History Lesson – Balk

I saw this come across the Twittersphere today:

#OnThisDay: 1885 – A new rule is adopted – a pitcher must do all his throwing to bases before he has taken his stride as if to pitch ball.

— Baseball Hall (@BaseballHall) March 25, 2015

Said another way “once a pitcher makes a move towards the plate he cannot throw to a base”.

As discussed before balks are very confusing, but balks where a guy starts pitching and just stops are pretty easy to see and call. Cue Mr. Jake Peavy:

This is what we call an elephant balk – so big and obvious it cannot be missed.

I thought the Tweet was cool because it shows how long this rule has been on the books. That is the beauty of baseball – many of the original rules remain in place with limited changes.

Balks are covered on pages 21, 22 and 23 of RuleGraphics.

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