Last night Reds v. D’backs ends in a balk. The pitcher didn’t look as of he did anything special. I looked up videos and articles and I still do not understand what is a balk.
What is a balk? When is it not a balk?
In: 168
The reason this particular play was called a balk is pretty clear to those who watch a lot of baseball, but I understand why it doesn’t make sense to those who don’t.
In this instance you can see the pitcher lift his right hand toward his glove to become “set.” Then he stops and drops his hand before making the same motion again but this time taking the ball. Once a pitcher starts his motion while in contact with the rubber he has to finish that motion. So his “double pump” is what was called a balk.
Here is the MLB rule book on balks. Specifically looking at Rule 8.01 and the second paragraph on page 75.
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/downloads/y2007/08_the_pitcher.pdf
“Preparatory to coming to a set position, the pitcher shall have one hand on his side; from this position he shall go to his set position as defined in Rule 8.01(b) without interruption and in one continuous motion.”
The pitcher in question didn’t follow that ‘without interruption and in one continuous motion’ part of the rule and was thusly called for a balk.
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