Rick Cleveland on Sports – On A Balk Call

So, we were watching Game One of the Lafayette Super Regional on TV. UL Lafayette was two runs up on Ole Miss when Rebel relief pitcher Jeremy Massie was called for a balk, allowing another run to score.
That’s when I made a critical mistake.
“Where was the balk?” I asked to no one in particular.
They showed the pitch again, and I asked again:
“Where the (devil) was the balk?”
And then came these words from my wife: “Honey, what’s a balk?”
Uh-oh.
Instantly, I was reminded of what Leo Durocher once said about baseball. Said Leo the Lip, “Baseball is like church. Many attend, few understand.”
Fewer, still, understand a balk.
My wife does not understand. She appreciates the beauty of a well-groomed baseball diamond. She knows left field from right. Most times, she knows a hit from an error. She definitely knows the home team bats last. She loves the fact you can watch a baseball game and work a crossword puzzle at the same time. She thinks Chipper Jones is “really cute.”
But she does not know what constitutes a balk (and neither, apparently, did the home plate umpire at UL Lafayette).
So, you tell me: How does one explain a balk?
Well, it’s like this….
Only, it isn’t.
Better to keep it simple. Balks occur when the pitcher tries to deceive a base-runner. When that happens, the umpire calls a balk and the base-runners advance one base.
Pretty good explanation, or so I thought.
“You got to be more specific than that,” my wife said.

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Now seems the right time to point out that the official rules of baseball contain a lengthy treatise on what constitutes a balk. When I say lengthy, I really mean interminable. Baseball’s rule book uses precisely 3,302 words to explain all the ins and outs of what constitutes a balk. In other words, if you really want to explain a balk to the uninitiated, you can do so in about the time it takes to play a doubleheader with several rain delays.
A balk is really complicated, because if you really want to explain a balk, you must first explain such intricacies as a pitcher’s set position vs. a wind-up and the importance of whether or not a pitcher’s foot is in contact with the rubber.
Try it sometime….
“Rubber? Why do they call it a rubber?”
You also have to also explain why it’s OK to fake a pick-off throw to second base or third base, but not to first base.
So, it’s OK to deceive a runner on second base or third base, but not first base?
Why?
Just because.
See, the problem is, you would have to know why it’s OK to fake a throw to second base and not to first, and I don’t. Do you?
That makes no sense, she said.
And she’s right.
She usually is.
I don’t have a clue how they came up with the rules for a balk. But those rules date back to 1898 and I do understand them for the most part. I just do not understand how some umpires interpret said rules. Neither did Steve Carlton, the great left-hander. He balked 90 times, a Major League record.
By the way, the official explanation from the umpire in Lafayette was that Massie, the Ole Miss lefty, did not come to a pause.
But Massie did pause. He paused and he in fact paused pregnantly, which is something my wife does understand much better than I.

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Rick Cleveland (rcleveland@msfame.com) is the executive director of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum.