Richard_Siegel
06-05-2009, 12:52 PM
To those newer umpires...
I recently did a 50/70 game in a local league where I had to call some balks that seemed to bother one of the coaches. The manager of the team never came out to question me about them, but he is a long time friend from years ago when he son played on a team with one of mine. Since his coaches were all younger guys, I thought I would send him a note to try and let him know what he might want to tell his pitchers and their fathers....
Marty,
In Wednesday night's game on field #6 when I called the 3rd balk on the same pitcher on your team one of your assistant coaches came out to speak to the pitcher. As he passed by me this coach muttered something to me about how the balk should be overlooked because this was his (the pitcher's) "natural delivery." Your players and coaches are at the stage where balks are very new and unfamiliar. There are many myths and misunderstandings about balks that you guys have to learn to get around so you can know the right thing to do. The "natural delivery" myth is one of them.
That myth comes from Baseball play-by-play TV announcers who, for the most part, have no idea what the rules are. Yet when they speak of what they see happening on the field they sound like they understand the rules and the typical viewers buy into it. When the TV guys see an unusual delivery where they suspect there is a balk that the umpires are ignoring they explain it away by saying, "Since the pitcher does that all the time as part of his natural delivery the umpires will let it go." The fact is that the unusual delivery they are seeing is probably legal.
There is nothing in the rules that allows a pitcher to violate the pitching rules (commit a balk) as long as he does it all the time. If you think of the absurdity of this line of thought you could see that it could cause us to penalize a pitcher, who balks all the time, when pitches legally! Suppose Timmy fails to come to a stop every time he pitches from the set position. If your coach's think were true and we overlooked it because it was his "natural delivery" then what do we do when Timmy decides to actually come to a stop on a pitch? Do we balk him for coming to a stop, doing something legal? Also, how are the umpires supposed to know what a kid's natural delivery is? I called that balk on your pitcher on the first time he had a runner on base. Since I had never seen him pitch before how am I supposed to know what his natural delivery is?
When a coach complains to me when I have called balk on his pitcher that it should be overlooked because that is "his natural delivery" my response is to advise the coach to have his pitcher get another natural delivery because if his natural delivery includes an illegal motion, he will always be balked. In reality, being in the 50/70 league you are in, you will find that the enforcement of balks will be spotty and inconsistent. Many umpires working the 50/70 games are completely new to calling balks. You will sometimes have umpires like me with 19+ years of experience and a solid understand of balks. Or you might have an umpire like my partner who was umpiring his first game where balks could be called! Many umpires, even so-called veterans, are shy about calling balks because they do not understand the rules very well. What you see called in one game will be allowed in another. You will just have to learn to deal with it.
I hope this helps.
RBS
I recently did a 50/70 game in a local league where I had to call some balks that seemed to bother one of the coaches. The manager of the team never came out to question me about them, but he is a long time friend from years ago when he son played on a team with one of mine. Since his coaches were all younger guys, I thought I would send him a note to try and let him know what he might want to tell his pitchers and their fathers....
Marty,
In Wednesday night's game on field #6 when I called the 3rd balk on the same pitcher on your team one of your assistant coaches came out to speak to the pitcher. As he passed by me this coach muttered something to me about how the balk should be overlooked because this was his (the pitcher's) "natural delivery." Your players and coaches are at the stage where balks are very new and unfamiliar. There are many myths and misunderstandings about balks that you guys have to learn to get around so you can know the right thing to do. The "natural delivery" myth is one of them.
That myth comes from Baseball play-by-play TV announcers who, for the most part, have no idea what the rules are. Yet when they speak of what they see happening on the field they sound like they understand the rules and the typical viewers buy into it. When the TV guys see an unusual delivery where they suspect there is a balk that the umpires are ignoring they explain it away by saying, "Since the pitcher does that all the time as part of his natural delivery the umpires will let it go." The fact is that the unusual delivery they are seeing is probably legal.
There is nothing in the rules that allows a pitcher to violate the pitching rules (commit a balk) as long as he does it all the time. If you think of the absurdity of this line of thought you could see that it could cause us to penalize a pitcher, who balks all the time, when pitches legally! Suppose Timmy fails to come to a stop every time he pitches from the set position. If your coach's think were true and we overlooked it because it was his "natural delivery" then what do we do when Timmy decides to actually come to a stop on a pitch? Do we balk him for coming to a stop, doing something legal? Also, how are the umpires supposed to know what a kid's natural delivery is? I called that balk on your pitcher on the first time he had a runner on base. Since I had never seen him pitch before how am I supposed to know what his natural delivery is?
When a coach complains to me when I have called balk on his pitcher that it should be overlooked because that is "his natural delivery" my response is to advise the coach to have his pitcher get another natural delivery because if his natural delivery includes an illegal motion, he will always be balked. In reality, being in the 50/70 league you are in, you will find that the enforcement of balks will be spotty and inconsistent. Many umpires working the 50/70 games are completely new to calling balks. You will sometimes have umpires like me with 19+ years of experience and a solid understand of balks. Or you might have an umpire like my partner who was umpiring his first game where balks could be called! Many umpires, even so-called veterans, are shy about calling balks because they do not understand the rules very well. What you see called in one game will be allowed in another. You will just have to learn to deal with it.
I hope this helps.
RBS