Is there REALLY a hidden ball trick?

Factual Questions
1

This is a common schoolyard play. During a baseball game, there is a man on second. The pitcher, second baseman, and other infielders gather behind the mound for a conference. Then they resume their positions, the man on second takes his lead, and is tagged out. What the runner didn’t know is that the pitcher slipped the second baseman the ball into his glove during the conference. I heard this play cannot occur during a major league game because if the pitcher walks onto the mound without the ball, it’s a balk. And besides, a professional player should know enough not to leave the base untill the pitcher walks onto the mound. Is there any circumstance in which the ‘hidden ball trick’ is possible under major league rules, or is this just a schoolyard play?

2

It’s perfectly legal, and has been pulled off over 150 times in major-league play. It’s only the rubber that the pitcher can’t be touching – the rest of the mound is okay. My brother’s friend, “Ace”, used to pitch in sandlot ball. Ace would often step off the rubber, fake a pickoff move to first base, pretend to lose concentration, then whirl around and catch a runner attempting to steal third or home. Even when an opposing manager warned his charges about such trickery, Ace still managed to catch runners napping, leading the manager to grumble, in exasperation: "It’s not a balk because he’s not on the rubber!

3

Another one I’ve seen is where the pitcher makes a half-hearted pickoff throw to first and the firstbaseman fakes throwing back to the pitcher and either hides the ball in his glove or under his armpit. Runner on first steps off the bag momentarily before the pitcher is back on the rubber and is tagged out. I think it was on some Sports Illustrated Baseball Blooper tape I used to have.

4

Here is a link to an article by Bill Deane,
http://www.thedailystar.com/sports/2003/06/07/spdean.html

He’s the foremost authority on the hidden ball trick.

5

Haven’t you all seen the Bad News Bears movie in the Astrodome? If they do it in a movie, it must be true!!

  No, seriously, the above post is correct.  Its OK as long as the pitcher is not on the rubber.  Actually, I think they do it wrong in the movie and in real life it should be a balk, if I remember the scene correctly.