New Balk Call

That rule has been in place for a couple of years. It is too bad that the umpires do not do a better job universally enforcing it..... You cannot blame the kid if some call it and others do not....

According to a coach I have talked too and an umpire the rule had be put in 2 weeks ago.

I'd like to hear the reasoning for this rule. Sounds unnecessary to me.

I had a balk called for the same reason 4 years ago.

The rule has been in place since Rod Beck was a closer for the Cubs

Sounds like something one particular umpire might call and another might not . The players have to adjust to the umpire ..thats the bottom line .

I wish the umpires wouldn't get to decide if it is a balk or not. If it is a balk, it should be called as such on a regular basis. It's not fair for the kid to do that all year, not get called, and then get called for it in a critical game. If the umpires had been calling the rule all year, he would have been out of the habit of it by the time the playoffs rolled around.

We had a kid get called for adjusting his hat while in the stretch position last year. I obviously questioned his called, but when I looked back at the rule book, essentially anything you do while in contact with the rubber that is not your regular pitching motion is a balk. The umpire was correct in this case, but it something that not all umpires enforce, so the kids don't know when it will be enforced.

Some umpires enforce the balk rules as they are written, others in the spirit of the rules. Umpire "A" might let a kid move his shoulder slightly to see first base, if he doesn't think it is intended to deceive the runner, while Umpire "B" will call it a balk all day.

The problem could be that kids get used to the way a certain set of umpires does stuff then they get a whole new crew in the playoffs.

Didn't Cales get nailed for a balk, under similar circumstances, in the championship game a few years ago?

When the younger brother was pitching travel ball, they would try to check with the umpire ahead of time to see what his feelings were on borderline/judgement stuff like that.

Sounds like a few of you guys need to go to IHSA.org and get your umpire patch and start getting assigned games to make sure the monkey arm balk call in consistent next year in the Libertyville area.

http://www.nfhs.org/cgi-bin/ul..._topic;f=10;t=000661

Here is a thread from 2006 so it sounds like rule ideas take time to make it all the way up to the north suburbs