Feinting to 1B

[carolinablue]

I know feinting to 1B while in contact with the pitcher's plate is a balk but I was curious as to why it is, or why this rule was written. You can feint to any other base but not 1st. I thought about it and about the best thing I could come up with was that it was a speed up rule so to speak. Since you get way more pick-offs to 1B than any other base maybe they didn't want to allow feinting there as well. I don't know, anybody got anything on this ?

[noumpere]

I know feinting to 1B while in contact with the pitcher's plate is a balk but I was curious as to why it is, or why this rule was written. You can feint to any other base but not 1st. I thought about it and about the best thing I could come up with was that it was a speed up rule so to speak. Since you get way more pick-offs to 1B than any other base maybe they didn't want to allow feinting there as well. I don't know, anybody got anything on this ?

To preserve the balance between offense and defense.