Baseball Instruction/Balks-illegal pitch

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Expert: - 9/5/2006


Question
Good day,
is it a balk when:
runners on base
pitchers hat falls off when delivering a pitch to batter
thank you

Answer
Rich,

I would interpret this as not a balk.  It is a balk if the pitcher drops the ball, but there is nothing in the rules about a piece of the uniform coming off while pitching.

If it happened on every pitch though, I might have to make some kind of umpire judgement...

Hope this helps!

Brian

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Brian Flaspohler

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Questions about baseball rules, general information about the game, statistical analysis, questions about players, questions about Baseball records. I am a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and a lifelong baseball fanatic. Don't ask me questions about training - this is not my area of expertise.

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