THE BALK HAS BECOME THE TALK OF BASEBALL : Pitchers Might Come to Discernible Stop, but Many Have Not Hesitated to Sound Off on Rule Enforcement

The balk rule, as rewritten for 1988, requires a pitcher in the set position to come to a “single, complete and discernible stop” with both feet on the ground.

The only difference between the rule and the result of its enforcement is that there have been frequent, complete and discernible stops in play rather than that single stop in the pitcher’s motion.

“Instead of the national pastime, it’s now a national laughingstock,” Don Drysdale, Hall of Fame pitcher and Dodger broadcaster, said of his game and the impact of the rule clarification.

“Everywhere you go, someone is making a joke about it and I don’t blame them,” Drysdale said. “In fact, it’s more than a joke. It’s a shame. It’s nauseating.”

Where to start?

With the seven balks called against the Texas Rangers’ Charlie Hough in one inning of an exhibition game March 7?

With the three called against Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox on opening day, matching the number called against him all of last year?

With the six called against the Milwaukee Brewers and New York Yankees last Sunday, one shy of the major league record, or the four called against the Rangers’ Bobby Witt in three innings Tuesday, or the four called against the Oakland Athletics’ Rick Honeycutt in four innings Wednesday, both tying a 38-year-old American League record for most balks in a game?

Why not start and stop with these nuggets:

--There had been 136 balks called in the first 122 games this season (including Friday’s games), compared with 31 in the first 126 games last year, when there was a record total of 356.

--The current pace will produce a record by the end of May and a season total of more than 2,000.

“A joke,” said Billy Martin, New York Yankees manager.

Said Brewer owner Bud Selig: “You mean to tell me that the intent of this thing was to turn it into a farce?”

The intent? The hows and whys are not--to borrow an expression--completely discernible.

Is this another in a series of attempts to dilute the pitching and beef up the offense by facilitating base stealing?

Is it a legitimate bid to clarify an ambiguous rule and create uniformity across the two leagues, ending a laxity among American League umpires in regard to the balk rule?

Is it a little of both, perhaps?

There is no clear answer, but the siege of balks has definitely enraged pitchers, infuriated some managers, put the umpires on the hot seat again and left disgruntled fans wondering if they paid to see baseball or balkball.

It certainly hasn’t resulted in unanimity in baseball.

Said Detroit Tigers Manager Sparky Anderson: “I have no sympathy for the pitchers. They’ve been cheating on this for 40 years.”

But Brewer Manager Tom Trebelhorn said: “Maybe we haven’t instructed our pitchers properly, but I’m also seeing balks called that aren’t balks. We don’t want the runner to be deceived by the pitcher’s motion, but we’re only deceiving ourselves and ruining the game.

“A few guys cheated for 25 years and were allowed to cheat. Now we’re taking cheaters, semi-cheaters and guys with no reason to cheat and calling balks on them all. The umpires are on center stage and making a show of it as if the fans came to see them instead of the players. I saw a guy call one as if he was leading a Tchaikovsky symphony.

“The whole thing is out of whack. I mean, I could put 10 players on the field and the umpires might not see it because they’re looking for the balk.”

Added A’s pitching coach Dave Duncan: “The other thing they did this year was raise the strike zone, but the umpires haven’t called the high strike because they can’t break old habits. Yet, at the same time, they expect pitchers to break what is an old habit and conditioned reflex. How does that make sense?”

The book on the balk:

THE MANAGER . . . AND INSTIGATOR?

It is generally conceded that St. Louis Cardinals Manager Whitey Herzog brought the issue to a head with his World Series appeal aimed at preventing the Minnesota Twins’ Bert Blyleven from quick-pitching with runners on base.

“We had a pre-World Series meeting with the umpires and the two league presidents, and they were the ones who brought it up,” Herzog said.

“They were the ones who said, ‘We’ll make him stop.’

“I said, ‘Hell, he hasn’t stopped since he came to the big leagues and now you’re telling me that you’re going to make him stop?’ They said, ‘Yes, we’re going to make him stop.’

“Well, there was a National League umpire behind the plate for Game 2, but not one balk was called, even though the videotape clearly shows that Blyleven balked 19 times in that game. His leg was going up when his hands were still coming down.

“I don’t want this to sound like sour grapes because we were beaten badly (8-4) in that game, but who knows? Anytime you can get an early lead, the game might be different.

“I thought I had a legitimate gripe and raised hell about it. When we went back to St. Louis and were going over the ground rules at Busch Stadium, I told (the umpires) that they ought to reread the balk rule instead.

“I said, ‘Hell, we don’t have anyone who can hit a home run, so if you let him go on and illegally stop us from trying to steal, we might as well forfeit and go home.’

