If it’s a legitimate balk, the runner’s body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.

Release the E-Rod files!

You can just be up there and just doin’ a balk like that.
1a. A balk is when you
1b. Okay well listen. A balk is when you balk the
1c. Let me start over
1c-a. The pitcher might be allowed to do a motion to the, uh, batter, that prohibits the batter from doing, you know, just trying to hit the ball. You can do that sometimes.
1c-b. Once the pitcher is in the stretch, he can be over here and say to the runner, like, “I’m gonna get ya! I’m gonna tag you out! You better watch your butt!” and then just be like he didn’t even do that.
1c-b(1). Like, if you’re about to pitch and then don’t pitch, you have to still pitch. You cannot not pitch. Except for the times you still can not pitch. Does that make any sense?
1c-b(2). You gotta be, throwing motion of the ball, and then, until you just throw it.
1c-b(2)-a. Okay, well, you can have the ball up here, like this, but then there’s the balk you gotta think about.
1c-b(2)-b. Fairuza Balk hasn’t been in any movies in forever. I hope she wasn’t typecast as that racist lady in American History X.
1c-b(2)-b(i). Oh wait, she was in The Waterboy too! That would be even worse.
1c-b(2)-b(ii). “get in mah bellah” — Adam Water, “The Waterboy.” Haha, classic…
1c-b(3). Okay seriously though. A balk is when the pitcher makes a movement that, as determined by, when you do a move involving the baseball and field of

1. Do not do a balk please, but it’s up to you

he just did a heckin balk updoots to the left

Yep. If PCA can see it clearly while sprinting towards home, why can 4 guys just sitting there not see a thing? It’s insane.

This entire series all 3 umps have been absolute butchers behind the plate.

It really just takes the fun out of a competitive series when shit like this overshadows the great performances that we saw from several players.

yeah that one was crazy, I timed it and it was literally one second after the call that he challenged

I can’t believe there’s no rules regarding challenging depending on how long it takes the ump to call the pitch

Cubs broadcast showed the angle from 1st which was pretty obvious too

I’m guessing he was looking more at the catcher and the runner than the pitcher. There is a lot of responsibility on that 3B ump when a runner is on 3rd.

Tyler was waiting to be interviewed out of a commercial break and they brought him into the end of the balk discussion. A interesting tidbit in the interview was Glasnow said he doesn’t care if he’s in the bullpen in the postseason. He just wants to contribute.

But yes. The Glasnow interview was planned and he was brought into the discussion

Just to add for people who don’t watch a lot of MLB network, they regularly interview guys for MLB tonight, they’ve live mic’d Perdomo during warm ups several times for an interview as an example

Lovullo already ejected the umps last season.

Only if the player is required to dramatically slap it down on home plate

1 reverse uno card on ejection per year in exchange for 1 additional year of team control. Who says no?

You never see active runners arguing lol. They just didn’t consider it as a possibility.

They’re used to PCA acting like a child, probably. And, well, he’s insanely good at the sport, so that helps his cause.

Saint

John Montgomery Ward, the Drysdale/Koufax union, and Curt Flood are nowhere near as popular or as well known as they should be today.

Some unions are beneficial to society and others aren’t. I think that’s self-evident. Some have pros and cons. I only see cons to the MLB umpire’s union, but maybe you see some pros there. I think mostly it has just protected incompetence and prevented a meritocracy from playing out on the field.

I don’t think this is about human error as much as you think it is. In watching the replay, PCA saw the balk, the Cubs’ third base coach saw the balk, and the Cubs’ hitter Michael Busch saw the balk all in real time and all pointed instantly when he did it. For 4 grown men making $400,000 a year to all not see something that was plainly obvious to anyone who understands baseball is beyond human error (like missing a strike call) and suggests more of a generalized incompetence. Without a union, you’d be able to filter incompetence a lot better to get it out of the sport.

I hope that somewhere deep down you understand there’s a big difference between a teachers’ union and the union for MLB umpires. One is necessary and helps society, and the other is pointless and just hurts the game of baseball. All of the horrible umpires we have dealt with have mostly been protected by the union, preventing an actual meritocracy from playing out with the best and most talented umpires being who umps our games.

lol

Thanks for the explanation. I was thinking a lot of balks I’ve seen look pretty accidental, which is where the confusion came from. But I’ve seen ones that were clearly done in a way that would trick the runner, and it would be hard to make a distinction between the two. It’s still weird to me that runners can dance all over trying to be distracting and acting like they’re going to run, but pitchers are not allowed to make the smallest movement that could be interpreted as a deception. That’s just how the game is played and everyone is playing by the same rulebook, so not a complaint. Anyway, pitching is so much more complicated than I ever gave it credit for when I was a more casual viewer. The more I learn the more interesting it gets.

This doesn’t exactly explain why the balk rule isn’t enforced retroactively, though. Both it and the infield fly rule seem like rules that could easily be written to apply only when an out is unfairly achieved. And even if that solution isn’t perfect, it seems better than the status quo of proactively interfering with the game before anything problematic has actually happened.

Or, at the very least, can we hav one balk warning before it becomes a one base penalty?

Except the “palpably unfair act” rule exists and is never actually used. Its been threatened but I’m not sure its ever actually been used.

We don’t know that balks are benign. If pitchers had free reign to do weird shit, runners can’t get as big of a lead, they can’t get as big of a secondary lead, it feels like a huge advantage to the pitcher in keeping runners close. Even in the absence of a steal attempt or a pickoff attempt.

The problem is the penalty feels harsh when no pickoff attempt was made. When the pitcher pitches an otherwise normal pitch with a small incorrect movement in it, suddenly all runners advance and if someone is on 3rd that’s a run. It seems the issue is making a distinction between the two is hard and so the rules are defined in a way that covers the real deceptions and the little stuff gets caught up in it and everyone agrees to it. Still feels wrong having a run score on one of those inconsequential movements (even when it’s in favor of my team I start hoping that run isn’t the deciding one in the end). I’m not suggesting I know better than the rules, I’m just saying it’s a very difficult thing to wrap my head around. But complexity and learning is part of what makes sports fun for me, so this isn’t a real complaint.

Watch it again. It’s not even close. Just admit AZ got a lucky break on a bad call.

Just like every news cycle, I’ll give it time to let public outrage cool down before the reality of the situation comes to light

Yeah, it’s common when umps suspect that the player was right but they can’t overturn the call just by taking his word for it if they didn’t physically see it.

Yeah dawg, I literally said “Not saying it wasn’t justified”, just that the tweet would be selling it a little short if you hadn’t seen it, it was definitely more animated and outraged than most players arguing with an ump.

As a Dbacks fan even i noticed that right away. Umps looking for conflict needs to be removed from the sport. Dude walked right up looking for a reason to throw PCA out. It’s bad enough they missed the call, but to miss it then go looking for a fight because you missed a call is absurd. Yet another nuts cubs Dbacks series it happens every year lmao

I had no idea until we played him and he tossed his bat and got all red after one strikeout lol

It was a tongue in cheek comment on other sports. Nothing serious

Where did he say it wasn’t?

Umps generally let players get away with more when they fucked up

I didn’t disagree it was a balk.

Fair. I suppose the connotations aren’t great. He’s probably one of those guys who, if he’s on your team, you just love him, but if he’s not he evokes strong opinions. Contreras in Boston is like that.

He’s not emotional. He’s one of the most mature players in the league, compared to the veterans.

Wipe chin when finished pls

Counterpoint: Dalton Rushing

Double counterpoint: back to back champs

We’re suffering from success, I won’t deny it