Call the balk?

yes, I believe I would have...

Varsity level, tight situation, the runners are looking for any advantage to move up and score....everyone should be bearing down.....

Absolutely, we are there to report what is happening in the game. If you don't call it it gives the pitcher an advantage not intended by the rules.
Many times you will hear fans say let them decide it on the field. In this case we have, the pitcher balked, we moved runners up. It's why we get the big bucks.

IMO if an umpire is weighing "any calls" by:

# of outs, what inning, score, who's home, who's visitor, then they are in the wrong business.

If it's a balk in the first inning, it's a balk in every inning.

So Ditto for me, call the balk.

BUT if the same motion was not a balk in the 6 previous innings it cannot all of sudden become a balk especially with men on 2nd and 3rd--that is totally wrong

quote:

Originally posted by TRhit:
BUT if the same motion was not a balk in the 6 previous innings it cannot all of sudden become a balk especially with men on 2nd and 3rd--that is totally wrong

I don't know where you get any notion that the same motion was made earlier. It was not.

Thanks for your comments.

First, at the postgame the umpires and I all agreed we saw no evidence of a balk previously in the game.

This was the first balk committed, and both umpires jumped on it immediately. The defensive coach was quite the sportsmen, he nodded, and stayed in his dugout.

The inning ended in a tie, and after two extra innings, the home team won by one.

It is unfortunate to have to call a balk in such a situation, but our philosophy is that the situation doesn't dictate the enforcement of the balk rule.

Both umpires were subdued in the postgame. They know that the peception was they decided the game. The ugly reaction of the visiting fans certainly put that perception across. I told them that the they didn't tie the game. The pitcher did.

I agree completely, they decided themselves, we just let everyone else know what happened. I am assuming you were asking from the standpoint of would we pass on the balk, instead of what trhit thought and thought you passed early and called it late.

I would certainly call the balk in Jimmy's situation. However, I admit to passing on "no stop" balks when a team is getting slaughtered and has no realistic chance of coming back. When that happens, I will stay in a hands-on-knees set and tell the pitcher to give me a complete stop. He will usually look at me and nod, and hopefully not do it again. I have never had an O coach object, and they generally know what's going on. If the OC barked at me for not calling the balks in that situation, then I probably would.

Other than that, HS varsity and above, see a balk - call a balk.