“I think they must have warned him because we were able to steal five bases and beat him (4-2 in Game 5).”

Herzog was asked if his World Series fuss had led to the attempt at clarification.

“Definitely,” he said. “The umpires know I was right. I think the American League had been so lax about it for so long that they had to do something, and what happened at the World Series created a lot more discussion about it.

“I had several umpires who didn’t work the Series tell me that they thought it was a disgrace. There were umpires out there and not one of them called a balk. It was a joke.”

The Cardinals, of course, live and die with the stolen base, having stolen 200 or more for 6 straight seasons. Even so, there were only five more balks called against Cardinal opponents last year than were called on the Cardinals, 27-22.

“Everybody quick-pitches against us. Everybody balks like hell against us,” Herzog said. “Just because there were 21 balks called when Vince Coleman was on base doesn’t mean that there weren’t 200 others that weren’t called. The rule has been in the books since Day 1, and now they’re just enforcing it.

“Naturally, it will be an advantage to us if they continue, but it might be like a basketball official calling them close during the first few minutes, then letting ‘em play. I hope it continues, but I’ll have to see it before I believe it.”

THE RULEMAKERS AND ENFORCERS

Said Drysdale: “As soon as you get people involved who have never played or know nothing about it, they’ll screw it up.

“You put people on a committee and they eventually feel that they have to do something.”

The major league rules committee is not exactly made up of people who know nothing about the game or have never been involved with it. The problem may be that it is autonomous and does not have to report back to the owners.

There are three representatives from each league and three from the minor leagues. The current panel includes American and National league presidents Bobby Brown and Bart Giamatti, club executives Pat Gillick of the Toronto Blue Jays, Tom Grieve of the Texas Rangers, Bill Giles of the Philadelphia Phillies and John McHale of the Montreal Expos, and longtime minor league officials George Sisler Jr., Joe Buzas and George McDonald.

It is presided over by Bill Murray, who is director of baseball operations in the commissioner’s office.

In its approach to Rule 8:01 (b), which pertains to the pitcher when in the set position, the committee sought to stop the quick-pitch deception of runners and to provide a basis for consistent interpretation in both leagues, Murray said.

“There had been a difference of opinion as to what constituted a stop,” he said.

“The National League already seemed to require a clear and discernible stop, but American League umpires seemed to feel that a pitcher had to have stopped when he changed direction (to pitch or try to pick off a runner).”

In other words, American League umpires previously believed that a pitcher in his stretch, like a golfer at the top of his backswing, had to stop when he brought his hands to his belt, then could separate them to begin his delivery to the plate. That interpretation allowed pitchers to slide through the stop.

Said an NL umpire, requesting anonymity: “Clemens, Witt and Hough--those guys didn’t just start balking this year.”

Now, however, given the “discernible stop” edict in combination with the requirement that the pitcher have both feet on the ground when he stops, AL umpires have responded with a vengeance, calling 97 balks through Friday compared with 39 in the NL. Last year, through a similar point, there had been only 8 balks called in the American and 23 in the National.

Said Marty Springstead, the AL’s supervisor of umpires: “I agree, there may have been some laxity in the past. The change-of-direction-concept may have gotten us in trouble. There was confusion at one time. It’s still a judgment call, but the rule itself is clear now. We’re looking for a complete stop, and the baffling thing is, what’s so hard about asking a major league pitcher to stop?

“The rule was on the book for all of spring training, and we sent umpires to every camp explaining it. What did they think, that we wouldn’t call it just because the season was starting?

“I mean, I get the feeling that some people think we’re enjoying it, as if there’s a competition between the crews, but that’s not true. We don’t relish this. We don’t like being yelled at. There are a lot of other things we have to concentrate on in addition to looking for balks. It definitely doesn’t make it any easier on us, but if this is what the rules committee wants, this is what we have to do.”

Said Drysdale: “I know rules have to be adhered to, but if you’re going to do everything to the nth-degree, then do everything. How about the phantom tag on the double play and a number of other things?

“What they’re saying is that they want consistency between the two leagues, but what they’re doing again is taking action against the pitcher, and you still have a difference of opinion among the umpires as to what a complete stop is. I mean, you can have the home plate umpire and third base umpire looking directly at a right-handed pitcher, and it’s the second base umpire who calls the balk.

“Let ‘em play, Leave ‘em alone.”

Said Herzog:

“The umpires have to use a little common sense. I mean, I hate to see a balk called when it means nothing, when it’s not a steal situation. I hate to see a balk called with a runner on third who’s obviously not going to steal. You’re forcing the pitchers to use a windup every time there’s a runner on third. The rule should be enforced, but there should be some common sense.”

