Another Balk Situation

Properly handled:

PU: Hey, Catch....go tell your pitcher to take the rubber with his hands apart.

It's treated as a "don't do that."

It's hard without actually seeing physically what he is doing but, it sounds like a balk to me.

For one thing, the pitcher shouldn't be bringing his two hands together before touching the mound unless it is to either retrive the ball from his glove or to put the ball in it. For another thing, the pitcher should have both hands separated when he first steps on the plate with runners on base. Stepping on the plate with hands together and then separating for the sign is an act of deception. Deception is also having both hands together while not on the pitching plate. Now, if he is just going to retrieve the ball from his glove as he is stepping onto his plate and he is clearly just retrieving the ball all in one motion, then no I would not call it a balk.

The intent of the rule is to prevent a quick pitch.

Fix it.