, but ignorance of the balk rule happens at all levels including varsity high school and pro baseball. Coaches teach pitchers what they can and can’t do and then those comments become the balk rule for those students of the game who will then innocently pass the same information along to others.

I suggest that we make an effort to:

1. first and foremost, use the terminology used in the rulebook when teaching and discussing balks (without common language coaches and players will never truly learn the rules),
2. teach/enforce how pitchers can legally get on and off the rubber,
3. share how the pitching motion must be a continuous motion toward the plate,
4. share when/how pitchers commit themselves to pitch to the plate,
5. share how pitchers (lefties and righties) must move to make legal pickoff attempts, and
6. finally, ask coaches (only if you sense their respect and will to learn; this works if you see the same people in the same league regularly) to allow you to make decisions on the balk and then you can have brief, learning discussions between innings and after the game so the coaches and kids can learn this rule.

I have watched local umpires do a very good job by taking a moment between innings close to the dugout or as the manager/coach heads to coach the bases informing him of the minor balks that were not called but need his attention. However, good intentions somtimes don’t work out as easily as it sounds here.

Obviously and unfortunately, if your games are highly contested and competitive, you can only teach the rules by enforcing them including enforcing the proper behavior of the coaches. Don’t allow them to continue to make comments about balk calls or the lack thereof. If they can act appropriately and kindly asking for your interpretation whether coming onto the field or not, they can get the best benefit of all–true and accurate knowledge from the horse’s mouth. If they cannot be respectful and model good behavior for their players and all spectators, they get to go home looking like the other end of the horse.

I wish I could help you more. Short of having your local interpreter or experienced umpires meet with all coaches in a particular league prior to the league opening to discuss some of the more difficult rules including the balk, you teach by calling the balk just as one teaches young basketball players what a traveling violation is by calling the violation. Many good umpires have commented in this blog that we should use a lot more discretion in calling balks below the high school varsity level. Sometimes this approach can work against us preventing the learning from taking place. It all sounds easy, but when you are the arbiter, you have to make the decision. That is why they employ/assign us to the games.

This is a tough situation. I appeal to other readers to share your experiences and words of wisdom. Just click on the “Comment(s)” below.