Bk

A BALK is an illegal act by the pitcher with a runner or runners on base, entitling all runners to advance one base.

MLB Rule 2.00


The pitcher, following his stretch, must (a) hold the ball in both hands in front of his body and (b) come to a complete stop.  This must be enforced.  Umpires should watch this closely.  Pitchers are constantly attempting to “beat the rule” in their efforts to hold runners on bases and in cases where the pitcher fails to make a complete “stop” called for in the rules, the umpire should immediately call a BALK. 

MLB Rule 8.01(b)


If there is a runner, or runners, it is a balk when— 
(a) The pitcher, while touching his plate, makes any motion naturally associated with his pitch and fails to make such delivery; 
(b) The pitcher, while touching his plate, feints a throw to first base and fails to complete the throw; 
(c) The pitcher, while touching his plate, fails to step directly toward a base before throwing to that base; 

(d) The pitcher, while touching his plate, throws, or feints a throw to an unoccupied base, except for the purpose of making a play; 
(e) The pitcher makes an illegal pitch; 
(f) The pitcher delivers the ball to the batter while he is not facing the batter; 
(g) The pitcher makes any motion naturally associated with his pitch while he is not touching the pitcher’s plate; 
(h) The pitcher unnecessarily delays the game; 

(i) The pitcher, without having the ball, stands on or astride the pitcher’s plate or while off the plate, he feints a pitch; 
(j) The pitcher, after coming to a legal pitching position, removes one hand from the ball other than in an actual pitch, or in throwing to a base; 
(k) The pitcher, while touching his plate, accidentally or intentionally drops the ball; 
(l) The pitcher, while giving an intentional base on balls, pitches when the catcher is not in the catcher’s box; 
(m) The pitcher delivers the pitch from Set Position without coming to a stop. 
PENALTY:  The ball is dead, and each runner shall advance one base without liability to be put out, unless the batter reaches first on a hit, an error, a base on balls, a hit batter, or otherwise, and all other runners advance at least one base, in which case the play proceeds without reference to the balk. 
MLB Rule 8.05

Oops!

The prosecution in the Roger Clemens trial got caught throwing an illegal pitch on Thursday and the umpire judge granted Mr. Clemens' request for a mistrial.

The prosecutor played a videotape of Mr. Clemens' 2008 testimony before Congress - the only problem being that someone forgot (?) to redact the portion of the video where Rep. Elijah Cummings referred to a conversation between Andy Pettitte and his wife after being instructed by Judge Reggie Walton not to mention  it.

After speaking to a friend of mine I'm a bit curious as to whether it was just (to paraphrase the NASCAR boys) "one of them trial thangs" or if it was a deliberate attempt to get a mistrial because the prosecutors thought the jury might be a little bit too friendly to the Rocket.

Either way this farce represents a huge waste of taxpayer dollars - made even worse by the budget and financial crisis the country finds itself in. So what if Mr. Clemens lied to Congress. Our representatives up in Washington were on a little fishing expedition in the first place. We're talking about a bunch of athletes accused of using performance enhancing drugs -- we're not talking "serious" issues affecting the welfare of the nation.

No one cares if the latest Hollywood starlet has silicon in her chest and botox in her lips. No one cares if her leading man is injecting steroids to look more ripped. No one cares who's smoking and snorting what. It's all entertainment.

And who is Congress to act pious because they don't think Roger Clemens told the truth in that hearing room? Each and every member of that institution will look you and me straight in the eye and lie like a cheap rug. What's worse: a ballplayer lying about taking steroids or a Congressman lying about what he's going to do with your tax dollars?

At least he's our so-and-so

Maybe the line is just apocryphal, but supposedly President Franklin D. Roosevelt once remarked regarding (a) Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza, (b) Spanish dictator Francisco Franco or (c) Dominican strongman Rafael Trujillo that although he was a son of a bitch, at least he was "our son of a bitch."

That same sentiment remains today when talking about sports figures. Barry Bonds was the most despised baseball player when he was chasing Mark McGwire's (tainted) single-season home run mark and Hank Aaron's career mark. That is, unless you were one of the fans sitting in Telephone Company ballpark watching him launch balls into McCovey Cove.

