From a previous message, you stated there are 6 not 5 ways to get on first base without hitting the ball:
1-Hit by pitch
2-3rd-strike passball
3-a walk
4-catcher’s interference
5-if a ball, pitched to the batter or thrown by the pitcher from his position on the pitcher’s plate to a base to catch a runner, goes into a stand, or player’s bench, or over or through a field fence or backstop, or is touched by a spectator
6-on ball four or strike three, when the pitch misses the catcher and lodges in the umpire’s mask or paraphernalia
That movie taught me some important lessons in life. 1. I can build a robot that loves me. 2. I can reanimate my dead girlfriend by jamming bits of metal and silicon into her skull. Both are lessons I use on a daily basis…
Does illegal pitch imply something like a spitball? If that were the case, the punishment is that the pitcher gets ejected and suspended, but the batter stays where he is.
But if there are no baserunners, isn’t a batter credited with a ball when the pitcher commits a balk? With 3 balls, and then a balk, wouldn’t this get the batter on first?
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A balk is, in a nutshell, an illegal move by the pitcher in an attempt to deceive a runner on base. It really has nothing to do with the pitch to the batter.
If a pitcher balks, but still delivers the ball and the batter gets a hit, the offense actually has the option of taking the result of the play and ignoring the balk.
This doesn’t happen too often as normally the umpires call time and award the runners one base.
For the record, The Indianapolis Star tells me that Chuck Finley recently became the only MLB pitcher to strike out four batters in one inning for the second time in his career. The item didn’t say how it happened the first time, but on this occasion, the third whiffer reached base on a passed ball. Finley struck out the next batter.