Imagine this.
Bases loaded. You struck out two from the stretch. You decide to pitch from the windup for the first time of your time as a relief pitcher.
This next part is Important so watch.
Here is my windup:
The umpire said I balked. Did I truly balk?
Here’s a few things.
-Feel free to criticize me
-ignore the head movement I didn’t really care since I didn’t use a ball
-did I balk? If so… would a faster or slower windup fix it if that was a balk?
Thanks in advance
It’s a little hard to tell from the angle as you can’t fully see your feet and you don’t have a pitching rubber. It looks like you are in legal position to pitch from the stretch. Your right foot would be engaged with the rubber and the left is in legal placement for the stretch. You didn’t pause so it looks like the umpire correctly called a balk. For it to be legal position for the wind up…you would have to have both feet engaged with the front edge of the pitching rubber extended.
Do you get a balk call every time you do this? From every umpire?
If not, then you’re dealing with the amateur environment. If this is a one time thing, with one umpire, let it go.
This is the case yes. I play regular tournaments with a travel team and finished my rec league. In rec they didn’t, and we are halfway through travel season and this random umpire said it was a balk.
This is a hard nut to crack - amateur empires. The consistency’s with this population can be “if-ee” at best sometimes. And no matter how hard you, or anyone else for that matter, tries to reason things out, it is what it is.
So look, these people are doing this umpiring thing for many reasons. Some for extra money, some because they love the game and have found a way to stay with it, some like to be in charge of stuff … real control freaks, and others for as many reasons as there are reasons.
Now I’m going to pass something on to you and anyone else that’s interested:
1) Regardless of the quality of officiating, umpires are the official representatives of baseball, and as such, deserve your complete respect.
2). The amateur umpiring population is just that - amateur. They don’t do this for a living full time, and the exposure that they do get is not enough to expect perfection. So don’t go looking for it. In all the years that I was with baseball, I never argued or “showed up” an umpire - never. Their job is tough enough without whining-n-crying over something that’ll be forgotten and wrapped up with Friday’s fish. And buy the way, playoff berths and championships are not won or lost by umpires, I don’t care who says different.
3) If your call is uniform by every umpire that’s officiating your game - then it’s you. If your call is come-see-come-sa depending on who’s calling what, roll with the punch.
I saw college freshman who was tossed into the 5th as a sacrificial pitcher, and it was obvious that he was going to get hammered - and he did. I mean, even the other club’s mascot had a good time making fun of the guy. The umpires were the worst. He was called for infractions that were marginal at best, repeatedly. The second base umpire made it a point to stand about three feet from the pitcher’s mound. Very distracting if you ask me. Yet, all through the fifth and sixth, the young man held his composure and hung in there. After the game, while his teammates where getting on their bus, I did something that I normally didn’t do, as a matter of protocol. I waited for him outside of players entrance, met him walking towards the bus and gave him my business card. The following year, he was signed with us, and three years after that, he was gone for better ball.
If you have any desire to play better ball, be it college or professional. don’t play the blame game. Deal with it quietly and with composure. Amateur umpiring is a hard nut to crack - it loaded with personalities, little actual game experience to start, and the expectations that everyone on and off the field knows more than the empire. So be reasonable and just play.
I tend to agree with bradybunch here. The one thing Fulmer does that you do not is that he takes a very tiny “step back” (more like a lift up and right back down) where you appear to slide your foot in place (more like a stretch move) I can certainly understand why an umpire would call a balk on that move especially if you had only pitched out of the stretch the whole time you were on the mound up until that point.
You appear to be in the Hybrid position. It is half wind-up and half set. It is legal in college but NFHS has ruled it illegal.
http://www.umpirebible.com/index.php/rules-pitching/pitching-positions
Here is a link…also…Fullmer is warming up…is this his actual motion when pitching to a batter.
Here is video from last year. Not all of the pitches show his windup/set but the ones that do show a rocker step with the windup and a traditional set position from the stretch.
Here is also some info from NFHS if you scroll down to the pitching section is showed the hybrid position is illegal and a point of emphasis.