I saw an umpire today tell a pitcher he could not do the following (I will try my best to describe...not easy):
In the set position, the pitcher's back foot was in normal contact with the rubber. His front foot was not completely in line with home plate...that is he set his front foot slightly towards 3rd base (maybe 6-10 inches or about 3/4 of a shoe length?). The umpire said this was deceiving the runner and that his feet had to be in line with 2B and home plate.
This was in a Pony (ages 13-14) game playing under MLB rules. It appeared to be the pitcher's normal set position (i.e. every time).
On a quick scan of the rules, I could not find anything wrong with the way the pitcher was set.
Umpire correct? If so, why?
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