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I read somewhere today that if the pitcher delivers to the plate, it is dead when the catcher catches the ball. The ball is also dead when the fielder catches the ball. It goes on to say that if the fielder/catcher does not catch the ball and the ball goes past, through, or wild, the ball is live until all plays are over. But after replying to a post on another forum trying to use this interp (which I did not know whether to be credible or not)I realized that this interp is not correct since in the rulebook it states as follows for a penalty of a balk...


PENALTY: The ball is dead, and each runner shall advance one base without liability to be put out, unless the batter reaches first on a hit, an error, a base on balls, a hit batter, or otherwise, and all other runners advance at least one base, in which case the play proceeds without reference to the balk.

If it is a count of 3-2 and the pitch is a ball, the batter gets first... what really screwed up everything on this balk call on this other forum was that the bases were loaded no outs and the R3 took off for home, and the pitcher balked by not pausing in the set, before you know it balk was called and R3 was out...

In OBR, the correct ruling in this situation would be...For me at first I thought that you would enforce the balk since R3 was out since I thought you never counted a pitch on a balk...But due to the penalty above, since a batter can walk...if the batter does have a count of 3 balls, you can enforce the walk...in fact, you have to...

If the count had been 2-2 however, since the runner was out, you enforce the balk and the pitch does not count...correct?

Ultimately that is how I ruled on that situation, but I just wanted you to see my very unorganized thought process into what constitutes a delayed dead ball to finally be dead...

If you disagree with me allowing the walk and R3 to score since he is entitled to home, please reply as well.
Original Post
OK,there is a difference between HS and OBR.
HS:
A balk is always an immediate dead ball, enforce the balk. It doesn't matter if it was hit, was a ball or a HBP.
OBR:
You seem to understand the exceptions but I will go through them anyway.
A balk is called:
1. and a pitch is not delivered. Kill the ball and move all the runners.
2. and a pitch is delivered. Delayed dead ball, wait and see the result.
A. If the catcher catches it and it isn't a fourth ball then kill it and award bases. Ball four and it forces all runners to advance then ignor the balk. There will be no outs made unless it is after all runners and BR have made one base. If they try to stretch it then they are out.
B. If the F1 throws to a base and the fielder catches it then kill it and enforce the balk. If it gets away then wait and see if all runners make a base. In this case it doesn't make a difference about the BR.
Read through this and see if it makes it any clearer. If not try asking more and see if we can clear it up.

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