Terrell Owens is a cancer in the locker room who tears teams apart with his pettiness -- unless he happens to be wearing the colors of your favorite team. Donte Stallworth and Leonard Little are responsible for the deaths of others as a result of their drinking.

The list goes on and on of athletes who have done things that they shouldn't have -- from the ridiculous to the criminal. But in most cases, even though they are scorned by the public at large for their (mis)deeds, they are beloved by the hometown fans. Character matters, well, so long as the team is winning.

Add Brian Cushing of the Houston Texans to the list. After it was announced this week that Mr. Cushing would be suspended for the first four games of the 2010 season for testing positive for a steroid masking agent (the same female fertility drug that got Manny Ramirez suspended for 50 games last season), fans on local talk radio gushed over his performance on the field. And when the AP announced that it would hold a new vote on the 2009 Defensive Rookie of the Year Award won by Mr. Cushing, Texans' fans and radio personalities had their panties in a wad.

Brian Cushing may have been a cheat, but at least he was "our cheat."

And the same may be said about the roster of confidential informants used by the police. Each and everyone of them has broken the law at some point (a multitude of times, usually) but now they ply their trade for the men in blue. Sure, they may be a bunch of criminals, but at least they're "our criminals."

Forgive and forget

Deer Park native Andy Pettite was one of the heroes of the Yankees' world series winning team. Pettite, as many of y'all remember was implicated in the Mitchell Report as using illegal performance enhancing drugs. Pettite promptly owned up to cheating.

Alex Rodriguez was another of the Yankees' heroes in their championship run. Over the off-season A-Rod confessed that he used steroids during a three-year stint with the Texas Rangers. He was torn apart by the press for his admissions.

One must wonder if Roger Clemens had been honest and upfront when the accusations began flying whether he would have taken part in the Yankees' 27th World Series championship. While Pettite and Rodriguez are placed on pedestals by Yankee fans, Roger Clemens is scorned.

Clemens misread the public and played the wrong card when he was revealed as a steroid user. History is replete with American icons who messed up, 'fessed up and went back to being adored. The American public is quick to forgive and forget the transgressions of celebrities.

Had Roger the Dodger not been so arrogant and had he thought about his course of action for half-a-minute, he would have realized his aggressive denial was a mistake. I wonder how he felt watching his former teammates win the series.

Baseball, hot dogs and female fertility drugs

Was it a case of Manny being Manny or Manny Ramirez cheating to get an edge? 

Major League Baseball suspended the Los Angeles Dodgers star for 50 days after he tested positive for a female fertility drug used as a masking agent for steroid users.

A source said that the substance was HCG, human chorionic gonadotropin, which is prescribed to stimulate female fertility and testosterone production in men and to treat delayed puberty in boys. HCG is not classified as a steroid but was clearly defined as a banned performance enhancer according to the drug agreement between baseball and its players association. Banned substances can only be taken with prior knowledge and medical clearance from baseball's drug-program administrators. Such exceptions are known as Therapeutic Use Exemptions, or TUEs. The suspension is an indication Ramirez did not have a TUE for the substance.

Ramirez is the first major star to receive a suspension under MLB's drug testing rules that went into effect in 2003. The suspension will cost Ramirez approximately $7.65 million.

In a game that celebrates cheating, from doctoring baseballs to stealing signs, from corking bats to watering home plate, Ramirez crossed Bud Selig's line in the sand. Alex Rodriguez has been accused of tipping opponents to pitches during blowouts in hopes someone would do the same for him, yet he's roasted for his use of performance enhancing drugs.  

Of the two, tipping opposing batters of what pitch is coming is the far more insidious crime as it is an act of betrayal. At least if a player is juicing he's helping his own team.

Time to move along

So Alex Rodriguez admits to using steroids yet no one seems to be satisfied with what he said. What did y'all expect - for A-Rod to stand up and say he cheated by using steroids and that he was really, really sorry for bring the game of baseball into such disrepute?

