You’re going through your motion from the Set Position and as your arms come down in front of you, they knock off your hat.
You continue your motion as you normally would, stop as required, then deliver. You deliver a strike.
The other bench challenges your set motion saying that you moved your hat !
Are they right, or is a hat coming off either by your actions or even the wind an act that the umpires will perceive as deceiving the runner?
Balk or not?
I’m going to say balk. Just becuse I thought I remembered someone talking about this scenario before.
No Balk ruled here. Under this circumstance this is not a deliberate act on the pitcher’s part of deceiving the runner.
Here’s another situation that you might run into.
You’ve got a runner on third, the batter steps into the box, and gets ready for your pitch. Your in the proces of going through your delivery motion when you hear the batter in a loud voice say " time! " but he stays in the batter’s box - the umpire at that moment does not halt the game … but you stop your motion.
Their third base coach point to you and says… BALK BALK BALK ! "
Did you balk – or were you set up by the batter and their third base coach to get a balk call from a rookie umpire?
Coach B.