Balk Essay

During the play of any baseball game you will hear four-letter words that will arouse both tame and violent responses. Some of these words are traditional baseball vocabulary, some are obscenities called out from the crowd. None, however, cause as much confusion and anger as the mysterious word “Balk.” When stated this four-letter word that can stop anybody dead in his tracks. There is no rule in baseball more widely misunderstood today than the balk. So what exactly is a balk?

A balk is defined in the dictionary as a verb meaning: to stop short and refuse to go on. Specifically in baseball, a balk means to make and illegal motion before pitching, allowing base runners to advance one base. In order for this rule to make sense an illegal motion must be defined. There many “illegal motions” a pitcher can make to cause a balk.

One should understand the basic rules for pitching before they can realize what a balk is. In order to throw a pitch correctly the pitcher must have his planted foot touching the rubber plate located on top of the mound at all times. The pitcher must come to a complete stop or pause in his windup before he delivers the pitch. The pitcher is also required to step towards his

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There are two main effects of a balk being called. If the pitcher swings his free foot past the back edge of the pitcher’s rubber and tries to throw the ball to first base or second base a balk will be called. It states that any action a pitcher makes that the rules committee says is illegal calls for the penalty of a balk. Foreign materials may include spitting on the ball or also rubbing Vaseline on the ball.

After understanding the basic rules of pitching one now can fully understand the penalties pitching incorrectly. Basically all balks can fall into one of these three categories. There are three basic categories of the balk. This is why so much commotion occurs when one is called. Some umpires are too timid to call a balk when they see one, so they just let it slide. A balk can be called if the pitcher fails to step towards his desired target.

The first category of balking is made up of the deceptive reasons a balk is called. A balk may be called if the pitcher makes a pitching motion while his is not touching the rubber. If there were not a balk rule then pitchers would be forever concerned with faking out the base runner, rather than pitching to the batter instead.

Approximate Word count = 963
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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