Get real. Rodriguez got caught and had to go into damage control mode pretty darned quickly. Of course the story he told Peter Gammons and the statement he made at his press conference don't mesh. When the story first broke, Rodriguez and his team had very little time to prepare a response and, after seeing what happened when Roger Clemens angrily denied the allegations against him, decided to admit to using and looked for a "soft" forum. Peter Gammons and ESPN was that "soft" forum.

At a formal press conference, however, he couldn't control the questions.

So what if his stories weren't consistent (or even believable). Did y'all really expect him to get up and tell the truth? If so, you must also believe everything you're told by a politician or a TV pitchman. The truth is people lie; and they lie for a number of reasons. It's unrealistic to expect a high-profile professional athlete to cough up the unadulterated truth. Look, citizens accused of criminal acts, and facing time in jail or prison, lie to the police, they lie to their families and they lie to their criminal defense attorneys. It's second nature to try to deflect some of the blame to someone else. And look, we make the same argument about our clients being "young and ignorant" that Rodriguez did yesterday.

And, while I'm on my rant...A-Rod did not do anything to bring the game of baseball into disrepute. Cheating has long been an integral part of our American Pasttime. Ty Cobb would sharpen his spikes sitting in the dugout and use them to break up double plays. the 1919 Chicago White Sox threw the World Series. The 1951 New York Giants put a spy in an outfield box to steal signs - it's a pretty sure bet that Bobby Thomson knew what pitch Ralph Branca was throwing when he hit the Shot heard 'round the world. Gaylord Perry made no secret of doctoring the baseball with all forms of "goop" and he's in the Hall of Fame. Players in the 60's, 70's and 80's were hopped up on greenies, marijuana, cocaine and heroin (to name a few of the performance enhancing drugs of that era). Joe Niekro was caught on the pitching mound with a nail file and other assorted devices in the middle of a game. Countless players have been nailed using corked bats (which, according to Mythbusters, don't do a damn thing).  

I don't care if Alex Rodriguez used steroids. I don't care if Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens or Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa or anyone else, for that matter, shot their butts full of juice. Baseball is a game and the name of that game is entertainment.

The memory most etched in my consciousness was the one-game playoff between the Houston Astros and the (hated) Los Angeles Dodgers in 1980 (necessitated after Houston blew a 3 game lead over the last weekend of the season). I remember sitting in school with the public address sytem broadcasting the game to the entire school that afternoon. I remember Chris Burke's 18th inning homerun that beat the Atlanta Braves and put Houston in the 2005 NLCS. I remember Jason Lane's catch in right field that put the Astros in the World Series for the first time. 

I also remember sitting at Minute Maid Park with my wife and her students one September afternoon watching the Astros play the Giants at the end of one season. Barry Bonds sat on the bench that day - much to everyone's disappointment. But then, in the 9th inning, Bonds came on to pinch-hit against the Astros' fireballing lefty, Billy Wagner. The building was electric. Everyone was on their feet. And the crowd roared when Wagner struck him out. Did it matter that Bonds was juicing? No. What mattered was the drama.

Baseball's a game. It's entertaining. And come April 6, I will be sitting at Minute Maid Park with my 5 year-old daughter celebrating Opening Day.

A-Roid does the right thing

Alex Rodriguez did the right thing today by admitting he used performance enhancing drugs between 2001-2003.  All he had to do was look at the debris on the side of the road to realize that the American people are a lot more forgiving if someone just comes clean and 'fesses up.  

Andy Petite understood the game.  He admitted he used human growth hormone, made an excuse and asked his fans for forgiveness.  

Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens decided to deny the allegations and proclaim their innocence. Look where it got them - in the crosshairs of a federal investigation.

Daniel Solove blogs about why innocent citizens are punished more harshly than the guilty in Concurring Opinions.  There are a number of reasons why - the federal sentencing guidelines reward citizens who "accept responsibility" for their actions, courts impose "trial taxes" on citizens who insist on their right to trial and parole boards look upon inmates who deny culpability more harshly than those who don't.