What is a balk, actually?

Just about every parent has heard “balk!” yelled from the stands. But how many of them could tell you what it actually means? The idea fits in one sentence…

A balk is a pitcher doing something to deceive a runner that the rules say he can’t do.

The rulebook then lists a dozen versions. Here are the ones you’ll actually see in youth ball:

• He doesn’t come to a complete stop in the set position before pitching. This is the most common one. It’s also the one umpires are most likely to warn about instead of call.
• He starts his motion to the plate and stops.
• He throws to a base without stepping toward it first. The step has to come before or with the throw, and it has to be toward that base.
• He fakes a throw to first. That’s a balk everywhere, and a fake to second is fine. The fake to third is where the books split: It’s a balk under the pro rules and USSSA, but Little League, high school and the Perfect Game youth sheets still allow it with the step. Step off the rubber first, and these restrictions don’t apply.
• He drops the ball while he’s on the rubber.
• He pitches without facing the batter, or he pitches while the catcher is outside the catcher’s box.

The penalty is one base for every runner, and the batter stays at the plate with the same count. In high school the ball is dead the moment it’s called. Under the pro rules (and in USSSA, the Perfect Game youth sheets and Little League’s balk divisions) the umpire allows the action to continue when the balk is followed by a pitch or a wild throw that could produce a permitted advance, and if the batter reaches first and every runner moves up a base, the balk is ignored. A balk with no throw, or a caught pickoff throw, is enforced on the spot. Here’s how that works.

Once our pitchers are past the youngest ages, we should teach them the stop and the step, because those two cover most of it. At the youngest ages, though, it’s important to keep balks in perspective. Many umpires warn first, and Little League Majors doesn’t even call balks (it has illegal-pitch rules instead, with their own penalties).