Trick Play Call-to-Arms! Know your balks...

Trick plays in baseball can be a thing of beauty or “bush league,”  beautiful to the perpetrators, bush league to the guys who were fooled. The old hidden-ball-trick is genius in its simplicity and fair enough because there shouldn't be any sympathy for anyone not keeping an eye on the ball, but when the misdirection becomes overly theatrical, its fair to say a line's been crossed.  I've seen some surprisingly well rehearsed gadgets at the high school level here in San Diego, like the fake
pick at second where the middle infielders dive for the “wild” throw, so off line that even the outfielders sprint with their backs to the plate to fetch the rock.  Of course the pitcher never threw the ball and the poor runner, alone at second without a base coach, senses the mayhem, pops up and usually heads for third where he’ll find the third baseman waiting with the ball.  (See it here.) That's a bit much for me, but I have one for you so simple, you'll just have to try it and see what mayhem it might create...but it is completely allowed by the rules.

As you know from Balking-101, a pitcher can't throw to an unoccupied base of course. Okay, easy enough.  But what about this?  With runners on first and second, three-two count, and two outs, we all know the jig, the coaches will warn the runners with the standard “make sure he goes home” advice and as soon as it’s obvious the pitcher won't be spinning back towards second or going to first, the runners will take off.  What if in that situation, rather than delivering the pitch from the set position, Ace simply stepped and threw towards third? That's a balk because you can't throw to an unoccupied base right? We just covered that! You know this from a lifetime of participation in baseball right?  And that's the beauty of it, because you would be wrong. The rulebook clearly states that the pitcher may not throw to an unoccupied base “except for the purpose of making a play.”  Buried in rule book case studies are examples of this that clearly point out that throwing ahead of an advancing runner is not considered throwing to an unoccupied base. This includes the situation I just described and also, a pitcher spinning toward second to make a move on a runner breaking from first. Now if the first baseman pretends to forget to hold the runner, inducing an early break like when a pitcher mistakenly starts from the windup with men on, and Johnny takes the bait, is that good baseball or does that cross the line?  Since the root of this move is validated by simple language in the rule book, I say it doesn't cross the line.  

So let's do it!  Let's start trapping those runners who don't know the rules.  Oh, and the mayhem I mentioned?  Well, I can't guarantee the umps won't call a balk, so they might, but then the coach could protest and yeah, confusion might reign down, but in the end, it won't force in a run so I think it's worth the risk to see how often it works.  I'm not trying to cause "reign" delays, my goal is simply to promote awareness of the rules of baseball.  So please forward this call-to-arms to all those players and coaches you know and please let me know what happens.

Jim Tosches is an amateur umpire and blogger in Encinitas, Ca and author of the book, "The Rules Abide: The Thinking Fan's Guide to Baseball Rules (With History, Humor and a Few Big Words)"

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