What's a balk?

WaLLy

Lieutenant General
|K3| Executive
Hey @DamageINC , so I came across this Yahoo! video http://sports.yahoo.com/video/ellsbury-steals-home-092735971.html

Firstly, what's a baulk? I read Wikipedia of the meaning but still don't understand it. Probably because of the video. From wikipedia "In baseball, a pitcher can commit a number of illegal motions or actions that constitute a balk. Most of these violations involve a pitcher pretending to pitch when he has no intention of doing so." I didn't see where the pitcher committed an error. o_O

Also, according to the Yahoo! article title, Ellsbury steals home base, but I didn't see any stealing going on. :wtf: o_O

Was it just click-bait?
 

HIBred

Foolish Mortal
|K3| Executive
I was a pitcher back in my youth. So say a runner is on first and he's taking a large lead..You cannot start your windup and move in the direction of home plate then stop and change direction to throw him out when he gets juked into trying to steal or taking a larger lead .. you can however lift your leg ..look at home .. but not move in that direction and step only towards first to either throw him out or get him to commit to a steal
these rules don;t apply as soon as the pitcher steps off the pitchers plate. so say a guy is at second you can start a windup but keep moving in a spin and throw to second but you can't take a step towards home then stop and turn around to throw to second. what you can do is step off the pitcher plate,fake in either direction for example if there was a runner on first and third, both with big leads ,,you would step off ..fake to first hoping to catch the guiy a third either stealing home or pick him off


or the pitcher can flap his arms like a chicken and go bawk! :ccd:
 

WaLLy

Lieutenant General
|K3| Executive
Makes sense now. Thanks dudes!

And that steal was sweet! Pitcher didn't see it coming.
 
Top Bottom