According to Murray, the rules committee believes that this is a period of adjustment for pitchers and that the number of balks will diminish. The clarification was approved on a 1-year basis by the Major League Players Assn. The union can withdraw approval next year, which would erase the revised rule for the 1989 season, after which baseball would have the right to bring it back permanently in 1990--no matter how the union felt.

Of course, the current interpretation may be indelibly etched in the umpires’ minds now.

“They’re going to have to keep calling them,” Dodger Orel Hershiser said. “I mean, how would you expect a manager who has lost a game on a balk early in the season to react if an umpire tells him in May or June that they’re now easing up on it?”

THE PITCHER

When Blyleven heard that the rules committee was following up on Herzog’s complaints of last October, he figured that the orders had come from Commissioner Peter Ueberroth.

“He came into office and said he wanted more offense,” Blyleven said in the spring. “Why doesn’t he just run for president, like he wants to, and get out of baseball? They want more runs because that’s what the fans want to see. I’d like to see him come down here and pitch. I’d like him to come down and hit.”

Blyleven laughed and added: “I talked with Ueberroth and he told me that he had nothing to do with what happens on the field. I guess I should have asked him what he does do.”

Cited for only one balk in his first two starts of the new season, Blyleven said: “If I balked like Whitey Herzog said I do, then I’ve done it for 16 or 17 years. I do come to a complete stop, but what they want now is a complete freeze, and that’s hard to do with a Rickey Henderson on first base.

“Hopefully the umpires will calm down, or it’s going to be a long season for a lot of pitchers, and you’re going to have four or five guys stealing more than 100 bases.

“It’s tough enough getting major league hitters out without having this as another distraction. The umpires are concentrating more on the balk rule than anything else. It would be nice to be able to play again the way it was when I first came up, rather than with the stupid rules they have now.

“They’ve lowered the mound, brought in fences, tightened the ball and added a designated hitter. Everything for the offense, nothing for the pitcher.

“Well, the next time I’m called for a balk after coming to a complete stop, I’m going to get the ball back and keep holding it until the batter steps out of the box. Then, when he steps back in, I’m going to my set position and stay there. What can they do? Throw me out? For what? I’m just holding my runner on.

“First of all, I’ve made the mistake of letting a hitter get on base. The last thing I want to do is let him steal. The new rule gives him that much more of an opportunity. The odds are already 70% in the base stealer’s favor, which makes it difficult to understand why Whitey would complain so much. He’s got all the rabbits anyway. It doesn’t say much for his managing.”

THE BASERUNNER

Vince Coleman, the Cardinal left fielder and stolen-base king, expects to get his 100 or so steals, as usual.

“They’ve always quick-pitched and balked against me, and I’ve still been able to steal,” Coleman said.

“If they really make them stop, I should be able to steal that much more, but my total could be down because there may be times when I’ll be balked to second rather than having to steal it.

“I don’t like that because I get paid on the number of bases I steal. My goal is to steal the base, not to force the pitcher to balk.”

Through Wednesday, there had been 176 bases stolen, compared with 161 last year, with the NL having jumped from 69 to 86. In the AL, with its new demand on a complete stop by pitchers, the stolen-base total was down slightly, 92 to 90, and the number of runners caught stealing was up, 41-36.

Is it possible that a complete and discernible stop actually makes it harder for the runner to steal, since it forces him to freeze, puts him back on his heels and prevents a walking lead?

“Absolutely,” Drysdale said. “It takes away the runner’s timing. He has nothing to read. I’ve never been an advocate of the quick-pitch.

“I mean, I may be critical of the way the rule is being called now, but a pitcher has to be pretty dumb not to stop and count a thousand one, a thousand two. . . . It’s the dumb pitchers who don’t know how to take a shorter leg kick and unload the ball to the plate quicker that allows guys to steal, not the balk rule.”

Said Detroit Tigers coach Dick Tracewski:

“Guys like Rickey Henderson and Vince Coleman, guys who have speed and quickness, are going to get their steals no matter what the pitcher does.

“The rule hurts a Carlton Fisk or Darrell Evans, an older guy who would occasionally use his cunning and intelligence to read a pitcher’s motion, get a walking lead and steal a base.

“That kind of player doesn’t have the speed or quickness to overcome a standing stop. In the long run, the rule should help the pitchers.”

And only in the long run will it be determined how many balks are called and bases are stolen. If there have been fewer steals than expected, Blyleven, for one, thinks he has the answer.

“Why should a guy risk stealing,” he said. “He knows that if he stands there long enough, the umpire will call a balk, and he can walk to the next base.”